Help with phosphates

[bluecheese]

It's a slow process keeping the water levels low, (GFO and lanthanum chloride) for a period of time so that the attached P naturally dissociates into the water from off the rocks (to replace P lost from the water column), until it's low in both places.

Understood. Thanks.

No concern about fish or coral health using something like Phosphate E?

 

[bluecheese]

Phosphates tested at .21 just now.

 

[Ziggy17]

I was using Rowaphos in a bag and getting the ups and downs you were getting. From a suggestion from Randy I bought these spheres and put them in my reactor as an alternative to phosguard. It says it takes about 6-10 weeks to start consuming the pO4, so I kept using the rowaphos during that time to keep things down. After about 6 weeks I stopped replacing the rowaphos and just went solely on the reactor. My phos has been stable between .03-.05 since.

It’s a nice product and I don’t have to worry about bottoming out, fast swings, or aluminum leeching into the system with some of the other fast acting media available.

My guess is that I leeched the pO4 out of my substrate and rocks to my desired levels and now the reactor media can handle the incremental increases caused by feeding and reef roids.

It’s a good option that worked for me.

 

[BryanM]

Phosphates tested at .21 just now.

If you're familiar with Randy's posts here, .21 is within his acceptable range for phosphate.

Since I've bottomed out both nitrate and phosphate, and have lived through hell, and finally coming back, I'm aiming for .1-.2 myself. I find the magic .06 number to just not be a big enough buffer to keep me sane.

Also, there are plenty of examples of dirty tanks that are gorgeous. It is kind of a mystery - My guidance for what it is worth is to not chase numbers, let the tank do the talking, if its looking good then let it be.

 

[KrisReef]

Understood. Thanks.

No concern about fish or coral health using something like Phosphate E?

That’s a good question, and my answer is use these chemicals with precaution. It’s easy to strip levels to zero and kill corals and spark Dino’s, possibly.
And some users of LC have reported fish deaths especially with concentrated LC applications. Bottle’s seem to offer lower (safe) dosages?

I have not killed anything other then algae and p levels but I use care whenever I’m playing chemical warfare in my systems.

Edit- What @BryanM said is true. I would rather have a stable 0.2 then a rapid drop to 0.02, the danger zone is low nutrients in many (most?) cases.

 

[BryanM]

Understood. Thanks.

No concern about fish or coral health using something like Phosphate E?

My understanding is that Phosphate E is basically lanthanum chloride. As such if you were to use it you should dose it into a 5 micron filter sock and check that sock frequently as it will plug up fast.

 

[bluecheese]

If you're familiar with Randy's posts here, .21 is within his acceptable range for phosphate.

Since I've bottomed out both nitrate and phosphate, and have lived through hell, and finally coming back, I'm aiming for .1-.2 myself. I find the magic .06 number to just not be a big enough buffer to keep me sane.

Also, there are plenty of examples of dirty tanks that are gorgeous. It is kind of a mystery - My guidance for what it is worth is to not chase numbers, let the tank do the talking, if its looking good then let it be.

Well, I've been battling cyano and some sort of turf algae, if that helps.

Turf algae is just on a few rocks. The cyano was covering the sand and starting to grow on some corals until I started blowing the cyano off and did daily dosing of Coral Snow. Now the cyano is mainly on the sand in some spots, but nowhere near as much as before.

 

[bluecheese]

I’m thinking I may set up a refugium with chaeto. I tried It once before, but the chaeto died. But, that was when the tank was fairly new

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

That sounds like a fine plan. Adding some iron and manganese for it also seems prudent. :)

 

[bluecheese]

That sounds like a fine plan. Adding some iron and manganese for it also seems prudent. :)

Some thing like Chaeto Grow I assume

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Some thing like Chaeto Grow I assume

Yes, although I use diy food grade ferrous gluconate and manganese gluconate from Amazon.

 

[bluecheese]

My sump is a Seemless Sumps brand. Part of the sump is this reservoir tub that is fed via a manifold, which then drains back into the return chamber.

Right now that tub houses a protein skimmer, as well as some biological media. I also feed my media reactors from this tub.

