SUPER high phosphates

[eran]

I have a relatively new tank that has been running for about 5-6 months. It’s a custom 200 gal system. I started with a mix of dry rock. It was a mix of pukani/fiji/reef saver rock. I bleached about 100 or so pounds for a week. Rinsed with fresh water and prime for some time.

My problem now is that my phosphates were so high my Hanna phosphate checker wouldn’t read the number. It won’t read the phosphates if it’s over 200ppm.

I have the following livestock In the tank at the moment(no corals as I can’t get my phosphates under control):

2- yellow tangs
Purple tang
Powder blue tang
Tomini tang
Magnificent foxface
Regal angel
Flame angel
3- Bangaii cardinals
2- black storm clowns
2- onyx Picasso clowns
Male & female melanurus wrasses
Midas blenny
2- firefish
Royal gramma

I feed pellet/flake/homemade frozen blend and washed mysis once a day. Nothing goes uneaten.

I have a 20gal fuge hooked up with cheato as well. Didn’t touch the phosphates. So, I added a dual BRS reactor with about 1 cup of high capacity GFO and carbon. The Hanna checker still wouldn’t give me a reading.

I then decided to go nuclear and added an entire bottle of phosphate-e per the directions. I finally got my first reading on the Hanna checker; 30ppm.

I have been dosing 36ml of diy nopox for about two weeks now and they came down to 25.

I then purchased a large bottle of seaklear phosphate remover and added 5ml to 1/2 gal of RODI and dripped it for several hours into a 10micron filter sock. Tank was still cloudy even with using the sock. Both yellow tangs are breathing super hard and one is currently laying on the floor. I tested and phosphates are still at 18ppm.

I’m just baffled at how I’m ever going to get them down to .05 or below at this point.

50 gal water changes don’t even touch the phosphates. Yes, I have a 7 stage BRS 150gal RODI filter and it gives me pristine water. I use instant ocean salt as I have done for years.

Help a brother out!! Thanks guys.

 

[eran]

 

[Hermie]

are you sure it's not "over 200ppb" ? which would be 0.200 ppm

so if your checker states "25" it means "0.025 ppm" not 25 ppm

18 on the checker is great, it means 0.018 ppm

 

[Dkeller_nc]

^Yep, +1 to the comment about making sure that you're correctly interpreting the Hanna checker's results. Also make very, very sure that you're correctly executing the test.

I'd definitely (and strongly) suggest that you stop adding a lot of lanthanum chloride (seakleer, phosphate-E) to the tank water. Harming one's fish in an effort to alter water chemistry quickly isn't a good plan.

After you check your interpretation of the Hanna's readings (and the execution procedure for the assay) and have determined that you really do have inorganic phosphate in the tank water above 30 ppm, it's time to think through how that much phosphate got into the tank in the first place. There's quite a few possibilities, but I'd be suspicious of the rock. It may well be that there were sufficient dead sea creatures in the pukani/fiji rock to produce a high phosphate concentration in the tank once they decayed over several months.

As far as a remedy, I'd suggest several 30% water changes over a 3-day period, with a repeat Hanna test of the tank water after each water change. You should see a resulting drop in the phosphate concentration, hopefully within range of the Hanna. If not, it's time to re-examine the execution of the Hanna test, and possibly replace the reagents. If the water changes do significantly drop the phosphate concentration, then you'll want to test again after waiting a week. If it's truly the case that the tank had 200ppm+ phosphate concentrations for months, it's likely that calcium phosphate has precipitated on your rocks. That will take quite a long time to re-dissolve into the tank water as you remove dissolved phosphate through GFO and/or water changes. Because your tank has tangs, GFO is the route that I'd suggest. It'll be a good deal more expensive than lanthanum chloride additions, but a lot safer for your fish.

