How to use chemi pure elite to lower phosphates

[JosephM]

I have a 29gal reef tank with a 20gal sump. Parameters as of last night were temp - 77.1, salinity - 1.0267, PH - 8.1 (API), Alkalinity - 7.8 (Hanna), calcium - 520 (Red Sea), magnesium - 1800 (Salifert), phosphate - 0.13 (Hanna ULR), nitrate - 5-10 (API). I only have some small softies right now that are thriving, and one firefish. The tank has been running for about 2 weeks and was cycled after first week with live rock. I didn't test for a couple days because I was just too busy and found that my phosphate had went from .03 to .13. I immediately put in a bag of chemi pure elite. I know that that high of phosphate isn't as important to me since I don't have anything super delicate but I was hoping to get some LPS corals this week and I know they like it less than .03. With the chemi pure being in overnight (about 14 hrs) it went down to .05. How can I use it to drop it but not too far that I risk Dinos. And how can I maintain lower levels? I am dosing 15ml live phyto daily for filter feeders and pods, 3 ml iron weekly, and 1-2 small feedings for firefish. I do have a Fuge that is booming in growth of Chaeto. I am also getting some GHA popping up that I am trying to maintain manually and going to pick up some more snails to add to my 5 astrea snails and 1 urchin. I do weekly 12% water changes. I know it's long and all over the place would just like some insight. And a couple off topic questions... my alk dropped from 9.1 dkh to 7.8 in 3 days, how did this happen? And I know my calcium and magnesium are high... they are slowly lowering and I haven't dosed anything.

 

[Spare time]

I doubt it will go to 0. As long as you are betwen 0.03 (or above 0.00 but test kits sometimes have an error range) and 0.1ppm you are good. Above that you may get algae issues and potentially slower growth. It will only get the phosphate to 0 if you get a size way larger than recommended or you barely feed.

 

[JosephM]

I doubt it will go to 0. As long as you are betwen 0.03 (or above 0.00 but test kits sometimes have an error range) and 0.1ppm you are good. Above that you may get algae issues and potentially slower growth. It will only get the phosphate to 0 if you get a size way larger than recommended or you barely feed.

So for LPS and softies as long as I’m between 0.1 and 0.03 I’m all good? And could I just add the chemi pure bag when it gets elevated and then take out when it gets lower? I got the 11.74 oz which I think is rated for like 50 gal and I have a 40 gal system. Or should I just leave it in and it’ll hover a little over 0.03?

 

[Spare time]

So for LPS and softies as long as I’m between 0.1 and 0.03 I’m all good? And could I just add the chemi pure bag when it gets elevated and then take out when it gets lower? I got the 11.74 oz which I think is rated for like 50 gal and I have a 40 gal system. Or should I just leave it in and it’ll hover a little over 0.03?

You can remove it or leave it. I tend to just recommend leaving them in and just feeding like normal, rather than having to keep worrying about it going down. If it is too strong and you want to leave it in, your fish wont mind the extra food


I will say though that the chaeto should be able to handle nitrates and phosphate given a good light an trace supplements (like iron). In this case, you can remove the product once the phosphates are where you like them. I have done this before without issue.

 

[JosephM]

You can remove it or leave it. I tend to just recommend leaving them in and just feeding like normal, rather than having to keep worrying about it going down. If it is too strong and you want to leave it in, your fish wont mind the extra food


I will say though that the chaeto should be able to handle nitrates and phosphate given a good light an trace supplements (like iron). In this case, you can remove the product once the phosphates are where you like them. I have done this before without issue.

Yeah 100% I think my tank is just trying to find that balance right now because my chaeto is growing like crazy. I’ll just leave it in for now and test every couple- few days and hopefully once my tank matures and balances I can take it out

 

[JosephM]

And one quick question because it seems like you’ve used chemi pure before. Can I just store it in the original condition if I choose to take it out? I don’t wanna use it for a couple days and throw it away when it’s supposed to last months. If it can be stored I’m assuming store it filled with tank water? Or maybe fresh sea water

 

[Rubberfrog]

This is a two week old tank? What is the hurry to add lps so quickly?

