HELP Phosphates!!

[Turnage]

Please help. My phosphates are rapidly increasing and i can't seem to stop it. Yesterday they were .18ppm and now this morning they are .36ppm (Hanna checker). I did a 15% water change yesterday. Where are these phosphates coming from? Should i back off feeding? 2 weeks ago my phosphates were 0 to .02 for the longest time. My tank setup is the following:

32g biocube (almost 6 months old)
InTank media basket (with Chaeto, PhosGuard and biomedia)
Skimmer
UV light
Wavemaker power heads.
25lbs rock
1/2 inch sand bed

pH: 8.0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrates: 5
Phosphate: .36
Salinity: 1.026
Alkalinity: 9

LiveStock
Snowflake clown
Midas Bleeny
Watchman Goby
Firefish
Cardinalfish
5 small hermits
6 snails

Coral:
Zoa's
Arco's
Hammerhead
GSP

 

[SPR1968]

I would cut back on feeding if you have started to increase the amounts and maybe do some more water changes

Also take a look at the type of food your using as some will contain higher levels of nutrients

There are other ways but in a tank that size water changes are probably the easiest way to bring levels down.

 

[Turnage]

I would cut back on feeding if you have started to increase the amounts and maybe do some more water changes

Also take a look at the type of food your using as some will contain higher levels of nutrients

There are other ways but in a tank that size water changes are probably the easiest way to bring levels down.

Should i do a 50% water change or will that be too much of a shock for the coral?

 

[W1ngz]

When's the last time you replaced the phosguard and rinsed out the detritus from the biomedia?

You might try adding a little more phosguard in place of the biomedia, in addition to water changes. With a reasonable amount of live rock in the tank, the biomedia doesn't add a whole lot of value to the system. Cut back the phosguard again when the levels are under control.

 

[MichaelP121579]

Mine were at 1.04 in my 30 jbj AIO I did a 15 gallon water change and then a 10 gallon water change, I'm waiting for reagents to come to recheck, I've got brown hair alge growing out of control

 

[SPR1968]

Should i do a 50% water change or will that be too much of a shock for the coral?

I wouldn’t do that much no, just regular 10-20% should bring it down and won’t affect water parameters to much

Also have a think and see if you have changed something, type of food etc.

Also make sure the water your using for water changes is 0 TDS RODI water before adding the salt

 

[4ddiction]

Run some gfo

 

[Turnage]

When's the last time you replaced the phosguard and rinsed out the detritus from the biomedia?

You might try adding a little more phosguard in place of the biomedia, in addition to water changes. With a reasonable amount of live rock in the tank, the biomedia doesn't add a whole lot of value to the system. Cut back the phosguard again when the levels are under control.

Phoseguard is about 5 days old and I added more this morning. Biomedia is about a month old and i have never rinsed it. I will remove the biomedia and see if that helps.

 

[W1ngz]

Phoseguard is about 5 days old and I added more this morning. Biomedia is about a month old and i have never rinsed it. I will remove the biomedia and see if that helps.

If it's only 5 days old you should be ok. Cut feeding a LOT for a day or two and re-test. Also, did anything die? Are the nitrates increasing as well, or have they usually been stable around 5?

 

[Turnage]

If it's only 5 days old you should be ok. Cut feeding a LOT for a day or two and re-test. Also, did anything die? Are the nitrates increasing as well, or have they usually been stable around 5?

I did have a 2.5 inch clam die (foot fell off) about 2 weeks ago but nitrates have been around 0-5 consistently.

 

[ScottB]

I'll put this out there just in case. Good on you for having a trusted checker for measuring PO4. Hanna is the best. But it can also be the noisiest if the inside and outside of both cuvettes are not PERFECTLY clean.

I spent a month battling dinos so I was dosing & testing PO4 every day. As my process got better, my results got smoother.

a) handle cuvettes with nitrile gloves only
b) thoroughly wipe down both cuvettes before they go in the egg
c) rinse well with RODI water after each test and wipe down

This process significantly reduced test error/noise for me.

 

[Porpoise Hork]

Check your source water. A couple times a year I get a PO4 spike from the water supply that manages to make it past the RO/DI and causes the phosphates to creep up and I get a GHA outbreak as a result. I have resorted to putting a small canister of GFO inline after the RO filters and before the DI canisters to remove it. Since doing that the PO4 levels stopped creeping up and all has been well.