Night Reefer
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Can phosphates be reduced through a open tank with circulation into the air?
Phosphates
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Randy Holmes-Farley
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No, phosphate has no tendency to go into the air. Same for nitrate.
Ammonia is about the only thing we routinely discuss that can go into the air.
Ammonia is about the only thing we routinely discuss that can go into the air.
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Do you mean are you able to evaporate phosphates out of a tank? I don't believe so, even if some phosphates did evaporate with your water, it wouldn't be enough to make a significant difference in phosphate levels.
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The reason I ask is I am curing my pukani rock in a 55 gallon drum. For the first time last night I left the drip cover off to see if I would see a reduction on phosphate. To my surprise the phosphates went down from .66 to .55. I did the test twice each time with the Hanna test kit. I will check it again tonight to see if it changed again. Is there a reason why they dropped?
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Not drip cover but drum cover
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Is there any algae growth on the rocks? If you left the cover off, and there was light able to get in, it could be that algae consumed some of the phosphates.
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No lights salt is perfect and temp fluctuates between 80 and 82. Ammonia, nitrites, nitrates all at zero. Cover has been on for about a month. No smell and perfectly clear sparkling water. Prior I did 1 week in 7 gallons of Clorox added to 40 gallons of water.
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I'm not sure what you mean by curing? What is present besides the rock? Just salt water?
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That is correct just salt water. Curing is the process of taking live rock that was left to dry out in order to remove all dead sea life . Without curing the rock as the stuff deteriorate in your tank it will turn into nitrate and phosphate that is why I have a phosphate build up. The rock is reaching phosphates and I’m trying to cure before I put it in the main tank
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People treat rock (live or dead) in lots of different ways prior to using it, and they often call them curing. That why I asked. I can easily imagine that if there are bacteria in the system now they may be consuming some of the N and P being released from decaying organics left on the rock.
In any case, it’s a small drop and I wouldn’t spend much effort trying to explain it. [emoji3]
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So what I’ve been reading it seems that I should just let it sit until the phosphate stop rising. Then do a water change And see if they continue to rise if not my rock should be cured. Does everybody agree or disagree?I would love to know your comments. I am planning to use GFO once everything is in the main display. I just don’t want to deal with phosphates leaching from the rocks.
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