Hi Tom , here is a question for you( or any other ), recently i`ve been double dosing Seachem Excel to combat a BBA out break, in so doing i decided to test my water parameters & was shocked to discover my Phosphates were above the 5 ppm scale my test kit was capable of reading, i decided to try & track down if anything i was adding to the tank was aiding the Phosphate levels apart from the regular PO4 dose as per EI, which by the way is 1/4 tsp for my 75 gln.
I started by checking my source water , which showed no detectable PO4, then made up sample with KNO3, still no Po4, K2SO4 = no Po4, Tropica plant Nutrition = No PO4, i checked everything including my dechlorinator & came up with a negative, i had put away the test kit & it dawned on me that i did not do a sample with Excel, i was surprised that the Excel sample showed up positive for phosphates, is this normal & if so should i be cutting back on the PO4 dose as per EI while dosing Excel( this tank is a 75 gln at 3.5 WPG heavily planted, EI , pressurized CO2 @ 30+ PPM )
Regards
I should add the BBA outbreak i suspect was as a result of changing the lights & co2 rig, took me a while to get the co2 dialed in.
I started by checking my source water , which showed no detectable PO4, then made up sample with KNO3, still no Po4, K2SO4 = no Po4, Tropica plant Nutrition = No PO4, i checked everything including my dechlorinator & came up with a negative, i had put away the test kit & it dawned on me that i did not do a sample with Excel, i was surprised that the Excel sample showed up positive for phosphates, is this normal & if so should i be cutting back on the PO4 dose as per EI while dosing Excel( this tank is a 75 gln at 3.5 WPG heavily planted, EI , pressurized CO2 @ 30+ PPM )
Regards
I should add the BBA outbreak i suspect was as a result of changing the lights & co2 rig, took me a while to get the co2 dialed in.