Phosphate help.

[RBarth]

40g AIO tank. 5 months old. Lights kicked on after 4 months. Dry rock/live sand. LPS dominate. Weekly 15% water changes. Like to keep nitrates around 10ppm. Alk 9.8 Calcium 480 Mg 1470. 1.026 78.4 degrees.

Phosphate is currently .24. Never had phosphate readings under .12. I feed TDO pellets once a day and basically hand feed so nothing hits the ground. Started Chemipure elite a month ago last time my phosphates hit .20 and it cut them almost in half but yesterday it was back up to .24. Here's the thing...the corals look great. I spot feed LPS pellets and some roids twice a week.

So...is .24 really that bad? Do I add another GFO bag/reactor? Dose Lanthanum Chloride? Is this just from the rocks and just let it do its thing? I know TDO raises phosphate but could it really be that with my stingy feeding?

Thanks in advance!

 

[fishguy242]

hi, just my opinion, numbers are great, just keep in that range,
should do great.

 

[Gtinnel]

If your corals are happy and you're not having any major algea issues then it seems like you're worrying over nothing. Those phosphates are on the high side but I know hobbyists who run that or higher with beautiful tanks.

ETA- I would suspect that a decent amount of your phosphates are coming from the reef roids. Pay attention to when you test and when you use the reef roids and I bet you'll see a trend that phosphates are higher after reef roids.

 

[olonmv]

From what I’ve read, pellets add phosphate at a significant rate vs frozen. Maybe feed less pellets. .2 is kinda high for phosphates but not terrible.

 

[olonmv]

Reef roids are also high in phosphates.

 

[RBarth]

If I'm gonna continue with the pellets and reef roids would yall just keep running CP elite/GFO as a regular thing?

 

[fishguy242]

If I'm gonna continue with the pellets and reef roids would yall just keep running CP elite/GFO as a regular thing?

just when needed,can strip a 40 really quick with too much gfo.
monitor and use in moderation.

 

[MERKEY]

New tank so leaching from rocks is a possibility....Either lower your nutrients input or get a place for the nutrients to grow...like a scrubber or refugium.

 

[RBarth]

Thanks all! I was trying to figure out the source versus just trying to fix the problem...assuming it really is a problem lol!

 

[BanjoBandito]

If you started with dry rock my bet is that it still needs time to establish. I had similar issues, but it sorted out. I'm not a fan of GFO as it'll strip out silicates too. Lanthum can do more harm than good due to the dosing volumes needed for such a small reduction (I believe it's 1 ppm per 1ml per 10 gallon?). So you'd need .4 ml of lanthum if my numbers are right. Do you have an algae problem? Are you seeing issues from the phosphates? I knew a reefer that kept sticks with his phos around 1.8 in an established tank....he just kinda always said "MEH" about it.

The easiest is to manage your feeding. No coral food (phyto instead) and switch to a good frozen mysis for awhile and see what happens to the numbers.

I still vote it's rock maturity. Still pretty young for dry rock to be up to snuff.

 

[RBarth]

If you started with dry rock my bet is that it still needs time to establish. I had similar issues, but it sorted out. I'm not a fan of GFO as it'll strip out silicates too. Lanthum can do more harm than good due to the dosing volumes needed for such a small reduction (I believe it's 1 ppm per 1ml per 10 gallon?). So you'd need .4 ml of lanthum if my numbers are right. Do you have an algae problem? Are you seeing issues from the phosphates? I knew a reefer that kept sticks with his phos around 1.8 in an established tank....he just kinda always said "MEH" about it.

The easiest is to manage your feeding. No coral food (phyto instead) and switch to a good frozen mysis for awhile and see what happens to the numbers.

I still vote it's rock maturity. Still pretty young for dry rock to be up to snuff.

I did the 4 month no light thing and lights have only been running 3 weeks so zero algea. Not sure what else high phosphates lead to other than algea problems??? My wife is not on board with frozen...she doesn't want it in her freezer but we live at the beach and it's always stocked with fresh seafood...go figure!!! Like the other recs though! Thanks!

 

[RBarth]

If you started with dry rock my bet is that it still needs time to establish. I had similar issues, but it sorted out. I'm not a fan of GFO as it'll strip out silicates too. Lanthum can do more harm than good due to the dosing volumes needed for such a small reduction (I believe it's 1 ppm per 1ml per 10 gallon?). So you'd need .4 ml of lanthum if my numbers are right. Do you have an algae problem? Are you seeing issues from the phosphates? I knew a reefer that kept sticks with his phos around 1.8 in an established tank....he just kinda always said "MEH" about it.

The easiest is to manage your feeding. No coral food (phyto instead) and switch to a good frozen mysis for awhile and see what happens to the numbers.

I still vote it's rock maturity. Still pretty young for dry rock to be up to snuff.

Algea Barn phyto/pod stuff?

 

[olonmv]

I My wife is not on board with frozen...she doesn't want it in her freezer but we live at the beach and it's always stocked with fresh seafood...go figure!!! Like the other recs though! Thanks!

You mean, it’s always stocked with fresh fish food…..

 

[BanjoBandito]

Algea Barn phyto/pod stuff?

phyto and pods is always nice additions, but if you have fish they'll prob just eat em all real quick. If you are spot feeding the LPS once or twice a week that's plenty. My guess is with 3 weeks of the lights on the coral are fairly new to the tank. I wouldn't really try to "filter" anything out for now, as you can create an issue and have dinos or something else that'll be a mess. "Nothing good happens fast in a reef tank". Took my dry rock about 7 months to settle in and keep my phosphates around .06, the rocks will leech phosphates for awhile.

High phosphates allegedly hamper the uptake of carbonate for the coral to form it's skeleton btw.

 

[RBarth]

Gotcha. All the corals have been living in a QT tank for the last four month. BB and no fish...hmmmm...I think ur right about the rock. PO4 always .03 in that thing and I fed them more then than I do now. Corals have exploded since the move to the DT tank though.

 

[olonmv]

There’s also an added benefit to feeding frozen over pellets. Makes for healthier livestock that can fight off disease easier.

 

[BanjoBandito]

Gotcha. All the corals have been living in a QT tank for the last four month. BB and no fish...hmmmm...I think ur right about the rock. PO4 always .03 in that thing and I fed them more then than I do now. Corals have exploded since the move to the DT tank though.

Never underestimate the power of matured live rock. Dry rock is a pain to start from, but it does prevent unwanted "critters" most of the time.

 

[RBarth]

U guys were so helpful and nice that I thought I'd ask yall what this is. Just started today. Tiny air bubbles all over the rocks. Also floating all around in the water.

 

[BanjoBandito]

U guys were so helpful and nice that I thought I'd ask yall what this is. Just started today. Tiny air bubbles all over the rocks. Also floating all around in the water.

It’s photosynthesis from what I would guess is a diatom bloom. If it gets thick and clumpy it might be dinos, but with only turning your lights on 3 weeks ago it’s most likely the building blocks of your tanks carbon dioxide consumers taking hold.

 

[RBarth]

So...is this a bad thing? Treatment? Thanks so much man!