Phosphate

[Caroline63]

OK I am new to this but here's the dilemna...
I have a very high level of phosphate in my tap water (around 5mg/l).
After reading all your (very useful) advices on cycling new tank, I decided to use Phos-Zorb while I was cycling to avoid algae bloom. (day after adddition of Phos-Zorb level of phosphate lower than 0.5mg/l. so far so good.
But here's the dilemna.
As soon as I am going to add plants, I am going to need around 1mg/l of PO4. How do I get that?
- if I use my tap water without Phoszorb in the filter, I am risking algae invasion again as I will be >5mg/l
- if I use fertilizing products while Phoszorb is in my filter, all the PO4 will get absorbed.

The only solution I can think about is trying somehow to remove the PO4 in about the third of the water in the tank.
If I drip tap water through a pouch of PhosZorb, will it remove the PO4? I could do this with part of the new water I add to the tank.

Any comments or new solutions to my problem?
Thanks in advance

 

[Truck]

Phoshpate doesn't cause algae, don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise, ammonia and light cause algae.

If you're getting algae then there must be a source of ammonia or too much light.

 

[Caroline63]

I thought that although phosphate is not a reason for algae formation, high level of Phosphate (>2mg/l) was promoting algae formation. Is this not true?

So in my case would you leave the phosphate concentration around 5mg/l?

 

[Truck]

no, phoshpate does not promote algae, If your tap has high phosphate naturally leave it that way, algae will only grow if there is a trigger, them being:

Ammonia
Light
Lack of circulation.

 

[fishyfeet]

I would say leave the phosphate alone and add lots and lots of fast growing plants, di

 

[Caroline63]

OK thanks a lot for all the advices.
I will leave phosphate alone. While both of you are around perhaps you could comment on the following:
I have a setup of 3.6WPG light. I was thinking of doing a cycle 5 hours light, 2 hours dark, 5 hours light (again based on advice I found on your network in order to minimise algae).
I havea CO2 injection system set up.
My tank is 12G and was thinking of adding:
2 Ludwigia repens
1 Egeria densa
1 Ceratopteris thalicroides
1 Anubias barteri
3 Vallisneria spiralis 'Tiger'
2 Echinodorus Tenellus
3 Eleocharis parvula
and 1 Aponogeton Fenestralis (to try)
Do you think that is enough?
And by the way for the fish (5 dwarf cories,one betta OR one Dwarf Gourami, plus 2 shrimps).

Thanks again for the advice.

 

[Truck]

Cut the lighting down to 2WPG, and drop the 2 hour break in lighting, the information is false and outdated, it actually promotes algal growth.

 

[Caroline63]

Thank you very much for all this.
Should information like the 5/2/5 advice be removed from the network or at least be flagged? newbies such as myself will be tempted to follow this kind of advice (especially if pinned).

 

[Truck]

It has been brought up, and the mod team are currently trying to find a way to solve this problem.