Phosphates

[Lavey29]

Your phosphate number is not that bad. Just cut back on feeding a little and as vetteguy stated you can try a small bag of chemipure if you need it. Try a bag that is set for half your water volume so you walk it down slowly and don't bottom out your nitrates and phosphate. My phosphate was .17 just now and tank is thriving.

 

[mdb_talon]

Your phosphate number is not that bad. Just cut back on feeding a little and as vetteguy stated you can try a small bag of chemipure if you need it. Try a bag that is set for half your water volume so you walk it down slowly and don't bottom out your nitrates and phosphate. My phosphate was .17 just now and tank is thriving.

While i agree it is not that bad it seems people are missing the fact he has not fed the tank. You cant cut back on feeding if you have never fed.

 

[Lavey29]

While i agree it is not that bad it seems people are missing the fact he has not fed the tank. You cant cut back on feeding if you have never fed.

Ok, did not see that part so you are correct but didn't he say he cycled it with shrimp food? I also agree the rocks may leach some to but really his number is not overly excessive at all and can be managed fairly easily yes? Curious what the nitrate level is to.

 

[Hilltopreef90]

Ok, did not see that part so you are correct but didn't he say he cycled it with shrimp food? I also agree the rocks may leach some to but really his number is not overly excessive at all and can be managed fairly easily yes? Curious what the nitrate level is to.

Nitrate is good, if anything a little low. I’d not considered that prior to adding the fish I’d used a piece of shrimp to cycle the tank and have been adding microbactor 7 for the past week, snails have also been in the tank a couple weeks and it’s possible some died.
I just assumed it being a new tank my phosphate would be close to zero.
I think I’m not going to get all caught up on my phosphate levels and focus more on keeping up on my maintenance and water changes and watch to see how the corals and fish are doing.

 

[Lavey29]

Nitrate is good, if anything a little low. I’d not considered that prior to adding the fish I’d used a piece of shrimp to cycle the tank and have been adding microbactor 7 for the past week, snails have also been in the tank a couple weeks and it’s possible some died.
I just assumed it being a new tank my phosphate would be close to zero.
I think I’m not going to get all caught up on my phosphate levels and focus more on keeping up on my maintenance and water changes and watch to see how the corals and fish are doing.

Sounds like a good approach. Water changes will keep your alk, cal and mag numbers good until you get to many corals in your tank. I just focus a lot on my nitrate and phosphate now. My tank is 6 months old and when the tank was new and I started adding fish and corals those numbers rose due to over feeding, rocks leeching, etc...I over reacted and added to much chemical media and bottomed both of those numbers out. Then the tank problems started. Now at 6 months. I have decent nitrate and phosphate numbers and the tank is thriving with coraline really going now....good luck

 

[Hilltopreef90]

Sounds like a good approach. Water changes will keep your alk, cal and mag numbers good until you get to many corals in your tank. I just focus a lot on my nitrate and phosphate now. My tank is 6 months old and when the tank was new and I started adding fish and corals those numbers rose due to over feeding, rocks leeching, etc...I over reacted and added to much chemical media and bottomed both of those numbers out. Then the tank problems started. Now at 6 months. I have decent nitrate and phosphate numbers and the tank is thriving with coraline really going now....good luck

In all honesty, aside from the rocks probably had po4 already and it only needed a little help to go crazy, I got lazy about water changes and maintenance in general on my tank with the major algae blooms. Hard lesson learned and I plan to keep on top of my aquarium maintenance and weekly water changes going forward.
I’ve always had nano tanks so I’m excited to have a larger aquarium with a sump and refugium
So far everything is ok, fish are happy and I’m excited to begin adding corals in another week or so
Sounds like a good approach. Water changes will keep your alk, cal and mag numbers good until you get to many corals in your tank. I just focus a lot on my nitrate and phosphate now. My tank is 6 months old and when the tank was new and I started adding fish and corals those numbers rose due to over feeding, rocks leeching, etc...I over reacted and added to much chemical media and bottomed both of those numbers out. Then the tank problems started. Now at 6 months. I have decent nitrate and phosphate numbers and the tank is thriving with coraline really going now....good luc

 

[Lavey29]

I've really tried to take a more natural approach the past 1.5 months. Still doing weekly 15% water changes to keep parameters in check but pulled all my chemical media our except for a bag of carbon in my sump and my skimmer. Water change lowers my nitrate if needed and by feeding less or more I can control my phosphate. Coral food also contributed to phosphate so I'm only using AB plus twice a week but I do dose phytoplankton daily in the evening. The more natural approach has really improved my tank condition.

Sometimes life takes us away from our hobby focus but im sure with your reinvigorated approach you will be successful.