I already own a Tunze refugium light

I’m thinking I’ll use Aqua Mesh to block off a portion of the reservoir tub to both hold the chaeto in place and also keep light spill to a minimum.

I’ll run the water from the manifold to the chaeto section of the tub that is blocked off by the aqua mesh.

Hopefully this will be a simple solution.

 

[BryanM]

XO

My sump is a Seemless Sumps brand. Part of the sump is this reservoir tub that is fed via a manifold, which then drains back into the return chamber.

Right now that tub houses a protein skimmer, as well as some biological media. I also feed my media reactors from this tub.

I already own a Tunze refugium light

I’m thinking I’ll use Aqua Mesh to block off a portion of the reservoir tub to both hold the chaeto in place and also keep light spill to a minimum.

I’ll run the water from the manifold to the chaeto section of the tub that is blocked off by the aqua mesh.

Hopefully this will be a simple solution.

I likely already mentioned this, but have you looked at algae turf scrubbers? They are basically refugiums on steroids.

Santa Monica makes some great ones, and I have a surf4 that floats in my sump.

 

[bluecheese]

XO

I likely already mentioned this, but have you looked at algae turf scrubbers? They are basically refugiums on steroids.

Santa Monica makes some great ones, and I have a surf4 that floats in my sump.

You mentioned it. It’s a good suggestion, but price is an issue.

I’m going to try chaeto first, since I already have a light, and see how it shakes out.

 

[BryanM]

You mentioned it. It’s a good suggestion, but price is an issue.

I’m going to try chaeto first, since I already have a light, and see how it shakes out.

I get it — and at least the Santa Monica units…. No idea why they are so expensive, but they are built quite well at least.

I didn’t like the idea of cheato spreading, that’s how I got where I am :)

 

[bluecheese]

I get it — and at least the Santa Monica units…. No idea why they are so expensive, but they are built quite well at least.

I didn’t like the idea of cheato spreading, that’s how I got where I am :)

Hopefully the Aqua Mesh will keep the chaeto in its place.

 

[LunaReefs]

I think the plan could be just use a much smaller amount of GFO all the time rather than turning it in and off. :)

Randy, this sounds like it might solve my issues. When you say "smaller amount", what amount of GFO would you recommend (rough number) on a 195 total volume?

 

[Idech]

That makes a lot of sense.

I was only using 1/2 cup for a 125 gallon tank. Doesn't seem like much, but it did drop the phosphates significantly. It's the High Capacity GFO from BRS. Stuff isn't cheap. I may just get a tub of the regular stuff from my LFS and let it ride.

You said you are changing it every 2-3 days ? My tank is 120 gallons, almost the same as yours, and I have been using the same batch of Rowaphos in a reactor for almost 2 months. My phosphate stays at 0,02 ppm. I only run my reactor at night, for 10 hours. I just went down to 8 hours to get a little more phosphate.

I have been dosing bacteria daily (small dose) for a while and I think that is helping a lot. It takes months of dosing though.

 

[bluecheese]

You said you are changing it every 2-3 days ? My tank is 120 gallons, almost the same as yours, and I have been using the same batch of Rowaphos in a reactor for almost 2 months. My phosphate stays at 0,02 ppm. I only run my reactor at night, for 10 hours. I just went down to 8 hours to get a little more phosphate.

I have been dosing bacteria daily (small dose) for a while and I think that is helping a lot. It takes months of dosing though.

I’m not familiar with Rowaphos. Is it a GFO product?

I was changing the gfo out often because no matter what I did, the gfo would tumble for a while then clump up.

The phosphates were very high in this tank before I started using gfo. I’ve removed the gfo from the reactor to see what happens. When I tested the water this past Tuesday, it was a little over .5.

I have a container of Phosguard, but I’m reluctant to use it since it may leach aluminum into the water column from what I understand.

I may have to start dosing something like Phosphate-E. Not sure.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Randy, this sounds like it might solve my issues. When you say "smaller amount", what amount of GFO would you recommend (rough number) on a 195 total volume?

How much were you using?