Phosphate that won't go away

[srusso]

I have to put my money where my mouth is...

[Garf]

I have to put my money where my mouth is...

Hope your right, it would be a simple quick fix. My money is on resource ratio theory though.

[sabbath]

So are you guys looking to add K if it is low? What if N test reads 0 then are you going to add that too? This does not sound easy or cheep to stay on top of to me.

[Ace25]

If dosing a few drops of something, in this case potassium, proves to somehow fix an imbalance and in return I see lower phosphates then I see that as a cheaper alternative to either water changes or using media like GFO. Honestly, I don't hold much hope in this working, but I can't say for sure. If I want to be able to give advice in the future to others on the topic of potassium I at least want to have some personal experience, no matter the outcome, so that is why I decided to try it now.

[Garf]

I have to put my money where my mouth is...

I am always concerned when I see a large company mess up their technical data sheets / sales pitch ( strontium potassium ??? )

http://brightwellaquatics.com/products/potassiont.php

Looks like the ULNS systems have been dosing potassium sulfate and chloride for years, to increase SPS colouration.

[ferdinand]

From what i read in wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphate) also Natural History Museum of UK (http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curati...ery/pk213.html) about phosphate many country have develop a way to remove phosphate from the water but if still too many of phosphate occur from urban waste or agriculture also sewage disposal & the amount of algae in the sea can't dissolve it all, it'll last in the bottom of the ocean, deposit in sands & rocks, this what happended mostly that is why many country trying to remove phosphate to save level

well, then we use it in our aquarium (sands & rocks), hoping that a small pop of algae can vanish it in instant, i think we are over expecting especially we keep adding it in, from food that cause it to keep coming.

I think removing it to zero & hoping it won't be there again is like hoping we don't get old by breathing, but then again, if its come to money you can buy chemicals to wipe it all =D & i think that what some ppl want, buy a their product again =D.

Unless we stop giving food & remove all sands & rocks from our aquarium, phosphate will still exist, i think the best way is just to keep it in save level that if we don't want to throw away money for something that will reappear from what we do.

well SM, don't give up yet on your algae scrubber, u done very well standing up on this.

[kerry]

I dont have a hanna checker but with other tests my phosphate is always zero with the waterfall scrubber tank, I only have detectable phos in my UAS 150G tank, my 10G UAS scrubber tank also measures zero.

[Ace25]

I am always concerned when I see a large company mess up their technical data sheets / sales pitch ( strontium potassium ??? )

http://brightwellaquatics.com/products/potassiont.php

Looks like the ULNS systems have been dosing potassium sulfate and chloride for years, to increase SPS colouration.

True, and with Brightwell your concern is valid. Brightwell is probably my least favorite company in terms of supplements, they over exaggerate or flat out lie about some of their products, but some of their products are simply a known ingredient or mixture and water and listed on the bottle, which is the case here. I am sure I overpaid 1000 percent vs if I could just find the raw ingredients and mix them myself. Not too many places seem to carry the Salifert Potassium test kit in the US since it just came out. For convenience sake since aquacave carried test and supplements I ordered both. My first choice is Marinedepot since they are the closest to me, but they didn't have the test kit.

I am still anxiously awaiting srusso's write up to have a better understanding on why he thinks this may be a fix to an imbalance problem. I am sure I will have a little more faith in it working once I read it.

[oildalemonkey]

Hanna Phosphate Checker user here. I have a 40 breeder mainly LPS/softy reef with your basic CFL-lit scrubber. My phosphate level is usually in the 0.02 - 0.07 range. I don't have a liquid nitrate test kit at the present time, but an API somewhere-in-the-ballpark test strip (!) shows nitrate at between 0 and 20 mg/L. I don't really have any nuisance algae so I tend to believe I'm OK with my nitrate levels.

I have the Red Sea Reef Colors Pro test kit. Today I measured potassium at 360 pm so added 20 mL Brightwell Potassion. How bad can it be if it was formulated by a marine scientist?

[Garf]

Yeah, the "marine scientist" may be checking the number of barnacles on a whale, with no idea of what potassium does.