Is my nitrate and phosphate ok?

[Ocean_View]

Hello guys been dealing with bad GHA outbreak as I was away for 3 months and came home to forest in my tank. It's a 320 gal stock with 13 small fish largest is about 5" ( 2 blue hippo ) my ro filters was shot and tank sitter did not test so was toping of RO with around 18tds. Have done 2 large water changes over last 2 weeks and manually removed 95% of it and running lights off now for 3 days. Tested tank today and found Nitrate at 17.3 and phosphate at 0.22 using Hanna testers. Am I ok now to bring back the lights on blues only and set lower and bring back up over 2 weeks?

Sorry for the long winded message.

 

[Stevorino]

What is your coral and cleanup crew situation?

 

[Spare time]

I would run some gfo.


Blue light is the most efficient for algae in general so it won't matter if you use blue vs "white" or whatever other colors.

 

[Ocean_View]

What is your coral and cleanup crew situation?

Only thing made it thru are small zoa rock, and large amount a purple waving hands, and about 5 recordeas. Tanks is around 14 months old was going well till I left town in July and got mack 3 weeks ago. Clean up crew is 5 conch, and about 20 small blue legs crabs. I had 6 sand sifting stars and have not seen any since doing my cleaning up.

 

[Ocean_View]

I would run some gfo.


Blue light is the most efficient for algae in general so it won't matter if you use blue vs "white" or whatever other colors.

Load in some chmi pure blue last night. Forgot to mention that in my orginal post.

 

[Stevorino]

Only thing made it thru are small zoa rock, and large amount a purple waving hands, and about 5 recordeas. Tanks is around 14 months old was going well till I left town in July and got mack 3 weeks ago. Clean up crew is 5 conch, and about 20 small blue legs crabs. I had 6 sand sifting stars and have not seen any since doing my cleaning up.

If it were me, I'd probably do another solid water change and then some lanthanum chloride (slowly) to get phosphate down below .1, test weekly, and slowly turn back on the lights over the course of a couple months.

None of the corals you listed need a lot of light. Keeping them low will help the tank fight back against the algae.

If your algae continues to win the battle, consider more GHA-eating inverts like turbo/mex snails.

 

[Spare time]

Load in some chmi pure blue last night. Forgot to mention that in my orginal post.

Blue won't help with phosphate unfortunately. This is according to Randy on here

 

[Ocean_View]

Blue won't help with phosphate unfortunately. This is according to Randy on here

What would you recommend?

 

[Ocean_View]

If it were me, I'd probably do another solid water change and then some lanthanum chloride (slowly) to get phosphate down below .1, test weekly, and slowly turn back on the lights over the course of a couple months.

None of the corals you listed need a lot of light. Keeping them low will help the tank fight back against the algae.

If your algae continues to win the battle, consider more GHA-eating inverts like turbo/mex snails.

So am at 0.22 now . Do I need be down to 0.10 or 0.01 just so I understand. Am using hannah ULR tester.

 

[Spare time]

What would you recommend?

Simply gfo in a bag or reactor

 

[Coolcasino]

So am at 0.22 now . Do I need be down to 0.10 or 0.01 just so I understand. Am using hannah ULR tester.

Slowly bring it under 0.10 but over 0.04

 

[Coolcasino]

Blue won't help with phosphate unfortunately. This is according to Randy on here

I cant speak for RHF but maybe he ment that Chemi Pure Elite is better at PO4 removal than Chemi Pure Blue? Blue has PO4 absorbing resin while Elite has actual GFO.

 

[Coolcasino]

What would you recommend?

In a tank that size you are going to go thru a lot of GFO. I would go with Phosphat-e to knock your PO4 down a bit more. Then as recommended use Some type of GFO in a reactor. I like Rowaphos. Less rinsing and IME lasted longer before it was exhausted, but any GFO will do. What ever you decide just bring your PO4 down slow.

 

[Ocean_View]

In a tank that size you are going to go thru a lot of GFO. I would go with Phosphat-e to knock your PO4 down a bit more. Then as recommended use Some type of GFO in a reactor. I like Rowaphos. Less rinsing and IME lasted longer before it was exhausted, but any GFO will do. What ever you decide just bring your PO4 down slow.

Thanks for all the info am picking up some rowa phos in the am. And set up a reactor with an old canisters filter I have laying around. Will report back in a week.

 

[Coolcasino]

Not sure if a canister will be the best choice for this application. All GFOs need a slow tumble and unless that canister is made of glass or acrylic you wont be able to dial in the flow. You can use an RO/DI canister with a pump.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I cant speak for RHF but maybe he ment that Chemi Pure Elite is better at PO4 removal than Chemi Pure Blue? Blue has PO4 absorbing resin while Elite has actual GFO.

No resin will absorb significant phosphate from seawater, while it possibly can from fresh water. it tried the very best phosphate binding polymer (sevelamer) and it was unable to do anything in seawater because there is far too much competition from chloride and sulfate.

The manufacturer, conveniently for them, does not make that distinction, if they even realize it.

 

[Coolcasino]

No resin will absorb significant phosphate from seawater, while it possibly can from fresh water. it tried the very best phosphate binding polymer (sevelamer) and it was unable to do anything in seawater because there is far too much competition from chloride and sulfate.

The manufacturer, conveniently for them, does not make that distinction, if they even realize it.

They must be Brightwell's parent company LOL

 

[jda]

You won't be able to lower your no3 and po4 out of this. Algae still can grow while testing zeros on no3 and po4 since they can get nitrogen and phosphorous from sources that you cannot test for. While lowering the no3 and po4 might be a fine idea, it will not rid you of the algae.

Manual removal and then an army clean up crew will get it done eventually, but this takes time. A bunch of urchins look like they are not doing much for months and then it seems to quickly go away in an exponential fashion.

If you get lucky, a fish might eat it, but I am never that lucky. Some sort of rabbit is your best bet, but if they don't eat it, then they contribute to the problem.

 

[Pistondog]

Gha can thrive with near undetectable nutrients, as it evolved to in the oceans.
Manual removal or fluconazole if the gha bothers you.
You can lower your nutrients some, but not to zero.

 

[Pistondog]

Sorry, got distracted by other posts.
Yes bring lights back up.