PO4 just won’t go down. Source unknown. Need help!
- Thread starter glb
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glb
7500 Club Member
I hear you. I do
I hear you. I dosed because nopox zeroed out my po4 and I had dinos and some other crazy stuff (looked like fur on my rocks) due to the zero po4. That being said, I’ll never dose it again!!
OP
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glb
7500 Club Member
I just did a 20% water change. I plan on dosing dr Tim’s waste away every 48 hours per the directions. I’ll try to do a few more 20% water changes in the next few weeks. I also plan on putting in a gfo reactor. Would nopox be a good idea? I know tinkering with too many things can backfire so I’m interested in everyone’s thoughts. I know it will take awhile to fix and I don’t want to make things worse in my attempt to make things better! I really appreciate everyone’s help!
nkyreef
Well-Known Member
GFO tumbled in a reactor has been very effective for me. Sometimes it can be too good as it's stripped almost all PO4 very rapidly. GFO coupled with water changes would be the route I'd go testing every couple of days for effectiveness.
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glb
7500 Club Member
Agreed. I don’t want to zero out the po4 because I want an LPS tank. My nutrient goals are 5-10ppm no3 and 0.03-0.08 ppm for po4. I’ve studied this and those seem to be good numbers for a non-SPS tank.
jsvand5
Valuable Member
I had great success with Lanthanum dripped slowly into a filter sock. My levels were insane. I’m assuming from the rock I used to set up the tank initially. It was reading 1.4 on the Hanna checker. I dosed lanthanum into a filter sock every 3-5 days for a few weeks till it got under .20. Could have stripped it way faster if I wanted to but I wanted to go kind of slowly. It’s currently sitting at 0.08. I added a turf scrubber a couple weeks ago so I’m hoping to not need lanathum once that gets going well. It’s cheap, easy to dose, and very effective. Maybe consider trying that before spending money on a GFO reactor for a problem that will hopefully not be an issue for your tank for very long.
JCOLE
Grower of the Small Polyps
I would try dosing bacteria along with some water changes for a couple weeks. Like others have said GFO, Nopox, Phosguard, etc could strip nutrients to fast. I believe bacteria would be a good way to give a natural reduction. Will take a couple weeks though.
My point was that I see people constantly adding this stuff thinking their tank needs it. They are not bumping a level from 0 to .05 or anything. For most situations po4 is never actually 0 anyways and people overreact from hobby grade test kits.
Sure nitrate and po4 are ok to add if you know what your doing but i see a lot of people doing it who don’t really understand it all that much and some don’t even need it.
Po4 is in a fad these days of people thinking it has to be like .08 or more or they are at risk. There are always trends in these forums but our tanks have always been the same, I think people overthink a lot these days. As long as your feeding your tank a 0 reading on any test kit shouldn’t be an issue if everything else is in balance with it. This is where I think dosing nutrients is most needed though. To balance out the other parameter if one is reading 0. The trend these days is to dose even if your reading numbers on your tests, thinking a higher number will make a difference, this is where I think issues will start especially for those who continue to dose the po4 to keep a certain number. Nitrate isn’t as problematic because it won’t get bound up anywhere and hide from you just to come back later on.
Lps tanks can be ran just fine with low nutrients as long as your feeding the fish in the tank. They are also easy to feed themselves to keep them colored and happy. They will look pale in tanks with 0 numbers and high light if the tank doesn’t have much food going in and out but they will grow and be ok, they will just look pale. But I do agree the numbers your shooting for are the safest for keeping lps, just don’t worry too much if the drift towards 0 and your still feeding well.
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glb
7500 Club Member
I did a lot of research before I started. The tank wasn’t doing well. I got dinos and a few other things brought on by low nutrients. I would have left it alone but the tank was looking bad. I started with dry rock, and I’ve heard that can contribute to this problem. I use a Hanna PO4 Checker for testing. The addition of po4 did clean up the tank, but the accidental overdose is where problems set in. I wasn’t trying to get up to 0.08. I was trying to get above zero.
OP
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glb
7500 Club Member
Update. Well, the tank looks great! The sandbed is clean and the algae on the rocks and glass is almost gone. My softies are looking better too. I was out of town last week and skipped one water change. I did a 20% the week before to prepare for this. Here’s the thing though. Today, a day after doing a 10% water change, my po4 was the highest it’s ever been, at .61ppm. Hmmm. Here’s my thoughts. I may have lost a snail while I was gone that went unnoticed. Also, since the algae is gone, the po4 may have gone up because the algae isn’t consuming it anymore. Finally, I blew off the rocks pretty good yesterday with a turkey baster, and I’m wondering if that stirred up some waste. I normally test before a water change but since I missed a week I went ahead and changed the water first this time. I dosed some Dr. Tim’s waste away today, as I have been doing weekly. I’m thinking stepping up to 20% weekly water changes (only 10g for my tank) until the po4 finally begins to drop. Since the tank looks so good right now, I’m inclined to take things slow and not start any new treatments. Does this sound like a good plan? Thanks in advance for your help!
chromis
Community Member
Carbon can leech phosphate if it is rinsed in phosphoric acid. Make sure you are using a brand that is rinsed with hydrochloride acid instead like BRS Rox 0.8. Also, 5% and even 20% water changes are too small if your phosphate levels are that high. Just make sure to match the salinity and alk of the new water and you could go to 40% changes weekly or biweekly until the levels get under control.
OP
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glb
7500 Club Member
Thanks. I use Chemipure so I don’t think the carbon is the problem. Long story, but the rocks are leeching phosphates. Is there anything I can do chemically along with the water changes? I don’t know how much longer the rocks are going to keep releasing po4. I’m planning on getting a gfo reactor to help, but I know I’ll need the water changes at first to get things under control.
when your lights are off, pick up one rock and shake it about mid tank shining the light from a cellphone into the tank onto the rock, does a massive cloud get kicked off? if so, that is adding to current measures and it also sets up the tank for a new challenge later on after this one abates. eventually we either need the system flow, or manual will, to unplug rocks. curious if you have rocks that cloud or are cloudless, which remarks upon their flow and nutrient loading.
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glb
7500 Club Member
My rocks get dirty. I moved the gyre pump to the opposite side of the tank a few weeks ago and that has helped immensely. The rocks are holding less sediment. But when I blow them off with a turkey baster, it does cloud up the tank.
good detail, that just helps in the long term planning etc/keeping rock surfaces open and active for filtration, its good tuning to be guiding it out. pic above looks really nice
OP
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glb
7500 Club Member
I was just thinking that the rocks in my sump probably have the most po4 in them because they are in the chamber where the dosing pump dosed the po4. I could easily remove them and treat them. I also test from that chamber so it’s possible the po4 is lower in the display tank. What could I treat them with to get rid of the phosphates once they’re out of the tank? There is 50lbs of rock in a 40g tank, so removing them (about 10lbs) shouldn’t disrupt the bio filter much the way I see it.
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