Need help with phosphate removal

[PreziosoReef]

I don’t have a sump for my 50 gallon reef tank and only able to use hang on filtration. phosphates running around .33 PPM. Thinking about getting the Aqua Ready FR-S GFO reactor so I can just drop in the display tank and seems very turnkey. But I do have room for an external reactor behind the tank, but would need to add a pump in the tank to pull water out to the reactor. Seems more of a hassle.

Any ideas on a a best case solution? Is anyone here running a GFO reactor externally with no sump and how are you doing it successfully without putting a bunch of crap in the display tank. Or is there potential problems with running the FR-S since it’s in the display tank other than it being an eye sore.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[boacvh]

look into phosphate rx. I started using that instead of GFO

 

[PreziosoReef]

look into phosphate rx. I started using that instead of GFO

Instructions state to not dose onto main display tank and into micron socks.. I don’t have a sump.. only have a display tank…. So not gonna work for my needs.

 

[Maize & Blue]

Water changes and continually change filter media. Don’t let the nasty rot in you filter, remove it and rinse but don’t completely clean it so you don’t remove beneficial bacteria. Just get the excess food and fish waste out. Use frozen vs pellets and cut back on feeding. Twice a day and resist the urge to feed between feedings even if they eat it all, it will just make them poop more. Check the phosphate level in your food. Fish food and coral food.

 

[reefernc02]

Look into a hbo skimmer and or a algae scrubber slash reactor wholeheartedly agree with other that reducing feedings will help you could look into phosphate e from brightwell I used it in my 220 when I had problems and it was a life saver

 

[PreziosoReef]

Look into a hbo skimmer and or a algae scrubber slash reactor wholeheartedly agree with other that reducing feedings will help you could look into phosphate e from brightwell I used it in my 220 when I had problems and it was a life saver

I just started to cut my feedings to once per day. Only frozen mysis. Starting. Weekly 20% water changes so hoping that will help.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I don’t have a sump for my 50 gallon reef tank and only able to use hang on filtration. phosphates running around .33 PPM. Thinking about getting the Aqua Ready FR-S GFO reactor so I can just drop in the display tank and seems very turnkey. But I do have room for an external reactor behind the tank, but would need to add a pump in the tank to pull water out to the reactor. Seems more of a hassle.

Any ideas on a a best case solution? Is anyone here running a GFO reactor externally with no sump and how are you doing it successfully without putting a bunch of crap in the display tank. Or is there potential problems with running the FR-S since it’s in the display tank other than it being an eye sore.

Any help is appreciated.

Avoid chemicals which can lead to other issues. Most effective is daily 2% water changes for 10-14 days and control amount of food fed. I use ChemiPure blue for phosphate control in my tanks and Chemipure elite in extreme cases.
Seachem Purigen also works in a pouch within sump.
Assure you are not getting false readings before addressing . While GFO is good at reduction, it can be too quickly. Again, Product such as chemipure blue does this gradually and safely.
First recourse is to identify cause then remedy. Some causes are:
- Overfeeding
- lack of maintenance
- using salt mix high in phosphate
- Use of tap water opposed to RODI water
- something decaying in tank (food or feces)
- False readings - If you have high po4 and no algae- Should raise question

Some things to lower po4 are :
Water changes
Macroalgae
Red Sea po4 reduce
Lessen Feedings and amounts
Add mechanical filtration
Add algae scrubber
Add limewater
Reduce lighting a little

 

[reefernc02]

Look into a hbo skimmer and or a algae scrubber slash reactor wholeheartedly agree with other that reducing feedings will help you could look into phosphate e from brightwell I used it in my 220 when I had problems and it was a life saver

I just started to cut my feedings to once per day. Only frozen mysis. Starting. Weekly 20% water changes so hoping that will help.

Already taking good steps it sounds like

 

[Pistondog]

I don’t have a sump for my 50 gallon reef tank and only able to use hang on filtration. phosphates running around .33 PPM. Thinking about getting the Aqua Ready FR-S GFO reactor so I can just drop in the display tank and seems very turnkey. But I do have room for an external reactor behind the tank, but would need to add a pump in the tank to pull water out to the reactor. Seems more of a hassle.

