Hanna Phosphate Checker, small experiment page 2

I finally got my phosphate checker and tested phosphates for the first time today. Was kind of surprised to find out they are only .03!!

I have run GFO for the past week for the first time in the past 10months after only running Seachem Seagel previously. I kind of wonder what the phosphates were before the GFO since my leather took a week to adjust and open up again after the GFO was added and my zoas still havnt adjusted.

Is .03 a good level to keep it at? I was tempted to switch ou the GFO today but decided to leave it be until I see them rise again

 

I'm no expert but I'm pretty sure .03 is the perfect amount you want in your tank.

If I'm not mistaken anything less than .05 is ideal, I hope once I get my reactor mine get that low, I'm was going to be starting with phosguard cause I have some of that left over but if you had that kind of success with GFO I may have to change my mind

would be nice to know where you started at before the GFO lol I know my phosphates right now are around 3ppm which is outta control I know lol but if you got yours down to .03 in a week it makes we wonder how long it would take for me to get that low

 

If it's the standard Hanna CHECKER, it has a tolerance of +- .04. Not really accurate enough to test at that level. I found this out the hard way myself. The more accurate TESTER is around $220.

 

I did do a lot of research and read a good article on advancedaquarist about the hanna checkers for phosphate and alk. The phosphate 713 model is the one they tested and I purchased and tested to be almost dead accurate when compared to the expensive hach testers. The hanna checker alk tester however proved to give consistently skewed results

Even wit ha .04 level of tolerance, that would put me at 0.00-0.07 which I feel comfortable enough to use was a cheap and quick tester. Your reef will tell you how good your levels are with coral growth and algae growth.

I wish I knew what it was before the GFO, the reason I decided to go GFO and get a tester was because I was having film algae on my tank walls that needed cleaned every few days, now once a week is enough.

 

Just dont do what I did and start with the full starting strength dose suggested on the product right away. I think it might have dropped them to fast and I ended up taking half of it out after a few days because my leather wouldnt open and my zoas still have not opened. All my SPS and LPS are looking great though

 

Cool, just pointing out to anyone reading this that your reading is 0.00-0.07, not .03. Whether that number is right or wrong, it will still give you a baseline if you decide to reduce the GFO usage.

 

Sweet news on the GFO. I just asked about using Chemipure elite vs GFO and they all said GFO. They did warn me to rinse well and to only start out with half the dosage then what they say on the label. Just curious if you halved the dosage or if you went full amount?

 

I got the Hanna phosphate myself. Make sure you get all the powder out. I'm in search of a small funnel to accomplish the task.

 

I used the full amount without any negative effect on any of my montipora, stylophora, acropora, frogspawn or hammer, xenia, mushroom, or jasmine polyp colonies. My leather and zoas closed up by the next day and after no improvement I removed about half of the dosage after 3 days giving my 1/2 the suggested dosage. My Leather continued to stay closed but slowly has some polyp extension at night and in the morning and after another week it is back to normal. My zoas still have not adjusted to the lower phophates and stay closed opening up a little bit in the morning before closing for the day.

 

Yea Ive been trying to think of the best way to do this and think a funnel would work great. I also have thought about using both vials at the same time, 1 for the first tube that zeros the instrument and the other to mix the packet in so that way I can give it a full 2 minutes to dissolve without the meter going off. What do you do reefbruh?