phosphates won't go down

petemichelle · Mar 16, 2014

i have a 29 gal biocube with lots of corals 4 fish, and quite a few clean up crew. my problems are my phosphates. I am using red sea no pox additive daily (3ml), for at least 6 months. my mag is 1360, alk is 12.6 and my cal is 450. I started a BRS phosphate reactor 2 weeks ago and after a week there was no change in the test results of .08 with a red sea test kit. I was BRS GFO high capacity about 5 TSP and 10 Tsp of BRS carbon premium ROZ .08. I then went to straight GFO high capacity. about 15 or more TSP, (which is 5 times the recommended starting amount) and a water change. still after a week, the same reading. I even tested the water coming straight out of the reactor, same reading. any suggestions??

Surfside74 · Mar 16, 2014

Don't sweat it too much. That is not too bad of a level. Do you have algae issues or just testing as part of routine. They will go down along with a good water change practice. Also watch what you are feeding. That is usually the biggest source of phosphates. Be very careful exceeding he recommend dose as it can strip things too fast and hurt your corals.

Rob

petemichelle · Mar 17, 2014

i do have algae issues. long haired algae on the rocks, snail shells and even on the sand. it's not over taking anything but it's always there and i'm always having to address it by physically removing it. i'll try to cut back even more on the feeding.

Reefing Madness · Mar 17, 2014

Moved to current location

jservedio · Mar 17, 2014

Are you measuring in Tsp (TEAspoons) or Tbsp (TABLEspoons)? If you are measuing in teaspoons, that is wrong - the BRS calculator is in tablespoons. For help, 1 TBSP = 3 TSP. So, if you are using 15tsp, that is 5tbsp and the suggested dose for HiCap GFO in 29g is 3tbsp - so you aren't even using double - certainly not 5x.

If you had been letting phosphates build up over time and are to the point of hair algae on your rocks - your rocks are probably saturated in phosphate and are leaching phosphate back into the water column as fast as you can pull them out. Stay the course and don't overdo it with GFO. It can take a while to pull all the phosphate out of your rocks - but the GFO is defintitely helping and so is the algae. Besides just throwing GFO at it, you should spend time figuring out the underlying problem and determine if you are overfeeding your tank.

Also - the Red Sea Pro phosphate test kit isn't that accurate - so don't rely on just what it is telling you. Your eyes are a much better judge of your phosphate levels when there is algae in the tank.

petemichelle · Mar 17, 2014

oh there is definitely algae in the tank, also the sponges drive me nuts. i think they call them pineapple sponges. anyway they seem to take over pieces of rock for weeks if not months then die off a little. but I definitely see the algae on the sand and on the backs of the snails and sometimes on the rocks. you're right I did type tsp instead of tbsp. I did mean table spoon and yes the calculation of 5 times is correct. I've done the math over and over with disbelieve that I am not getting anywhere with this stuff. Maybe the test kit is screwy. I did try the api test kit and it test under .25, that's as low as it goes before 0. I'll look for other test kits or maybe a refill with different agents for the red sea.

Pete polyp · Mar 17, 2014

Red sea test kit will show 0.08 phosphate with distilled water. I know because I have used the kit before with false readings. Its complete junk.

petemichelle · Mar 18, 2014

Pete polyp said:
Red sea test kit will show 0.08 phosphate with distilled water. I know because I have used the kit before with false readings. Its complete junk.

So what test kits do you use now??

jduck · Mar 18, 2014

petemichelle said:
So what test kits do you use now??

Pete polyp said:
Red sea test kit will show 0.08 phosphate with distilled water. I know because I have used the kit before with false readings. Its complete junk.

Hanna is the best way

Pete polyp · Mar 18, 2014

petemichelle said:
So what test kits do you use now??

I dint use one, because a number doesn't concern me. I look into my tank and if there's some hair algae growing then yep, my phosphates are getting high.

jservedio · Mar 18, 2014

jduck said:
Hanna is the best way

Note with the Hanna - get the HI-736 (the ULR), do NOT get the HI-713, it is also pretty junky. They are the exact same price (I got mine with a box of reagents shipped from Amazon for less than $55) except the ULR is 2.6 times more sensitive than the other. The only "downside" is you have to do some mental math to get the actual phosphate reading (the 736 reads in phosphorus). Well worth the 2 seconds of math in your head for the much more accurate number.