I have been battling high Phosphate and Nitrates... Really at my wits end.
I have a Red Sea 850 (225 gals). The tank has been running about 15 months now. Here is a quick background. I went out of the country for a month. Came back and the tank was out of balance. Phosphate shot up to .49 and Nitrates was at 29.5. I even hired a LFS to watch my tank while I was out of the country. (money not well spent).
These issues started back in late August when I returned. In the tank, I have a roller, refugium and skimmer. I have been doing weekly water changes of 40 to 50 gals of water. Using Red Sea Red salt. I have reduced the feeding and stopped using pellets and the auto feeder 4 months ago. During this time I have has a large number of sails die off. I added more cleanup crews and those snails died off with in two weeks. The crabs and other smaller snails are doing their job and still are alive.
Also I started adding Dr. Tim's Waste-Away at every water change. Before adding this I didn't seem to have any green hair algae but it exploded in the tank now. It's a weekly battle to remove it from the rocks. I have very few corals in the tank most LSP, 5 Hammers, Duncan, and Goni. The fish load is Sailfin, 3 Yellow tanks, Tomini, Rabbit, 2 Clowns, Flame, and 4 other small fish, all of them look health and no signs of stress that I know of.
As of last night my reading for phosphate and nitrate is: .27 and 13.2 . I added a GFO reactor last night fingers crossed this helps. But I need more advice in what do. I know patience is what is needed, but I think it's starting to run out.
Thanks for pointers and advice.
I have a Red Sea 850 (225 gals). The tank has been running about 15 months now. Here is a quick background. I went out of the country for a month. Came back and the tank was out of balance. Phosphate shot up to .49 and Nitrates was at 29.5. I even hired a LFS to watch my tank while I was out of the country. (money not well spent).
These issues started back in late August when I returned. In the tank, I have a roller, refugium and skimmer. I have been doing weekly water changes of 40 to 50 gals of water. Using Red Sea Red salt. I have reduced the feeding and stopped using pellets and the auto feeder 4 months ago. During this time I have has a large number of sails die off. I added more cleanup crews and those snails died off with in two weeks. The crabs and other smaller snails are doing their job and still are alive.
Also I started adding Dr. Tim's Waste-Away at every water change. Before adding this I didn't seem to have any green hair algae but it exploded in the tank now. It's a weekly battle to remove it from the rocks. I have very few corals in the tank most LSP, 5 Hammers, Duncan, and Goni. The fish load is Sailfin, 3 Yellow tanks, Tomini, Rabbit, 2 Clowns, Flame, and 4 other small fish, all of them look health and no signs of stress that I know of.
As of last night my reading for phosphate and nitrate is: .27 and 13.2 . I added a GFO reactor last night fingers crossed this helps. But I need more advice in what do. I know patience is what is needed, but I think it's starting to run out.
Thanks for pointers and advice.