Red Sea phosphate test

[Emmanuel.dam]

This test is confusing I but the vial with no chemicals on the outside and do what is says for the reaction vial and wait the 6 mins but nothing happens to the colour of either :-/ can someone explain what's going on


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[Emmanuel.dam]

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1362453127.988494.jpg


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[Emmanuel.dam]

It reads 0.00 ppm if that's how it's supposed to look


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[dread240]

hold the test setup in front of you, with your clear sample water on the left, your test with the regeants in the middle.

roll the color wheel until the color in the left sample is the closest match to the center vial (or you can kind of infer between 2 different points)

While a color is lined up under it, the number to the right of the center bottle is your value... the darker the test the higher the phosphates

[dread240]

i'm looking at the color in the center and i'm seeing >1ppm

flip over your test card and lay the center vial in the hole for vial 2... it's a pretty close match to >1ppm

[GroktheCube]

Put the color circle that most closely matches your test vial completely under the control (no reagents) vial. Look at the arrow on the edge of the black plastic holder that carries the two tubes. That will be pointing to your number.

It looks like your phosphates are very, very high.

[dread240]

yup, I would definitely suggest doing a high range test on phosphates... for the center tube you would use 2ml aquarium water and 15ml of ro water, and that will let you read up to 5.44ppm

[Emmanuel.dam]

Do I need to lower my phosphates and how?


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[dread240]

you generally want around .03 p04 in your tank... can be higher for softies and lps (they generally like it higher) but it can also lead to algae growth

me I'm on the other end of the spectrum right now with nitrates lol... phosphates are only .02 but nitrate at 8ppm on the high range

you can lower it with a refugium, chemical means, gfo, variety of ways. Just go slow... you can actually shock a system lowering it too fast... like if you go gfo (like most people do in a reactor) I would start with a 1/4 dose and keep watching it, once you get down to where you need to be, slow the flow or remove half the media to try and maintain the .03 or so

I would do the high range test first though to figure out exactly where you're at. Feeding less can also greatly improve this as well too, as well as making sure your source water is 0 tds (tap water can bring in both phosphates and nitrates)