High nitrate and phosphate?

[MACHO]

Hey everyone so just in the last hour I tested nitrates and phosphate no3-42 and po4 .62 what in the world!! I did a 70 gallon water change on a 200 gallon system. Inhabitants sailfin tang blue powder,yellow,whitetail,2 clowns,2 cardinals, 1 anthias, 1 goby and 1 royal gramma. No idea I feed once a day rods frozen food which I wash with Rodi water 7 stage filter. Also I feed 1 sheet of nori about 4 out of the 7 day week. my Tds in is 20 and out is 0 went to the fish store this week and did a sample on my mixing water which is good grade 75 gallon barrels in the garage.

lfs guy told me that nitrate was probably wrong on my mixing barrel since the test spin isn’t exact. What in the world is going on? I have a bio pellet reactor filter roller skimmer and a refugium. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Spare time]

Have you tried another test?

 

[MACHO]

Have you tried another test?

Lfs test as well as my own Hanna at home

 

[Spare time]

Lfs test as well as my own Hanna at home

I'm not really sure how this happened, but to get it down I would use gfo and then let the refugium handle the nitrates by keeping it on longer (or having a better light if it's not great). You could also carbon dose to get the nitrates back down. The gfo can be put in a bag and placed in a sock or some place where water is guaranteed to move through it (such as the bubble trap on your tank since I think yours has that before the pump where water flows into it from the top of the sponge) Just use tiny bits at a time.

 

[MACHO]

I'm not really sure how this happened, but to get it down I would use gfo and then let the refugium handle the nitrates by keeping it on longer (or having a better light if it's not great). You could also carbon dose to get the nitrates back down. The gfo can be put in a bag and placed in a sock or some place where water is guaranteed to move through it (such as the bubble trap on your tank since I think yours has that before the pump where water flows into it from the top of the sponge) Just use tiny bits at a time.

i currently have a bioreactor running with brs biopellets and i was carbon dosing but stopped due to needing too much every day and i was told there could be some reactions with the biopellets. also i cant run carbon due to my yellow tang having hlle

 

[njreefkeeper]

If you’re feeding a sheet of nori to a 200 gallon tank 4 times a week it’s pretty easy to see how your po4 is .62

In a 195 gallon tank with 3 purple tangs, a sail fin tang and a powder blue tang they MIGHT get about a sheet a week split over 4 days. Nori is nothing more than pressed out and dried algae; hence loaded with phosphate.

 

[MACHO]

If you’re feeding a sheet of nori to a 200 gallon tank 4 times a week it’s pretty easy to see how your po4 is .62

In a 195 gallon tank with 3 purple tangs, a sail fin tang and a powder blue tang they MIGHT get about a sheet a week split over 4 days. Nori is nothing more than pressed out and dried algae; hence loaded with phosphate.

just questioning because a 70 gallon water change was done this sunday and phosphate basically didnt move

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Hey everyone so just in the last hour I tested nitrates and phosphate no3-42 and po4 .62 what in the world!! I did a 70 gallon water change on a 200 gallon system. Inhabitants sailfin tang blue powder,yellow,whitetail,2 clowns,2 cardinals, 1 anthias, 1 goby and 1 royal gramma. No idea I feed once a day rods frozen food which I wash with Rodi water 7 stage filter. Also I feed 1 sheet of nori about 4 out of the 7 day week. my Tds in is 20 and out is 0 went to the fish store this week and did a sample on my mixing water which is good grade 75 gallon barrels in the garage.

lfs guy told me that nitrate was probably wrong on my mixing barrel since the test spin isn’t exact. What in the world is going on? I have a bio pellet reactor filter roller skimmer and a refugium. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Is anything in your tank looking distressed? Because I see nothing wrong with your parameters. Nitrates of 50-60 and phosphate of .5- .6 is fine.

Generally speaking, you want about a 100 to 1 ratio of nitrate to phosphate.

 

[njreefkeeper]

just questioning because a 70 gallon water change was done this sunday and phosphate basically didnt move

It really won’t move much from a water change if the input doesn’t change. Phosphate is related to one thing…feeding. Depending on water changes to knock down phosphate is probably the least effective and most expensive way to tackle it. It might be ok for a day but it’s bound up in rock and sand and just going right back into solution. You don’t have to run gfo, biopellets and all the other stuff available. You’ll be running a LOT of it constantly if your heavy handed feeding doesn’t change. Feed less (much less) and you’ll be surprised how it starts dropping. If you don’t change the feeding habits, then you’ll really need to up filtration. Refugiums help but aren’t going to help that much. Algae scrubbers do work though; to the point where they can strip your tank of phosphate.

 

[MACHO]

Is anything in your tank looking distressed? Because I see nothing wrong with your parameters. Nitrates of 50-60 and phosphate of .5- .6 is fine.

Generally speaking, you want about a 100 to 1 ratio of nitrate to phosphate.

my toadstool isn's opening up as much his polyps are maybe 1/4 out

 

[MACHO]

It really won’t move much from a water change if the input doesn’t change. Phosphate is related to one thing…feeding. Depending on water changes to knock down phosphate is probably the least effective and most expensive way to tackle it. It might be ok for a day but it’s bound up in rock and sand and just going right back into solution. You don’t have to run gfo, biopellets and all the other stuff available. You’ll be running a LOT of it constantly if your heavy handed feeding doesn’t change. Feed less (much less) and you’ll be surprised how it starts dropping. If you don’t change the feeding habits, then you’ll really need to up filtration. Refugiums help but aren’t going to help that much. Algae scrubbers do work though; to the point where they can strip your tank of phosphate.

i feed one piece of rods herbivore frenzy a day about an inch or 2 and half an inch in width

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

my toadstool isn's opening up as much his polyps are maybe 1/4 out

How long has this been going on? Leathers like dirty water and toadstools can look puny for weeks , just because...

 

[MACHO]

How long has this been going on? Leathers like dirty water and toadstools can look puny for weeks just because...

probably about 2 weeks but the leather has never opened up fully

 

[Pistondog]

Great candidate for carbon dosing, as long as you run a skimmer.
Not sure about interaction with biopellet reactor.

 

[MNFish]

Is your new water mixing to a 2 for nitrate?

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

probably about 2 weeks but the leather has never opened up fully

Any other leathers in the tank?

 

[MACHO]

Is your new water mixing to a 2 for nitrate?

The lfs uses a spin test and they said it’s just not super accurate so it’s more than likely 0

 

[MACHO]

Any other leathers in the tank?

No just the one

this is what he looks like all the time now

 

[MNFish]

The lfs uses a spin test and they said it’s just not super accurate so it’s more than likely 0

Might be worth double checking if there is Nitrate in your mixed water there may be nitrate in your top of water. Happened to me once did not notice it until my nitrates went way up all the sudden.

 

[MACHO]

Great candidate for carbon dosing, as long as you run a skimmer.
Not sure about interaction with biopellet reactor.

i was told by a buddy that the carbon dosing can react badly with the biopellets and he said if i smell sulfer to run so i havent carbon dosed since ive added the biopellet reactor