Excess phosphates and nutrients

domination2580 · Jun 19, 2016

I have to many phosphates, and nitrates, i have been laying off of feeding, extra water changes, i have a media reactor with seagel in it but doesmt seems to be working. I have been dosing hydrogen peroxide. The 3% topical stuff. About 6ml in a 40b. Need help. H202 isnt working. Do i need stronger doses? Stronger percentage? Or what?

recess62 · Jun 19, 2016

I may be wrong but H2O2 will not bring down your nitrate or phosphate. You need something with a carbon source to feed denitrifying bacteria such as vinegar vodka etc

domination2580 · Jun 19, 2016

recess62 said:
I may be wrong but H2O2 will not bring down your nitrate or phosphate. You need something with a carbon source to feed denitrifying bacteria such as vinegar vodka etc

It was a trial and error thing. I've seen a few posts about it so figured I'd try. No hurt to any corals. Hope much vinegar to a gallon?

melev · Jun 19, 2016

With a 40g breeder setup, I'd suggest a product like NoPox by RedSea instead. It will help get those numbers down quickly.

domination2580 · Jun 20, 2016

melev said:
With a 40g breeder setup, I'd suggest a product like NoPox by RedSea instead. It will help get those numbers down quickly.

I've used it before but takes a lot of it daily. Id rather dose something cheaper like vinegar more. Is vinegar easily dosed and how much to dose?

Clarksski · Jun 20, 2016

Have you tried gfo in a reactor? When my tank was new a few years ago ..I had the same problem. It wasn't till I tried the gfo that I first brought down the phosphate and then the nitrates along with a lot of water changes.

melev · Jun 20, 2016

domination2580 said:
I've used it before but takes a lot of it daily. Id rather dose something cheaper like vinegar more. Is vinegar easily dosed and how much to dose?

The thing about vinegar dosing is it will be like vodka dosing. You have to follow a very precise schedule, adding a fraction (1ml) of more vinegar each week. It's a slow method. Vinegar, Vodka, Sugar dosing all work, but they are a patience game. I did vodka dosing for three years. It took 7 months to hit the proper amount, but when I finally nailed the tipping point the nitrates dropped like a rock. I hope you'll do some serious reading and not just dump in x-amount and hope it works. Here's my Vodka dosing article just to give you something for now (I never dosed vinegar): http://melevsreef.com/node/184

Sabellafella · Jun 20, 2016

melev said:
The thing about vinegar dosing is it will be like vodka dosing. You have to follow a very precise schedule, adding a fraction (1ml) of more vinegar each week. It's a slow method. Vinegar, Vodka, Sugar dosing all work, but they are a patience game. I did vodka dosing for three years. It took 7 months to hit the proper amount, but when I finally nailed the tipping point the nitrates dropped like a rock. I hope you'll do some serious reading and not just dump in x-amount and hope it works. Here's my Vodka dosing article just to give you something for now (I never dosed vinegar): http://melevsreef.com/node/184

I used to dose 50%methanol and 50% ro water (racing fuel). Its funny you say this because i didnt see results either for just about 7 months. But i did start very slow, upping 1ml per week

Alanc425 · Jun 20, 2016

You could also try biopellets, they work on the same principle but are more "set it and forget it" after ramping up the amount of pellets slowly.

domination2580 · Jun 20, 2016

I'm ordering phosban today. Anyone have experience with phosban?

Clarksski · Jun 20, 2016

Phosban didn't do much for my phosphate problem. It might keep them inline once you get them under control but to actually bring high phosphates down it didn't do the trick. Gfo is the way to go...IMOIMO

Clarksski · Jun 20, 2016

Sabellafella... Dosing racing fuel??

That's a new one to me!!!

Waxhaw reefer · Jun 21, 2016

Is ur tank old?? Live rock? Doesn't matter the phosphate leaches out of the rock for a while even a year, just keep water changes and a phosphate remover, have patience it will come!

Torqued · Jun 21, 2016

Heidi Clark said:
Phosban didn't do much for my phosphate problem. It might keep them inline once you get them under control but to actually bring high phosphates down it didn't do the trick. Gfo is the way to go...IMOIMO

Phosaban IS GFO........

domination2580 said:
I'm ordering phosban today. Anyone have experience with phosban?

Torqued · Jun 21, 2016

Waxhaw reefer said:
Is ur tank old?? Live rock? Doesn't matter the phosphate leaches out of the rock for a while even a year, just keep water changes and a phosphate remover, have patience it will come!

GFO plus vodka dosing etc will absolutely work. Yes it takes time, but that is perfectly fine. Stripping all PO4 from the water in a few days would likely kill stuff anyway. Nothing good happens overnight in this hobby. About the only thing I would suggest instant reaction to would be ammonia. Pretty much everything else should be adjusted slow to avoid harsh reaction from the corals

MikeyAl · Jun 21, 2016

NOPOX is easy. Try it- long term run gfo, get an ATs, or macro algae.
Plus maintain good water change regiment.
You are good to go.

saltyfilmfolks · Jun 21, 2016

refugium. Ats. its really the easiest.
get the funk and exess detritus out with a sock or mechanical filters. Sock sponge, sorry it really works better then a skimmer on large particles.
from what I understand from Randy F on nopox it is carbon dosing.

MikeyAl · Jun 21, 2016

saltyfilmfolks said:
refugium. Ats. its really the easiest.
get the funk and exess detritus out with a sock or mechanical filters. Sock sponge, sorry it really works better then a skimmer on large particles.
from what I understand from Randy F on nopox it is carbon dosing.

Yup. It is carbon dosing - for my mind it is easier than vodka or vinegar -just follow the directions- no calculations.

And yes, you need a skimmer.

I am a big fan of the ATS.

domination2580 · Jun 21, 2016

I have a skimmer, don't have a sump currently, looking at making the system larger, connecting more tanks amd a big sump. I have a media reactor on right now. Ive been trying the peroxide dosing and isn't really working. I spotted my coral in peroxide, the gha came straight off bit now back to having the same problem

MikeyAl · Jun 22, 2016

domination2580 said:
I have a skimmer, don't have a sump currently, looking at making the system larger, connecting more tanks amd a big sump. I have a media reactor on right now. Ive been trying the peroxide dosing and isn't really working. I spotted my coral in peroxide, the gha came straight off bit now back to having the same problem

Okay. Peroxide IMO is not the answer. If you have a media reactor get some GFO. Go ahead and get some NOPOX. The GFO is longer term solution - run it regularly. The NOPOX will help immediately. What are you parameters right now?