Any ideas on a a best case solution? Is anyone here running a GFO reactor externally with no sump and how are you doing it successfully without putting a bunch of crap in the display tank. Or is there potential problems with running the FR-S since it’s in the display tank other than it being an eye sore.

Any help is appreciated.

Your phosphate level is not bad. If it continues to rise after your reduced feeding, id try a reactor. You can run gac and gfo together.

 

[Uncle99]

I don’t have a sump for my 50 gallon reef tank and only able to use hang on filtration. phosphates running around .33 PPM. Thinking about getting the Aqua Ready FR-S GFO reactor so I can just drop in the display tank and seems very turnkey. But I do have room for an external reactor behind the tank, but would need to add a pump in the tank to pull water out to the reactor. Seems more of a hassle.

Any ideas on a a best case solution? Is anyone here running a GFO reactor externally with no sump and how are you doing it successfully without putting a bunch of crap in the display tank. Or is there potential problems with running the FR-S since it’s in the display tank other than it being an eye sore.

Any help is appreciated.

Water change is the easiest way to remove if you have the room in nitrates.

So if nitrates were say 20ppm and you do a 50% water change your now approx 10ppm nitrate and phosphate is .15ppm which is just fine.

Only if nitrates are below 3ppm would the change not be recommended as it would serve to bottom out nitrates.

It’s only after regular water changes can’t keep these two in line would I recommend GFO to mop up, just the phosphate and leaving nitrate mostly alone.

 

[Boehmtown]

I really like chemi pure elite, works great. Not over powering

 

[PreziosoReef]

I don’t have a sump for my 50 gallon reef tank and only able to use hang on filtration. phosphates running around .33 PPM. Thinking about getting the Aqua Ready FR-S GFO reactor so I can just drop in the display tank and seems very turnkey. But I do have room for an external reactor behind the tank, but would need to add a pump in the tank to pull water out to the reactor. Seems more of a hassle.

Any ideas on a a best case solution? Is anyone here running a GFO reactor externally with no sump and how are you doing it successfully without putting a bunch of crap in the display tank. Or is there potential problems with running the FR-S since it’s in the display tank other than it being an eye sore.

Any help is appreciated.

Water change is the easiest way to remove if you have the room in nitrates.

So if nitrates were say 20ppm and you do a 50% water change your now approx 10ppm nitrate and phosphate is .15ppm which is just fine.

Only if nitrates are below 3ppm would the change not be recommended as it would serve to bottom out nitrates.

It’s only after regular water changes can’t keep these two in line would I recommend GFO to mop up, just the phosphate and leaving nitrate mostly alone.

My nitrates are at 27 and I have the Bullet 2 HOB skimmer running 24/7. So I have room to drop nitrates without bottoming out.

Used to feed twice daily…. Pellets in the AM and mysis in the PM. Cutting down to 1 cube frozen mysis every other day.

About 8 fish, the purple tang and the anthias are the pigs, but they should be fine for a temporary reduction in feedings.

Hanna test kits are what I’m using for test results

 

[Reefedandconfused22]

look into phosphate rx. I started using that instead of GFO

Instructions state to not dose onto main display tank and into micron socks.. I don’t have a sump.. only have a display tank…. So not gonna work for my needs.

Oh my god! I can finally add my knowledge. So I ran into this issue as well. I run a 75 gal HOB and had phosphate issues as well. I used bright wells phosphate remover, and like you I was worried because it says not to use in the main display. But at reefPalooza, I spoke with the brightest and best and found a workable solution:

I put a filter sock into my display, clipped on the top cage, then grabbed some of the tank water and mixed in the phosphate remover then poured it INTO the filter sock. Left in overnight then pulled the filter sock out and it was fine.
Just make sure you calculate correctly and do it gradually, otherwise it can be bad to move the phosphate levels too quickly.

