Persistently High Phosphate

[CHSUB]

Even tanks with 1-5 nitrates

Imo, 1-5 nitrates is high, my tank grows plenty of algae at 0.07 ppm no3.

 

[ScottF]

Phosban is fine. It's a (iron based) GFO.

Stay away from aluminum based phosphate absorption media like Phosguard. These can leach aluminum into your water that can be very toxic to leather corals in particular. Aluminum based products tend to be white. I don't use any white phosphate absorbing media anymore. I learned this the hard way.

 

[BryanM]

Imo, 1-5 nitrates is high, my tank grows plenty of algae at 0.07 ppm no3.

I know... We fundamentally disagree on this, but I know.

What we do agree on is there are 1000 ways to skin the cat in this hobby :)

 

[BryanM]

Definitely invest in a GOOD algae scraper and some microfibre cloths. You will be cleaning that glass every other day for the life of the tank lol.

I don't clean glass that often, likely due to the gyres on the sides being a bit of a pain to clean around, or removing them to clean fully... Its just a nuisance.

 

[ScottF]

I know... We fundamentally disagree on this, but I know.

What we do agree on is there are 1000 ways to skin the cat in this hobby :)

lol. CHSUB and I just had a debate as to whether high nutrients are actually bad for your corals. Pretty sure neither of our minds were changed.

 

[CHSUB]

I know... We fundamentally disagree on this, but I know

lol. CHSUB and I just had a debate as to whether high nutrients are actually bad for your corals

I was agreeing, haha !, low nutrients are not a solution to algae.

 

[tzabor10]

wow! I have tried to get Zoa's and mushrooms going and have never had any luck and those are supposed to be "easy" and forgiving...they never grew and eventually died. Clearly I am doing something wrong

Mushrooms do best with low light and low flow. I just set up a nano for them specifically. It is just too hard for me in a high light setting

 

[tzabor10]

Getting phosphates lower should be done slowly. I messed this up twice. First, Hanna has a high range checker. This would get you better readings. I use Rowaphos and GFO in a reactor. GFO works better, so adjust the ratio as needed. Use a flow restraint on the reactor to control the lowering. Honestly lowering 0.1 per month would be fine.
Vacuum the gravel, clean your skimmer. This will help with nutrient control.
Test so often it hurts. You can really go wrong with this if you take it too fast.
Good luck

 

[ScottF]

wow! I have tried to get Zoa's and mushrooms going and have never had any luck and those are supposed to be "easy" and forgiving...they never grew and eventually died. Clearly I am doing something wrong

I have more issues with getting Zoa's established than anything else. I don't have any issues with acropora, goniopora or any of the other "difficult" corals.

With Zoa's they either take off and multiply like crazy or they just melt away to nothing. I can have one morph within inches of another and one will melt and the other will thrive.

 

[Joe.D]

I have a 75 gallon display, 4 year old mixed reef with 8 fish. Last fall my phosphates got up to .8. I don’t over feed. Nitrates are always low - I actually dose NeoNitro to keep it from bottoming out. What I eventually did to lower Phosphate was to vacuum out my sump for the first time ever. I did about half then the rest a week or 2 later and did a few of 15% weekly water changes instead of 10%. I’m now down to .08 PO4.

As for corals , I have no issues growing zoas, Goni, torches, hammers, mushrooms, or stylos. I struggle with acans, favia and acros.

 

[Reginald Reefer III]

I have more issues with getting Zoa's established than anything else. I don't have any issues with acropora, goniopora or any of the other "difficult" corals.

With Zoa's they either take off and multiply like crazy or they just melt away to nothing. I can have one morph within inches of another and one will melt and the other will thrive.

Iodide does amazing things for Zoas but it's easy to overdose. Definitely doesn't take much.

 

[ScottF]

Iodide does amazing things for Zoas but it's easy to overdose. Definitely doesn't take much.

I do monthly ICP-MS tests and mix up a custom master dosing solution using Captiv8 products. My system isn't deficient in iodide. I doubt that is my particular issue.

Maybe my system has too much light or flow for some zoas or maybe one of my fish thinks certain colors of zoas are tasty. Don't know.

The point that I was trying to make was that sometimes the "easy corals" can actually be difficult for some experienced reefers. Xenia is considered easy and grows out of control in a lot of tanks, but just melts away in others.

 

[Alexander1312]

To get phosphate down, you have to replace GFO regularly, I.e weekly.

What I do is to add GFO every week fresh on top of the existing GFO and then replace the whole reactor content every 4 weeks.

This will bring down your phosphate eventually.

One other tip: make sure your reactor pump is not too strong,just strong enough to push the water through the media.

 

[Koty]

Everybody warns from lowering phosphate too quickly. I’m not sure it’s relevant. My phosphate went up to the limit of the Hanna checker and I added a reactor with about 800 g of GFO. If you’re phosphate is high for a long time consider that probably there is no chance that it will bottom out. That is because a lot of phosphate is bound to the rocks. My tank is hundred gallons and even with 800 g of GFO phosphate concentration took several days to reach between .2 and .1. GFO has a very high capacity of phosphate binding so I guess 800 g of GFO will last very long time as they are supposed to bind between 20 to 30 g of phosphates…

 

[tzabor10]

Everybody warns from lowering phosphate too quickly. I’m not sure it’s relevant. My phosphate went up to the limit of the Hanna checker and I added a reactor with about 800 g of GFO. If you’re phosphate is high for a long time consider that probably there is no chance that it will bottom out. That is because a lot of phosphate is bound to the rocks. My tank is hundred gallons and even with 800 g of GFO phosphate concentration took several days to reach between .2 and .1. GFO has a very high capacity of phosphate binding so I guess 800 g of GFO will last very long time as they are supposed to bind between 20 to 30 g of phosphates…

But how are your corals?

 

[Koty]

But how are your corals?

Well, it has been a long time since my corals stopped caring much about whatever I mess with the tank same with algae: I have quite a lot of bubble algae. I think that my corals are doing fine

 

[REEFRIED!]

I did not read every comment here, just perused through. Apologies if someone has said this already and I did not see it.

If I were you the first thing I would do is make sure you are using the test kit (Hannah whatever) properly. I definitely would not use any GFO or other additive to lower phosphate. I would just simply not feed for a couple of days and see if it goes down. Phosphate in a reef tank is almost always 90% from fish/coral food.

I would keep everything the way you have it now, feed the way you currently do and test the tank at the same time daily for three days. Ideally BEFORE you feed. Meaning at the longest point since you fed last. Get an idea of your Phosphate numbers for those three consecutive days. (The numbers most likely won’t be identical, but close). Then I would stop feeding for 2-3 days, while continuing to test daily at the same time of day. That first day after no feeding the number may be similar to the original numbers, but the second and third days (after day 2 and day 3 of no feeding) will most definitely go down.

Once that happens you can for one know that your test kit works. And two, know that food is your source of high phosphate. And maybe switch to a different food. A lot of dry foods are high in phosphate and there are many other options.

To your other question about not being able to keep corals alive is a whole different story. I don’t see your phosphate numbers being too high to keep soft corals and zoas.