Phosphoric acid

[Eric the half-bee]

Randy, I've inadvertently been adding phosphate to my tank while treating an ich outbreak. End of April, I started soaking veggies in store brand minced garlic and didn't read the contents of the jar. I've now got a little red slime bacteria issue and when I finally looked at the ingredients, it contains phosphoric acid. I'm guessing the acid has REDOX'd and produced the phosphate bloom? Secondly, I've suspended the source of phosphate. Should the red slime die off? Should I treat the existing red slime or let it run its course? BTW, phosphate was reading 10 ppm on test kit.

[Eric the half-bee]

Correction, the phosphate reading was 0.2-0.4 mg/L via Instant Ocean test kit.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Not sure what you mean by redoxed, but phosphoric acid is a perfect source of phosphate and I'd stop using that product. If the tank was in good balance before it, then perhaps with a lot of manual removal of the red slime, it will go away, but you may have to resort to something like GFO to bind the phosphate. :)

[Eric the half-bee]

Randy, by redox'd, I meant reduction/oxidation. Maybe not the right process. Thanks for the reply.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You're welcome.

Good luck. :)