josh_rog
New Member
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2019
- Messages
- 1
- Reaction score
- 1
- What state or country do you live in
- Tennessee
Numbers:
Temp: 79.6 F
PH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
Phosphate: .28
Salinity: 1.025
Alk: 8.6 dKh
Ca: 420
Mg: 1440
Setup:
180 Gal Mixed Reef
40 Gal Sump (Approx 25-30 gal actual water)
160-180 lbs of rock 40-50% brand new marco rock the rest live rock from FIL's established system
RO/DI At TDS of 3 ppm
Octopus NW-200-6540B 250Gal Skimmer
1 Marine Pure large block in sump
Livestock: About 7-10 small fish largest being a Blue Hippo Tang about 3 in in size
Feeding: We feed morning and night, almost solely frozen foods. We are probably at 1-2 cubes a day. I spot feed my corals twice a week with 1 tsp of reef roids. Add Zooplankton and Phytoplankton once week 10ml/ea.
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TL;DR; 3 month old tank with high phosphates that are rising despite Phosgard. Not sure of PO4 source as feeding has been reduced greatly, we skim rather wet, and our RO/DI water registers 0 when tested for phosphates and is at 3 TDS. Rocks are my guess but half the internet tells me that rocks can't leach phosphate and the other half says they leach to equilibrium...
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I have a new mixed reef tank approx 3 months old. I have been dealing with high phosphates since the very beginning. At one point reaching up to 2.5 ppm. Following advice I began vodka carbon dosing upping the dose 1ml every couple of days until it got under control. I was ultimately up to 15ml per day until I saw phosphates start to drop and they did so rather precipitously to .40 ppm. We were having serious slime issues in our filter socks however and started to cut back on the vodka reducing by 1ml every few days and phosphates started to ramp back up.
We then had an ich outbreak where we treated with aquaLife Cure and when we got through that (no fish lost, yay!) it was recommended to us to use some activated carbon that was gifted to us. This stuff was horribly dusty but I was diligent to rinse it in RO water until no more dust was visible in the water and put it in in a media bag in the sump. Water clarity was great, everything seemed happy, and I watched PO4 daily as I knew the risk of it leaching, what I didn't expect is that it went from stable to > 0.90 over night. On the 8th day I went from .41 the night before to > .90 (Highest my Hanna goes). I immediately removed the carbon and we did a ~15% water change. At this point I am at 9ml per day vodka dosing.
I decided to leave the tank as I didn't want to overreact and continued pulling back on the vodka as the filter socks were still bad. Corals and fish seemed happy and things were opening. My frogspawn are typically my bellweather and they were nice and extended.
After about 2 days that was no longer the case. My corals were definitely retracting and color was rapidly diminishing. I added Kent's Phosphate Sponge to the tank and after replacing every two days I had gotten the tank back down to .45. At this point I switched over to Seachem's Phosgard product and started using it in a media bag as well, replacing the Phosgard every 4 days. Reduction since then has been very slow. I am now down to .28 as of today but that is actually .03 higher than 2 days ago when the Phosgard was brand new.
So, I've now backed down to no vodka dosing as further research tends to suggest I shouldn't be carbon dosing in this young of a tank. I am still replenishing Phosgard every 4 days and have it in a media reactor now to improve water coverage making sure it isn't tumbling.
I don't know what the source of my Phosphate is. Rock maybe since we did not cure the Marco Rock? Frozen fish food, we've cut back on it quite a bit, we did have a plan to feed a little heavy and keep the skimmer skimming wet to compensate, but trying to locate the source of the phosphate we've cut back substantially. My nitrates have never really been a problem in the tank, highest I saw them were at 30ppm and hover at 5 ppm for the most part now.
So, that is my question, what could be producing my phosphates at this point that even Phosgard can't keep up? My recent readings also have my concerned about my Aluminum levels in the water given I have a large MarinePure block in the sump and have been using Phosgard, though I have been diligent about rinsing the Phosgard. Also, should I actually be vodka and/or vinegar dosing in a new tank?