 

[eran]

are you sure it's not "over 200ppb" ? which would be 0.200 ppm

so if your checker states "25" it means "0.025 ppm" not 25 ppm

18 on the checker is great, it means 0.018 ppm

Well, I just went to look at my reagents and just realized that I was using the Hanna ulr phosphate reagents in my phosphorus ulr checker. Heck, I guess I should have ordered the right reagents to start with‍

 

[saltyhog]

What is the model number of your Hanna Checker? There are 3 that they make and one is not very useful . IF it's the ULR phosphorous your readings aren't bad.

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

I would also stop everything except water changes. Your fish and tank look great. Also if you truly had high po4 you would have algae growing like crazy.

 

[Reefahholic]

I have a relatively new tank that has been running for about 5-6 months. It’s a custom 200 gal system. I started with a mix of dry rock. It was a mix of pukani/fiji/reef saver rock. I bleached about 100 or so pounds for a week. Rinsed with fresh water and prime for some time.

My problem now is that my phosphates were so high my Hanna phosphate checker wouldn’t read the number. It won’t read the phosphates if it’s over 200ppm.

I have the following livestock In the tank at the moment(no corals as I can’t get my phosphates under control):

2- yellow tangs
Purple tang
Powder blue tang
Tomini tang
Magnificent foxface
Regal angel
Flame angel
3- Bangaii cardinals
2- black storm clowns
2- onyx Picasso clowns
Male & female melanurus wrasses
Midas blenny
2- firefish
Royal gramma

I feed pellet/flake/homemade frozen blend and washed mysis once a day. Nothing goes uneaten.

I have a 20gal fuge hooked up with cheato as well. Didn’t touch the phosphates. So, I added a dual BRS reactor with about 1 cup of high capacity GFO and carbon. The Hanna checker still wouldn’t give me a reading.

I then decided to go nuclear and added an entire bottle of phosphate-e per the directions. I finally got my first reading on the Hanna checker; 30ppm.

I have been dosing 36ml of diy nopox for about two weeks now and they came down to 25.

I then purchased a large bottle of seaklear phosphate remover and added 5ml to 1/2 gal of RODI and dripped it for several hours into a 10micron filter sock. Tank was still cloudy even with using the sock. Both yellow tangs are breathing super hard and one is currently laying on the floor. I tested and phosphates are still at 18ppm.

I’m just baffled at how I’m ever going to get them down to .05 or below at this point.

50 gal water changes don’t even touch the phosphates. Yes, I have a 7 stage BRS 150gal RODI filter and it gives me pristine water. I use instant ocean salt as I have done for years.

Help a brother out!! Thanks guys.

Couple things you should know that will help you.

50% Water changes would be safer option to lower the level. Also remember you’re using the Hanna ULR. ULTRA LOW READING.

If you wanna use LaCI3...5mL of SeaKlear on a 200/G is a bit too much to dose at one time IMO. Lower the dose to 2mL per 1Liter of RODI and drip for 8-10 hrs.

The PO4 level isn’t 30ppm. It’s likely not over 1ppm. I would not freak out yet. The tank is young and the level will likely come down on its own over time.

 

[eran]

Thanks everyone for your assistance! I was totally not reading the checker the correct way. Rookie move Like I said above, I’m not even using the correct reagent for the phosphorus ulr checker. I did find this quick and handy scale to reference for my readings instead of doing the quick math.

I at least got the right math down- my reading on the checker x 3.066/100.

 

[eran]

Couple things you should know that will help you.

50% Water changes would be safer option to lower the level. Also remember you’re using the Hanna ULR. ULTRA LOW READING.

If you wanna use LaCI3...5mL of SeaKlear on a 200/G is a bit too much to dose at one time IMO. Lower the dose to 2mL per 1Liter of RODI and drip for 8-10 hrs.

The PO4 level isn’t 30ppm. It’s likely not over 1ppm. I would not freak out yet. The tank is young and the level will likely come down on its own over time.

I only dosed about half the solution I mixed up of the LaCl3. Thanks for the help!