Just finishing week 4, a little advice pls

[Ga Liverpool]

Just about to change my zeo rocks after week 4, and have a few questions.

just tested phosphate which is reading about 1ppm which is higher than when i tested 8 days ago (it was 0.5 ppm), i havent increased feeding etc but DID disturb my sand bed which im thinking may have released 'nasties' into the water column, i guess ill be removing the sand in the coming days which hopefully will deal with that, but could that be the increase in po4 reading, would it be wise to add a po4 remover to reduce it.

secondly, i dont know if i read the guide wrong in the first place but ive been dosing bak/food/start daily since day one. just re-read the guide which says after the second week reduce dosage to 2 or 3 times a week, have i been overdoing it ??

and finally (for now ) ive had my reactor on a 3 hour on off cycle, do i keep it on this or let it run 24/7 now ?

Sorry for all the questions!!

Cheers

Gary

[Heinz]

#1) yes the PO4 is most likely from disdurbing your sandbed,
zeo will take care of the PO4 i would not use any PO4 remover
#2) you are suppose to dose the first 2 weeks daily, after that twice a week, so yes you where overdosing
#3)yes keep your reactor on 3/3off, untill your PO4 is not detectable

[Brad Villeggiante]

One correction to what Heinz has said:

After the first exchange of zeoliths you are only supposed to dose food and bac everyother day, not on a daily basis (this is for the first 2 weeks). You then dose 2-3 times a week after the first two weeks as Heinz has said.

You dose zeostart daily for the first 2 weeks at 1ML for every 100 gallons. Then for the next 4 weeks you dose zeostart dailey 1ML for every 200 gallons.

[Ga Liverpool]

Thanks guys,

And I wondered why I was getting a lot of cyno type algae on the sandbed..now i know!!

Cheers

Ga