How to proceed? HIGH nitrates and phosphates

[britnicole1724]

So, I did a water change after I saw my parameters.

We’ve been battling Dino’s (I think… or thought… we had them back in august, seemed to clear up after flux rx but came back about a month later) microscope testing tonight to be sure, and hair algae, possibly cyano?

I’ve been testing and everything has been totally normal and stable in my normal ranges. Typically 17 nitrates and .04 phosphates. Everything else is almost exactly as it has been.

Well; I got new reagents and my phosphate and nitrate are reading EXTREMELY EXTREMELY high.

Phosphate 1.077 (Hanna)
Nitrate 75!! (Also Hanna)
Surprisingly, corals are all looking great except my gsp… torches have heads popping left and right, my stratosphere Zoa has its 3rd head starting in a month, noticeably growing each day which has been cool to see. all fish are acting fine. January/February I lost two new torches that I added a few weeks after adding them, and an sps bleached over night after having it for about a week and a half. Only coral losses have been new corals, and it hasn’t even been all new corals. I have a new acan doing great. Sponges are great. Nothing outside of those few losses. All torches, hammers, octospawn etc doing fine. I’ve had btas splitting left and right but these two parameters could explain it. Also lost one head of my purple blasto. All others look ok. New toadstools we got looked bleached as hell when we got them and parameters probably aren’t helping.

Everything else is totally normal
Temp 78.5
PH 8.3
Nitrite 0
Alkalinity 8 Hanna; 7.8 apex
Ammonia 0
Salinity 1.025
Calcium 566
Magnesium 1453

How do I control this?? I have to feed daily, I have a copperband I want to keep fat and healthy but I’m worried this might be what’s causing the high nutrients. I have 14 fish and feed 2-3 cubes of a mix. 2x a day. Emerald entree, mysis, blood worms, etc. foxface is a literal pig and will eat an entire cube himself so I’m always worried the others aren’t getting enough. Also feet 1 sheet of nori a day.

mechanical filtration is really just my skimmer. I haven’t done gfo or anything similar, feels like a whole new ballgame I don’t understand and kinda scares me. Filter socks I took out because I didn’t really have the time to change every 2 days and clean. (Grandma diagnosed with cancer and taking her to chemo treatments/appointments has taken a lot of time away from the tank)

most of the green in these pics has disappeared. These were taken about a week ago. There’s misc spots now of green but not as much.
lights are running 12-6/7 at night. All blues no whites.
Appreciate the help. I just want to get this back on track desperately and back to being able to add a dang tiger torch

 

[Spare time]

Add mechanical filtration, do a water change, and add gfo.

 

[britnicole1724]

Add mechanical filtration, do a water change, and add gfo.

What other kind of mechanical filtration? We have a skimmer. I don’t have room for an algae scrubber unfortunately. Sump area is kind of small and limited with space.

 

[Spare time]

What other kind of mechanical filtration? We have a skimmer. I don’t have room for an algae scrubber unfortunately. Sump area is kind of small and limited with space.

Socks or a filter pad that can be swapped or rinsed quickly once a day. You could also swap the skimmer for a refugium if you want to go that route for lowering nitrate and phosphate. Otherwise gfo and maybe carbon dosing would be a good option (or gfo and water change).

 

[nothing_fancy]

I would immediately start using GFO. Its very easy to use. Get a micron bag, BRS has them or amazon if faster. Put some GFO in the bag based on directions. Leave it in your overflow for a couple days and continue to test phos. The 75 nitrates don't scare me, actually Im jealous. They are high though. I think you could stand to backoff your feeding a bit, even with that many fish. Lastly, If you aren't using carbon I would try a bag, Chemipure blue would be my choice, this will help you overall until you can decide whether or not you want to use carbon long term.

 

[britnicole1724]

Socks or a filter pad that can be swapped or rinsed quickly once a day. You could also swap the skimmer for a refugium if you want to go that route for lowering nitrate and phosphate. Otherwise gfo and maybe carbon dosing would be a good option (or gfo and water change).

I do have a refugium. Also took filter socks out because I didn’t have the time to swap them daily and clean. Grandma diagnosed with cancer and I’ve been helping her out with chemo and appointments so the tank has been a bit neglected with scraping etc.

 

[nothing_fancy]

I do have a refugium. Also said I took filter socks out because I didn’t have the time to swap them daily and clean. Grandma diagnosed with cancer and I’ve been helping her out with chemo and appointments so the tank has been a bit neglected with scraping etc.

Best of luck to grandma, thats definitely a priority. If you don't have the time to swap socks (I'm not a big fan of socks personally) you could try floss if you're into mechanical filtration. It'll last longer. If you have that fuge in operation and can get a light for chaeto, it would be probably your best nitrate reducer IMO.

 

[britnicole1724]

Best of luck to grandma, thats definitely a priority. If you don't have the time to swap socks (I'm not a big fan of socks personally) you could try floss if you're into mechanical filtration. It'll last longer. If you have that fuge in operation and can get a light for chaeto, it would be probably your best nitrate reducer IMO.

