rising phosphates

[sergo]

what can be a cause of rising phosphates? i'm sitting at about 2ppm right now and was at .25ppm just a few days ago? nitrates, ammonia and nitrites are at 0. last water change was sunday and was about 10% and i did a phos. test a couple of days prior. i used RO water on this change. i'm leaning towards food since i just added 8 bloodfins and 10 serpaes in the last week. any tips?

[Chrona]

What does your substrate consist of?

Heres a good article on causes of phosphate

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It looks like you are probably right about the fish food.

[sergo]

pea gravel from a hardware store. also i was jacking around pretty heavily in the tank last night moving plants around. could that contribute?

[Chrona]

pea gravel from a hardware store. also i was jacking around pretty heavily in the tank last night moving plants around. could that contribute?

Well, from what I read in the article, I can only guess that there was uneaten, rotting food in the gravel that was releasing phosphates, and the stirring up of the substrate only worsened the condition.

[sergo]

nice article btw.

[sergo]

Well, from what I read in the article, I can only guess that there was uneaten, rotting food in the gravel that was releasing phosphates, and the stirring up of the substrate only worsened the condition.i had a feeling that may have been part of the problem but i needed a little reassurance. if i'm lucky i should see some nice plant growth and no algae bloom. we'll see. hopefully all of the plants will fight over it as it converts.

[Chrona]

i had a feeling that may have been part of the problem but i needed a little reassurance. if i'm lucky i should see some nice plant growth and no algae bloom. we'll see. hopefully all of the plants will fight over it as it converts.

How much lighting and of what kind of do you have in your tank?

EDIT: And most of the plants you have will do a great job of sucking nutrients out of the water column. The only problem may be that you don't have enough of them. As an alternative, I found that using Purigen helps with algae a lot, as most of my plants feed off the substrate. It removes organics in the water before they decompose down the nitrates, and so the reduced nitrate levels hold back algae quite a bit. I took the baggy out 2 weeks ago to see if the lack of nitrates in the water column was affecting my plants at all, and I saw no change except for an increase in algae. I haven't tested for phosphates in my tap water, but I'm assuming from this that it must be pretty high.

[sergo]

i'm running 2 15 watt flouros at 8500k. i know it's a little low and i have plans for an upgrade soon. it will be a DIY project but i have some logistics issues to work out :ezpi_wink1:

[Lady Hobbs]

I love your little toilet sitter. LOL

[sergo]

I love your little toilet sitter. LOLthanks. i've got a couple of more that i may change to pretty soon.