Reverse Osmosis -HELP PLEASE

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netto

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Dec 11, 2005
Messages
1
Location
United Kingdom
Hi all im new to this community, but been in marine aquariums for over 2 years and looking for advice, i have recently mover from tap water to RO water in order to upgrade the quality of stock i have cleaned out the tank of most of the green algae and getting low levels of phosphates, all i want to know is how long does the cycle of change from tap to RO water change for the Phosphates to become Zero, I have tested the Ro water and there are zero Phosphates in there but when I put it in the water by making 50% water changes (Have done 3 in 3 weeks) it still registers as having phosphates, i would be very greatful for any advice,

Thanks

Netto
 
When I was fighting my nitrates, it took me two weeks doing 10% water changes every day, just to bring them down from 80 to under 10. All I can say is keep going and be paitent.

Do you have anything in your current tank? Personally I woudln't do 50% water changes that much, mainly because if anything is different from the water you took out you risk looseing some if not all of your livestock. Try more frequent smaller water changes, try to best to match the water to your tank as usual but if anything is off at least your livestock would have a chance.

ETA: How often do you feed? It should be every 2-3 days, with idealy with frozen food, freezed dried and flake food is full of phosphates.
 
After the initial wc the second and third wc only removed 25% and 12.5% of the original water. It will take time. As suggested earlier look into your feeding habits.
 
Make sure your RO water is phosphate free as well. RO does not remove all PO4 I believe. A RO/DI unit is what removes it all.
 
Ok, here comes Mr Unpopular..Check into a Phosban reactor and some Phosban. Worked miracles on my Po4 issues and with water changes to lower nitrates the algea all but dissappeared completely.. Water changes are the secret to lower nitrates, period. Soooo many potential sources of Po4 (Search the archives, theres tons of posts about this very topic)
 
I agree that there are many causes for phosphates and nitrates but why not find the cause and keep from buying all this extra stuff. All you have to do is dont do as much as you are doing and save from buying extra stuff. Sorry Mr Unpopular I cant go with it.
 
As melosu said find the source. Adding stuff is only masking the problem and you will never win unless you stop the source. WC's will eventually remove it from your tank. Just make sure you stop the source. You are a little more unpopular PC. :D
 
Using a PB reactor can help with problem PO4. What if you tried every thing you could think of and you still have trace amounts of PO4? Then a reactor would be the way to go. I had bad cyno and until I got a reactor it would not go away, I now run carbon in the reactor and they are a cheap investment to help out with a problem.
Are they the silver bullet, No. As stated above you need to try and track down the source.
 
What were your PO4 numbers to start with? What do you get when you test your salted water mixed up to 1.025? What type of foods are you using? Marine snow, flake & pellet food have proportionately a lot of PO4 in them. Are you draining the liquid from frozen foods?

After 3 50% water changes you only have 12.5% of your "original" water in the system (you should see a direct corrolation to the amount of PO4 unless you're continuing to add it to the system via other means). By the sixth such change you'll have 1.5% of your original water. These large changes, done frequently are not bad for your tank as the water you put in will still be largely similar to the water you are replacing.

Once you have the source under control then a phosban reactor can help you get the last of it out of your system.
 
Phyl said:
What type of foods are you using? Marine snow, flake & pellet food have proportionately a lot of PO4 in them. Are you draining the liquid from frozen foods?

I would strongly suggest you try this first. I had PO4 problems, too. I have a RO/DI machine and still had PO4 probs. It took me about 6 months of a totally different diet in order to get rid of the PO4.
 
boardsurfer said:
I would strongly suggest you try this first. I had PO4 problems, too. I have a RO/DI machine and still had PO4 probs. It took me about 6 months of a totally different diet in order to get rid of the PO4.

Try what first?
 
Sorry...switching from most flake foods, which may be a source problem for P04, and draining the liquid from your frozen foods.
 
I had a phosphate problem when the LFS I was buying my salt water from had a problem with their RO/DI unit. I did many water changes and didn't get it all out till I used the Phosban. It also made me crazy anal about every little think that went into my tank that could contain phosphates. I'm curious to see your response regarding feeding with the possibilities of phosphates in the food or water it is stored in (as is the case with frozen food) and the testing of your ro/di water. I also had as tendency to rinse tools in tap water when I was cleaning the tank. That stopped after my phosphate issues. I found my phosphate problem extremely frustrating but a definite learning experience.

DJ
 
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