phosphate question

Reefscape

All Gr8KarmaSF's fault....
MFK Member
Apr 2, 2007
1,800
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Staffordshire UK
High phosphate is not overly toxic to fish/coral, well a little for coral...But, the main issue with phosphate is their ability to promote plague algae growth..It would have to be very very high for to actually cause a negative effect on fish/coral..
 

sweeTang21

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 10, 2007
2,009
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Wisconsin
are you using tap water??

If your testing tap water straight out of the tap, do not mix the saltmix, Let the water sit for a few hours and test then. Readings will be different. make sure you using a freshwater test kit.

If your water is not the cause then its either over feeding which will promote major nitrate issues as well, which are harmful to fish, or it could be your saltmix itself. Most these days are phosphate and nitrate free, but i do believe there are a few still out there that are not like this. not 100% sure on this though.

another thing to watch is your filtration, never cleaning the filter on a SW tank will causing huge increases in nitrate and phosphate within hours.
 

sweeTang21

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 10, 2007
2,009
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Wisconsin
probably. Dont know much about red sea brand salt. I would imagine that they are phosphate nitrate free however. It should say right on the package.
 

alcohologist

Candiru
MFK Member
Apr 8, 2007
935
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singapore
i used red sea to start my tank, yeah it's phos-free.
hmm
the only causes i can think of now.... overfeeding or something dead in the tank, maybe?
 
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