Temp: 79.6 F
PH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
Phosphate: .28
Salinity: 1.025
Alk: 8.6 dKh
Ca: 420
Mg: 1440
Setup:
180 Gal Mixed Reef
40 Gal Sump (Approx 25-30 gal actual water)
160-180 lbs of rock 40-50% brand new marco rock the rest live rock from FIL's established system
RO/DI At TDS of 3 ppm
Octopus NW-200-6540B 250Gal Skimmer
1 Marine Pure large block in sump
Livestock: About 7-10 small fish largest being a Blue Hippo Tang about 3 in in size
Feeding: We feed morning and night, almost solely frozen foods. We are probably at 1-2 cubes a day. I spot feed my corals twice a week with 1 tsp of reef roids. Add Zooplankton and Phytoplankton once week 10ml/ea.
---
TL;DR; 3 month old tank with high phosphates that are rising despite Phosgard. Not sure of PO4 source as feeding has been reduced greatly, we skim rather wet, and our RO/DI water registers 0 when tested for phosphates and is at 3 TDS. Rocks are my guess but half the internet tells me that rocks can't leach phosphate and the other half says they leach to equilibrium...
---
I have a new mixed reef tank approx 3 months old. I have been dealing with high phosphates since the very beginning. At one point reaching up to 2.5 ppm. Following advice I began vodka carbon dosing upping the dose 1ml every couple of days until it got under control. I was ultimately up to 15ml per day until I saw phosphates start to drop and they did so rather precipitously to .40 ppm. We were having serious slime issues in our filter socks however and started to cut back on the vodka reducing by 1ml every few days and phosphates started to ramp back up.
We then had an ich outbreak where we treated with aquaLife Cure and when we got through that (no fish lost, yay!) it was recommended to us to use some activated carbon that was gifted to us. This stuff was horribly dusty but I was diligent to rinse it in RO water until no more dust was visible in the water and put it in in a media bag in the sump. Water clarity was great, everything seemed happy, and I watched PO4 daily as I knew the risk of it leaching, what I didn't expect is that it went from stable to > 0.90 over night. On the 8th day I went from .41 the night before to > .90 (Highest my Hanna goes). I immediately removed the carbon and we did a ~15% water change. At this point I am at 9ml per day vodka dosing.
I decided to leave the tank as I didn't want to overreact and continued pulling back on the vodka as the filter socks were still bad. Corals and fish seemed happy and things were opening. My frogspawn are typically my bellweather and they were nice and extended.
After about 2 days that was no longer the case. My corals were definitely retracting and color was rapidly diminishing. I added Kent's Phosphate Sponge to the tank and after replacing every two days I had gotten the tank back down to .45. At this point I switched over to Seachem's Phosgard product and started using it in a media bag as well, replacing the Phosgard every 4 days. Reduction since then has been very slow. I am now down to .28 as of today but that is actually .03 higher than 2 days ago when the Phosgard was brand new.
So, I've now backed down to no vodka dosing as further research tends to suggest I shouldn't be carbon dosing in this young of a tank. I am still replenishing Phosgard every 4 days and have it in a media reactor now to improve water coverage making sure it isn't tumbling.
I don't know what the source of my Phosphate is. Rock maybe since we did not cure the Marco Rock? Frozen fish food, we've cut back on it quite a bit, we did have a plan to feed a little heavy and keep the skimmer skimming wet to compensate, but trying to locate the source of the phosphate we've cut back substantially. My nitrates have never really been a problem in the tank, highest I saw them were at 30ppm and hover at 5 ppm for the most part now.
So, that is my question, what could be producing my phosphates at this point that even Phosgard can't keep up? My recent readings also have my concerned about my Aluminum levels in the water given I have a large MarinePure block in the sump and have been using Phosgard, though I have been diligent about rinsing the Phosgard. Also, should I actually be vodka and/or vinegar dosing in a new tank?
