High Phosphate Issue and suggestions for help.

[trsmith18]

Ive had my tank running for +5 months and was testing it weekly using Hannah Phosphate and Nitrate testers. All was looking great, honestly corals never looked better, but I tested on 5/31 and my phosphate was .26ppm!

I couldn't believe it as everything looked great as far as polyp extension on my neon toadstool, zoas and indo torch. Well as a response to this I did a 25% water change on 6/4 and a 30% water change and put a small bag of Phosguard into my media tray on 6/10. This brought the phosphate levels down to .22ppm and then .11ppm, respectively.

Well now my torches won't extend, no polyps on the toadstool and half the zoas aren't open. I thought that the Phosguard might be causing issues so I removed it and did a 20% water change on 6/19. Just tested my phosphate level again and its at .18ppm. what the heck!!! My corals still look unhappier than when they were bathing in high phosphate water.

Some background...system is currently fallow as Im treating my fish for ich in a quarantine system. I feed 2-3 pellets Hikari seaweed extreme every 2-3 days to my shrimp. Currently have a very small refugium in the back chamber of my 29g Biocube. have a handful of cerith and bumble bee snails and one conch. Water is RO/DI and 0 TDS

What could be the cause of this phosphate issue? Is it possible by refugee is leeching phosphates even though it appears green and healthy? I did have a trochus snail die a week or so back?

Nitrates have never been about 10ppm and testing today was 3.1ppm. Really at a loss and im worried my toadstool and torch will eventually die if I can't figure this out.

 

[fish farmer]

This is why many say not to chase numbers. Your coral were probably getting used to that high number and you changed too quickly.

 

[trsmith18]

This is why many say not to chase numbers. Your coral were probably getting used to that high number and you changed too quickly.

I see. Any ideas on why my phosphate would be so elevated?

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

I see. Any ideas on why my phosphate would be so elevated?

Over feeding...something died.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Best bet- Bring it down gradually by adding a pouch of ChemiPure Elite which I use religiously

 

[fish farmer]

What were your typical phosphate levels for the past few months?

 

[trsmith18]

What were your typical phosphate levels for the past few months?

Ranged from .2-.6

 

[trsmith18]

Best bet- Bring it down gradually by adding a pouch of ChemiPure Elite which I use religiously

Is that the same thing as Phosguard + carbon?

 

[trsmith18]

Over feeding...something died.

Unlikely overfeeding as it’s been fallow for 4 weeks.

Possible on the death thing. Do you think a dead trochus snail can spike it that much?

 

[trsmith18]

Any thoughts on the chateo being a source

 

[ZombieEngineer]

Any thoughts on the chateo being a source

Cheato is a sink not a source.

Bump your lighting intensity and/or photoperiod up and this should help bring it down gradually. Also don't remove cheato until it starts getting really dense and fills out the space. It's more efficient as a large clump.

 

[sixty_reefer]

I would be more worried about your nitrates drop, the phosphates is normal to happen, every time you drop them using media you will observe a slight increase from the phosphates that were bound in the substrate and rock scape. This is just a natural event of the phosphates rebalancing with the phosphates trapped. In addition if your tank got a good nitrifying and denitrification it’s normal to see phosphates rising as that bacteria can’t utilise phosphates.
I would be looking at the sudden drop in nitrates as if the trend carries on you will end up bottoming out and that’s going to open a new can of worms with all the issues that will come with it.
I

 

[vetteguy53081]

Is that the same thing as Phosguard + carbon?

Similar but IMO, better

 

[ZombieEngineer]

Similar but IMO, better

Or you could just use rox 0.8 carbon plus gfo plus a pinch of deionization resin and get literally the exact same thing for less than 1/10th the cost. That's all that chemipure blue is.

Benefit to making it yourself is you can adjust the ratios and if you keep the dionization resin seperate, you can later recharge it rather than toss it. I found little benefit to the ion exchange resin cause it saturates too quickly to be useful long term.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Or you could just use rox 0.8 carbon plus gfo plus a pinch of deionization resin and get literally the exact same thing for less than 1/10th the cost. That's all that chemipure blue is.

Benefit to making it yourself is you can adjust the ratios and if you keep the dionization resin seperate, you can later recharge it rather than toss it. I found little benefit to the ion exchange resin cause it saturates too quickly to be useful long term.

Those Material come to roughly $40. . . chemipure elite $13 and Removes phosphates, silicates, odors and color-causings dissolved organic molecules. Many are not up to mixing their own. Over 2 decades of use, I will stick to what produces the effect I have

 

[ZombieEngineer]

Those Material come to roughly $40

To make 2 pounds worth. $13 chemipure elite is 4oz of actual material. If you actually compare apples to apples it's $5 using the smallest canisters available for the same 4oz portion. Even cheaper if using bituminous carbon over rox and/or buying in bulk.

I'm not trying to convince you to change what you are doing. When you get decades in nobody wants to touch anything because they aren't certain which of the 100s of variables are actually helpful or optimized, so they just stick with what they have been doing. Newer reefers try to optimize. I'm pointing out to other people that the exact same results can be done for much less.

 

[trsmith18]

Cheato is a sink not a source.

Bump your lighting intensity and/or photoperiod up and this should help bring it down gradually. Also don't remove cheato until it starts getting really dense and fills out the space. It's more efficient as a large clump.

Does Chaeto release phosphates when it’s dying?

 

[ZombieEngineer]

Does Chaeto release phosphates when it’s dying?

Yes

 

[trsmith18]

Yes

That’s some of my fear. I guess I’ll increase my photoperiod and continue with water changes and add some chemipure?

 

[Spare time]

Or you could just use rox 0.8 carbon plus gfo plus a pinch of deionization resin and get literally the exact same thing for less than 1/10th the cost. That's all that chemipure blue is.

Benefit to making it yourself is you can adjust the ratios and if you keep the dionization resin seperate, you can later recharge it rather than toss it. I found little benefit to the ion exchange resin cause it saturates too quickly to be useful long term.

I'd just skip the useless resin too and get rox+gfo lol. I don't like rox so I'd say bituminous but yeah same point