Very confused on P04

[ReeferTCG]

Hello All,

Just wanted a sanity check here. As a person in STEM this does not make too much sense to me. I have auto feeder on the apex lowest opening, it has hikari algae pellets, tdo chroma, pe mysis.
It goes 3 times a day. I had it 4, reduced to 3. Pe frozen, blood worms frozen every other day. Fed reef roids every 3 days now down to every 4 or 5.
My phosphates were around .5 with hanna checker.

I started using rowa phos at recommended dose in bag and not even a smidge movement in the reading, started dosing phosphate e at recommended and not even a smidge, phosphates went to .57

I sometimes dose AB+, PNS pro bio, phyto when I remember.

How can I keep feeding constant or decrease it slightly then start trying to remove phosphates with medias and nothing will change? Its been over a month, does rock leach for that long? Did they absorb that much in 4 months the tank has been up?? Can sump detritus keep it that high even with rowa and phosphate e??

I feel im going crazy

Setup :
53 gal redsea
Chaeto fuge 12 hours
Filter roller
Bare bottom with pumps on the bottom to keep detritus suspended.
Remote sand in sump.
Skimmer

 

[allof fish]

Hello All,

Just wanted a sanity check here. As a person in STEM this does not make too much sense to me. I have auto feeder on the apex lowest opening, it has hikari algae pellets, tdo chroma, pe mysis.
It goes 3 times a day. I had it 4, reduced to 3. Pe frozen, blood worms frozen every other day. Fed reef roids every 3 days now down to every 4 or 5.
My phosphates were around .5 with hanna checker.

I started using rowa phos at recommended dose in bag and not even a smidge movement in the reading, started dosing phosphate e at recommended and not even a smidge, phosphates went to .57

I sometimes dose AB+, PNS pro bio, phyto when I remember.

How can I keep feeding constant or decrease it slightly then start trying to remove phosphates with medias and nothing will change? Its been over a month, does rock leach for that long? Did they absorb that much in 4 months the tank has been up?? Can sump detritus keep it that high even with rowa and phosphate e??

I feel im going crazy

Setup :
53 gal redsea
Chaeto fuge 12 hours
Filter roller
Bare bottom with pumps on the bottom to keep detritus suspended.
Remote sand in sump.
Skimmer

What are you using to test? How many fish in tank. I would definitely limit feeding but with a chaeto fuge I would think they would be sucking them up. How many corals do you have? Phyto would help lower phos u less they die off. Could be faulty test kit

 

[Pod_01]

Just a comment, that is lot of food for 52gal system.
I have RedSea reefer 250, with 7 fish and I only feed 2-3 pinches of pellets a day. At this moment no other foods or coral foods.
I do dose amino acids and TM Bacto Ballance.

I do have some large corals and fatty fish:

I suspect this may be one of the largest contributors to PO4

Fed reef roids every 3 days now down to every 4 or 5.

Good luck,

 

[rishma]

I suspect you could stop feeding entirely and not see phosphate drop immediately without more aggressive removal. Your rocks and sand are a huge reservoir for phosphate. As you deplete in the water, the rock and sand release bound phosphate to replenish it.

Over time, reduced feedings and removal from the water will result in phosphate coming down. Going slow is a good thing.

And yes, I agree with @Pod_01, that is a lot of food and reef roids is a potent source of PO4

 

[Dan_P]

Hello All,

Just wanted a sanity check here. As a person in STEM this does not make too much sense to me. I have auto feeder on the apex lowest opening, it has hikari algae pellets, tdo chroma, pe mysis.
It goes 3 times a day. I had it 4, reduced to 3. Pe frozen, blood worms frozen every other day. Fed reef roids every 3 days now down to every 4 or 5.
My phosphates were around .5 with hanna checker.

I started using rowa phos at recommended dose in bag and not even a smidge movement in the reading, started dosing phosphate e at recommended and not even a smidge, phosphates went to .57

I sometimes dose AB+, PNS pro bio, phyto when I remember.

