Could somebody recommend a regime? I am fighting phosphates Help!

[Aqua Man]

Nitrates and phosphate are the building blocks for life.
when one or both get to 0, undesirable life can start taking over.

your tank looks nice. I’d follow the others recommendations of minimal maintenance. Let your reef mature. Your coral looks healthy! Patience, good thing happen slow in a reef.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

thanks, could you or others please explain why I need to raise my nitrates?

If nutrients are too low you risk starving photosynthetic organisms and getting problem dinos. The most recently reported levels are fine.

 

[Steph1]

Thanks Randy and Aquaman I was aware if the need for some level of phosphates and nitrates. But belived the levels should be ideally less than P.o4 and No3 greater than 5ppm.
I think that is correct but perhaps just newbie Paranoia about trying to hit the target too quikly. I will just take things a little slower now, learning something new (x5) everyday

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks Randy I was aware if the need for some level of phosphates and nitrates. but belived the levels should be ideally less than P.o4 and No3 greater than 5ppm.
I think that is correct but perhaps just newbie Paranoia about trying to hit the target too quikly. I will just take things a little slower now, learning somethig new (x5) everyday

My suggested targets are 0.02 to 0.05 ppm phosphate and 2 to 10 ppm nitrate. Higher than that is better than lower. Some very nice tanks can have very high nutrients (100 ppm nitrate and 1 ppm phosphate), especially if you have good herbivore fish to keep algae in check.

 

[Steph1]

My suggested targets are 0.02 to 0.05 ppm phosphate and 2 to 10 ppm nitrate. Higher than that is better than lower. Some very nice tanks can have very high nutrients (100 ppm nitrate and 1 ppm phosphate), especially if you have good herbivore fish to keep algae in check.

Thanks randy but no herbivore fish as the tank is only 16 Gal and so I think 2 clowns and maybe 1 shrimp will be it for me. I suppose the cleaner shrimp would work?

 

[spacey]

Yes, that makes it far better than the vodka and vinegar equivalent DIY. lol

You can also get high just smelling this stuff NoPox)

 

[Steph1]

Hi guys thought I would post a video of how my tank is looking at the 5 week mark. I also posted the vid on my build thread so you can see how my livestock is doing

 

[Bleigh]

Same issue. Phosphates out the wazoo. I realized they were in my rodi water so I upgraded to a 7 stage. I added a GFO and carbon reactor to the tank and started dosing Phosphate-E until it was low enough to leave it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Same issue. Phosphates at the wazoo. I released they were in my rodi water so I upgraded to a 7 stage. I added a GFO and carbon reactor to the tank and started dosing Phosphate-E until it was low enough to leave it.

While straight tap water can be a huge source of phosphate, folks often misunderstand how much phosphate is in "bad" RO/DI water. It is rarely a significant source relative to foods.

I show that here:

Aquarium Chemistry: Phosphate And Math: Yes You Need To Understand Both

Foods are by far the most important source of phosphate in most aquariums. In considering whether sources of phosphate other than foods are important, one must carefully look to the actual amounts involved to determine whether other sources are even worth trying to minimize.

reefs.com

from it:

Comparison of Food Sources of Phosphate to Other Sources
What about other sources of phosphate, like the “crappy” RO/DI water containing 0.05 ppm phosphate? A similar analysis will show it equally unimportant relative to foods.

Let’s assume that the aquarist in question adds 1% of the total tank volume each day with RO/DI to replace evaporation. Simple math shows that the 0.05 ppm in the RO/DI becomes 0.0005 ppm added each day to the phosphate concentration in the aquarium. That dilution step is critical, taking a scary number like 0.05 ppm down to an almost meaningless 0.0005 ppm daily addition. Since that 0.0005 ppm is 40-600 times lower than the amount added each day in foods (Table 4), it does not seem worthy of the angst many aquarists put on such measurements. That said, tap water could have as much as 5 ppm phosphate, and that value could then become a dominating source of phosphate and would be quite problematic. Purifying tap water is important for this and many other reasons.

 

[Bleigh]

While straight tap water can be a huge source of phosphate, folks often misunderstand how much phosphate is in "bad" RO/DI water. It is rarely a significant source relative to foods.

I show that here:

Aquarium Chemistry: Phosphate And Math: Yes You Need To Understand Both

Foods are by far the most important source of phosphate in most aquariums. In considering whether sources of phosphate other than foods are important, one must carefully look to the actual amounts involved to determine whether other sources are even worth trying to minimize.

reefs.com

from it:

Comparison of Food Sources of Phosphate to Other Sources
What about other sources of phosphate, like the “crappy” RO/DI water containing 0.05 ppm phosphate? A similar analysis will show it equally unimportant relative to foods.

