High phosphates help

[lsween89]

We have been adding a few soft corals to our tank recently so I decided to use the ultra low range phosphorus Hanna we have and it’s come back at 192ppm which I believe is 0.59
We currently have diatoms in the tank and have just been letting this ride out although we did add copepods and phytoplankton
Amonia- 0.19
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate 10-20
Alkalinity - 8.6
Phosphate 0.59

How much should I be concerned? I’m not keen to do a massive water change or anything to upset the tank more since we did add copepods change and added more corals on Saturday. But I’ll do whatever needs doing.
We have a 65l tank with a hang on back filter, now running carbon since introducing leathers.
Biospheres in mesh bag on sandbed.
The zoas were added on Saturday and most of them have opened apart from one or two heads, neon cabbage is large and bumpy, Xenia open and pink. The only one that hasn’t opened fully yet is a toadstool which was added on Saturday and still slumped but has pollops showing when lights are on .
Two clownfish and clean up crew only
The only issue we’ve had recently is we had some Dragons Breath Macro Algae in it which we had to remove because it was yellowing.
We have some red bamboo macro algae also which appears to be doing well.
We have been feeding a tiny amount of TDO pellets in the morning and a tiny piece of gamma frozen brine shrimp or mysis in the evening.
Appreciate any advice! Thanks

 

[lsween89]

Also just to say we do have a protein skimmer but we havnt put it on yet as didn’t think we would need it with just two fish and didn’t want to take too many nutrients out that the corals etc need.

 

[GHOSTLY]

If you're keen on lowering it, small doses of phosguard or gfo would work. Goal is to lower it super slowly and address the route cause. If your tank is new I wouldnt be surprised if you didn't have high nutrients. It'll take some time to come down but gfo/phosguard for the phosphate and carbon dosing or water changes for the nitrate

 

[Nasrath]

Could it possibly be testing error? I’m fairly new to Hanna checkers and I was surprised how sensitive they are to things like fingerprints on vial or microbubbles.

 

[lsween89]

If you're keen on lowering it, small doses of phosguard or gfo would work. Goal is to lower it super slowly and address the route cause. If your tank is new I wouldnt be surprised if you didn't have high nutrients. It'll take some time to come down but gfo/phosguard for the phosphate and carbon dosing or water changes for the nitrate

Thanks! I’m not so worried about the nitrate as much as I know a lot of the corals I’ve got can manage it but was just a bit nervous about the phosphate. I’d rather leave things as natural as possible so if I can get away without adding tons of stuff into the tank I’d prefer that, but I don’t want to be causing any harm to corals/ leave myself open to a bad algae outbreak by not doing something!

 

[lsween89]

Could it possibly be testing error? I’m fairly new to Hanna checkers and I was surprised how sensitive they are to things like fingerprints on vial or microbubbles.

I was hoping that was the case but we’ve tested three times now and making sure glass is clear etc and we are just getting the same result.

 

[dvgyfresh]

I was adding RO water from my fridge for top offs. Turns out it contained .4ppm of phosphate and my phosphate readings were over .9ppm. So check your water filters. As for lowering it , I would recommend chemi pure elite

 

[GHOSTLY]

Thanks! I’m not so worried about the nitrate as much as I know a lot of the corals I’ve got can manage it but was just a bit nervous about the phosphate. I’d rather leave things as natural as possible so if I can get away without adding tons of stuff into the tank I’d prefer that, but I don’t want to be causing any harm to corals/ leave myself open to a bad algae outbreak by not doing something!

Phosphate is hard to lower 100% naturally due to how low the concentration is. Water changes would be your best bet if you want natural

 

[Nasrath]

Thanks! I’m not so worried about the nitrate as much as I know a lot of the corals I’ve got can manage it but was just a bit nervous about the phosphate. I’d rather leave things as natural as possible so if I can get away without adding tons of stuff into the tank I’d prefer that, but I don’t want to be causing any harm to corals/ leave myself open to a bad algae outbreak by not doing something!

Phosphate is hard to lower 100% naturally due to how low the concentration is. Water changes would be your best bet if you want natural

This. If it was my tank, I would do wc more frequently and look for trend in phosphates. I believe, that corals you have there can handle .5 po4 well, so no need for immediate intervention imo.

