High phosphate level

[IDAN]

Hi all,
I am having some problem lately with my tank 180 gal total.The levels of phosphate are too high, Hanna rated toady at 0.90ppm.
I took me few weeks to figure-out that my skimmer pump was not producing enough air and was not skimming well. I have replaced the pump and so far so good with the skimmer.
The tank is few years old, I am not heavy feeder and doing 20% water changes every 2 weeks.
The problem I'm having right now is greeen hair algae which I will treat with fluconazole (I used it few years ago), but to control the level of phosphate what would you suggest?
1. full water change?
2. run GFO (I never did so far)?
3. please advise.
Also I use to by my fluconozle from here:

Fish Fluconazole 200mg (Fish Flucon)

Check out https://www.payless-petproducts.com! Buy Fish Fluconazole (Fish Flucon) 200mg Capsules from payless-petproducts.com. Specializing in LOW COST wholesale fish antibiotics. FREE SHIPPING to USA by 1st Class Mail (Priority and Express Mail available). Ships to Canada and UK (United Kingdom).

payless-petproducts.com

but I have find it cheaper here:

FLUCONAZOLE (Generic) Tablets, 200-mg, 1 tablet - Chewy.com

Buy Fluconazole (Generic) Tablets, 200-mg, 1 tablet at Chewy.com. FREE shipping and the BEST customer service!

www.chewy.com

is there any different?



thank you!

 

[Spare time]

Do you have corals and such in the tank? I was gonna say that if you do have stuff like acros then just do GFO slowly. But I would suggest some BRS gfo who some other phosphate media to get it down.

 

[IDAN]

No coral, fish only tank.
How much GFO would you start with?

 

[Spare time]

No coral, fish only tank.
How much GFO would you start with?

I am not sure how much but they include instructions per gallon. Just make sure you use it in a reactor. You could also just grab some phosguard or something like that and throw it in a bag.

 

[IDAN]

phosguard need also reactor as far as I remember right?

 

[Spare time]

phosguard need also reactor as far as I remember right?

No just a bag in an area of flow (like a sock or something)

 

[Spare time]

You can put gfo in a bag with carbon but the carbon wears out quicker in most circumstances

 

[Jamesmost]

Don't get addicted to gfo
. 9 not so bad.
What feeding?
What running besides skimmer?

 

[Duffer]

I used phosphate rx and did wonders to lower my phosphates..did not hurt my fish or corals.. I was originally using phosguard and was not working, phosphate rx lowered my phosphates from .18 to .040

 

[IDAN]

Don't get addicted to gfo
. 9 not so bad.
What feeding?
What running besides skimmer?

I feed once a day about 3-4 frozen tab food.
Skimmer, filter sock, Chaeto, carbon, UV light.

 

[zapbap99]

vodka dosing

 

[IDAN]

vodka dosing

In more then 4 years I never had problems with phosphate untill my skimmer was bad.
Vodka same as GFO as an additive and not finding the root of the problem

 

[New&no clue]

If your skimmer wasn't doing what it should be and your phosphates went up they could have been absorbed into your rocks. Now that your skimmer is working and pulling them out, your rocks could be leaching out the excess they were holding. It could take some time to drop back down.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

A water change (even 100%) is not very useful for phosphate (unlike nitrate) because most of it is bound to rock and sand and comes back off again.

IMO, it is good to lower it, but not necessarily critical as some fine tanks have high phosphate.

 

[zapbap99]

A water change (even 100%) is not very useful for phosphate (unlike nitrate) because most of it is bound to rock and sand and comes back off again.

IMO, it is good to lower it, but not necessarily critical as some fine tanks have high phosphate.

Yea I agree, I have higher phosphate most of my stuff is happy but im curious to lower mine aswell see what happens if it gets better or worse, currently at .8 last check.

 

[Cwentz758]

A water change (even 100%) is not very useful for phosphate (unlike nitrate) because most of it is bound to rock and sand and comes back off again.

IMO, it is good to lower it, but not necessarily critical as some fine tanks have high phosphate.

Are you familiar with the sand rinse method and what my parameters should be. I recently did a rinse and it popped my phosphate to .72 from .02
I’m having issue understanding Brandon the influencer of sand rinsing. Although I’m happy with the current result I’m unsure of how it will go in the long term and what to aim for.

 

[IDAN]

A water change (even 100%) is not very useful for phosphate (unlike nitrate) because most of it is bound to rock and sand and comes back off again.

IMO, it is good to lower it, but not necessarily critical as some fine tanks have high phosphate.

Isn't high phosphate level is what causing GHA?

 

[Uncle99]

It’s not practical to reduce phosphate that’s very high with GFO, it will exhaust its capabilities in a day or two and costs a fortune.
When phosphate is high, consider using an LC product (agent green or phosphate RC) to bring it down to say .25, then use the GFO to put it in range....say 0.03 to .15....maybe .2 at most....at least for me.
Whatever you decide, large sudden changes in phosphates will certainly upset your corals, do it slow and steady.

I heard people run phosphates at .3, maybe .5, but these are long established multi year systems.
I would not recommend running phosphates outside of .25, but that’s just my opinion.

 

[IDAN]

Thank you will do!

 

[IDAN]

what about the Fluconazole ? any difference between the 2 brands?