 

[Spare time]

And one quick question because it seems like you’ve used chemi pure before. Can I just store it in the original condition if I choose to take it out? I don’t wanna use it for a couple days and throw it away when it’s supposed to last months. If it can be stored I’m assuming store it filled with tank water? Or maybe fresh sea water

I just recommend rinsing it off in fresh water and keep it sorta damp.

 

[JosephM]

This is a two week old tank? What is the hurry to add lps so quickly?

No rush at all. Seems my levels are stable and my softies have been thriving. I see no reason I couldn’t other then the ugly stages. From my understanding they don’t need ‘mature’ tanks to thrive just stable and in place parameters.

 

[Treefer32]

I highly don't recommend this, but, I have SPS growing with phosphates (that I just found out) on a 2.5 year old 340 gallon tank at .55692 ppm. I have an algae turf scrubber, which may be the only reason my display is not full of GHA at the moment. But, corals shouldn't die in high phosphates, they may not do well, and if left in them prolonged periods, their growth will stop and eventually they may die or discolor beyond anything you like.

 

[JosephM]

I highly don't recommend this, but, I have SPS growing with phosphates (that I just found out) on a 2.5 year old 340 gallon tank at .55692 ppm. I have an algae turf scrubber, which may be the only reason my display is not full of GHA at the moment. But, corals shouldn't die in high phosphates, they may not do well, and if left in them prolonged periods, their growth will stop and eventually they may die or discolor beyond anything you like.

That’s good to know. Thank you for sharing your experience!

 

[Pkunk35]

Just chiming in because i basically have the same system and also running chemi pure elite, and I think JosephM's advice is right on.

The alk is dropping bc things are calcifying and growing (most likely your filter feeders if feeding phyto like you are). You def need to supplement in some form and keep it stable. My suggestion is kalkwasser, my tank is doing great with it. I also use All for Reef and was solely using it before adding Kalk and it also works great.

 

[JosephM]

Just chiming in because i basically have the same system and also running chemi pure elite, and I think JosephM's advice is right on.

The alk is dropping bc things are calcifying and growing (most likely your filter feeders if feeding phyto like you are). You def need to supplement in some form and keep it stable. My suggestion is kalkwasser, my tank is doing great with it. I also use All for Reef and was solely using it before adding Kalk and it also works great.

Okay, I’ll look into that! Thank you

 

[Reef.]

How did you get a reading of 1800 from the Salifert test, thought it only went up to around 1500?

 

[JosephM]

How did you get a reading of 1800 from the Salifert test, thought it only went up to around 1500?

1 syringe is 1500, you fill up another syringe and keep going

 

[Reef.]

1 syringe is 1500, you fill up another syringe and keep going

what salt are you using, that is a high amount of mag.

 

[JosephM]

what salt are you using, that is a high amount of mag.

IO... def not supposed to be high. Couldn’t get to the bottom of it just not too worried because from what I could gather high mag isn’t really deadly to anything and some people use it to prevent nuisance algae. It is slowly falling though.

 

[Reef.]

IO... def not supposed to be high. Couldn’t get to the bottom of it just not too worried because from what I could gather high mag isn’t really deadly to anything and some people use it to prevent nuisance algae. It is slowly falling though.

inverts I believe don’t like high mag, such as shrimp.

Could be a duff test, as my Salifert mag and cal are both reading off the chart, think there is a bad batch of Salifert tests going around?

 

[JosephM]

inverts I believe don’t like high mag, such as shrimp.

Could be a duff test, as my Salifert mag and cal are both reading off the chart, think there is a bad batch of Salifert tests going around?

That’s honestly what I was thinking. And I have a lot of feather dusters that are thriving so if mag was bad for them then I must be getting a false reading. Maybe I’ll make my saltwater a day early and test that today to see how it fairs, could be a bad batch of IO for all I know. A test at LFS might show me some more info too.

 

[Reef.]

That’s honestly what I was thinking. And I have a lot of feather dusters that are thriving so if mag was bad for them then I must be getting a false reading. Maybe I’ll make my saltwater a day early and test that today to see how it fairs, could be a bad batch of tests for all I know. A test at LFS might show me some more info too.

yeah worth double checking, just been discussing this with a few others and they too have been getting off the chart readings from both cal and mag Salifert test kits.