Life after Phosban?

johnnstacy · #1 05/08/2005, 10:53 PM

I have been fighting phosphate levels in my tank for about 3-4 weeks now. I started testing after my rock was finished cycling. I did make the mistake of cycling the rock in the tank. This did leave a lot of junk in the tank which I have been siphoning and for weeks but even with water changes and vacuming, I was still fighting PO4. Couldn't get it below about .75. So I finally gave in and bought some phosban and threw in my eheim canister filter. Ran it for 24 hours and now phosphates are zero BUT.......for how long? If I take the phosban out will the PO4 return? Are you suppose to run it forever? Is this some kind of band-aid for a deeper problem? All I know is I want to start adding corals and I am sick of waiting. Cycling was bad enough.

prodman · #2 05/08/2005, 10:59 PM

While my rocks were cleaning up after going BB I ran rowa for 2 months to help out. It worked well and have not had any more problems. But in your case it would depend on how long your rocks will be leaching phosphate.

johnnstacy · #3 05/08/2005, 11:22 PM

So is it normal for rock to leach detectable amounts of phosphate? Generally for how long?

prodman · #4 05/09/2005, 07:04 AM

Do a search on rock cooking and you will find more out about that