Does Edmonton water have phosphates?

[iceman86]

Hey guys i picked up an API reef master test kit a few days ago but i think im not getting the right readings as these are known not to be the greatest. I tested my tank for phosphates a few days ago when i got the kit and it read 0.25 so i got worried and tested the tap water and i also got 0.25 so i figured i was getting them from the tap water. Today i ran another test and got 0.00 for the tank and 0.25 for tap.
I also went out and got some spring water and drinking water to test and the spring came up as 0.25 and the drinking at 0.00

Now i was wondering if city water does really contain those phosphates or is my test junk.

I know i should be using ro/di water, im just in the process of looking into a system.

also my aquarium has these foam bubbles up at the to corners, some days its more than others. Any idea what its about?

Thanks in advance!

[toytech]

ok so i did a quick test for you , phosphate of tap water was 0.25 and the total desolved solids was a whopping 175 ppm ( in abbotsford , bc it was 12ppm) . So there is phosphate in the water here as well as alot of other crap . I used straight tap water when i re setup my tank at the begining of june and had a bad hair algea outbreak , took me a bunch of ro/di water changes to get it under control. I love my ro/di unit , and i tapped into the line thats before the di resin to make drinking water and im so glad i did , i dont know how people here can drink this stuff!

[iceman86]

ok so i did a quick test for you , phosphate of tap water was 0.25 and the total desolved solids was a whopping 175 ppm ( in abbotsford , bc it was 12ppm) . So there is phosphate in the water here as well as alot of other crap . I used straight tap water when i re setup my tank at the begining of june and had a bad hair algea outbreak , took me a bunch of ro/di water changes to get it under control. I love my ro/di unit , and i tapped into the line thats before the di resin to make drinking water and im so glad i did , i dont know how people here can drink this stuff!

Thank you so much. How bad is this amount of phosphates for corals? i have lps and 1 sps. I understand it should be 0 but should i be in panic mode to fix this? Everything in the tank seems fine at the moment.

[marie]

ok so i did a quick test for you , phosphate of tap water was 0.25 and the total desolved solids was a whopping 175 ppm ( in abbotsford , bc it was 12ppm) . So there is phosphate in the water here as well as alot of other crap . I used straight tap water when i re setup my tank at the begining of june and had a bad hair algea outbreak , took me a bunch of ro/di water changes to get it under control. I love my ro/di unit , and i tapped into the line thats before the di resin to make drinking water and im so glad i did , i dont know how people here can drink this stuff!

Not all the dissolved solids can be called crap, some of it is calcium and other dissolved minerals.....

[marie]

iceman no need to panic, just run some GFO (phosphate remover) in a media reactor. Just about every food we add to our tank contains some phosphates......

[iceman86]

iceman no need to panic, just run some GFO (phosphate remover) in a media reactor. Just about every food we add to our tank contains some phosphates......

thanks marie :biggrin:

[reefwars]

iceman no need to panic, just run some GFO (phosphate remover) in a media reactor. Just about every food we add to our tank contains some phosphates......



+1 even with ro id still run gfo:)

[toytech]

i find if i have an ammount of phosphate i can detect .25 or higher i get algea issues like bryopsis. but the corals dont mind .Sps are the most sensative to phosphate and tend to brown out with higher nutrients.