Phosbuster Pro

[abe77901]

Does anyone have any experience with this stuff? My phosphate levels are at about .25 and seem to stay there, has anyone used this stuff with any sucess.

[::pete::]

I have not used either, but thought this might give you more options.

Link (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=20756&item=2375257 354&rd=1&ssPageName=WD1V)

[GaryP]

Abe,

I believe they carry it at CB Pets. Richard talked to me about it once. As I see it, the problem with it is that its a one shot product. It may get your phosphate levels down once, but it will just climb again after you feed. You might want to consider adding some sort of solid phosphate scrubber such as PhosGuard that you can run more or less constantly. I mix a fairly small amount of phosguard with my carbon and run it constantly. I changed it out weekly. Of course, adding a refugium is another option for phosphate control.

[Richard]

I tested it on a fish tank with measurable phosphate at .8 ppm. The next day after dosing phosbuster there was no detectable phosphate. So either it precipitated out the detectable phosphate or it interfered with the test kit. I have used it to correct algae problems on reef tanks without any harm to any livestock so I don't think it is just causing a negative test. I only mention that because I have heard there are some ammonia "removing" products that don't actually neutralize ammonia but just give a false reading on ammonia test kits.

I do not know if the phosphate is permanently removed. I emailed carib sea a couple of times for more details but no response. I think it's worth a shot to quickly try and correct some phosphate related algae problems but it is rather expensive so a more permanent natural solution should be worked on at the same time.

[Triggerman]

just to let yall know... i have a friend try out the product in a 175 gal. reef tank with measurable phosphate problems. within 10 min. of adding the product into the aquarium all her fish started gasping for air and corals started to slim away and within an hour pretty much everything was lost.
she called carribsea and evidently this is rare but this same situation has happen to a couple of other consumers tanks as well. evidently if your alkalinty reading is fine the chemical can cause your ph to drop rapidly and your oxygen level then becomes very low as well due to the ph drop. this caused the fish to go into ph shock and become oxygen deprived. they also said they were printing new labels for the new batches they distribute with a warning.
carribsea is a very reputable company, but i would probably be cautious about adding this to my own personal aquarium. pretty scary thought of watching everything die right before your eyes. although it seems richard has tried it without any adverse effects.

[Richard]

Yikes! Never heard of that before but then again caribsea hasn't put out much info on this product at least that I'm aware of. I haven't had any problems the few times I've tried it. They are supposed to be coming out with one part version so hopefully they have corrected that risk.

[Triggerman]

i haven't seen much info. either, but what kind of seems weird is this wasn't a one time incident the customer serv. rep mentioned it's happened at least a couple of other times. the product might of needed alittle bit more R&D before being brought out to the market. i'm pretty sure they were caught off guard as well, majorities of peoples reefs can easily run into the thousands of dollars.

ray

[GaryP]

Like I said earlier, how often are quick fixes a good thing in this hobby? Sometimes we are more interested in a quick fix then solving the real problem.

The real problem with excess phosphate in a lack of adequate nutrient export. More is going in then is coming out in the form of skimmate, mechanical or chemical filtration, precipitation with Kalk, and macro growth. Adding a product like this may fix it once, but what is being done to prevent it happening over and over again?

I support the idea of managing our aqauriums as an ecosystem. Everything is interconnected. We make one change and it has downstream impacts somewhere else. Adding chemicals is rarely a good idea to solve a problem. It may solve the problem in the short term but what has it changed somewhere else. I can give two good examples: Chemiclean is a great product, but does it permanently solve a cyano problem? No, the conditions that existed that created the cyano outbreak still exist and it will come back. How many people have done more damage to their tanks using Flatworm Exit then was ever possible by leaving the flatworms in the tank? I'm not dumping on FE, I have used it in the past. It is a good product if used properly, but again it is not a permanent solution. In the case of flatworms I don't think there is a permanent solution. It all comes down to management.

I believe that panic is the worse thing that happens to us in any situation. If there is a lesson to be learned going for the quick fix is rarely a good idea. Understandably this is human nature and we do so with the best of intentions. However, sometimes we just need to sit back and take a look at the bigger picture before making such decisions.

OK, I'll shut up now.