Phophate will not come down

[Sphinxj13]

My Take?

You hit that 3 year mark where the tank is mature, but not mature

I panicked at about the same time and almost killed everything with Lanthanum....

I would not panick - just keep running the GFO and maybe some Chemipure - water changes as normal and watch the feeding.

It will eventually come down. It will just take time.

I can see that and yea definitely hurt a lot of coral with lanthanum but I think partly due to not diluting it since it was a very small dose. Thanks for the help

 

[BeanAnimal]

I wouldn't use a cup of gfo a day either!

 

[Lavey29]

I agree that the gfo is getting burned out also but would have thought that by now the rocks or substrate would be depleted. I know the hobby is pricey but changing 1 cup of gfo every day or other would add up drastically.

That's where 6 drops of phosphates RX makes depleting that saturation easy.

 

[Lavey29]

My Take?

You hit that 3 year mark where the tank is mature, but not mature

I panicked at about the same time and almost killed everything with Lanthanum.... ~20 years later (same tank, same water, no water changes in almost a decade) I run somewhere around .3 and it was up over 1.0 way back then. Sucked out sand, changed out rock, dosed LaCL, etc. All I did was make a mess and irritate the snot out of everything.

I would not panick - just keep running the GFO and maybe some Chemipure - water changes as normal and watch the feeding.

It will eventually come down. It will just take time.

I tried the GFO and chemipure along with water changes and just kept creeping up to a point where neither of those methods had any real effect.

 

[areefer01]

I tried the GFO and chemipure along with water changes and just kept creeping up to a point where neither of those methods had any real effect.

Phosphate rX or similar LC based products will have the same effect. Knock it back and it will creep up day over day. Cheaper but not as safe due to LC's participates unless effort is gone into a slow drip into the skimmer intake or neck. Even then the participate / white cloudy stuff is risk. I understand the draw for the use of LC based products. No rinsing. Lower cost. Less labor. I get it.

On the other hand you can buy 10 lbs of GFO for the price of other brands if you do a search.

 

[Pistondog]

Nitrate is at 10 right now. I tend not to chase anything but it just keeps going up.

You might try carbon dosing with nitrate of 10.
Bacto balance helps keep my po4 in check.

 

[Dan_P]

GFO works but it gets burned out in a day or two then the saturation of phosphates in rock and sand bring number back up again. You would have to change GFO daily or every other day.

Could you change it that often?

 

[Lavey29]

Could you change it that often?

Why would that be a good option either time wise or financially? But the answer is yes a person can elect to go that route.

 

[Lavey29]

Phosphate rX or similar LC based products will have the same effect. Knock it back and it will creep up day over day. Cheaper but not as safe due to LC's participates unless effort is gone into a slow drip into the skimmer intake or neck. Even then the participate / white cloudy stuff is risk. I understand the draw for the use of LC based products. No rinsing. Lower cost. Less labor. I get it.

On the other hand you can buy 10 lbs of GFO for the price of other brands if you do a search.

Oh I'm not a fan of continued RX use at all but it works to absorb all the saturation in my rocks and sand then a simple bag of chemipure blue and or phosguard will keep it in check for another few years like before.

 

[Lavey29]

You might try carbon dosing with nitrate of 10.
Bacto balance helps keep my po4 in check.

Unless you have a chaeto fuge running

 

[Pistondog]

Unless you have a chaeto fuge running

Cant run a fuge and carbon dose?

 

[Sphinxj13]

I dont agree with any chemicals being used long term and personally am not a fan. I've tried for months not to use them but at what cost? I don't want to see things die either. Daily gfo changes seem crazy to me and painful on my pocket but also I want to get rid of phosphate build up in the rocks & sand. I prefer stability over anything whether it's phosphates at .03 or at .1 but fluctuations are killing me. I think starting a fuge in my sump might be the best option qnd hopefully solve my problems.

 

[Reefering1]

Unless you have a chaeto fuge running

Cant run a fuge and carbon dose?

I have a rather large pile of chaeto going. I use it to visually judge my nutrients. If its receding, it's around 5 and .03. Growing and full is around 20+ and .1. Adjusting vodka based on that

 

[Lavey29]

I dont agree with any chemicals being used long term and personally am not a fan. I've tried for months not to use them but at what cost? I don't want to see things die either. Daily gfo changes seem crazy to me and painful on my pocket but also I want to get rid of phosphate build up in the rocks & sand. I prefer stability over anything whether it's phosphates at .03 or at .1 but fluctuations are killing me. I think starting a fuge in my sump might be the best option qnd hopefully solve my problems.

Unless you have some big external 30g fuge, typical sump fuges don't do much for nutrients control. I do like how they help balance PH overnight and offer pods space to multiply but typically sum0 fuges are only a minor tool for nutrients control. Big fuges are cool though and help much better.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I dont agree with any chemicals being used long term and personally am not a fan.

Curious why not?

Cost and bother are good reasons one might not want to use "chemicals", but stability or end results in the water do not seem to be an issue (IMO).

 

[Sphinxj13]

Curious why not?

Cost and bother are good reasons one might not want to use "chemicals", but stability or end results in the water do not seem to be an issue (IMO).

I personally just do not like chemicals in general while I do agree that they work and achieve the end result without problems. If I'm going to use them usually it will be last resort for me.

 

[mortimersnerd]

You might look at vodka dosing. I've used it for some time to good effect. Took some for my phosphates to come down, but wound up having to dose nitrate.

 

[hsosa]

my question is how do ur corals look with the higher phosphate? is stuff dying off , my po4 ranges from .25 to .3 and all my corals are growing and healthy I keep sps mostly chalices and some branching mdntipora I think all this messing with po4 is killing everyones corals plus the test kits that we have are not accuarate enough 20yrs ago no one measured p04 and it wasn't a concern people had nice sps reefs, I think it's more of a marketing to sell more products . when ur po4 is way too low ur corals looked all bleached out its not worth chasing p04

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I personally just do not like chemicals in general while I do agree that they work and achieve the end result without problems. If I'm going to use them usually it will be last resort for me.

Sort of the definition of a chemophobe. lol

Makes maintaining chemicals in seawater a challenge without using chemicals. lol

 

[areefer01]

Sort of the definition of a chemophobe. lol

Makes maintaining chemicals in seawater a challenge without using chemicals. lol

Maybe chemical was used in a broader sense. Lanthanum chloride would be one example where as the juice may not be worth the squeeze.

Yes, it works. Great in fact. Cheap. Easy to administer. So far great. However if an accident happened it could very well be catastrophic. There are some reports by hobbyist of issues with some Zebrasoma tangs. Needs to be administered carefully or thought out at least to help to filter the particles (not sure right term here, sorry).

I've used phosphate rx with good results but I wasn't a fan of the residue particles. Dosing at night seems to help as did dripping it into a filter sock in front of the skimmer intake. Even with a filter pad in the sump it made it into the display. Did that harm anything? I have no idea. Polyps are out at night so part of me things they ingested it the other part of me says no, they don't. They know what is and is not food. Then I just shrug and say I'm not a marine biologist and leave it at that.

TL; DR - LC would be an example of a chemical. At least that I think of.

Edit: hope your morning is going well.