Let’s assume that the aquarist in question adds 1% of the total tank volume each day with RO/DI to replace evaporation. Simple math shows that the 0.05 ppm in the RO/DI becomes 0.0005 ppm added each day to the phosphate concentration in the aquarium. That dilution step is critical, taking a scary number like 0.05 ppm down to an almost meaningless 0.0005 ppm daily addition. Since that 0.0005 ppm is 40-600 times lower than the amount added each day in foods (Table 4), it does not seem worthy of the angst many aquarists put on such measurements. That said, tap water could have as much as 5 ppm phosphate, and that value could then become a dominating source of phosphate and would be quite problematic. Purifying tap water is important for this and many other reasons.

My tank’s total water volume is about 60-70 gallons, but I may be over estimating. It evaporates about 7 liters every 2-3 days. I don’t think what was in the RODI water would have been an issue until I started feeding heavier to get rid of a cyano bloom. After the phosphates got up from that, no amount of water changes seemed to make a dent in the nutrients. I honestly think it was the addition of reactors and use of phosphate-e that got it down. But it makes it harder to combat the nutrients when you’re adding them with water changes and top offs, not just with food. I still need it to come down some, but slow and steady wins the race, right?

 

[Karen00]

Hi guys thought I would post a video of how my tank is looking at the 5 week mark. I also posted the vid on my build thread so you can see how my livestock is doing

This is looking really good!!! Congrats on getting this far!! I'm still in the fact gathering stage for my first sw tank so hopefully soon I can post something like yours!

 

[Steph1]

Thanks Karen, just the fact that you are "fact gathering" I think means you will have success. When I go to a marine aquarium shop I sometimes overhear somebody buying a marine setup and the shop assisant is trying to explain the nitrogen cycle to deaf ears and the client is only interested in getting the aesthetic into there lounge room! I have to admit it has been more work than I expected (X5) to get it to this stage and I am aware that I still have a long way to go.
Good luck and happy reefing

 

[rmurken]

Edit: realized I missed the other 2/3 of this thread and am late to the party. Good luck!
—-
+1 for not dosing nitrates or chasing NO3/PO4 numbers in a new tank. .23 PO4/0 NO3 isn’t anything to get alarmed about, and even more so with a new tank, where the microbiology is still in massive flux.

Next thing from a PO4 standpoint would be to get your skimmer dialed in and producing skimmate. Hopefully you’ll find in time that you don’t need the PhosGuard. (You might get away with not using it now.)

In a 16G tank with coral in it, the more important parameters to adjust/maintain are Ca and Alk. That’s where I’d focus in the short term.

 

[Steph1]

Edit: realized I missed the other 2/3 of this thread and am late to the party. Good luck!
—-
+1 for not dosing nitrates or chasing NO3/PO4 numbers in a new tank. .23 PO4/0 NO3 isn’t anything to get alarmed about, and even more so with a new tank, where the microbiology is still in massive flux.

Next thing from a PO4 standpoint would be to get your skimmer dialed in and producing skimmate. Hopefully you’ll find in time that you don’t need the PhosGuard. (You might get away with not using it now.)

In a 16G tank with coral in it, the more important parameters to adjust/maintain are Ca and Alk. That’s where I’d focus in the short term.

 

[Steph1]

Thanks for your reply mate0.23 is not the end of the world but this started (The thread) when my Hanna tester showed my Phosphate was in exess of 1.0 as thats as far as the tester goes. I now have it down to 0.15 and counting.

 

[ScottB]

My tank’s total water volume is about 60-70 gallons, but I may be over estimating. It evaporates about 7 liters every 2-3 days. I don’t think what was in the RODI water would have been an issue until I started feeding heavier to get rid of a cyano bloom. After the phosphates got up from that, no amount of water changes seemed to make a dent in the nutrients. I honestly think it was the addition of reactors and use of phosphate-e that got it down. But it makes it harder to combat the nutrients when you’re adding them with water changes and top offs, not just with food. I still need it to come down some, but slow and steady wins the race, right?

Yes, you said wrote it. Slow and steady. If you go too quick OR too far with PO4 removal, you will be joining me over in the dinoflagellate thread along with a thousand others.

 

[Steph1]

Dino's? I have bits of kind of brown spots and. It kind of glues the sand in a slime and clumps the sand particles, ATM they are about the size of 2 or 3 match heads in vulume............Dino's is my bet.........is it Dinos and what action should I take please

 

[Aqua Man]

Most likely it’s Diatoms.
Dino comes when PO4 is 0 for too long. Those undesirable life forms that were mentioned.

 

[Steph1]

Thanks Aqua Man, I have heard horrible stories about Dino's and thanks for the rapid reply
Just ride it out?
(Edited) OK it is making more sense to me now, is it true to say that Dino's ONLY photosynthise. Therfore raising Nitrates and PO4 will allow for the growth of other Dino pathogens and the dino's are taking advantage of 0 nutrients because of the fact that they only photosynthisise?

 

[Snoopdog]

Yes, you said wrote it. Slow and steady. If you go too quick OR too far with PO4 removal, you will be joining me over in the dinoflagellate thread along with a thousand others.

Exactly.