# Seachem PhosGuard



## dragam21 (Mar 23, 2014)

Was curious if anyone uses this in there planted tanks?


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## mattinmd (Aug 16, 2014)

I do not, and I doubt anyone with any sense does. 

Plants require phosphate, they cannot survive without it. It seems like a good recipe to kill your plants to me. Many of us here actually *add* phosphate on a regular basis, myself included.

I could see phosgard being of use in a non-planted tank, where the only thing benefiting from phosphate would be algae...

edit:
Ok, *maybe* I can see someone sensible using it if they have very high levels of phosphate in their water supply (over 3ppm). 

In that case I could see putting it in part-time to bring the phosphate level down to something around 1ppm (some like to run at 0.5, others at 2ppm.. but I'd say 1ppm is a good average).


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## Bushkill (Feb 15, 2012)

+1 on the "edit".

I run it in one of two canisters on a heavily planted low-tech 180G. It's also heavily stocked and heavily-fed (by my standards at least). The vast majority of plants are swords, anubias, and crypts and there's no noticeable issues. Also if you have issues with silicates and the related diatom blooms, it can help there as it also contains alumina. But as Matt pointed out, unless phosphates are out of line, and you don't have higher levels of silicates, there's really no point.


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Many moons ago I bought a big bucket of it as my phosphate was "too high". Turned out my nitrate was zero, supplemented nitrate and all was well. Sold the rest of it on fleabay.


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## LFM (Sep 18, 2014)

Well...when I cycled up my new planted aquarium I was getting a lot of algae growth in my tank. I started using phosguard and my algae problems disappeared. I can't scientifically confirm that it was the phosphuard because I also introduced nerite snails and circulation pumps in my tank relatively at the same time but all I can say is that now I'm at ~4 month intervals where I would consider scraping algae off the walls of my tank and that's only when company is coming over and I want to "spring clean" my tank to impress. 

Gotta remember that no matter how natural you want to maintain your tank the fact that you have an aquarium is UNnatural and best results require UNnatural means. 

I'll ALWAYS use phosguard because it makes maintaining my tank a lot easier. The 1/2 hour every week or two you might have to spend scraping algae I'd rather sit back and admire my tank while sipping a brandy and that alone makes phosguard worth its weight in gold.


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## mattinmd (Aug 16, 2014)

Interesting.. I have a no-scrape algae free tank as well... I have NEVER used phosgard and I dose phosphates at 1 ppm once a week after water changes...

I'd strongly suspect your algae clear-up has little or nothing to do with the phosgard, as we all know that in a planted tank phosphate doesn't cause algae... If it did, then I'd be an algae farm.

That said, I'm glad to hear phosgard hasn't been reducing your phosphates low enough to injure your plants (which would make algae much worse, not better).


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## schnebbles (Jan 10, 2015)

what's a good phosphate level? I had gotten a bottle but didn't use it, I thought my silicates might be high b/c of diatoms but I think it's improving and I don't need the phosguard.


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## mattinmd (Aug 16, 2014)

To repeat what I said earlier:



mattinmd said:


> phosphate level down to something around 1ppm (some like to run at 0.5, others at 2ppm.. but I'd say 1ppm is a good average).


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## schnebbles (Jan 10, 2015)

Sorry Matt I missed that. Thanks. . I will was point 5 so I definitely don't want to use mine.


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## schnebbles (Jan 10, 2015)

Gosh I can't type on my phone. Mine was point 5.


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## LFM (Sep 18, 2014)

mattinmd said:


> Interesting.. I have a no-scrape algae free tank as well... I have NEVER used phosgard and I dose phosphates at 1 ppm once a week after water changes...
> 
> I'd strongly suspect your algae clear-up has little or nothing to do with the phosgard, as we all know that in a planted tank phosphate doesn't cause algae... If it did, then I'd be an algae farm.
> 
> That said, I'm glad to hear phosgard hasn't been reducing your phosphates low enough to injure your plants (which would make algae much worse, not better).


Thanxs, that's good info. I just started up my tank again after around a decades long hiatus and when I did have my tank it wasn't planted. I did remember having to battle algae on a regular basis and just thought it just came with the territoy planted or not and wanted to do something about it this time round. Perhaps I'll take out my phosguard to see if it makes a difference or not but my tank is just doing so great and I would hate to disrupt anything in my tank.


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## mattinmd (Aug 16, 2014)

Sounds like a plan.. 

if you've got a phosphate test, keep a loose eye on your levels, checking every few days until your next w/c... if they start exploding I'd go back to the phosguard, but I doubt you'll have this problem.

You may also find that having more phosphate in the tank lowers your nitrate levels... if phosphate (or anything else) zeros out and becomes a limiting element in plant growth, they'll end up consuming less nitrate from the water because they're growing slower. Once that limit is removed, they'll suck in more nitrogen (and other nutrients).

In general plants consume P less than N and K, but they still need it.


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## dragam21 (Mar 23, 2014)

LFM said:


> I'd rather sit back and admire my tank while sipping a brandy and that alone makes phosguard worth its weight in gold.


I have to totally agree with that statement! Cheers!!!:hihi::hihi:


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