Sadly no room in the sump for floss could be an excuse to upgrade to a bigger tank down the line though! Haha

I have a refugium with chaeto, got it about the size of a baseball in October and it’s gotten huge since. Awesome hotel for the pods lol

 

[GarrettT]

Large water change for the nitrates and Phosgaurd for the phosphate. Likely high in nitrate from the dead algae using Flux RX. Phosphate likely due to food. Flux RX will not help Dino’s. If you indeed do have Dino’s, dose silicate, which helps with large cell (sand dwelling) Dino’s. UV if they’re on your rocks.

 

[eqbal9947]

Quick: NOPOX
Slow: Refugium, feed less.
Also dosing Phyto will decrease Phosphate and so will Kalk

 

[fodsod]

As stated GFO in the right amount will immediately help with the Phosphates. Not too much or it'll crash your Phosphates. If you've got a fuge then maybe increase it's time under the light to grow it so it helps control the nutrient export better.

Nitrates are going to require either more mechanical filtration (you could replace filter socks with filter cups and just use polyfil as the filter media. You just grab it out and throw it away and add more in its place. Cheap and as fast and easy as it gets.

Not much else I'd recommend that would be a quick resolution. Carbon dosing is a long term approach and requires some very attentive testing once it's started to ensure you don't crash your Nitrate and Phosphates and it sounds like it's time you don't have at the moment. Good luck.

 

[Rmckoy]

I do have a refugium. Also took filter socks out because I didn’t have the time to swap them daily and clean. Grandma diagnosed with cancer and I’ve been helping her out with chemo and appointments so the tank has been a bit neglected with scraping etc.

Sorry to hear about grandma .
that is for sure top priority at this time .
I personally prefer floss as it’s easy to swap out .
I would recommend either rowaphos for phosphates .
Nitrates are not a huge deal . Some of the nicest reefs on here have insanely high nitrates .

 

[britnicole1724]

Large water change for the nitrates and Phosgaurd for the phosphate. Likely high in nitrate from the dead algae using Flux RX. Phosphate likely due to food. Flux RX will not help Dino’s. If you indeed do have Dino’s, dose silicate, which helps with large cell (sand dwelling) Dino’s. UV if they’re on your rocks.

So, oddly enough, I dosed flux rx back in august because we had horrible hair algae and bryopsis. Literally within 2 days Dino’s was completely gone (confirmed it was Dino’s with microscope) so I believe some sort of reaction happened that helped get rid of the Dino’s then. Now, I’m not so sure. Haven’t dosed flux rx recently. Phosguard is I believe what caused Dino’s the first time. I had high phosphates at one point and phosguard bottomed them out which I think is what caused it.
I do have a uv going as well.

I tried the whole silicate thing for a while and it hasn’t worked. Stopped wasting money on it.

 

[britnicole1724]

As stated GFO in the right amount will immediately help with the Phosphates. Not too much or it'll crash your Phosphates. If you've got a fuge then maybe increase it's time under the light to grow it so it helps control the nutrient export better.

Nitrates are going to require either more mechanical filtration (you could replace filter socks with filter cups and just use polyfil as the filter media. You just grab it out and throw it away and add more in its place. Cheap and as fast and easy as it gets.

Not much else I'd recommend that would be a quick resolution. Carbon dosing is a long term approach and requires some very attentive testing once it's started to ensure you don't crash your Nitrate and Phosphates and it sounds like it's time you don't have at the moment. Good luck.

Thank you!

 

[Spare time]

I do have a refugium. Also took filter socks out because I didn’t have the time to swap them daily and clean. Grandma diagnosed with cancer and I’ve been helping her out with chemo and appointments so the tank has been a bit neglected with scraping etc.

What refugium light do you have. Maybe just leading that ride things out with a pinch of gfo might help since you obviously have some more pressing issues (of which I am sorry to hear about). I hope you and your family are doing ok at the moment with that most unfortunate of news.

 

[vetteguy53081]

So, I did a water change after I saw my parameters.

We’ve been battling Dino’s (I think… or thought… we had them back in august, seemed to clear up after flux rx but came back about a month later) microscope testing tonight to be sure, and hair algae, possibly cyano?

I’ve been testing and everything has been totally normal and stable in my normal ranges. Typically 17 nitrates and .04 phosphates. Everything else is almost exactly as it has been.

Well; I got new reagents and my phosphate and nitrate are reading EXTREMELY EXTREMELY high.

Phosphate 1.077 (Hanna)
Nitrate 75!! (Also Hanna)
Surprisingly, corals are all looking great except my gsp… torches have heads popping left and right, my stratosphere Zoa has its 3rd head starting in a month, noticeably growing each day which has been cool to see. all fish are acting fine. January/February I lost two new torches that I added a few weeks after adding them, and an sps bleached over night after having it for about a week and a half. Only coral losses have been new corals, and it hasn’t even been all new corals. I have a new acan doing great. Sponges are great. Nothing outside of those few losses. All torches, hammers, octospawn etc doing fine. I’ve had btas splitting left and right but these two parameters could explain it. Also lost one head of my purple blasto. All others look ok. New toadstools we got looked bleached as hell when we got them and parameters probably aren’t helping.

