Hey guys, so I tested my phosphates and there at 0 from 0.06 and have been trying to get them up with more feeding but not having any luck. My nitrates are at 5. I don’t run gfo just a refugium with cheato. How can I get my phosphates up? My arcos are looking really dull.
Getting phosphates up
- Thread starter Kimmi2413
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Keep on feeding. Eventually, the aragonite will bind enough phosphate that it will leave some in the water. It can take a while. Once you get to where you want to be, the aragonite can act like a buffer that releases some when the tank gets low and binds more when the level gets higher.
FWIW - 1 to 3 ppb is enough. Remember that throughput is more important than an actual number. 1 ppb on a tank that never gets fed might be a problem, but 1 ppb on a tank that gets 10 cubes of frozen and a bunch of pellets a day is no issue since there is always some around for the corals and stuff to eat up. I am usually about 1-4 ppb - this could all be a testing range error for all that I know.
FWIW - 1 to 3 ppb is enough. Remember that throughput is more important than an actual number. 1 ppb on a tank that never gets fed might be a problem, but 1 ppb on a tank that gets 10 cubes of frozen and a bunch of pellets a day is no issue since there is always some around for the corals and stuff to eat up. I am usually about 1-4 ppb - this could all be a testing range error for all that I know.
That is where the phosphate is going...
Ok, so you have plenty of phosphate then. You need consumers and to remove as much of it as you can manually. How big of a tank do you have?
Ok, so you have plenty of phosphate then. You need consumers and to remove as much of it as you can manually. How big of a tank do you have?
54g rules out rabbitfish, so siphon out as much as you can every day. Let the water sit for a few hours and the algae will float or sink and you can put the rest of the water back into the tank.
Lettuce Nudibranch can work really well, but they might need you to turn down the flow quite a bit for a while and not have any nasty wrasses like 6-line. Mexican Turbos can do a good job too. Urchins. Lawnmower Blenny can do some damage if they will eat it, but sometimes they will not touch it.
I assume that this tank is fairly new? If so, then this might be a several month ordeal. I started a new tank in Feb and it is just now getting out of the ugly algae phase... I used rabbitfish, mexican turbos, lettuce nudis and urchins in addition to routine siphoning. Anything that you do to intervene will put time on the back end until the tank is "ready" and "mature."
Lettuce Nudibranch can work really well, but they might need you to turn down the flow quite a bit for a while and not have any nasty wrasses like 6-line. Mexican Turbos can do a good job too. Urchins. Lawnmower Blenny can do some damage if they will eat it, but sometimes they will not touch it.
I assume that this tank is fairly new? If so, then this might be a several month ordeal. I started a new tank in Feb and it is just now getting out of the ugly algae phase... I used rabbitfish, mexican turbos, lettuce nudis and urchins in addition to routine siphoning. Anything that you do to intervene will put time on the back end until the tank is "ready" and "mature."
Yea tank is 6 months old has been pretty stable then all of a sudden my phosphates show zero and hair algae starts growing out but like u said I’m sure my phosphates are showing zero because of that algae.
DesertReefT4r
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Do a 3 day black out and the algae will die. Keep the fuge going so the algae in there can start to out compete the aglae in the display. After the black out do a large water change to reset the water quality removing the dead hair algae at the same time. After that have a cuc to keep any new algae from getting a foothold. I like to have a variety of different snails.
If you have a ton of algae growing you have phosphates, its just the algae is consuming it out of the water column given you a low reading. If your corals are showing signs of starvation and your sure of this i would feed the corals at night with reef roids or something similar as this will add phosphate but not let the nuisance algae grab it instantly. To combat the algae pick up some astrea, and trochus snails(Quarantine them as not to add more nuisance algae in the system) Imo adding liquid phosphate(flourish) lets the nuisance algae take it in rather than the coral which will just compound your problem.
