Phosphate rec. level

[Arod0416]

+1 on this. Water changes with good rodi water is the way to go this point imo. Im not sure how you “washed” you old live rock, but its probable that dead organic matter is going to leach into the water for a bit.

I brushed them down with a tooth brush and spray hydrogen peroxide and washed it off.

 

[Arod0416]

How large is this tank? How much rock are we talking about? With fish, flow, and CUC I can't imagine it should be spiking phosphate for multiple months. A few weeks seems more reasonable. I could be wrong.

It is a 55gallon tank. I have a tang, chromis, one goby, and 2 clownfish. My flow is 1250 gph and I have a canister filter. I have about 30 pounds of rock in my tank.

 

[Cell]

How much of that was the dead rock? If only a few lbs or pieces, you could always pull the rock in question and cure it outside the tank too. I just feel like being a bit more aggressive and lowering the phosphate now could ultimately be less work and trouble than dealing with the algae later.

 

[Arod0416]

How much of that was the dead rock? If only a few lbs or pieces, you could always pull the rock in question and cure it outside the tank too. I just feel like being a bit more aggressive and lowering the phosphate now could ultimately be less work and trouble than dealing with the algae later.

I am sorry and I might sound dumb but, what is considered dead rock?
I have 30 pounds of rock. 15 pounds of dry and 15 pounds of lrock.

how can I cure it outside or inside the tank?

 

[Cell]

I guess the assumption was made that the dry rock you used was also from a former tank, so it used to be live rock and then would contain dried up organic material which is where the phosphates would be coming from. But maybe only live rock from the former tank was used and the dry rock was brand new marco rock or something?

 

[Cell]

The terms dead rock/live rock can be a bit confusing a mean slightly different things depending on context.

 

[Arod0416]

I guess the assumption was made that the dry rock you used was also from a former tank, so it used to be live rock and then would contain dried up organic material which is where the phosphates would be coming from. But maybe only live rock from the former tank was used and the dry rock was brand new marco rock or something?

Both the live rock and dry rock was from my former tank. I washed them and brushed it with hydrogen peroxide. Then cleaned them again and put it in my new tank set up.

 

[Cell]

So to cure that rock ideally you put it in a tub with saltwater, heater, and circulation in the form of a pump or powerhead and let it sit for several weeks to get rid of any dead organic material before adding it to your aquarium. Washing them and brushing them helped too. You are still fine, you just have to deal with high phosphates for a bit until all that old organic material decomposes and gets sucked up during water changes.

 

[gotmesalty77]

phosphates at 1 is no issue I run a mixed reef in that range alot as long as you have the nitrates to support it and I typically say this , high nutrients = high flow high light , lower nutes lower flow lower lights , you could start to carbon dose to slowly lower it naturally and in line with the nitrates. Try to keep a 16:1 n/p ratio or close to it and you should be fine. Figure it like this p @1 N @ 20 ish , [email protected] N @ 10 ish , p@ .25 N @ 5 ish

i think this is one of the simplest and best ways to have seen this described. I think most folks need to have a deeper understanding of the relationship between N and P. I dont think i fully understood the concept until a embarrassingly short time ago. Wish i would of read something like this years ago.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

i think this is one of the simplest and best ways to have seen this described. I think most folks need to have a deeper understanding of the relationship between N and P. I dont think i fully understood the concept until a embarrassingly short time ago. Wish i would of read something like this years ago.

FWIW, I personally do not think a ratio is an optimal way to think about nitrate and phosphate. Far better is just to target each to optimal levels. If one is much too low or much too high, does it make sense to make the other be too low or too high? Doesn’t make sense to me.

 

[gotmesalty77]

FWIW, I personally do not think a ratio is an optimal way to think about nitrate and phosphate. Far better is just to target each to optimal levels. If one is much too low or much too high, does it make sense to make the other be too low or too high? Doesn’t make sense to me.

I guess i should have included that iam not a number chaser and only use them as "guidelines". Recently i have noticed that my po4 has been continuing to rise and my no3 drop. i have been feeding more due to trying to rehab a wilsoni i picked up.