Everything else is totally normal
Temp 78.5
PH 8.3
Nitrite 0
Alkalinity 8 Hanna; 7.8 apex
Ammonia 0
Salinity 1.025
Calcium 566
Magnesium 1453

How do I control this?? I have to feed daily, I have a copperband I want to keep fat and healthy but I’m worried this might be what’s causing the high nutrients. I have 14 fish and feed 2-3 cubes of a mix. 2x a day. Emerald entree, mysis, blood worms, etc. foxface is a literal pig and will eat an entire cube himself so I’m always worried the others aren’t getting enough. Also feet 1 sheet of nori a day.

mechanical filtration is really just my skimmer. I haven’t done gfo or anything similar, feels like a whole new ballgame I don’t understand and kinda scares me. Filter socks I took out because I didn’t really have the time to change every 2 days and clean. (Grandma diagnosed with cancer and taking her to chemo treatments/appointments has taken a lot of time away from the tank)

most of the green in these pics has disappeared. These were taken about a week ago. There’s misc spots now of green but not as much.
lights are running 12-6/7 at night. All blues no whites.
Appreciate the help. I just want to get this back on track desperately and back to being able to add a dang tiger torch

Careful with GFO as it can drop numbers quickly and in some cases lead to dino. Reducing amount fed, increase water changes and siphoning waste and uneaten foods are other ways.
I utilize ChemiPure elite to safely lower these levels then chemiPure Blue to maintain control. i dont see where you are overfeeding but the type of foods may be a contributor. For your cyano, Reduce or turn off whites for 3-4 days, siphon up the matter and add liquid bacteria such as Micro Bacter 7 to compete with bad bacterias. Afterwards, add snails such as cerith, margarita, astrea and nassarius plus 6-8 blue leg hermits to take control.
Adding a protein skimmer or algae scrubber will help tremendously also

 

[britnicole1724]

What refugium light do you have. Maybe just leading that ride things out with a pinch of gfo might help since you obviously have some more pressing issues (of which I am sorry to hear about). I hope you and your family are doing ok at the moment with that most unfortunate of news.

Thanks. She’s doing good surprisingly. The thing she’s most worried about is being nauseous from the chemo so I’d say she’s doing well considering.
Trying to keep tank maintenance as easy as possible haha. We have a FluvalSmart reef light I usually run opposite hours of my display lights. Could overlap them to help growth though!

 

[britnicole1724]

Careful with GFO as it can drop numbers quickly and in some cases lead to dino. Reducing amount fed, increase water changes and siphoning waste and uneaten foods are other ways.
I utilize ChemiPure elite to safely lower these levels then chemiPure Blue to maintain control. i dont see where you are overfeeding but the type of foods may be a contributor. For your cyano, Reduce or turn off whites for 3-4 days, siphon up the matter and add liquid bacteria such as Micro Bacter 7 to compete with bad bacterias. Afterwards, add snails such as cerith, margarita, astrea and nassarius plus 6-8 blue leg hermits to take control.
Adding a protein skimmer or algae scrubber will help tremendously also

We do have a skimmer. Is chemipure similar to phosguard? Hesitant to add something that reduces. Tried phosguard before and I think that’s what caused the Dino’s.

 

[vetteguy53081]

We do have a skimmer. Is chemipure similar to phosguard? Hesitant to add something that reduces. Tried phosguard before and I think that’s what caused the Dino’s.

Much different.

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• Keeps pH stable and constant
• Reduces fish loss due to pH changes or polluted water
• Keeps aquariums crystal clear
• Provides positive neurological reactions in fish, mimicking a natural environment
• Filters out phosphates (PO4) and silicates (SIO2)
• Reduces nuisance algae
• Removes dissolved organics
• Helps fish have a better appetite
• Eliminates osmotic shock
• Increases fish life span
• Filters out coppers, metals, odors and phenol
• Prevents ion antagonism
• Lasts up to 4 months

Chemi-pure Elite contains GFO (Granular Ferric Oxide) in order to remove phosphates and silicates from the aquarium water body. GFO has been proven as one of the top choices for removing and controlling any phosphate and/or silicate levels within your aquarium.

Get all the original benefits of Chemi-pure with our proprietary GFO blend to give you the ability to remove phosphate and silicates from your aquarium’s water. Now featuring our newest improvement to the original Chemi-pure formula, QuickWash Carbon™. NO need for bulk Iron Oxide removers or spending additional money on a phosphate reactor. Chemi-pure Elite makes your aquarium maintenance easier by being pre-packaged in a nylon filter bag, just gently rinse clear before adding to your aquarium to start enjoying a more maintenance free aquarium as it helps control nuisance algae and keeps your aquarium water crystal clear!

 

[face]

water change plus macro algae.