Sump or DT for testing..

[Sharebear]

My sump is pretty clean after.. spending a whole weekend.... currently have the bean animal style overflow system. DT water goes to filter socks then refugium with chaeto, skimmer, UV sterilizer, then back to DT.

I’ve been fighting cyano for a bit now, so been removing them as much as possible with manual suction during water change, reduced feeding, changed position/strength of wavemakers but the pink... goos refuses to leave.

when I test my phosphate and nitrate it showed 5 ppm for nitrate and 0 for phosphate from the sump. (.25 phosphate from DT)

Should I be testing it from the DT and not after the water was “cleaned out”..? Now I’m debating if triton is necessary or not since I would have set it up in the sump..

not sure how to reduce phosphate since adding GFO to the sump seems.. pointless..

 

[fishface NJ]

How old is the tank (after rock was cycled)?

 

[Sharebear]

How old is the tank (after rock was cycled)?

I am assuming.. it’s about 2.5-3 years old. The 350G DT and 60G sump.. with fish.. came with the house I bought..

Due to covid, I didn’t really have time to talk to the previous owner and I’m really going off of her old order receipts and seeing when she added stuff in.

not sure how she kept it so.... freaking clean during open house but.. I must be doing something wrong..haha but on the bright side, it’s became a good hobby of mine now haha and the fish.. are alive and well for the last 7 months...

 

[Sleeping Giant]

I would test the display, not the sump

 

[fishface NJ]

She may have cleaned it just before the open house. Don’t over clean. That will give you problems.

 

[fishface NJ]

Gfo in a gfo container would go into the sump area. Just be careful and test daily. The gfo can strip your phosphate down to 0 which you don’t want. Keep nitrate and phosphate above 0 otherwise you will get Dinos

 

[Greg P]

A PO4 test moving from 0 to 0.25 is most likely either dirty test water or user error.
With a huge fluctuation like that I'd test twice to confirm.

I take my test water from the sump after the socks to get the least amount of floaties as possible.

 

[Sharebear]

She may have cleaned it just before the open house. Don’t over clean. That will give you problems.

LOL.. that’s what I think too... smart lady..

 

[Sleeping Giant]

LOL.. that’s what I think too... smart lady..

My previous house owners did the same with me, I moved in a month later and wammy, I was hit with the most horrendous cyano outbreak I've ever seen.