New tank (5 weeks in), phosphate question

[LMDAVE]

My cycle has been compete and diatom bloom came and went, now have bright green algae on rocks and green hair algae on back glass, I finally tested phosphate for the first time with Seachem kit, and it appeared to be about 0.5, is that a bad high number at this early point of cycle?

40 gal tank, sumpless, hob skimmer

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 8
Sal 1.024
Cal 420
Alk 9 dkh
pH 8.2
Temp 79

I’m running Chemipure elite for my only source of carbon and gfo

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

That is high, and I'd look to lower it, although it also isn't as bad as many people have thought.

It will, however, allow for plenty of algae growth.

 

[LMDAVE]

Thanks, I was hoping to hear that maybe it’s high in newly cycled tanks. But I’m going to work on getting it reduced.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Depending on what you did to get to this point, it is perhaps not unusual.

 

[LMDAVE]

Well I was hoping to get some ideas of what I may have done (or doing), and best way to reduce it.

I used RODI water front the beginning. I do have about 30 lbs of BRS Dry Rock that was cycled in my aquarium. I heard mixed comments that dry rock curing could leach phosphates.

 

[jsker]

Most likely the dry rock is leaching phosphates from the cleaning process.

I would suggest a product with Lanthanum Chloride to get the phosphates down and look into setting up a GFO reactor to keep the phosphates down in the future.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Well I was hoping to get some ideas of what I may have done (or doing), and best way to reduce it.

I used RODI water front the beginning. I do have about 30 lbs of BRS Dry Rock that was cycled in my aquarium. I heard mixed comments that dry rock curing could leach phosphates.

Dry rock can release phosphate, regardless of whether you are curing, cycling, or just dump it into an aquarium. Pukani is notable for this.

There are many ways to reduce phosphate. GFO, aluminum oxide, lanthanum, growing macroalgae, etc. All work.

You can also ignore it. Some great tanks have 1 ppm phosphate, but you do risk more algae problems.

 

[TinyChocobo]

I went with Dry Pukani from BRS and got a fair bit of hair algae. My Yellow Tangs cleared it up in a hurry though .

 

[LMDAVE]

Thanks, I will look into a Lanthanum Chloride product to reduce it, then try to maintain from there. Given my tank is only 40 gals (actually about 32 actual gallons with rock), I was hoping Chemi-pure Elite (with GFO) would do the trick for me. I have the bag in an hob filter. But I do wonder how much water flows through the bag vs. just over the top of it. If I see it continue in the wrong direction then I guess the next step up for me would be to set up an external GFO reactor.

 

[LMDAVE]

I went with Dry Pukani from BRS and got a fair bit of hair algae. My Yellow Tangs cleared it up in a hurry though .

Yeah, I was figuring the green algae was just the 3rd stage of the new cycle (after diatom bloom), but the 0.5 Phosphate had me concerned. I would love a yellow tang, one of my favorite fish, but cant have one due to tank size. Learned that after committing to this tank.

 

[TinyChocobo]

Yeah, I was figuring the green algae was just the 3rd stage of the new cycle (after diatom bloom), but the 0.5 Phosphate had me concerned. I would love a yellow tang, one of my favorite fish, but cant have one due to tank size. Learned that after committing to this tank.

Yeah I went with an 88G and TBH I wish I went bigger... There are still some things I want to have that I can't because either the tank isn't big enough or if I put what I want - I'll have very few fish due to territory available.

I'm a little over-stocked as it is - so once some of these fish get bigger I'm likely going to set up a second tank - although by then I'll likely GO BIG or go home. That said 88G is 'going big' compared to the 29G I had before.