• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

phosphate overdose

a1Matt

a1Matt

Member
Joined
10 Mar 2008
Messages
2,489
Location
Bromley
I was in a rush this morning and accidentally put a teaspoon of Mono Potassium Phosphate into my tank. I usually only put in about 1/6th of a teaspoon every other day. 😳

As I was late for work (hence the rush) I did not have time to do a water change. I will go home at lunchtime and do a 80% or so WC.

So that will leave my tank with 5-6 hours of what I presume is a phosphate overdose.

This is not the nest way to experiment with how hardy my tank inmates are (I am worried about my 6 Amano shrimp) 🙁

Please all keep your fingers crossed for me!

(Tank specs are: 180litre, 2wpg, pressurised CO2, EI dosing, 50%WC weekly)
 
Don't worry about it, won't cause any harm. I was dosing a similar amount on the same size tank for a few months whilst i dealt with GSA. Wound it back a bit know but still does 1/2 tsp every other day.
 
a1Matt said:
Cheers Andrew, that is so good to hear. What a relief! 😀
Click to expand...

no big deal at all dont worry 🙂 contrary to popular belief, our tanks can take huge amounts of PO4 with no problems.. in fact, you might see a growth spurt!
 
I figured it would be fine for the plants. It was the lil ol Amanos that had me worried!

So I now see that it could have been a blessing in disguise and have not carried out a water change and so far the shrimp look happy enough 8)
 
aaronnorth said:
Proves that PO4 doesnt cause algae :lol:
Click to expand...

Preaching to the converted there Aaron 😀 PO4 is definitely one of my allies in the algae war!

If I have spot algae on my slow growing plants or on the glass I know straightaway that they are suffering a phosphorus deficiency.

More often than not the problem is uptake not dosing, in which case the fix is to up the CO2, or lower the light level, or both. That way the plants can get to the PO4 that is already there.

This incident has inspired me, so when I feel happy that I can easily crank my CO2 up a bit more (about to transition to a larger capacity reactor) I will probably experiment with larger levels of dosing over a period of a few months. (tweak, wait 3 weeks, tweak, wait 3 weeks, etc).

I do like this hobby! 😀
 
Matt Holbrook-Bull said:
no big deal at all dont worry 🙂 contrary to popular belief, our tanks can take huge amounts of PO4 with no problems.. in fact, you might see a growth spurt!
Click to expand...

Matt you were right 😀

Three days later and most of the growth looks the same, but! My water cabbage (which I had suspected for some time was on the verge of a phosphate deficiency) has grown the same in 3 days as it usually does in 3 weeks!!!!!!!! Awesome.

A couple of my swords might have sprouted some new leaves as well, this could be a coincidence but I don't think so!

I am definitely upping my phosphates on a permanent basis now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top