High phosphate low nitrates

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I would feed those fish more than once a day. IME, food is the main difference between happy, non aggressive fish and mean fish that bully others. They should be growing at a clip that you can notice, which is hard for triggers since they require so much food.

I do not disagree; my point was it seems like he's overfeeding in general and if he's worried about high nutrients in the system, this is one thing to consider.

 

[arcangelreef]

How much light do you have above the tank?
I would turn your lights as low as possible if they are led.
Then add a fish like a lawnmower blenny.

I wouldn't be worrying about nutrient levels, especially phosphates, in a fish only tank.

Keep doing your water changes. You'll be fine.

 

[jda]

In a FOWLR the most important thing is feeding the fish.

Hannah at .90 is maxed out... likely you have a lot more than this.

What type of trigger do you have? Urchins are great algae eaters if you don't have a super nasty trigger species. Rock and pencil urchins tend to stay more on rocks and work at the algae.

If you really want to lower the po4, I would buy some swimming pool Lanthanum Chloride and some filter socks. Rig up a powerhead and a hose to dose go into a filter sock and add the LC to the powerhead inlet. You can put this contraption on the tank, dose and then take it off 10-15 minutes later and rinse out the sock.

 

[I never finish anythi]

Algae scrubber bro. There are hob kind. Make the algae want to grow somewhere besides your tank.

With 0 nitrate I wouldn't add an algae scrubber tbh .

 

[Seansea]

Nitrates are 0 because the hair algae on display is chewing it up.. i like to get my nutrients to 0 wih a scrubber then dose back in the phos and nitratez if needed. This way you control your nutrient levels as well as get hair algae out of display.

 

[SmallTimeShell]

My first comment is to check your test result, .9 is the highest but may also mean test error. Watch several youtue videos to make sure you do the test properly, you have to follow the instructions super precisely or get error reading.

If your phosphate really is that high, then I would guess you have phosphate leaching from your rocks. How old is your tank? Did you start with dry rocks?

It kind of seems to me like your canister filter is causing your nitrate problems, it is the so-called "nitrate factory". You should be cleaning that thing out very often, every few days, or it collects and builds up nitrate. Consider removing it alltogether, see how your tank runs without it. In my opinion, canister is very unneccassary.

I removed the canister 2 days ago and now my ammonia is increasing. Do I ride it out and hope it stabilizes? Do I do a water change? Or do I start the canister back up?

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I removed the canister 2 days ago and now my ammonia is increasing. Do I ride it out and hope it stabilizes? Do I do a water change? Or do I start the canister back up?

No more than a trace of ammonia should be present in an established tank. What other source of biofilter do you have now that the canister is gone? Why did you remove it?

 

[Aquariumaddictuk]

I have a 55gal FOWLR tank stocked with one triggerfish and 3 domino damsel and various amounts of hermit crabs (if the triggerfish does 't eat them all). I've been doing weekly 10g water changes to keep nitrates in check, by the end of a week nitrates can be 40-70ppm. I have used 3 phosguard packs so far and no change in phosphates. I have been dealing with GHA, I have removed the rock, scrubbed it off and rinsed w/ RO water before putting back into the tank (done twice in 1mo so far). This has seemed to decrease the amount of GHA. What else can I do to lower the phosphates? Just did a water change- nitrates 0 phos 0.9. I use Hannah Checker.
I have a fluval 307 canister filter, aquamaxx HOB skimmer and 3 wave makers. The fish are fed 2x/day once w/ frozen cube then evening with either pellets or flakes. Triggerfish gets clam on a half shell once per week.

Cannister filter will struggle with meaty foods unless religiously maintained.i use a fluval cannister on my discus tank and even with 6 fish in a bare bottom 252 litre tank with a mass of potted plants munching through the nitrates I still need to service it every couple weeks feeding only dry foods & that's with 150% water change per week.cleaning the sponges and media lightly in tank water won't crash your tank as some suggest.try adding some floss to cannister & change it weekly with your service

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I removed the canister 2 days ago and now my ammonia is increasing. Do I ride it out and hope it stabilizes? Do I do a water change? Or do I start the canister back up?

What ammonia level with what kit? Was it previously lower with this same kit?

 

[SmallTimeShell]

Ammona has been at 0 for many months. It is at 0.25 now, using API master test kit.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Ammona has been at 0 for many months. It is at 0.25 now, using API master test kit.

0.25 on API can be assumed to be 0 free (harmful) ammonia.

But why are you still testing ammonia?

 

[SmallTimeShell]

No more than a trace of ammonia should be present in an established tank. What other source of biofilter do you have now that the canister is gone? Why did you remove it?

My ammonia has been at 0 for a long time. I removed the canister to try and cut down on nitrates because they skyrocket each week and my phosphate is high, therefore, I am continually battling GHA.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

My ammonia has been at 0 for a long time. I removed the canister to try and cut down on nitrates because they skyrocket each week and my phosphate is high, therefore, I am continually battling GHA.

Don't remove your only biofilter. Just clean the canister more.

 

[SmallTimeShell]

0.25 on API can be assumed to be 0 free (harmful) ammonia.

But why are you still testing ammonia?

Since I removed the canister I wanted keep an eye on all my levels. I don't want to crash the tank. But I need to figure out a way to control the nitrates/phosphate/algea

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Since I removed the canister I wanted keep an eye on all my levels. I don't want to crash the tank. But I need to figure out a way to control the nitrates/phosphate/algea

I'm still not sure why you thought you needed to remove the canister.

 

[SmallTimeShell]

Don't remove your only biofilter. Just clean the canister more.

For a non drilled tank what other options do I have besides a canister?

 

[SmallTimeShell]

I'm still not sure why you thought you needed to remove the canister.

I can't recall who mentioned it, but they said it harbors a lot of nitrates and said to think about removing it. Not sure what else I can do for filtration.

 

[Pod_01]

I can't recall who mentioned it, but they said it harbors a lot of nitrates and said to think about removing it. Not sure what else I can do for filtration.

As alternative filtration you could buy one of these hang on skimmers from Tunze:

In my sump I only use skimmer and GAC (granular activated carbon).
For GAC you could use something like this Innovative Marine hang on filter:

Just suggestions of alternative to canister.

 

[Aquariumaddictuk]

Since I removed the canister I wanted keep an eye on all my levels. I don't want to crash the tank. But I need to figure out a way to control the nitrates/phosphate/algea

High nitrate, with caveats of course, won't crash your tank.ammonia will.rapidly.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I'd ignore that ammonia level. Real or test error, it is not a concern in a situation like this.