**TMC ECOSAND** Phosphates

[joelat]

Hi All,

I wondered if anyone had experienced the same issue as me. I usually use Caribsea Live sand but as i have just upsized quite considerably and cycling a new tank i was advised by LFS that the TMC Ecosand would be absolutely fine.

Did the first round of Parameter checks and i have never seen anything like it with the Phosphates reading i was reading 2.4 on Spin test! usually with the Caribsea I struggle to keep phosphates detectable. Also starting to cause a diatom bloom.

Has anyone else had issues with this sand? If so, Best cause of action ..

1. See it out, Dose Liquid remover and add a GFO Reactor?
2. Empty the sand and go for something else.
3. Do nothing and hope for the best

Any advice welcome !

 

[KrisReef]

Substrates (rock, sand,etc) will absorb phosphates onto their surfaces if they are collected in an area with high phosphates. I've seen phosphates leech from "dry rock" that was recently mined and presume it was harvested from the ground where phosphate was present in the environment.

For high phosphate rock (old liverock from fish tanks) I put that in a barrel and treat with lanthanium chloride ( swimming pool phosphate remover works great) until the reading is near or at zero. I let it sit in the water after treatments to see if more phosphate will leech. I think you could do the same with sand, and I would prefer to do this outside of the display tank to avoid adding lanthanium into the system. Once the sand is clean I would rinse it good and put it back in the tank. HTH.

Actually, might rinse the sand first and see if you can wash most of the phosphate out with just a good rinse? I presume that P will adhere and leech afterwards.

 

[joelat]

I rinsed in RO Before adding as it was a very dusty sand out of the bag. I don’t know because the readings are so high am i about to start a constant battle of leaching phosphates and will i always struggle to keep them down?

 

[KrisReef]

I rinsed in RO Before adding as it was a very dusty sand out of the bag. I don’t know because the readings are so high am i about to start a constant battle of leaching phosphates and will i always struggle to keep them down?

Perhaps, but only if the sand is comprised of phosphate ore, if that is possible? Usually there is a limited amount adhered to the surface of arragonite (fossil coral/sand) that can be removed with time. I never considered that you might be dealing with guano rock /sand but certainly is possible. Guano used to be mined from atolls where seabirds had deposited high phosphate fish digestates for eons before they were discovered and exploited for fertilizer production.

Edit: That sand might be desirable for a tank growing macroalgae. If it's "dirty" you certainly could be better off finding a different sand product. I have a bag of miracle mud type sand that I'm going to sample to see what phosphate is present when I put a bit in ro/di. I've never tested that product before and it might be "dirty" with phosphates as well?

 

[joelat]

It is an Aragonite sand, As its still early days and the tank has not been running very long i may try to remove the sand leave the system a few days and test the water again for clarification and then go for another sand. My initial thought was to try and drive down the numbers by adding GFO reactor but high phosphate control is something i havnt had to face before and the only variable is the sand, so it may be easier just to switch.

 

[KrisReef]

Probably for the best to remove the source and clean the water once instead of repeating GFO or lanthanum doses to slowly leech the contamination out of the substrate. GL