Need advice on sps corals

Esquire805 · Jun 20, 2018

Tank is at 500 calcium 7.7 dkh phosphate blinking 200 on Hanna checker mag was 1300 nitrate 7
I have phosguard and Gfo and some activated carbon some macro Algae in sump. My phosphate is still high don't know why and corals which are no older then a month are still not colored up as much I dose amino and phyoplanton.

29bonsaireef · Jun 20, 2018

What do you feed and how much? Running all that I would think your nutrients would be on the low end. I would look into more natural exports methods honestly. Do bigger water changes and run your skimmer wet, but watch your Salinity.

Gareth elliott · Jun 20, 2018

I feed reef chili occasionally at night. ~twice a week broadcasted. Otherwise they get whatever frozen food i chose that day switch between 4 different ones.
Are you using a reactor or media bags?

Esquire805 · Jun 20, 2018

29bonsaireef said:
What do you feed and how much? Running all that I would think your nutrients would be on the low end. I would look into more natural exports methods honestly. Do bigger water changes and run your skimmer wet, but watch your Salinity.

I feed reef roids and phyto

Esquire805 · Jun 20, 2018

Gareth elliott said:
I feed reef chili occasionally at night. ~twice a week broadcasted. Otherwise they get whatever frozen food i chose that day switch between 4 different ones.
Are you using a reactor or media bags?

I am using media bags

Gareth elliott · Jun 20, 2018

The phyto is probably the source of your phosphate imo i would stop and see if it drops. Also with just media bags your will find more value with just the phosguard which works more efficiently in that setting than gfo.

Esquire805 · Jun 20, 2018

Gareth elliott said:
The phyto is probably the source of your phosphate imo i would stop and see if it drops. Also with just media bags your will find more value with just the phosguard which works more efficiently in that setting than gfo.

Yes I will see what will work thanks

Esquire805 · Jun 20, 2018

Gareth elliott said:
The phyto is probably the source of your phosphate imo i would stop and see if it drops. Also with just media bags your will find more value with just the phosguard which works more efficiently in that setting than gfo.

Do you think it could also be the sand bed it's about 3 years old

Gareth elliott · Jun 20, 2018

Esquire805 said:
Do you think it could also be the sand bed it's about 3 years old

Could very well be.

What i use to clean my sand bed. Attach to a water pump with a valve, to slow down a bit. And rake my sand to the glass. I do this once a week.

If its been three years since heavily cleaning, have a lot of water ready to do a large wc.

You can also rinse the sand bed outside of the tank in tap water.

Esquire805 · Jun 20, 2018

Gareth elliott said:
Could very well be.

What i use to clean my sand bed. Attach to a water pump with a valve, to slow down a bit. And rake my sand to the glass. I do this once a week.

If its been three years since heavily cleaning, have a lot of water ready to do a large wc.

You can also rinse the sand bed outside of the tank in tap water.

Yes I may have to move a lot of rocks and macro algae around this about to suck the sand bed is about 3 years old the engineer Go by digs a lot so that might release some bad stuff

29bonsaireef · Jun 20, 2018

I would recommend a back up system to house your corals before disturbing an old sand bed. It can really be detrimental to SPS corals. Don't think an engineer goby is your main issue. If you've fed heavy, or had fish or plant die-off in the system over the course of those 3 years there could be a bunch of nasty stuff in there. The goby constantly kicking up the SB could add extra No3, Po4 as well as ammonia to you system.

Esquire805 · Jun 21, 2018

29bonsaireef said:
I would recommend a back up system to house your corals before disturbing an old sand bed. It can really be detrimental to SPS corals. Don't think an engineer goby is your main issue. If you've fed heavy, or had fish or plant die-off in the system over the course of those 3 years there could be a bunch of nasty stuff in there. The goby constantly kicking up the SB could add extra No3, Po4 as well as ammonia to you system.

Yeah I think it's a lot of stuff in that sand bed might be were the phosphate is coming from

Cory · Jun 22, 2018

Iirc the hanna blinks 200 when your po4 is out of range. Probavly why your having sps issues.

James butchart · Jun 22, 2018

I'm new to this but if he's removing the old sand could use a large siphon head that way it won't kick up sand on to the corals.

Sarah24! · Jun 22, 2018

Hello,

I would start doing weekly water changes and increase the amount of water used. That’s going to be the safest way and of removes the other nasties. I would also test your water before you dose it.

The last thing I would do is disturb that sandbed. If you must, you will need to House your fish and corals In a different tank. Remeber these are very delicate ecosystems and disturbing them can be catastrophic to your whole tank.
What size tank and how many gallons of water do you change out, and how often? Another side note your phosguard does wear out. I just had to replace mine because my phosphates went up to 5ppm.

Sincerely
Sarah

Esquire805 · Jun 22, 2018

Sarah24! said:
Hello,

I would start doing weekly water changes and increase the amount of water used. That’s going to be the safest way and of removes the other nasties. I would also test your water before you dose it.

The last thing I would do is disturb that sandbed. If you must, you will need to House your fish and corals In a different tank. Remeber these are very delicate ecosystems and disturbing them can be catastrophic to your whole tank.
What size tank and how many gallons of water do you change out, and how often? Another side note your phosguard does wear out. I just had to replace mine because my phosphates went up to 5ppm.

Sincerely
Sarah

It's about 60 gallons in volume I will do a water change today things have been looking up my protein skimmer is not working so I just have to do a water change

madweazl · Jun 22, 2018

Gareth elliott said:
...
You can also rinse the sand bed outside of the tank in tap water.

No good will come of doing that.

Esquire805 said:
Yes I may have to move a lot of rocks and macro algae around this about to suck the sand bed is about 3 years old the engineer Go by digs a lot so that might release some bad stuff

How deep is the sand? The goby digging constantly is a good thing, it actually prevents things like that from happening. You can grab a simple gravel vac and just clean it that way (I typically do this twice a year.