Coral phosphate/nitrate

[Ruzoko]

I got some corals recently and acclimated to a 40 gallon, currently, the phosphate is at .51 ppm and nitrates at about 20 ppm (high -_- but the price I pay for using an api test prior to a hanna) oddly....my xenia and firework polyps seem extremely unhappy and haven't opened up since I got them and kinda flop over, yet the Favia, Birdnest, Montipora are happy? I can't figure out what the deal is. Does anyone have some advice? Also, a good way to lower my phosphates without shocking everything (did remove some dry live rock which I think was the culprit for raising phosphate so high)

 

[coralbeauties]

Phos is way way too high. I’m a huge fan of lanthium chloride. Way better then gfo (in my opinion) . Do some searching on here for proper use. One bottle at about 25-30 bucks will last for years!
Wouldn’t think at that level corals will survive for very long
Jeff

 

[PeterC99]

I got some corals recently and acclimated to a 40 gallon, currently, the phosphate is at .51 ppm and nitrates at about 20 ppm (high -_- but the price I pay for using an api test prior to a hanna) oddly....my xenia and firework polyps seem extremely unhappy and haven't opened up since I got them and kinda flop over, yet the Favia, Birdnest, Montipora are happy? I can't figure out what the deal is. Does anyone have some advice? Also, a good way to lower my phosphates without shocking everything (did remove some dry live rock which I think was the culprit for raising phosphate so high)

Are you running a refug with cheato?

 

[Ruzoko]

Are you running a refug with cheato?

Ordered some chaeto that should be here in a few days, so far ive had 0 luck with it. For whatever reason it always dies. Currently fuge is empty so given high phos figured id try chaeto again, also ordered some red razor macro algae

 

[PeterC99]

Chaeto dies in refugium for three reasons, lack of nutrients, lack of flow, or incorrect lighting.

 

[Timfish]

I'd worry more about your nitrates than your phosphates. You might try running Boyd's chemipure Elite, it will lower phospahtes and has GFO and ion exchange beads and will remove a range of compounds. You might find these videos informative:

Forest Rohwer "Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas"

Changing Seas - Mysterious Microbes

Nitrogen cycling in hte coral holobiont

BActeria and Sponges

Richard Ross What's up with phosphate"

 

[Reef and Dive]

Your phos is pretty high, but not sure that is the cause of xenia unhappiness.

Check if alk is also not too high, xenia dislikes that.

I would go GFO for a phos reduction, this is a text on the reason why:

Redfield Ratio Revisited – What are we doing wrong?

Paulo Mallard Scaldaferri, João Carlos Basso, Marcos Augusto Bizeto, Miguel Mies, Roberto Denadai, Junio Melo Introduction Possible applications of the Redfield ratio in the management of the marine aquarium have been discussed over the year. Many have considered that knowledge very helpful...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Ruzoko]

Chaeto dies in refugium for three reasons, lack of nutrients, lack of flow, or incorrect lighting.

Well given phos and nitrate have levels, and usin red sea salt mix id have to assume its gotta be lighting, though my chaeto never seems to tumble just rotate slowly regardless how high i raise my fuge flow

 

[blasterman]

Montipora and birdsnests love phosphate, so there's no surprise there. I would still get it to around .05 at least.

 

[DoninHouston]

I got some corals recently and acclimated to a 40 gallon, currently, the phosphate is at .51 ppm and nitrates at about 20 ppm (high -_- but the price I pay for using an api test prior to a hanna) oddly....my xenia and firework polyps seem extremely unhappy and haven't opened up since I got them and kinda flop over, yet the Favia, Birdnest, Montipora are happy? I can't figure out what the deal is. Does anyone have some advice? Also, a good way to lower my phosphates without shocking everything (did remove some dry live rock which I think was the culprit for raising phosphate so high)

 

[DoninHouston]

I'm a big fan of Red Sea's NOPOX to reduce phosphates. The parameters of my 240 gal mixed reef require about 10 ml/day to maintain the phosphates at .05. I like to keep nitrates at about 5 and occasionally us NeoNitrates to up them because NOPOx tends to take them down. You might also look at how much fish food, even coral food you're adding and how much white light you have in the spectrum. Work slowly, you're not out of control at .5 phosphate, Coral hate change.

 

[Ruzoko]

I'm a big fan of Red Sea's NOPOX to reduce phosphates. The parameters of my 240 gal mixed reef require about 10 ml/day to maintain the phosphates at .05. I like to keep nitrates at about 5 and occasionally us NeoNitrates to up them because NOPOx tends to take them down. You might also look at how much fish food, even coral food you're adding and how much white light you have in the spectrum. Work slowly, you're not out of control at .5 phosphate, Coral hate change.

Yeah thx xD i sadly lost 2 corals in that chaos, oddly it was my xenia and firework polyp rest are peachy nowadays and upgraded lights to ai primes nitrates now float around 5ppm while phosphate is about .5 - .16