Numbers are high!!

[StartingATank]

Just tested my numbers, and phosphates are extremely high. Nitrates are also pretty high. I have had nothing die in the last two weeks except for a small snail that died yesterday night after my hermit decided to have a snack. Last time I tested phosphates they were .08 ppm. Did a 10% water change last week. My numbers are currently at:
Nitrates: 38.5 ppm
Phosphates: 1.51 ppm
I plan on doing consecutive 10% water changes today, hopefully getting in 3-4. What is a good plan of action? Might have missed some info, so if any more is needed, just ask please.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

You can do larger water changes, for example 20% water change will reduce nitrate by 20%, 40% change will reduce 40%, etc...

Water changes are not an effective way to reduce phosphates, phosphates get absorbed into the rocks and the rocks slowly leach them out. You need a phosphate remover, either a liquid lanthenum something like Phosphate-E, or a granuler gfo, something like rowa phos. Be careful with both and lower the phosphate very slowly, read the instructions or ask the forum for help with the instructions. Good luck

 

[StartingATank]

You can do larger water changes, for example 20% water change will reduce nitrate by 20%, 40% change will reduce 40%, etc...

Water changes are not an effective way to reduce phosphates, phosphates get absorbed into the rocks and the rocks slowly leach them out. You need a phosphate remover, either a liquid lanthenum something like Phosphate-E, or a granuler gfo, something like rowa phos. Be careful with both and lower the phosphate very slowly, read the instructions or ask the forum for help with the instructions. Good luck

Which of these would you recommend to use as the best one?

 

[Fish Fan]

Not to step on Mr. Mojo's toes, but I'd suggest that a good way to start out with a phosphate reducer is by trying some Chemi-Pure Elite. Chemi-Pure is a well regarded Granular Activated Carbon (GAC), and the Chemi-Pure Elite specifically includeds Granular Ferric Oxide (GFO) phosphate reducer too. This is not the most efficient way to use GFO, but that's a good thing! You don't want to lower the phosphate too quickly, and you definitely don't want to drive it down to zero. For this reason, I think adding some Chemi-Pure Elite is a good starting point. You may find that you need more aggressive phosphate removers, but I'd give Chemi-Pure Elite a shot first as it's inexpensive, easy to add to your system, and the carbon offers its own potential benefits, even forgetting about the added GFO

Good luck!

 

[Matt L]

Just tested my numbers, and phosphates are extremely high. Nitrates are also pretty high. I have had nothing die in the last two weeks except for a small snail that died yesterday night after my hermit decided to have a snack. Last time I tested phosphates they were .08 ppm. Did a 10% water change last week. My numbers are currently at:
Nitrates: 38.5 ppm
Phosphates: 1.51 ppm
I plan on doing consecutive 10% water changes today, hopefully getting in 3-4. What is a good plan of action? Might have missed some info, so if any more is needed, just ask please.

What kind of coral do you have? They might actually prefer the higher nutrients.

 

[Subsea]

Just tested my numbers, and phosphates are extremely high. Nitrates are also pretty high. I have had nothing die in the last two weeks except for a small snail that died yesterday night after my hermit decided to have a snack. Last time I tested phosphates they were .08 ppm. Did a 10% water change last week. My numbers are currently at:
Nitrates: 38.5 ppm
Phosphates: 1.51 ppm
I plan on doing consecutive 10% water changes today, hopefully getting in 3-4. What is a good plan of action? Might have missed some info, so if any more is needed, just ask please.

“Last time I tested phosphates they were .08 ppm. Did a 10% water change last week. My numbers are currently at:
Nitrates: 38.5 ppm
Phosphates: 1.51 ppm”

How long between .08 & 1.51ppm test for phosphate? And any thoughts on what brought it high?

 

[StartingATank]

“Last time I tested phosphates they were .08 ppm. Did a 10% water change last week. My numbers are currently at:
Nitrates: 38.5 ppm
Phosphates: 1.51 ppm”

How long between .08 & 1.51ppm test for phosphate? And any thoughts on what brought it high?

It was about 23 days. No clue on what increased it so much.

 

[StartingATank]

What kind of coral do you have? They might actually prefer the higher nutrients.

I have a Scoly, some Zoas, a toadstool, an Octospawn, GSP, Candy Cane, blasto, and cyphastrea

 

[backbayreef]

What are you testing with?

Nitrate: if your testing is accurate, I would stop doing WC actually - unless you're willing to do a 50% to drop nitrate by 50%. My SPS tank is running at 65ppm nitrate and it's super happy!
Phosphate: again, assume testing is close to accurate, you can do GFO or PhosphateRx (LC-based) to get phosphate lower than 1ppm.

