Changing rock due to phosphate?

[Shayneoc]

hi everyone.

For the past 6 months my phosphate has been increasing rapidly and is stable at around 0.42.

Every other day there is build up of dark cloudy stuff on my glass and I've tried absolutely everything from all media to reactors 100% water changes but nothing seems to work. My last option is to remove the old rock and put some fresh lot in?

I've been told that the rock I have is the course of my phosphate, is this true? Can live rock really kill your water?

The rock has been in there for 6 years and last year the tank crashed due to phosphate as wasn't been looked after and the build up was rank.

New rock?

 

[mfinn]

http://www.melevsreef.com/blog/video-how-dose-phosphate-rx-03132017

 

[brandon429]

I blame the sandbed not the rock. is this bare bottom

 

[five.five-six]

Unless you address the root of the problem you will just have phosphate saturated rock again in 6 months after taking a drastic action now.

 

[mfinn]

I've been told that the rock I have is the course of my phosphate, is this true?

How did you figure that out?

 

[landlocked303]

hi everyone.

For the past 6 months my phosphate has been increasing rapidly and is stable at around 0.42.

Every other day there is build up of dark cloudy stuff on my glass and I've tried absolutely everything from all media to reactors 100% water changes but nothing seems to work. My last option is to remove the old rock and put some fresh lot in?

I've been told that the rock I have is the course of my phosphate, is this true? Can live rock really kill your water?

The rock has been in there for 6 years and last year the tank crashed due to phosphate as wasn't been looked after and the build up was rank.

New rock?

What rock are you using? What sand are you using? How long have both been in the tank?

 

[Shayneoc]

http://www.melevsreef.com/blog/video-how-dose-phosphate-rx-03132017

Really?!!

 

[Shayneoc]

What rock are you using? What sand are you using? How long have both been in the tank?

Sand is old been in there 6 years. Rock is the same been there all this time and it's live rock too. I recently added one bag of Red Sea live sand.

The rock has algae growing on it too.
Sand bed is about 2" deep. Shall I remove the rock and sand add new lot?

 

[Shayneoc]

How did you figure that out?

After trying everything possible to remove this po4 I had to ring a few aquarium shops and get their advice. I was speaking to one fella who said he had the same problem. What he did was remove one piece of rock into a large bucket with fresh water mixed up obviously same as his aquarium left it for 5 days and tested the water for po4 and was stunned to see that just one rock let off loads of phosphate so knew the problem was rock?

I have reactors running and carbon and filter pads and nopox, that phosphate RX seems to just mask the problem and as my opinion tells me that if it is the rock giving me phos then I need to remove it and remove the sand too?

Getting boring now actually losing interest as I'm spending so much money nothing is working!!

 

[mfinn]

Really?!!

yeah really

 

[Shayneoc]

yeah really

This will just take it out of the water though right not from where it's coming from?

 

[brandon429]

Not po4 in the rock
keep that rock
see the article here on r2r called tanks of the masters, that po4 is no issue and the sand is its greatest locus in your tank.

its aged good rock

those low level algae growths are because its not in the ocean, where a parrotfish or turtle would make quick work.

Your tank is progressing as it should, specifically, for a hands off sandbed technique its 100% on course for that kind of setup, needs a little hand guiding by force.




https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/t...ead-aka-one-against-many.230281/#post-2681445




your tank can be fixed 100% for sure not needing to know about po4 levels at all./

 

[Rakie]

Unless you address the root of the problem you will just have phosphate saturated rock again in 6 months after taking a drastic action now.

This is important firstly.

Second -- Phosphates aren't the devil. They do *not* stall / ****** SPS growth. That was some bunk from a 70's test that has been disputed by new results.

People keep being proud of their 0 no3/po4 tanks and wonder why their corals are paling, bleaching, dying, not thriving, etc etc. It's because you're starving them.

The amount of no3/po4 on reefs is low because the tests specifically test for excess nutrients in the water. The reefs themselves are the largest biomass on earth that actively scrubs and polishes the water -- Looking at global flow dynamics you can see some of the most nutrient rich water on our planet makes its way to the GBR, and actively gets filtered out by the corals who thrive on it.

Nitrates and Phosphates are not the devil. ULNS is the devil.

 

[Shayneoc]

I'm so baffled I really am. Everyone has their own opinions and all swear by their own methods but then someone else will disagree. Bazaar!

Regarding the po4, surely though my numbers are way too high? Algae grows on glass every week and I'm forever cleaning it then the skimmer goes off on one then I forget to check it then spills out over the cup .. fuming!!

