Phosphates

phil bevilacqua · Jan 15, 2019

How do you guys control your phosphates ?
I do weekly water changes and they are getting old. I have a 220 well stocked but mostly frags. I also run GFO to keep around .05 I have five fish that I feed daily once or twice a day, I direct feed coral 1 time a week And always run GFO right afterwards because it’s spikes my phosphate. I have a skimmer and fuge.... nitrates stay very low just not phosphate

ReefingWoonkie · Jan 15, 2019

Same situation I had

I have a fuge but realized I was harvesting too much Chaeto at once. I also started dosing a very small amount of noPox phosphates are now down to .03

Todd31 · Jan 15, 2019

how are the frags looking? do you have lots of nuisance algae? with 5 fish in a 220, a skimmer, and fuge i cant imagine that you have much of a bioload. in my experiences, shooting for those low numbers caused more harm than good. theres some pretty successful sps keepers and vendors out there that arent concerned about the phosphate # (to a certain degree).

phil bevilacqua · Jan 15, 2019

Todd31 said:
how are the frags looking? do you have lots of nuisance algae? with 5 fish in a 220, a skimmer, and fuge i cant imagine that you have much of a bioload. in my experiences, shooting for those low numbers caused more harm than good. theres some pretty successful sps keepers and vendors out there that arent concerned about the phosphate # (to a certain degree).

Little bit of (pita)bubble algae. But that’s it. Frags look pretty good, I mean they don’t look like the pictures that I bought them. Hahahaaa But no death

acabgd · Jan 15, 2019

Some photos would be good. Bubble algae can quickly multiply with your level of phosphate, so this is an indication that it's higher than desired. What kind of skimmer do you have and how's your skimmate? Do you use filter socks?

phil bevilacqua · Jan 15, 2019

No socks just blue filter from brs in the cups... life reef skimmer. Skim mate is dark dark brown. Not black

AndrewB · Jan 15, 2019

I use seachem's phosguard. I'm not nearly the same volume of water (40 gallon) but I fought high po4 before using a small amount of phosguard in my media basket.

phil bevilacqua · Jan 15, 2019

AndrewB said:
I use seachem's phosguard. I'm not nearly the same volume of water (40 gallon) but I fought high po4 before using a small amount of phosguard in my media basket.

Is that like GFO? Absorbs phosphate ?

AndrewB · Jan 15, 2019

I have no idea what it is!

https://www.seachem.com/phosguard.php

I had levels of .5ppm-1 (salifert) . I used roughly 1/4 cup of phosguard in a media bag and placed in my media basket. I tested everyday until I got down in the .03 range. (About 2 days, if I remember correctly.) Now I just keep a couple tablespoons in the bag and change it out if I notice my levels creeping up again.

Blackice615 · Jan 15, 2019

Following. Nitrates at 2 and phosphates went up to .5 on Salifert. 6+ months ago I built a DIY cheato reactor. It worked great until I messed with the flow. Considered switching the reactor to a biopellets but I've seen horror stories time and time again

Blackice615 · Jan 15, 2019

I used phosguard now. It works great but gets old changing it out biweekly. Its recommended to change it out every 7 days on average though. In my tank it seems to last longer, hence why I wait

SPR1968 · Jan 16, 2019

If you use a GFO (I use rhowaphos in a reactor) it can’t not work, provided you change it when spent and I run this 24/7 and doing this was the best single control method I did to my system. I also use Nopox but it’s not very good for phosphate control.

The change could be anything from a week to a month depending on the phosphate level at the start. I change mine normally every 3 weeks. This time I left it 4 weeks, due to a holiday, and when I tested instead of being around 0-0.o3 it was 0.18! So it was changed

I rarely test the phosphate these days as I just do a regular rhowaphos change and that keeps it locked down.

Blackice615 · Jan 16, 2019

Helpful to know. How big is your tank? How do you clean the gfo prior to putting it in your tank? How much does it take when you replenish your reactor?

HB AL · Jan 16, 2019

I keep a bag of phosgaurd in my tank 24/7, and dose 5ml of nopox. For my tank this seems to keep my phosphate and nitrate at levels low enough that corals like but algae doesn’t. I have a lot of fish(feed 8 cubes a day) and corals of all types and they’ve been doing great, on this regimen since I set this tank up 3 years ago. Also I don’t do water changes, last one was 10 months ago. Here’s a couple recent shots to show how it’s working out for me.

phil bevilacqua · Jan 16, 2019

SPR1968 said:
If you use a GFO (I use rhowaphos in a reactor) it can’t not work, provided you change it when spent and I run this 24/7 and doing this was the best single control method I did to my system. I also use Nopox but it’s not very good for phosphate control.

The change could be anything from a week to a month depending on the phosphate level at the start. I change mine normally every 3 weeks. This time I left it 4 weeks, due to a holiday, and when I tested instead of being around 0-0.o3 it was 0.18! So it was changed

I rarely test the phosphate these days as I just do a regular rhowaphos change and that keeps it locked down.

Just seen so many horror stories about GFO going to low to fast and killing your tank. Guess I just need to find the right amount to use to not strip so fast

HB AL · Jan 16, 2019

phil bevilacqua said:
Just seen so many horror stories about GFO going to low to fast and killing your tank. Guess I just need to find the right amount to use to not strip so fast

If you use gfo, use the least amount possible and check phosphate every other day for a few weeks to make sure you don't strip it out completely and screw up your corals. I've found with phosgaurd just having a small bag in a sump works and doesn't strip it to nothing versus a larger amount especially if it's in a reactor. Just my experience. With the phosgaurd in a bag in the sump I only test phosphate maybe every couple months, and when I notice a little more algae growing faster than my tangs can keep up with I change the bag of phosgaurd, usually around every 3 months or so, that's just my own real world experience with my system.

Blackice615 · Jan 16, 2019

What a reef. that's awesome!

phil bevilacqua · Jan 16, 2019

HB AL said:
I keep a bag of phosgaurd in my tank 24/7, and dose 5ml of nopox. For my tank this seems to keep my phosphate and nitrate at levels low enough that corals like but algae doesn’t. I have a lot of fish(feed 8 cubes a day) and corals of all types and they’ve been doing great, on this regimen since I set this tank up 3 years ago. Also I don’t do water changes, last one was 10 months ago. Here’s a couple recent shots to show how it’s working out for me.

Amazing tank

phil bevilacqua · Jan 16, 2019

HB AL said:
I keep a bag of phosgaurd in my tank 24/7, and dose 5ml of nopox. For my tank this seems to keep my phosphate and nitrate at levels low enough that corals like but algae doesn’t. I have a lot of fish(feed 8 cubes a day) and corals of all types and they’ve been doing great, on this regimen since I set this tank up 3 years ago. Also I don’t do water changes, last one was 10 months ago. Here’s a couple recent shots to show how it’s working out for me.

Does clown trigger nip corals and eat cuc?

HB AL · Jan 16, 2019

phil bevilacqua said:
Does clown trigger nip corals and eat cuc?

He doesn't touch any corals, leaves snails alone, and the hermits since I already had a sargassum and bluejaw trigger became nocturnal feeders, I think because of the triggers, so i only see them when the lights are out. I figured he would munch on my maximal clams but he doesnt.