Coral phosphate/nitrate

Ruzoko

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 30, 2020
Messages
319
Reaction score
188
Location
Carlsbad
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I got some corals recently and acclimated to a 40 gallon, currently, the phosphate is at .51 ppm and nitrates at about 20 ppm (high -_- but the price I pay for using an api test prior to a hanna) oddly....my xenia and firework polyps seem extremely unhappy and haven't opened up since I got them and kinda flop over, yet the Favia, Birdnest, Montipora are happy? I can't figure out what the deal is. Does anyone have some advice? Also, a good way to lower my phosphates without shocking everything (did remove some dry live rock which I think was the culprit for raising phosphate so high)
 

coralbeauties

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
May 6, 2014
Messages
1,079
Reaction score
888
Location
Yellow Springs ohio
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
Phos is way way too high. I’m a huge fan of lanthium chloride. Way better then gfo (in my opinion) . Do some searching on here for proper use. One bottle at about 25-30 bucks will last for years!
Wouldn’t think at that level corals will survive for very long
Jeff
 

PeterC99

Solarbenchmark.com
View Badges
Joined
Aug 28, 2020
Messages
6,385
Reaction score
30,074
Location
White Plains, NY
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I got some corals recently and acclimated to a 40 gallon, currently, the phosphate is at .51 ppm and nitrates at about 20 ppm (high -_- but the price I pay for using an api test prior to a hanna) oddly....my xenia and firework polyps seem extremely unhappy and haven't opened up since I got them and kinda flop over, yet the Favia, Birdnest, Montipora are happy? I can't figure out what the deal is. Does anyone have some advice? Also, a good way to lower my phosphates without shocking everything (did remove some dry live rock which I think was the culprit for raising phosphate so high)
Are you running a refug with cheato?
 
OP
OP
Ruzoko

Ruzoko

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 30, 2020
Messages
319
Reaction score
188
Location
Carlsbad
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Are you running a refug with cheato?
Ordered some chaeto that should be here in a few days, so far ive had 0 luck with it. For whatever reason it always dies. Currently fuge is empty so given high phos figured id try chaeto again, also ordered some red razor macro algae
 

Timfish

Crusty Old Salt
View Badges
Joined
Jul 22, 2012
Messages
3,738
Reaction score
4,928
Location
Austin, TX
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I'd worry more about your nitrates than your phosphates. You might try running Boyd's chemipure Elite, it will lower phospahtes and has GFO and ion exchange beads and will remove a range of compounds. You might find these videos informative:

Forest Rohwer "Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas"


Changing Seas - Mysterious Microbes


Nitrogen cycling in hte coral holobiont


BActeria and Sponges


Richard Ross What's up with phosphate"
 

Reef and Dive

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 12, 2018
Messages
1,108
Reaction score
5,117
Location
Brazil
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Your phos is pretty high, but not sure that is the cause of xenia unhappiness.

Check if alk is also not too high, xenia dislikes that.

I would go GFO for a phos reduction, this is a text on the reason why:
 
OP
OP
Ruzoko

Ruzoko

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 30, 2020
Messages
319
Reaction score
188
Location
Carlsbad
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Chaeto dies in refugium for three reasons, lack of nutrients, lack of flow, or incorrect lighting.
Well given phos and nitrate have levels, and usin red sea salt mix id have to assume its gotta be lighting, though my chaeto never seems to tumble just rotate slowly regardless how high i raise my fuge flow
 

DoninHouston

New Member
View Badges
Joined
Oct 5, 2019
Messages
15
Reaction score
4
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I got some corals recently and acclimated to a 40 gallon, currently, the phosphate is at .51 ppm and nitrates at about 20 ppm (high -_- but the price I pay for using an api test prior to a hanna) oddly....my xenia and firework polyps seem extremely unhappy and haven't opened up since I got them and kinda flop over, yet the Favia, Birdnest, Montipora are happy? I can't figure out what the deal is. Does anyone have some advice? Also, a good way to lower my phosphates without shocking everything (did remove some dry live rock which I think was the culprit for raising phosphate so high)
 

DoninHouston

New Member
View Badges
Joined
Oct 5, 2019
Messages
15
Reaction score
4
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I'm a big fan of Red Sea's NOPOX to reduce phosphates. The parameters of my 240 gal mixed reef require about 10 ml/day to maintain the phosphates at .05. I like to keep nitrates at about 5 and occasionally us NeoNitrates to up them because NOPOx tends to take them down. You might also look at how much fish food, even coral food you're adding and how much white light you have in the spectrum. Work slowly, you're not out of control at .5 phosphate, Coral hate change.
 
OP
OP
Ruzoko

Ruzoko

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 30, 2020
Messages
319
Reaction score
188
Location
Carlsbad
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I'm a big fan of Red Sea's NOPOX to reduce phosphates. The parameters of my 240 gal mixed reef require about 10 ml/day to maintain the phosphates at .05. I like to keep nitrates at about 5 and occasionally us NeoNitrates to up them because NOPOx tends to take them down. You might also look at how much fish food, even coral food you're adding and how much white light you have in the spectrum. Work slowly, you're not out of control at .5 phosphate, Coral hate change.
Yeah thx xD i sadly lost 2 corals in that chaos, oddly it was my xenia and firework polyp rest are peachy nowadays and upgraded lights to ai primes nitrates now float around 5ppm while phosphate is about .5 - .16
 

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

  • Ball valves.

    Votes: 68 52.3%
  • Gate valves.

    Votes: 67 51.5%
  • Check valves.

    Votes: 33 25.4%
  • None.

    Votes: 29 22.3%
  • Other.

    Votes: 9 6.9%
Back
Top