 

[gusherfrog]

We have been adding a few soft corals to our tank recently so I decided to use the ultra low range phosphorus Hanna we have and it’s come back at 192ppm which I believe is 0.59
We currently have diatoms in the tank and have just been letting this ride out although we did add copepods and phytoplankton
Amonia- 0.19
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate 10-20
Alkalinity - 8.6
Phosphate 0.59

How much should I be concerned? I’m not keen to do a massive water change or anything to upset the tank more since we did add copepods change and added more corals on Saturday. But I’ll do whatever needs doing.
We have a 65l tank with a hang on back filter, now running carbon since introducing leathers.
Biospheres in mesh bag on sandbed.
The zoas were added on Saturday and most of them have opened apart from one or two heads, neon cabbage is large and bumpy, Xenia open and pink. The only one that hasn’t opened fully yet is a toadstool which was added on Saturday and still slumped but has pollops showing when lights are on .
Two clownfish and clean up crew only
The only issue we’ve had recently is we had some Dragons Breath Macro Algae in it which we had to remove because it was yellowing.
We have some red bamboo macro algae also which appears to be doing well.
We have been feeding a tiny amount of TDO pellets in the morning and a tiny piece of gamma frozen brine shrimp or mysis in the evening.
Appreciate any advice! Thanks

Feed less, if you can, get zombie snails to help eat the leftover food so it doesnt turn into phosphate. Other than that, water changes, or extra filtration media is good. I recommend chemipure blue

 

[lsween89]

We have been adding a few soft corals to our tank recently so I decided to use the ultra low range phosphorus Hanna we have and it’s come back at 192ppm which I believe is 0.59
We currently have diatoms in the tank and have just been letting this ride out although we did add copepods and phytoplankton
Amonia- 0.19
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate 10-20
Alkalinity - 8.6
Phosphate 0.59

How much should I be concerned? I’m not keen to do a massive water change or anything to upset the tank more since we did add copepods change and added more corals on Saturday. But I’ll do whatever needs doing.
We have a 65l tank with a hang on back filter, now running carbon since introducing leathers.
Biospheres in mesh bag on sandbed.
The zoas were added on Saturday and most of them have opened apart from one or two heads, neon cabbage is large and bumpy, Xenia open and pink. The only one that hasn’t opened fully yet is a toadstool which was added on Saturday and still slumped but has pollops showing when lights are on .
Two clownfish and clean up crew only
The only issue we’ve had recently is we had some Dragons Breath Macro Algae in it which we had to remove because it was yellowing.
We have some red bamboo macro algae also which appears to be doing well.
We have been feeding a tiny amount of TDO pellets in the morning and a tiny piece of gamma frozen brine shrimp or mysis in the evening.
Appreciate any advice! Thanks

Feed less, if you can, get zombie snails to help eat the leftover food so it doesnt turn into phosphate. Other than that, water changes, or extra filtration media is good. I recommend chemipure blue

To be honest I hardly feed! One tiny piece off of a frozen mysis cube or brine shrimp that I rinse and sieve and then add slowly to the tank to make sure it’s all gone. I have a zombie snail and bristle starfish as well as the hermits to help get any scraps!
I’ll have a look at those suggestions thanks!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I recommend chemipure blue

Why? It won’t do anything significant for phosphate. If you want to use a Chemipure, elite with GFO will be far better. The ion exchange resin in blue is not going to be useful in seawater, unless it accidentally binds a little organic material.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

To be honest I hardly feed! One tiny piece off of a frozen mysis cube or brine shrimp that I rinse and sieve and then add slowly to the tank to make sure it’s all gone. I have a zombie snail and bristle starfish as well as the hermits to help get any scraps!
I’ll have a look at those suggestions thanks!

Feeding poorly is not a great strategy to reduce nutrients, and water changes are usually pretty ineffective for phosphate.

I don’t think you level is any sort of big deal, but increasing export, such as by growing macroalgae or a binder like GFO are likely the best ways of you want to lower phosphate.

 

[lsween89]

To be honest I hardly feed! One tiny piece off of a frozen mysis cube or brine shrimp that I rinse and sieve and then add slowly to the tank to make sure it’s all gone. I have a zombie snail and bristle starfish as well as the hermits to help get any scraps!
I’ll have a look at those suggestions thanks!

Feeding poorly is not a great strategy to reduce nutrients, and water changes are usually pretty ineffective for phosphate.

I don’t think you level is any sort of big deal, but increasing export, such as by growing macroalgae or a binder like GFO are likely the best ways of you want to lower phosphate.

Thanks, it’s good to hear I can actually feed my fish without feeling guilty!
We have some macro algae now in, a fluval phosphate pad for the filter but we’ve ordered seachem phosguard but I’m going to wait to add that until I see how things go with the algae and the phosphate pad. Apart from the corals looking a tiny bit browner in white light nothing seems very bothered by the phosphate so I don’t want to go crazy dropping it!