Deltec Phosphate Test Kit

[thetedinator]

Picked up the Deltec FR509 Fluidized Reactor to use with RowaPhos and the Deltec Phosphate test kit.

Haven't set up the reactor yet. When I do, I'll post.

I tried the test kit. This is a colorimetric test kit made by Merck for Deltec. It contains two test vials and two reagents (1 liquid and 1 solid). Using the kit is straight forward. Test sample in 1 vial, leave the other empty, add reagents, mix thoroughly, let stand for a minute and then slide the two vials side by side down the comparator chart.

Good news for me, my test sample measured ~0.
Might not be surprising since I haven't fed the tank in over a week and I did a water change 2 weeks ago.

Bad news for me, need to figure out what caused a minor break out of red cyano/hair algae.

Ted

 

[MtnDewMan]

Do you have a DSB? If so, take the sample of water right under the surface of the sand bed

 

[thetedinator]

Do you have a DSB? If so, take the sample of water right under the surface of the sand bed

Yes I do. Thanks for the suggestion. I'll see if I can do that.

 

[algaeguy]

Hmm...

Nothing that a Deltec 702 skimmer won't take care of, Ted! Heh, heh!

How many tests do you figure you'll get out of the kit? Mine didn't come in yet. Sounds simple and very accurate!

BTW, Mtn Dew Man has a really neat idea! My understanding is that cyanobacteria has the capability to "fix" phosphate "on site", so testing a sample from near the cyano material on/in the sand would prove quite interesting!

Scott

 

[wrightme43]

I know this is a little off post. Since we have been talking on another post about phosphate loading of the sand bed, how would you go about testing the sand itself? I mean if I take a sample of new aragalive, and a sample of my used sandbed and let it soak in ro water for 3 days. would the phosphate leach out into the ro water? If the ro has a tds of 0 and there is a difference between the two (old and new) sand samples. What would that tell us? This is a test I want to do. I want to get a base line from new aragalive, and my 6 month old and get some more samples from people that are having a cyano out break and just see. Is it like Mr Cross says and is the phosphate constantly cycled in and out of bacteria? or is it like others say and it loads up in the bed untill it reachs maximum levels and then builds in the water colum? Is this a valid test? what do you all think? Steve

 

[mojoreef]

Algaeguy Cyano actually fixes nitrogen, it is pretty common for sand type substraights as it just catches the nitrogen being released by the bacteria in the bed.

Steve P comes in so many different forms its hard to just nail it down. Lets look at the sand first. Sand is calcium carbonate mines or collected from the wild. This sand is basically loaded to its capacity with Inorganic P. As the bed developes an anaerobic zone, the ph in that zone lowers, combine this with the actions of bacteria and the sand begins to melt. With the sand melting comes its buffering capability in regards to calcium and carbonate. With this melting all other things once a part of the matrix of the sand are now released to. Inorganic P is one. this form of P is usually bound up very fast by bacteria as it is a food source to them. At some point the bacteria reach a state of critical mass, as in their population has maxxed out. At this point they begin to die off and algae is usually johnny on the spot. From here the person will begin to released a bacteria to algae to bacteria cycle. This cycle will continue to grow as the P from the sand and the P from outside sources continues to be added to the equation. According to Dr. Ron and the boys this is what you want so that you can harvest the algae that grows on the sand as a means of export.
Hobbists test kits test only for Inorganic P. If you get a test from your water column and it reads 0 that means that all the inorganic P is being bound up by organic (animal and other). If you get a positive reading (no matter what) it is telling you that your tank is so saturated with Inorganic P that it can not bind anymore.
If you have an algae problem it means that you have either N or P in excess in your tank. N is usually not the problem as bacteria are very effective as binding and removing through off gassing. So P is usually the culprit.
With excess P in the tank one must search out the source. Top off water, excessive feeding, food types, certain salt types, certain additives are the most common. If all is good their then a deeper search needs to happen. LR and sandbeds and waste in the tank are the next group. If the tank is clean and the husbandry is good, that would check detritus build up off. So the next would be to test the surface water along side of the LR. And then take a sample of the pore water from with in the surface of the sand bed. This will tell you if the bed has hit saturation point in the bacteria/algae cycle.

sorry about the long post.


Mike