Hello everyone, first post on this forum! Some of you might know me fromThe Planted Tank which I frequent very often. Ok, now to my problem:
Here is a link to the post I made on The Planted Tank. It will provide all the specifics as I explored and narrowed down the factors. Here I will just summerize the situation.
A friend of mine put a bag of Shultz Profile into the tank, and filled it with tap water. Nothing but these two, and let it sit for a week. He lost the commitment to keep the tank so passed it too me. Now, when I filled the tank with my tap, I discovered a very large phosphate increase; the tap I filled it with has 0.2ppm PO4---, a few hours later the level were 2.4ppm.
I found out that the orginal tap water used in the tank is loaded with tons of PO4--- (he lives in a farmy, rural area). I read the post titled, "Florabase - PO4 test kit interference" and the issue seems quite like mine. Is it really the Fe in the substrate bonding with PO4---? Tom Barr, does your answer to the that post (Florabase...) apply to my situation?
I believe that since the substrate was initially in phosphate loaded water, the iron reacted and "precipitated" ("" because the iron really isn't in solution, but remains in the substrate). Since adding it to water with a much lower conc., the precipitate was allowed to re-dissolve.
Here is a link to the post I made on The Planted Tank. It will provide all the specifics as I explored and narrowed down the factors. Here I will just summerize the situation.
A friend of mine put a bag of Shultz Profile into the tank, and filled it with tap water. Nothing but these two, and let it sit for a week. He lost the commitment to keep the tank so passed it too me. Now, when I filled the tank with my tap, I discovered a very large phosphate increase; the tap I filled it with has 0.2ppm PO4---, a few hours later the level were 2.4ppm.
I found out that the orginal tap water used in the tank is loaded with tons of PO4--- (he lives in a farmy, rural area). I read the post titled, "Florabase - PO4 test kit interference" and the issue seems quite like mine. Is it really the Fe in the substrate bonding with PO4---? Tom Barr, does your answer to the that post (Florabase...) apply to my situation?
I believe that since the substrate was initially in phosphate loaded water, the iron reacted and "precipitated" ("" because the iron really isn't in solution, but remains in the substrate). Since adding it to water with a much lower conc., the precipitate was allowed to re-dissolve.