How can I keep feeding constant or decrease it slightly then start trying to remove phosphates with medias and nothing will change? Its been over a month, does rock leach for that long? Did they absorb that much in 4 months the tank has been up?? Can sump detritus keep it that high even with rowa and phosphate e??

I feel im going crazy

Setup :
53 gal redsea
Chaeto fuge 12 hours
Filter roller
Bare bottom with pumps on the bottom to keep detritus suspended.
Remote sand in sump.
Skimmer

The media could be used up quickly or acting very slowly because it is in a bag and not a reactor.

You can check the bag by placing it in a sample of aquarium water, a small bucket should work. There has to be some gentle mixing. After some time passes, maybe an hour or longer, measure the phosphate level in the water sample. If nothing happens the media is exhausted. For good measure repeat the experiment with a fresh bag of media to get a sense of how much time is required to see a drop in phosphate.

 

[VintageReefer]

My tank is 75g with 6 fish and 100+ LPS corals and you are feeding over twice what I feed.

The roids product I’ve sworn off, it’s a phosphate bomb and there are better products specifically without phosphates. Try benefeef

Also, live rock can bind or unbind phosphates for many months

 

[ReeferTCG]

Thanks all!
Ill reduce feedings more and keep checking!
Ill try the bag test in water, how long to leave the bage in sample water would be good?

 

[twentyleagues]

Like others have said Reefroids have a very high phosphate content. Its funny none of my corals will take the rr in even the greediest corals just let go of it after a while. Just eliminating that may help. It will take time to see the phosphate come down. Make sure if not using a reactor for the rowa phos that the bag is in a high flow area. Again as others said it work better in a reactor.

 

[allof fish]

My tank is 75g with 6 fish and 100+ LPS corals and you are feeding over twice what I feed.

The roids product I’ve sworn off, it’s a phosphate bomb and there are better products specifically without phosphates. Try benefeef

Also, live rock can bind or unbind phosphates for many months

I agree although my corals suck up my nutrients as I have a pretty heavy coral to fish load right now. Nitrates sitting at 6 and phosphate.02 as of yesterday. When it gets that low for me I like to broadcast feed reef roids to bring phosphates up. Especially with my sps I don’t like phosphates too low. You can always add more food but overfeeding a lot is much more difficult to control after the fact

 

[get-salty]

im not going to say its your heavy handed on the feedings** lol
but def the Roids. 100%
tbh i got dizzy for 2 sec reading your daily routine : p

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

At 0.57 ppm phosphate, GFO will be depleted quite fast. Maybe less than a day if flow through it is good.

 

[Reeferbadness]

I have a 180g tank with a chaeto fuge with lots of fish and packed with coral (mixed reef 5 years old) - Phos sometimes goes from .08 to .15 or so and i add some Rowa Phos in a bag and put inside a filter sock - this usually brings down the Phos pretty quickly. Note that it is helpful to stimulate / move around the Rowa Phos a little every couple of days

 

[BryanM]

Besides appearing to over feed, reefroids is definitely your other problem.

 

[ReeferTCG]

Thanks for all the feedback and great discussion! Ill dial down on the feeding for sure and change rowa more often.

It was just a bit confusing how with or without phosphate removing strategies (gfo/phosphate e) and also lowering feeding… the phosphates on hanna checker were steady staying high.

But from what I am hearing is rocks could leach back to the water for much more than a month or 2.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

But from what I am hearing is rocks could leach back to the water for much more than a month or 2.

The time depends on how fast you are pulling it down. It would be just days at most if you very aggressively pulled it down. It's not like its a super slow process.

But you might need to remove many times the level you detect in the water.

 

[ReeferTCG]

thanks @Randy Holmes-Farley!! Ill report back If I get a handle on it.

 

[ReeferTCG]

Found out, it was the bubble trap collecting gunk, po4 now going down as expected

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Glad things are seeming better. :)