Sharkbait19
10K Club member
Hello,
For quite some time now, I’ve been dealing with high phosphates (above any readable level on the salifert test kit). This is due to me, for the longest time, using my well water which has major phosphate issues. I’ve always noticed effects when it came to algae, coral growth, etc., but the major struggles didn’t start until about a year and a half ago.
As time moved forwards, stony corals became more and more difficult to keep (though, oddly enough, my anemone fairs just fine). Inverts developed molting issues, and I could never keep a shrimp longer than a month or two. So I decided to take action, starting with the removal of stony corals and placing them into a quarantine system. For a while, the conditions of the quarantine tank were the same as the display tank, and yet corals always thrived in this environment when compared to the display. My best guess is the lack of rocks or sand to absorb phosphates.
Whenever I attempt to move corals back into the main display, within 24 hours they appear at the brink of death. Sometimes when I move them, the corals happen to do fine in the display tank for a few weeks, then react poorly to any water change that I perform. That led me to begin switching to RODI water in my water changes, with hopes that this would rectify the phosphates eventually.
Nonetheless, water changes had similar results. After doing research about phosphates in fish tanks, I discovered that it tends to be retained in rocks and the sand, and that it moves back into the water to reach equilibrium whenever a water change is performed. This leaves me with two options:
The first option seems a bit overkill, and that is to pull out rocks, siphon sand, and do a near 100% water change using RODI water (basically a complete do-over of the system). The biggest fear is that this will mess with my anemone and other sensitive creatures. I’ve also read that it can still leach out of the rocks, unlike nitrates, and render the process useless.
The second option is to continue my current course of frequent small(ish) water changes and phosguard. Hopefully over time phosphates will lower and I can return corals to the tank. The problem here is that I don’t think the quarantine system can hold many of my harder SPS. This can probably be fixed, though.
I was hoping to hear the thoughts of some more experienced and knowledgeable reef keepers. Which option should I go with? Are there any other things that I can do to solve this problem? Could there be some other factor that causes my corals to behave this way?
Here are some before and after pictures of how the corals have been acting under phosphates:
For quite some time now, I’ve been dealing with high phosphates (above any readable level on the salifert test kit). This is due to me, for the longest time, using my well water which has major phosphate issues. I’ve always noticed effects when it came to algae, coral growth, etc., but the major struggles didn’t start until about a year and a half ago.
As time moved forwards, stony corals became more and more difficult to keep (though, oddly enough, my anemone fairs just fine). Inverts developed molting issues, and I could never keep a shrimp longer than a month or two. So I decided to take action, starting with the removal of stony corals and placing them into a quarantine system. For a while, the conditions of the quarantine tank were the same as the display tank, and yet corals always thrived in this environment when compared to the display. My best guess is the lack of rocks or sand to absorb phosphates.
Whenever I attempt to move corals back into the main display, within 24 hours they appear at the brink of death. Sometimes when I move them, the corals happen to do fine in the display tank for a few weeks, then react poorly to any water change that I perform. That led me to begin switching to RODI water in my water changes, with hopes that this would rectify the phosphates eventually.
Nonetheless, water changes had similar results. After doing research about phosphates in fish tanks, I discovered that it tends to be retained in rocks and the sand, and that it moves back into the water to reach equilibrium whenever a water change is performed. This leaves me with two options:
The first option seems a bit overkill, and that is to pull out rocks, siphon sand, and do a near 100% water change using RODI water (basically a complete do-over of the system). The biggest fear is that this will mess with my anemone and other sensitive creatures. I’ve also read that it can still leach out of the rocks, unlike nitrates, and render the process useless.
The second option is to continue my current course of frequent small(ish) water changes and phosguard. Hopefully over time phosphates will lower and I can return corals to the tank. The problem here is that I don’t think the quarantine system can hold many of my harder SPS. This can probably be fixed, though.
I was hoping to hear the thoughts of some more experienced and knowledgeable reef keepers. Which option should I go with? Are there any other things that I can do to solve this problem? Could there be some other factor that causes my corals to behave this way?
Here are some before and after pictures of how the corals have been acting under phosphates:
