Phosphate

CoralClasher · Jan 14, 2019

Colin_S said:
Hi Jon, i can't believe how clean your rocks look, i don't mean to hijack your post, just after some advise if you don't mind. i've had my tank up for about a year to the day. ever since i've been battling phosphate, from 0.6!! now its down to 0.07 - 0.1. i'm dosing daily to get it lower but if i miss a few days dosing due to work it rises quickly. i have about 8 snails that bury themselves and eat left over food, is that enough?. i don't over feed, if anything i probably under feed. i'm in the process of setting up a refugium. i have tested my water in the auto top off, it came out at 0, same water i use for water changes. what caught my eye in your post was when you mentioned how you got rid of the sand/substrate and you phosphate started to drop. is this a common thing? because i'm sick of seeing green hair algae! thats all i ever seem to be cleaning of the rocks! i have a 150g dt.

Yeah green hair is all I could grow too. Need to eradicate the hair. Hope you don't have a lot of corals on the rocks. I've been taking all the rocks out and scrub them rinse with tanks water let dry for a few minutes then spray them with hydrogen peroxide let sit for five minutes rinse again with tank water. And lights off for three days. I would go longer with no lights but I do have some corals I don't want to lose.

CoralClasher · Jan 14, 2019

James404 said:
If you can't keep coraline, it could be a warning sign that some of your parameters are not dialed in.

What is your Alk, Cal and Mag? What test kits are you using for all?

Alk is 150mmp or 8.4 DKH, Cal 475, Mag 1440. Hanna checkers except Mag

CoralClasher · Jan 14, 2019

Jon Malkerson said:
Yeah green hair is all I could grow too. Need to eradicate the hair. Hope you don't have a lot of corals on the rocks. I've been taking all the rocks out and scrub them rinse with tanks water let dry for a few minutes then spray them with hydrogen peroxide let sit for five minutes rinse again with tank water. And lights off for three days. I would go longer with no lights but I do have some corals I don't want to lose.

If you aren't feeding enough make sure to add nitrogen till you get No3 reading of 3-5ppm

CoralClasher · Jan 14, 2019

James404 said:
If you can't keep coraline, it could be a warning sign that some of your parameters are not dialed in.

What is your Alk, Cal and Mag? What test kits are you using for all?

I'm new to this web site did you get my answer for ALK 150ppm Cal 475 Mag 1440.

Ultra Aquatics · Jan 14, 2019

Jon Malkerson said:
I'm new to this web site did you get my answer for ALK 150ppm Cal 475 Mag 1440.

No worries

Parameters look good.

Colin_S · Jan 14, 2019

Thanks for the info Jon, i don't have any corals yet, untill i upgrade my lights. my nitrate levels are between 5-10. i think i will follow your advise, i constantly take the rocks out and scrub them with tank water, but then i put them back in with the current light set up, which is on for about 6 hours. so i think i'll go the extra step and spray them with Hydrogen peroxide and turn the lights off for a few days. What about feeding in this time? do you carry on feeding with the lights off? also does using hydrogen peroxide harm the rock or change the performance of the rock? and is it just a standard hydrogn peroxide?
thanks again

CoralClasher · Jan 14, 2019

Colin_S said:
Thanks for the info Jon, i don't have any corals yet, untill i upgrade my lights. my nitrate levels are between 5-10. i think i will follow your advise, i constantly take the rocks out and scrub them with tank water, but then i put them back in with the current light set up, which is on for about 6 hours. so i think i'll go the extra step and spray them with Hydrogen peroxide and turn the lights off for a few days. What about feeding in this time? do you carry on feeding with the lights off? also does using hydrogen peroxide harm the rock or change the performance of the rock? and is it just a standard hydrogn peroxide?
thanks again

The good bacteria and green hair algae feed on the same things. So mass eradication is the only way I've gotten ahead of it. I've had fish in the tank as I do this they seem ok not happy tho. I use hydrogen peroxide from cub foods just the normal stuff.

CoralClasher · Jan 14, 2019

Colin_S said:
Thanks for the info Jon, i don't have any corals yet, untill i upgrade my lights. my nitrate levels are between 5-10. i think i will follow your advise, i constantly take the rocks out and scrub them with tank water, but then i put them back in with the current light set up, which is on for about 6 hours. so i think i'll go the extra step and spray them with Hydrogen peroxide and turn the lights off for a few days. What about feeding in this time? do you carry on feeding with the lights off? also does using hydrogen peroxide harm the rock or change the performance of the rock? and is it just a standard hydrogn peroxide?
thanks again

If you don't have corals don't use any grow lights till the green is gone. Fish don't need light.

CoralClasher · Jan 14, 2019

Dr. Tims refresh works good for removing organic material that you miss.

O'l Salty · Jan 14, 2019

Some of the best reef tanks in the world have high phosphate.

Ashley Kekua · Jan 16, 2019

O'l Salty said:
Some of the best reef tanks in the world have high phosphate.

where???

Marie7 · Jan 17, 2019

RobZilla04 said:
How old is that system. Looks like only hours as opposed to months .

Hey don't pick on the boy.... you bad boy! ;Shamefullyembarrased

Marie7 · Jan 17, 2019

I been battling a little bit with phosphates too but has manage to bring them down under control, many things got to do with it, strong light for prolong periods of extreme light and also lot of food , I think that will be the number one reason, my fishes are healthy and growing a lot.... but i'm happy

.....

CoralClasher · Jan 27, 2019

Well every time I check phosphate it's different? Seems to be jumping all over the place. I try to keep it 0.02. Haven't had fish in the DT for months and don't feed corals much last Tuesday was a bad jump for some reason over night it went up to 1.02 I'm suspecting my biopellets are crashing so I pulled the reactor on Wednesday phosphate has been slowly dropping since. I left the skimmer running. Today phosphate is 0.00. I think I want to try no skimmer for a while. If my phosphate and No3 stay normal do I need to run a skimmer? Or can someone tell me why phosphate go from 0.06 last night to 0.00 now?

Marie7 · Jan 27, 2019

I learn a rule on this hobby, the least u add things the better, I don't add chemicals to my water except calcium and pH and lil bit of Alka if needed, I feed my fishes normal every day and add fuel for corals, but not overload my water with extra stuff, I also do partial water changes and keep thing under normal range. It strange that you phos it's all over the place specially if u don't have fishes, I have a good batch of them at my tank and phos are ok. I also has my skimmer running all the time, it removes all the yacky stuff in the water and keep it good

CoralClasher · Jan 27, 2019

Yeah I hate velvet!! Everything was going good then a coral from LFS didn't go through QT just a dip. I've been fighting velvet for a long time now had all fish in QT 72 days but not at full copper. All looked good put them back in DT and two days later dust covered little yellow tang ***. So back they go in QT. I'm thinking not enough nutrients for the bacteria and to much organic carbon. DT looks clean but maybe a bacteria bloom? Water is not cloudy but has lots of dust floating around? That's why I'm wondering about not skimming till needed?