Reasoning is that most of those phosphate removers will leave a some element behind (hence ent they say pour through the filter sock). Don’t ask me what element it is, but it’s a byproduct of the phosphate removal and will permanently reside in your tank if you just poured it in directly into the display.

Now my permanent solution has been putting a big bag of chemipure elite, since it has carbon and gfo.

Best of luck!

 

[Maize & Blue]

Try Nori instead of pellets. Frozen isn’t your issue.

 

[Pistondog]

Water change is the easiest way to remove if you have the room in nitrates.

So if nitrates were say 20ppm and you do a 50% water change your now approx 10ppm nitrate and phosphate is .15ppm which is just fine.

Only if nitrates are below 3ppm would the change not be recommended as it would serve to bottom out nitrates.

It’s only after regular water changes can’t keep these two in line would I recommend GFO to mop up, just the phosphate and leaving nitrate mostly alone.

A lot of phosphate is bound to rocks and sand, so 50% water change will immediately halve the phosphate. But in day, some phosphate will desorb from the rocks and raise the level significantly. For this reason, water changes are not a preferred method for lowering phosphates.

 

[Uncle99]

A lot of phosphate is bound to rocks and sand, so 50% water change will immediately halve the phosphate. But in day, some phosphate will desorb from the rocks and raise the level significantly. For this reason, water changes are not a preferred method for lowering phosphates.

True but I don’t see the leach happening in a day, nor does the removal process accelerate or amplify phosphate in our water.

I have yet to see a spike in either nutrient after a water change, in 24 hours or a week.

As we remove phosphate from the water, whether it be through water changes or binding to a GFO, the reaction, at least IMM, is exactly the same.

To me, water changes are the safest way to manage nutrients.

GFO is great and I use it but must be super careful to stop it before zeroing phosphate out.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

To me, water changes are the safest way to manage nutrients.

Extremely expensive for phosphate. You might need ten 100% changes to drop phosphate from 1 ppm to 0.1 ppm. That’s a made up number, but it does not necessarily exaggerate the issue.

 

[Uncle99]

My nitrates are at 27 and I have the Bullet 2 HOB skimmer running 24/7. So I have room to drop nitrates without bottoming out.

Used to feed twice daily…. Pellets in the AM and mysis in the PM. Cutting down to 1 cube frozen mysis every other day.

About 8 fish, the purple tang and the anthias are the pigs, but they should be fine for a temporary reduction in feedings.

Hanna test kits are what I’m using for test results

So water changes, slow and consistent best will work in this instance.

You’ll need to address the root causes for the increase but the water changes should bring you back.

 

[Uncle99]

Extremely expensive for phosphate. You might need ten 100% changes to drop phosphate from 1 ppm to 0.1 ppm. That’s a made up number, but it does not necessarily exaggerate the issue.

That’s a huge difference from 1.0ppm to .1ppm.

The poster has a minor variation, so they got to be careful bottoming out phosphate, the water change IMM, would tweak that .33ppm nicely.

Im thinking more on the continuous management theme and not with such a wide gap.

Ever price good GFO like say Rowaphos.
Stuffs like gold up north.

 

[Dom]

I don’t have a sump for my 50 gallon reef tank and only able to use hang on filtration. phosphates running around .33 PPM. Thinking about getting the Aqua Ready FR-S GFO reactor so I can just drop in the display tank and seems very turnkey. But I do have room for an external reactor behind the tank, but would need to add a pump in the tank to pull water out to the reactor. Seems more of a hassle.

Any ideas on a a best case solution? Is anyone here running a GFO reactor externally with no sump and how are you doing it successfully without putting a bunch of crap in the display tank. Or is there potential problems with running the FR-S since it’s in the display tank other than it being an eye sore.

Any help is appreciated.

I have an unconventional solution that was effective for me...



I filled this breeder box 1/3 of the way with PhosGuard, and let it work. It was very effective in reducing phosphates. Click on the pic for a redirect to the product.

If you are going to use Phosguard in your reactor, be sure to do regular water changes to keep aluminum level down.

Its a great way to deploy PhosGuard (or whatever product you want to use). It is easy to maintain.