Gha comes back every 2 weeks

Reefthedayaway · Jun 14, 2019

Another thing is flow. Not enough of it will allow it to grow.

saullman · Jun 14, 2019

SPR1968 said:
You can get a TDS meter for very cheap, you don’t need anything expensive and it’s vital to know the quality of the water your using. It’s one of the basics of reef keeping and this could be a source of your issues.

Rhowaphos is GFO and is best used in a reactor. When you first use it you need to change it very frequently, maybe weekly, as it removes the phosphate which will be tied up in the system. If you don’t it won’t work as it will become exhausted. It won’t work very well in a bag or anything other than a reactor. It needs changing as soon as the phosphate level increases on the reactor output and a good target for phosphate is very low at 0.03ppm once you get everything sorted out.

As your nitrates are fine, I would suggest the cause of the problem is probably phosphate and whilst you can treat it with GFO, you need to find out and eliminate and major things that are raising it, or like me keep running rhowaphos 24/7.

You can probably leave Nopox for the time being as your nitrate levels seem fine.

I don't have a reactor, nor can I afford one right now. So should I just use the rowaphos in the bag? If I do, how would I know when it is exhausted. I can test for it because my phosphates are always at 0.

saullman · Jun 14, 2019

Reefthedayaway said:
How old is your system? Going by the lighting schedule it doesn't seem like your tank is getting a lot of light. I'm no expert but I think not enough light can cause algae outbreaks just as much as too much light. Also I wouldn't waste my time anymore with rowaphos I've never had good results with it. I've been running cheap phosphate sponges for well over a year now and my po4 is never above 0.02. They are only about £4 each and they last for months. Also how much do you feed and what do you feed with?

That's interesting about my lighting schedule. Do you think I should increase all my percentages?

What kind of phosphate sponges do you recommend?

I am feeding only frozen. LRS. A very small amount since I only have 2 small fish.

saullman · Jun 14, 2019

Reefthedayaway said:
Another thing is flow. Not enough of it will allow it to grow.

I am using an MP10 in a 45 gallon.

Reefthedayaway · Jun 15, 2019

saullman said:
That's interesting about my lighting schedule. Do you think I should increase all my percentages?

What kind of phosphate sponges do you recommend?

I am feeding only frozen. LRS. A very small amount since I only have 2 small fish.

For the lighting you have to think about how much light a reef gets in the wild I run my blues and uv 100% ( I'm experimenting with the uv at the moment for other reasons and it's only 50%) for flow, I'm I right in thinking you have a 250 litre? I have a 3ft 300litre (65 gals, I think) and I have my flow, at the moment at around 6000 lph. A smaller tank would take a lot less. What size is your wavemaker? Phosphate sponge on ebay I'll upload a pic of the 1s I use if your not in the UK you probably won't get the same 1s, I don't know. But what I will say is they work for "ME" and they might not be for everyone. You might think they are wick the sameway I think rowaphos is. And another thing strain your frozen foods and if you don't use a full cube if you haven't a lot of fish they are considered full of phosphate. I would only use them 2 or 3 times a week max. I buy fresh prawns and freeze them to use for my nems and I feed them to my fish aswell. Get some quality flake, pellets and algae based sheets.