Phosphate Sponge Powder in tank water?

JustinGr · 01/23/2012, 07:31 AM

I used Kent's Phosphate Sponge in a reactor and I think I had the flow to high. I rinsed it with RO water and hooked it up in the tank and it ran clean in the reactor for the first 12 hours, then I left town for the day, when I get home, the tank was so cloudy you could not see thru it. You can see a fine particulate "dust" in the water but none of my filters will pull it out. The only thing I can think that caused it was that I had the flow to high on the Kent Phosphate Sponge and it ground the granules together causing the dust. I had it set where the media was loose (not in a bag) and it had a slight tumble to it at the top of the media, like a small boil.

The fish look happy, but the "toadstool" and mushroom rock look sad!

This is in a 75g. If not the phosphate, maybe a bloom of some sort, but if you look at the water under the halides, you can see it "swirl" in the current, like a fog...

Thanks

seapug · 01/23/2012, 08:36 AM

Shut off the reactor and try running a filter sock. Toadstools are known to have a bad reaction to aluminum based phosphate removers (seen it myself in my tank), so that may have occurred regardless of the cloudiness problem. They usually recover after a few days.

01/23/2012, 07:31 AM	#1
JustinGr Clown Pimp Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Bloomington, IN Posts: 644	Phosphate Sponge Powder in tank water? I used Kent's Phosphate Sponge in a reactor and I think I had the flow to high. I rinsed it with RO water and hooked it up in the tank and it ran clean in the reactor for the first 12 hours, then I left town for the day, when I get home, the tank was so cloudy you could not see thru it. You can see a fine particulate "dust" in the water but none of my filters will pull it out. The only thing I can think that caused it was that I had the flow to high on the Kent Phosphate Sponge and it ground the granules together causing the dust. I had it set where the media was loose (not in a bag) and it had a slight tumble to it at the top of the media, like a small boil. The fish look happy, but the "toadstool" and mushroom rock look sad! This is in a 75g. If not the phosphate, maybe a bloom of some sort, but if you look at the water under the halides, you can see it "swirl" in the current, like a fog... Thanks

01/23/2012, 08:36 AM	#2
seapug Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: 4980 ft. Posts: 7,954 Blog Entries: 1	Shut off the reactor and try running a filter sock. Toadstools are known to have a bad reaction to aluminum based phosphate removers (seen it myself in my tank), so that may have occurred regardless of the cloudiness problem. They usually recover after a few days. __________________ insert clever saying here. Current Tank Info: 200 gallon custom Marineland DD peninsular tank. LPS dominated mixed reef. Previous 90 gallon mixed reef TOTM April 2009.