my reef tank perimeters

[JTHING2]

Hello,

first off I would like to say thanks in advance for any and all the help!

I've had my 30 gal reef tank for about 4 months now and so. far everything looks great! My concern is some of my perimeters don't line up to what I read normal should be.

my perimeters are as follows

salinity 1.024
dkh 8.9
pH 8.0
phosphate .543 ppm. what I read it should be is a max of .05ppm and mine is .543ppm
ammonia 0
nitrite .095 ppm should be .02 max, as read
calcium 450ppm
nitrate I will check tomorrow morning but last time I believe it was 5ppm.

everything is checked with a hanna checker except ammonia that I check with ATI test kit.


I know this hobby is extremely time consuming and im willing to put as much time as necessary to make sure I do things right.

I have acans, mushrooms, blasto, frogspawn, hammer, goniopora and everything is healthy and beautiful! my fishes look happy and swim all
day long. I just don't want to get to a point where my whole tank crashes because I didn't take care of these levels on time if they are
something to worry about.

I did buy Red Sea phosphate and nitrate remover but I don't know how to use it or if I should.


once again thanks in advance

 

[SPR1968]

Your phosphate is high as you realise, but I wouldn’t use Nopox, It works very well for nitrate reduction but less so for phosphate

If when you get the test, your nitrate is on the high side, you could use Nopox but it won’t have much effect on phosphate so you may need to look into GFO to get that down, I use rowaphos 24/7 to keep it down very low at less than 0.03.

Just bring it down slowly but you will need to change the GFO as it will become spent fairly quickly to start

Don’t forget to test for magnesium as well, it’s vitally important for the interaction of the other elements

 

[leptang]

Dont go under 0.02ppm phosphates and 5ppm nitrates you then will open a doorway to dinoflagellates to take over. Dose nitrates and phosphates if needed and you could carbon dose to bring down nitrates and phosphates with use of a protein skimmer sucking bacteria up without taking the balance out of the Redfield ration. But cautiously doing so if you must. If your tank is young and not stable keep an eye on it. It can go two ways algea take all over above 0.02 po4 and 5ppm no3- or below that balance dinoflagellates can take over your tank. If your tank is under a year old. If young and or is lacking biodiversity try keep a eye balance. Keep an eye on your test kits.

 

[JTHING2]

Your phosphate is high as you realise, but I wouldn’t use Nopox, It works very well for nitrate reduction but less so for phosphate

If when you get the test, your nitrate is on the high side, you could use Nopox but it won’t have much effect on phosphate so you may need to look into GFO to get that down, I use rowaphos 24/7 to keep it down very low at less than 0.03.

Just bring it down slowly but you will need to change the GFO as it will become spent fairly quickly to start

Don’t forget to test for magnesium as well, it’s vitally important for the interaction of the other elements

I purchased the rowaphos today and threw it in. I also checked my nitrate but I have the Hanna ULR nitrate reader which reads up to 5ppm but can be higher. It read 5ppm so its alteast 5. Do you think I should use the rowaphos and the nopox? I ordered the red sea magnesium test kit so it should be here by Tuesday.

Thank you for your help!

 

[blasterman]

Soft corals and LPS really dig high phosphate. The problem is so do nuisance algaes. By having sky high phosphate you have a potential bomb waiting to go off, and when it does you will be scrambling.

So, the current high phosphate isn't a tank health issue, but it aggravates potentially bigger problems when they arise.

Between .03 and .1 is my target with phosphate with softies and LPS. Its a pain to keep it any tighter. You don't want to go lower.

5ppm nitrate is fine.

 

[JTHING2]

Dont go under 0.02ppm phosphates and 5ppm nitrates you then will open a doorway to dinoflagellates to take over. Dose nitrates and phosphates if needed and you could carbon dose to bring down nitrates and phosphates with use of a protein skimmer sucking bacteria up without taking the balance out of the Redfield ration. But cautiously doing so if you must. If your tank is young and not stable keep an eye on it. It can go two ways algea take all over above 0.02 po4 and 5ppm no3- or below that balance dinoflagellates can take over your tank. If your tank is under a year old. If young and or is lacking biodiversity try keep a eye balance. Keep an eye on your test kits.

Ok, ill watch it closely. I do have a protein skimmer and it gets full about twice a day with really green water so that's pulling alot. I also have astrea snails eating up some algae too. My tank is only 4 months and I was told the algae build up was normal at the beginning

 

[JTHING2]

Soft corals and LPS really dig high phosphate. The problem is so do nuisance algaes. By having sky high phosphate you have a potential bomb waiting to go off, and when it does you will be scrambling.

So, the current high phosphate isn't a tank health issue, but it aggravates potentially bigger problems when they arise.

Between .03 and .1 is my target with phosphate with softies and LPS. Its a pain to keep it any tighter. You don't want to go lower.

5ppm nitrate is fine.

Oh ok! Got it, I was thinking either my Hanna was registering wrong or something because everything looks healthy. I did a water change today and I want to wait to see how it effected it tomorrow. I would like to stay with softies and lps as well. I personally like them better

 

[SPR1968]

I purchased the rowaphos today and threw it in. I also checked my nitrate but I have the Hanna ULR nitrate reader which reads up to 5ppm but can be higher. It read 5ppm so its alteast 5. Do you think I should use the rowaphos and the nopox? I ordered the red sea magnesium test kit so it should be here by Tuesday.

Thank you for your help!

I wouldn’t use Nopox at the moment your nitrates are fine, assuming they are 5 and not much higher, you maybe need a more accurate test kit