Impossible to raise phosphate

[X-37B]

The guy who commented earlier, has the same lights as me. I know the preset he is running. He is getting 150 par on the sand bed at 65watts. I have been running my lights at 60 watt. So maybe a little less par on the sand bed, which is good right? I am not trying to be difficult here. But when I say I bumped my lights down, i mean from like 80watts down to 60watts. Also that pic was in the morning when they come on.

This is supposed to be a LPS dominated tank. So I really dont think I need 500 par lol!

500 par was a reference not a recommendation.
Get a par meter to verify your system. At this point its just a guess. After 1 year you can see that your system is not responding.
This is my current mixed reef 15g with 9.5g's of water. Par is 200-250. Live rock and this is 8 months between startup and today.
Floss carbon. No3 & Po4 run close to zero.
Real live rock is a better option.
You can be as difficult as you want its not going to help your system.
If you want your system to improve you need a plan not online advice from 20 people.

I have plenty of examples. If your serious about help send me a dm.

 

[slingfox]

So should I add real live rock to my tank? I recently added some of this rock to my sump. Is that not good enough?

I am in the camp that live rock form the ocean is the single best thing you can purchase for a new system. The product in the above was likely of limited value to your tank since it was already cycled. I would consider the pricier above a waste of money.

Assuming you don’t want to make major changes, I would just siphon out the sand and keep feeding and increase dosing to get nutrients up. Your rock and sand may still be absorbing phosphates. Eventually you’ll see phosphates appear in the water column. You could also add a few more fish as well as some cheap easier coral.

If you are open to making major changes then look into getting ocean live rock. Tampa Bag Saltwater and KP Aquatics are the two mostly widely used vendors.

 

[rfisher3]

have you try feeding your tank with reefroids?

No I have not. I hardly even have corals to feed.

 

[slingfox]

No I have not. I hardly even have corals to feed.

With such limited livestock, you may not want to feed more food than you are already doing which sounds like a lot. Dose the chemical pure form of phosphate and eventually you should see a reading assuming the rocks/sand stop absorbing at some point. Once all that phosphate is absorbed I expect you’ll start seeing algae grow on your rocks which will set off the next phase of issues. All part of the tank maturing.

 

[rfisher3]

I am in the camp that live rock form the ocean is the single best thing you can purchase for a new system. The product in the above was likely of limited value to your tank since it was already cycled. I would consider the pricier above a waste of money.

Assuming you don’t want to make major changes, I would just siphon out the sand and keep feeding and increase dosing to get nutrients up. Your rock and sand may still be absorbing phosphates. Eventually you’ll see phosphates appear in the water column. You could also add a few more fish as well as some cheap easier coral.

If you are open to making major changes then look into getting ocean live rock. Tampa Bag Saltwater and KP Aquatics are the two mostly widely used vendors.

Do you think I should replace all my rock? Or more supplemental? Like how many pounds should I get for my 80? Second person to recommend I just get some new rock. Feels like such a waste of time the past year.

 

[slingfox]

Do you think I should replace all my rock? Or more supplemental? Like how many pounds should I get for my 80? Second person to recommend I just get some new rock. Feels like such a waste of time the past year.

This mostly a budget issue. Replacing all the rock is expensive so you can save money by using a mix of existing na new rock. When you figure out which vendor you want to use you can start a thread and ask for recommendations. If using ocean rock from Florida, the rock amount is similar to the pounds of dry rock by maybe great by 10% due to the weight of the water the rock has absorbed. If you go with Australia ocean rock that is much more porous/lighter but costs much more per pound than the rocks from Florida.

 

[X-37B]

Do you think I should replace all my rock? Or more supplemental? Like how many pounds should I get for my 80? Second person to recommend I just get some new rock. Feels like such a waste of time the past year.

Yea this is what happens alot to new reefers. Just check all the threads going on the subject.
Live rock is your biological filter.
I support GLR and Dan will get you some nice stuff delivered to your door.
Live rock is to exspensive, I laugh everytime I here it. How much have you spent on your current systems startup and now trying to get it corrected.
Now GLR delivered to your door for $12lb seems reasonable right?

 

[RSNJReef]

What are your nitrates, magnesium, calcium, and alk at?

Also, do you know the PH of the tank?

Where did you get the original rock in the tank from? Is the rock as old as the tank? Also, is the sand as old as the tank? And do you siphon your sand?

What clean up crew do you have?

What is your exact fish stocking and what are you feeding to the tank?

And, was there any point where your corals were growing well, you had little algae, and you were getting detectable Nitrate and Phosphate?

Everyone on here that’s posted has had really good recommendations, but we need to find out all of the top level unknowns. The issue with resetting and just starting to replace everything is you are giving up a years worth of progress in bacteria development, but, the unknown question is whether this is a years worth of bad stuff that’s built up or good stuff that just needs a little help.

There are a few things that are out of balance that’s causing your algae to outcompete your corals for nutrients.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

So should I add real live rock to my tank? I recently added some of this rock to my sump. Is that not good enough?

While I am definitely a fan of ocean rock, the binding of phosphate is not a reason to spend big to get it.

Just dose phosphate. It is cheap and easy.

For folks with undetectable nitrate, N is also cheap and easy to dose.

 

[rfisher3]

So should I add real live rock to my tank? I recently added some of this rock to my sump. Is that not good enough?

While I am definitely a fan of ocean rock, the binding of phosphate is not a reason to spend big to get it.

Just dose phosphate. It is cheap and easy.

For folks with undetectable nitrate, N is also cheap and easy to dose.

So dose .1 ppm worth of phosphate daily until I have more than 0 in 24 hours?

 

[rfisher3]

@Randy Holmes-Farley Just dosed then tested and actually have .14 now.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

OK, that sounds fine. :)

 

[mike ob]

Reef roids

 

[rfisher3]

OK, that sounds fine. :)

24 hours later and my phosphate is at .07. What should I do with that information?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

24 hours later and my phosphate is at .07. What should I do with that information?

That value is OK. I'd test again in a couple of days, and dose again if substantially lower.

 

[Privateye]

There's some good advice in this thread. Regarding the absorption into sand and live rock, you could get a rock or two from a "dirty" system and add it to yours. It could leach phosphate into your tank over time.

I've seen phosphate get too high in my tank just by adding a couple of rocks from the store. It can work, but it's not as predictable as dosing.