Help! Cannot Lower Phosphates!

[JiminyCat]

Hi everyone. Today is the one month anniversary of my 30g mixed reef tank. Here are my parameters:
Temp= 78F
Salinity= 1.024
KH= 179
NO3= 10
PO4= .42
Ca= 660

Below. Please see a pic of the tank. While I don't have an enormous algae issue, I'm striving to get my PO4 down to .05 or lower. I have a phosban 150 reactor running (for about a week now) with Pura PhosLock. On Monday I did a >30% water change and this morning I did another just a bit > 30%. I use RODI water testing at zero TDS and zero PH4. With this mornings water change, the phosphates dropped from .47. I'm also experiencing a bit of a diatom bloom it seems. Should I add some bacteria or dose something to boost the bacteria I have? Feeding is minimal as I see the clowns eat all but three or four grains I see blown into the rock. Any other suggestions?

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[CrazyEyes]

You could try RowaPhos.

 

[jedidad]

Did you cycle the tank before adding fish? Diatoms are normal in the early stages of a tank and should go away with time. Phosphates may still be leaching out of the rock if it wasn't cured before being added to the tank. Keep running Gfo and keep up with the water changes and you should see the phosphates come down as they get depleted from the rock. It may take a little while though.


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[JiminyCat]

Thanks Crazy and Jedidad. Tank had cycled before adding the two clowns. I also forgot to mention I've been running an eshopps PSK75 skimmer from the get-go. Is it safe to add zoas or mushrooms with algae present? Today I found a few teeny tiny feather dusters on some live rock and one black one on the shell of my one Star Astraea snail. Pretty cool but an eye strain!


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[jedidad]

I think you would be ok. Try a cheap mushroom first. They are pretty bullet proof


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[CrazyEyes]

Zoas will grow in anything short of radioactive waste. I think you'd be fine.

 

[CrazyEyes]

Wait, your Ca is 660? Which means your Mag is probably high too and you're still dealing with algea? That's pretty high for Ca. Also, your sand bed looks quite deep. What is that substrate in the middle?

 

[Jgomez324]

I started running Ecobak Bio pellets I was at .29 now I stay at .02-.03...

 

[CrazyEyes]

Biopellets are great, if you're running a skimmer. Jiminy, are you skimming at all?

 

[beaslbob]

IMHO the best sink for phosphates is macro algae.

my .02

 

[KoleTang]

PO4x4 works amazingly at lowering phosphate. Then I use BRS GFO to hold it in place.

 

[JiminyCat]

Crazy- the sand is about 2-3" on each side sloping down to crushed coral & shell in the middle. I am skimming and have been from the start. Skimmate generally looks like muddy brownish green tea with particles floating in it. If I use pellets, do I have to buy a separate reactor for it or can I put it in the Phosban with the GFO media? If I had the money, I'd do a refugium, but cannot do that at the moment.


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[CoryC]

refugium's are overrated. unless you have one nearly half the size of your display they don't do much other than provide food. i'd say it's leaching from your rock. GFO in a reactor is your best bet. Phosban=GFO.

 

[JiminyCat]

Cory- my GFO reactor is doing very little, if anything at all. I even tried changing out the media after a week of running it! Right now it seems like wasted money. Maybe I need to run a new brand of GFO like Phosban?


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[CoryC]

Could be a number of things, perhaps it's keeping your phosphate from rising higher than it is, you can add more media, up the flow to get it "boiling" more as well as doing regular water changes.

 

[CrazyEyes]

^ That's exactly what I was going to say, even if it's keeping your po4 it's doing somewhat of it's job but just as he said, there needs to be enough GFO to handle the volume. I'd add more before I turned it up honestly. And I agree with Cory 100% regarding refugiums, they work great and proven but just like anything else, if it's not big enough it's not going be effective. You need enough macro and/or chaeto to consume the nitrates depending on much water you have. I honestly think unless you can run a big fuge then you're better off running some sort of carbon dosing i.e pellets, nopox, vodka etc. I'd also remove the crushed coral you have your tank asap.

 

[Mike&Terry]

You may want to test the effluent coming out of your reactor. If the Po4 is lower coming out of the reactor then it is doing it's job. If not, either the media is spent or the flow rate is too high.

 

[JiminyCat]

Thanks everyone! Crazy- why remove the crushed coral & shell mix? It was sold that way... I had it in storage for almost 12 years, figured I might as well use it. There's also a layer of it under the live sand bed.


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[CrazyEyes]

Crushed coral can have high levels of precipitated phosphates.

 

[JiminyCat]

Will it eventually precipitate out? I'd have to tear down the entire tank to remove it and endure another cycle. Ugh!


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