Low Nitrate High Phosphate

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Those numbers are not particularly problematic. A little GFO may be useful, but you may not notice any effect of lowering phosphate.

 

[thesoulpatch]

In case anyone was wondering my tank is just fine now :)

 

[dlightning]

In case anyone was wondering my tank is just fine now :)

What corrected your problem?

 

[thesoulpatch]

What corrected your problem?

Time honestly. And I just stopped doing things and let it figure it self out.

 

[enlighten]

Currently dealing with low nitrate and high phosphate. 1ppm and 1.8ppm respectively.

Deep sand bed, lots of rock and high porosity media, just added a skimmer, small refugium, and tons of nuisance algae (mix of GHA and Bubble).

Been running GFO a month and it kept the same value. Adding a little more on refill to see if I can reduce. Will continue working on it and hoping time will fix it as well! Thanks :D

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Currently dealing with low nitrate and high phosphate. 1ppm and 1.8ppm respectively.

Deep sand bed, lots of rock and high porosity media, just added a skimmer, small refugium, and tons of nuisance algae (mix of GHA and Bubble).

Been running GFO a month and it kept the same value. Adding a little more on refill to see if I can reduce. Will continue working on it and hoping time will fix it as well! Thanks :D

More GFO, and changed more often , or switch to lanthanum, which carries some risk to tangs.

GFO will deplete very fast at that level.

 

[rishma]

Currently dealing with low nitrate and high phosphate. 1ppm and 1.8ppm respectively.

Deep sand bed, lots of rock and high porosity media, just added a skimmer, small refugium, and tons of nuisance algae (mix of GHA and Bubble).

Been running GFO a month and it kept the same value. Adding a little more on refill to see if I can reduce. Will continue working on it and hoping time will fix it as well! Thanks :D

That’s a very high PO4 value. Are you using a reactor to run GFO?

 

[enlighten]

That’s a very high PO4 value. Are you using a reactor to run GFO?

Yes, doing about 1 gram per gallon of Kolar GFO. Changing about every 4 weeks.

 

[rishma]

Yes, doing about 1 gram per gallon of Kolar GFO. Changing about every 4 weeks.

measure the phosphate in the water coming out of the reactor. That’s a good way to monitor when it’s exhausted and optimize how often you change burnout. With your phosphates high in the tank, it might be exhausted faster than every 4 weeks.