High phosphates

Sapper Ski · Apr 7, 2020

I have successfully knocked out a pretty bad hair algae outbreak on my 1.5 yr old tank but for the life of me, I can’t knock down phosphates.

Tank is a 90g bow front corner tank with a 20g sump.
SG - 1.023
Amm - 0
No2 - 0
No3 - 1
Alk - 12.3
Calc - 450
Mag - 1300
Po4 - 0.90

I use a Hanna ulr checker for phosphate, Red Sea for alk, calc, and mag, and salifert for amm, no2, and no3.

I have 2 165w viparspectra lighting at 30% blue 2% white. Blues on 4 hours, then blue/white 4 hours, back to just blue 4 hours. Reef octopus 150.

Tank inhabitants:
2 false percula clowns
Sand sifting star
Numerous snails and blue leg hermit crabs
4 lps corals
Bunch of shrooms
2 sps coral frags

I don’t have any chaeto or macro algae in my sump (#1 problem?). I also don’t have a gfo reactor (#2 problem?). I dose nopox but it clouds my tank badly (no other adverse side effects) and drops my no3 down to almost 0 if I’m not careful which causes other problems (cyano outbreak).

Help is greatly appreciated!

reefwiser · Apr 7, 2020

Getting a algae scrubber is a great addition to the battle tools for high phosphate.
Be very stingy with feeding of the clowns. Is also a good way to lower phosphates.
These two are the best choices chemical methods can mask the phosphate and maybe exhausted faster than you replace it.

Sapper Ski · Apr 7, 2020

reefwiser said:
Getting a algae scrubber is a great addition to the battle tools for high phosphate.
Be very stingy with feeding of the clowns. Is also a good way to lower phosphates.
These two are the best choices chemical methods can mask the phosphate and maybe exhausted faster than you replace it.

I feed my clowns a 1/4 cube of mysis/brine (alternating) once a day. I even rinse my cubes before feeding trying to bring down po4. They eat nearly all of it in a matter of seconds and anything left over gets gobbled up by crabs fairly quickly.

reefwiser · Apr 8, 2020

Keep Reef Tank Nutrients in Check With an Algae Turf Scrubber

Turf Scrubbers offer a low-maintenance approach to effective nutrient control in your reef.

blog.marinedepot.com

Sapper Ski · Apr 8, 2020

@reefwiser is there a scrubber you recommend or maybe diy? I’m not very good with diy stuff, so unless I’m saving hundreds of dollars, diy isn’t a money saving option.