Get this though; I used nopox for 3 months straight 10ml a day religiously nitrates was off the chat 100+ now they down to 5/6. The phos didn't really budge!

I should keep the rock? Scrub them in tank water in a separate bucket then lay them back in aquarium and try the phosphate RX?

I'm getting nowhere with this po4, I do a lot of water changes due to it and only thing that happens after that is the rest of water parameters lower so then we have another spike. Not mentioning the Alk is off on one too.

I have set the dosser again with aquaforest component 1,2,3. I have dropped the nopox down to 2mk a day.

 

[brandon429]

How is that po4 impacting your system

What if it's not, due to that one thread about tanks of the Masters and their readings are double

above, we document sand bed cleaning in several large and small setups. we can predict when and where a cycle will occur with 100% precision such that no tank losses occur in the thread. if you clean that sandbed out, the bulk of your issues w po4 as a feed source will stop. whether or not it liberates out of the rock as quick ranges tank to tank, but that sb is your major sink. the rock detritus would have been flushed out in the cleaning we show, and that's when the algae would have been killed as well, using no form of nutrient control other than the big cleaning.

 

[tankstudy]

hi everyone.

For the past 6 months my phosphate has been increasing rapidly and is stable at around 0.42.

Every other day there is build up of dark cloudy stuff on my glass and I've tried absolutely everything from all media to reactors 100% water changes but nothing seems to work. My last option is to remove the old rock and put some fresh lot in?

I've been told that the rock I have is the course of my phosphate, is this true? Can live rock really kill your water?

The rock has been in there for 6 years and last year the tank crashed due to phosphate as wasn't been looked after and the build up was rank.

New rock?

What do you currently have in the tank? Fish & Coral wise. If you have these living things, what's your feeding schedule?

I also think your still suffering from the crash. 6 years is quite an accumulation of bio-blocks. It may appear futile but scientifically, if you keep removing the phosphates at a higher rate than it is introduced in to the system, it will eventually come down but it can take awhile, especially in your case since you have so much.

You could remove the rocks and sand but that's possibly going to remove a portion of your biofilter which could result in another crash for you.

Was a bit confused on what you were saying about the crash but it was due to negligence of the tank and not because of P04, correct?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

There is no doubt whatsoever that in any aquarium with elevated phosphate, there is a lot of phosphate bound to calcium carbonate surfaces of any kind exposed to the water.

If you try to reduce the phosphate in the water in any way (water changes, GFO, lanthanum, etc.), some of the phosphate will come off the rock and "refill" what was in the water. Not quite back to where it was, but enough that it makes lowering the levels quite a bit harder.

In an aquarium that has been around for 6 years, the rock is not a significant primary source of the elevated phosphate. It helps keep it up, but if something in the tank was consuming phosphate for 6 years, it would have long been depleted.

The primary source (assuming you are not using tap water) is almost certainly foods. ALL foods contain a lot of phosphate, and it ends up in the water whether the food is eaten or not.

The goal is to balance the export with the imports from foods to equilibrate at a level you are happy with.

 

[five.five-six]

Like randy was saying, your aquarium is for the most part a closed system. The only way anything gets in the tank, other than what comes out of the air, is by you putting it there. Neither rock nor sand can generate phosphate from whole cloth. It can only store it.

It's a simple matter of import and export. Or feeding and skimming/GFO/WCs

 

[Saltman Thomas]

hi everyone.

For the past 6 months my phosphate has been increasing rapidly and is stable at around 0.42.

Every other day there is build up of dark cloudy stuff on my glass and I've tried absolutely everything from all media to reactors 100% water changes but nothing seems to work. My last option is to remove the old rock and put some fresh lot in?

I've been told that the rock I have is the course of my phosphate, is this true? Can live rock really kill your water?

The rock has been in there for 6 years and last year the tank crashed due to phosphate as wasn't been looked after and the build up was rank.

New rock?

One word! One product! CHEMI PURE! Works like magic!

 

[StrangeDejavu]

I blame the sandbed not the rock.

+1. I had a lot of phosphate issues at the start of my tank, had a fish die and go undiscovered during a blackout. The hair algae completely covered the rock sand bed pumps back wall, you name it. I fought it for months and months. When I moved, I replaced the sand bed and about a month later, all traces of hair algae in my tank was gone. I tried feeding every other day, rinsing the frozen food, Vibrant, etc but none of it worked because the sandbed was acting as a sponge. Give it a try before you ditch that rock.