Climbing phosphate... Possibly found the culprit

[CourtNjoeZreef]

For the last 2 months or so I have been battling rising phosphate up out of the ultra low range I don't have a high range checker(never thought I would need it. Felt I was doing my due diligence) but it was climbing and I can't seem to get it to go back down. Put Gfo, skimmer even added a refugium chemipure blue. Ect.

Fast forward I'm having issues with water level skimmer over flowing ect. Weird stuff. 6months no issue then this started 2 weeks ago.

So I have a bio brick in my sump that apparently has moved and blocked upa port to the next chamber thus raising the water level in the front by alot. Ran through 2 roller mats due to the sensors being out of whack and it just rolling the whole mat through over night (very costly issue here.. back rolling impossible tried for an hour)

Attached are pictures. I have cause to believe it has clogged with particulates and thus essentially rotting into a nitrate phosphate nuclear generator.

The real question is can I afford to just yank this thing or should I cut it up and slowly get rid of it say quarters at a time to allow bacteria to build elsewhere?

 

[Reef.]

If you have sand and rocks then you can bin it.

You might know but chemi blue doesn’t remove po4, I also don’t think the brick was the cause of your po4, you haven’t given a lot of info, but your po4 could just be releasing from your rock and sand, can do that sometimes, when it does, you literally need to be changing po4 media daily in many cases, again chemi blue wouldn’t t have been helping to do that.

 

[mdb_talon]

If you have sand and rocks then you can bin it.

You might know but chemi blue doesn’t remove po4, I also don’t think the brick was the cause of your po4, you haven’t given a lot of info, but your po4 could just be releasing from your rock and sand, can do that sometimes, when it does, you literally need to be changing po4 media daily in many cases, again chemi blue wouldn’t t have been helping to do that.

Curious on what basis you claim chemipure blue does not reduce phosphates? This goes against everything I have previously heard, personally experienced, and manufacturer claims.

 

[Lavey29]

Curious on what basis you claim chemipure blue does not reduce phosphates? This goes against everything I have previously heard, personally experienced, and manufacturer claims.

I don't believe Chem blue does anything for phosphate either. I run it in my tank now. I did see Chem elite with GFO have some impact on phosphate but I'm not a GFO fan.

 

[Reef.]

Curious on what basis you claim chemipure blue does not reduce phosphates? This goes against everything I have previously heard, personally experienced, and manufacturer claims.

On their own site, it does not mention anything about containing any kind of po4 media, their chemi elite does mention it contains some gfo, but even that only contains a small amount, for a po4 issue, you need to use a stand alone product, not one that is mainly for filtering water, and is designed to stay in the tank for months, gfo needs to be changed daily in many cases, for a po4 issue, until it’s under control.

 

[Lavey29]

On their own site, it does not mention anything about containing any kind of po4 media, their chemi elite does mention it contains some gfo, but even that only contains a small amount, for a po4 issue, you need to use a stand alone product, not one that is mainly for filtering water, and is designed to stay in the tank for months, gfo needs to be changed daily in many cases, for a po4 issue, until it’s under control.

I like phosguard because it walks the phosphate down slowly over days and weeks. Easy to use in the sump.

 

[CourtNjoeZreef]

I do have a sand bed approximately 1" over the whole ground current and fish have moved some but yeah.

Not trying to get into a debate about the product things. Personally it went in for nitrates and kept the ship correct for a while. Then the po4 started climbing with the nitrates in check.

That block I hit it with a hose and man did some crap come out. Hard to think that it wasn't just making po4 and no3.

I was in a good habit of stirring the sand in sectors and that fell out of my schedule at some point. I'm going to gently start that again in hopes of getting the rotten matter out.

That being said I have read trains of thought that advise against stirring the sand up. conflicted. Trying to make small changes as to not make things worse before they get better.

Tank specs are in the build thread btw. & po4 is .9 blinking on the Hanna ULR checker Currently don't have another way to check it at a different range figure I just need to get it back down asap.

This week the Rock started turning green with like a algae that seems to just stick to the rock not like hair algae ect.
Im contributing this symptom to the the po4 hike and subsequent higher then normal No3. seems like a fair trade off to me.

In closing to this chapter I have yanked the block, Fixed my roller mat sensors, and will continue to monitor the levels.

Sorry for creating debate over a product. I felt I was writing more of a candid conversation then a hot potato

 

[Reef.]

I do have a sand bed approximately 1" over the whole ground current and fish have moved some but yeah.

Not trying to get into a debate about the product things. Personally it went in for nitrates and kept the ship correct for a while. Then the po4 started climbing with the nitrates in check.

That block I hit it with a hose and man did some crap come out. Hard to think that it wasn't just making po4 and no3.

I was in a good habit of stirring the sand in sectors and that fell out of my schedule at some point. I'm going to gently start that again in hopes of getting the rotten matter out.

That being said I have read trains of thought that advise against stirring the sand up. conflicted. Trying to make small changes as to not make things worse before they get better.

Tank specs are in the build thread btw. & po4 is .9 blinking on the Hanna ULR checker Currently don't have another way to check it at a different range figure I just need to get it back down asap.

This week the Rock started turning green with like a algae that seems to just stick to the rock not like hair algae ect.
Im contributing this symptom to the the po4 hike and subsequent higher then normal No3. seems like a fair trade off to me.

In closing to this chapter I have yanked the block, Fixed my roller mat sensors, and will continue to monitor the levels.

Sorry for creating debate over a product. I felt I was writing more of a candid conversation then a hot potato

No debate, you said you have a po4 issue, said you used chemi blue, it would have been amiss of me answering your question to not mention chemi blue does not remove po4.