Having said all that -- you're fine with the corals you're keeping. Some of my picky SPS Tenius would brown out if phosphate > 0.10ppm.

 

[allof fish]

What are you testing with?

Nitrate: if your testing is accurate, I would stop doing WC actually - unless you're willing to do a 50% to drop nitrate by 50%. My SPS tank is running at 65ppm nitrate and it's super happy!
Phosphate: again, assume testing is close to accurate, you can do GFO or PhosphateRx (LC-based) to get phosphate lower than 1ppm.

Having said all that -- you're fine with the corals you're keeping. Some of my picky SPS Tenius would brown out if phosphate > 0.10ppm.

And they’re not upset at the 65 nitrate dang. I agree your nitrates are not an issue I personally would rather have high than lower nitrates since I have struggled to get them up at times. Your phosphate is definitely an issue. Seems a little werid that it spiked up that much in 20 days or so. Have you dosed anything or feed something like reef roids a bunch.

 

[StartingATank]

I did a %19 water change after my first post, and then I tested today and Nitrates were at 52.4 and phosphates were at 2.14. I have been feeding my corals twice a week with live gold phyto and benereef, might have been feeding very heavy on the Coral food, and I feed frozen Spiraluna and Mysis bi daily, and in-between I feed Mysis pellets. I did have a snail die recently, and haven't took it out, but will do that because I am doing a %25 water change tonight. Also am having a lot of detritus buildup, does this have anything to do with the phosphate and nitrate bloom. I also have to clean the filter, so will do that tonight as well. Everything seems fine except my blasto, which is closing up a good amount, I think it might be a gonner because it is receding, and its skeleton is exposing, It has been having a lot of detritus build up on it and my urchin ate a bit of it and the skeleton, which caused it to start receding. I will start to feed only once a week and feed lighter on the Coral food. But other than that everything seems fine. Also had some baby stometella snail deaths because mine reproduced and some of the babies died. I am testing with Hanna Checkers, specifically high range nitrates and low range phosphates

 

[jordan9095]

Don’t test phosphate right after a water change. I would wait at least one day. The Hanna one can be off if there are a lot of particles in the water, like for example after a water change or cleaning. I use a syringe filter for phosphate test.

 

[backbayreef]

And they’re not upset at the 65 nitrate dang. I agree your nitrates are not an issue I personally would rather have high than lower nitrates since I have struggled to get them up at times. Your phosphate is definitely an issue. Seems a little werid that it spiked up that much in 20 days or so. Have you dosed anything or feed something like reef roids a bunch.

No issues at all with high nitrate. SPS doesn’t like high phosphate, IME

Here is my frag tank at 54.9ppm nitrate a few weeks ago. I wouldn’t worry about nitrate but just focus on phosphate to keep it in check - 1.5ppm is rather high but shouldn’t be a cause of concern given your current livestock.

 

[Qckslvr]

Which of these would you recommend to use as the best one?

I had RowaPhos recommended to me by my LFS when I had a phosphate problem. Stuff works! My tank was pretty high and I used an entire 100ml container. It took my phosphates from .40 to .06 in about 5 days. Do note this is on a 32 gallon biocube that had no live stock.

 

[BryanM]

I would take some water to your LFS for testing, just to get a 2nd opinion.

Climbing that fast is crazy on the phosphate side.

Is this the max nano cube tank?

 

[ya_boii]

What kind of filter are you using? I made the mistake of using a canister and not cleaning it. That would pump out tons of nitrates and phosphates

 

[StartingATank]

I would take some water to your LFS for testing, just to get a 2nd opinion.

Climbing that fast is crazy on the phosphate side.

Is this the max nano cube tank?

Yes it is.

 

[StartingATank]

My LFS is only open on Saturdays, so I will go pick up some antiphosphate conditioners and ask them to test my water. I did recently get a coral frag from them last Saturday, which had a lot of coral skeleton on it, not sure if this would cause it, but it is the octospawn I got. I have the pic posted on my tank thread.

 

[StartingATank]

Don’t test phosphate right after a water change. I would wait at least one day. The Hanna one can be off if there are a lot of particles in the water, like for example after a water change or cleaning. I use a syringe filter for phosphate test.

I had no particles in the tank when I tested.

 

[StartingATank]

What kind of filter are you using? I made the mistake of using a canister and not cleaning it. That would pump out tons of nitrates and phosphates

I am using the one that came with the red Sea G2 max nano tank