The Battle Against Phosphates

[TheHerbanLegend]

I am having a really hard time getting rid of phosphates and I don't know if I am being impatient or what, quick run down.
3 month old tank 30g DT 30g sump (enters into filter floss, goes into bio media chamber then fuge where chaeto is growing then into a LR chamber then clean chamber and return) have used only RODI from the start and have been doing 15% WC every Friday evening. Added some more chaeto and upgraded skimmer from a 50g to a 75g skimmer. Phosphate has barely dropped at all since adding chaeto and skimmer over 3 weeks ago still sitting at about 5ppm. This makes me sad. Please help/advice

 

[KrisReef]

What is your nitrate level, how is your chaeto growing

 

[dwest]

I am having a really hard time getting rid of phosphates and I don't know if I am being impatient or what, quick run down.
3 month old tank 30g DT 30g sump (enters into filter floss, goes into bio media chamber then fuge where chaeto is growing then into a LR chamber then clean chamber and return) have used only RODI from the start and have been doing 15% WC every Friday evening. Added some more chaeto and upgraded skimmer from a 50g to a 75g skimmer. Phosphate has barely dropped at all since adding chaeto and skimmer over 3 weeks ago still sitting at about 5ppm. This makes me sad. Please help/advice

And what test kit are you using?

 

[Sneakimonky]

What kind of rock did you use? It may be just buffered into the stone. This way it looks like nothing is happening.

How does the cheato grow? Nitrate level?

You could use a bit of gfo to speed things up.

 

[TheHerbanLegend]

What is your nitrate level, how is your chaeto growing

Nitrates when last tested two days ago were almost nil. And chaeto is growing good had two portions two weeks ago and I am probably double that now

 

[TheHerbanLegend]

And what test kit are you using?

My phosphate test kit is an API kit

 

[TheHerbanLegend]

What kind of rock did you use? It may be just buffered into the stone. This way it looks like nothing is happening.

How does the cheato grow? Nitrate level?

You could use a bit of gfo to speed things up.

Rock was dry rock I had in a sealed container for 5 years and cleaned up, cured in dark dry container for a few weeks and put in tank to cycle. chaeto grows great, and nitrates are almost non detectable

 

[14 foot reef]

Change your test kits to either Red Sea ir Salifert. You'll be very surprised of the test result difference. Then I would also suggest sending away a test to Triton. You possibly are chasing a number that is already there.

 

[dwest]

Change your test kits to either Red Sea ir Salifert. You'll be very surprised of the test result difference. Then I would also suggest sending away a test to Triton. You possibly are chasing a number that is already there.

Many of us use Hanna checker for phosphates as well.

 

[14 foot reef]

Many of us use Hanna checker for phosphates as well.

I typed that too fast, I should have absolutely mentioned the Hanna test kits. I Use the Hanna for my Phosphate and my DKH. I was more concentrating on his Nitrate. As I don't know a lot of people that find the API very accurate for Nitrates.

 

[Sneakimonky]

If the cheato is growing it will just take some time.
wait With trimming till the cheato can’t grow anymore due to space limitations. That’s the fastest way in my experience

 

[dutch27]

Rock was dry rock I had in a sealed container for 5 years and cleaned up, cured in dark dry container for a few weeks and put in tank to cycle. chaeto grows great, and nitrates are almost non detectable

It's probably leeching from your rock. The cure is mostly time, until it all leeches out. In the meantime macro algae and/or GFO can keep the levels contained. 3 months is very very young for a tank, you should be thinking in the time frame of a year plus for the water parameters to really get stable.

 

[TheHerbanLegend]

Change your test kits to either Red Sea ir Salifert. You'll be very surprised of the test result difference. Then I would also suggest sending away a test to Triton. You possibly are chasing a number that is already there.

Thanks just ordered my Triton kit and a master's RS kit. Appreciate it!

 

[Sonor]

TH, I had similar situation. started a new tank 190 with 80 gal fuge, chaeto and skimmer. Rock was from 4 to 5 years old from established systems, I think phosphates were absorbed into these rocks. Within 3 months my phosphates were at .5 ppm but all other waste tests were zero. I started fighting hair algae bad. I added a phos /gfo reactor to sump, brought my PO4 to under .2 ppm, once it was under .15 ppm i switched to gfo only. with PO4 between 0.0 ppm and .07 ppm the algae started to die off. Cheato kept growing all the time. I ran the GFO for 3 years at this low level basing my gfo replacement on my test readings. Then for 1 year PO4 stayed at 0.0 ppm, algae was all gone, now corals started to look a little less happy. I removed my reactor completely, corals have been looking better and better, NO3 still stays at about 1 ppm with nyos test kit, PO4 between 0.05 and 0.13 ppm with checker. I think I finally got rid of my phosphate problem, 8 months running without reactor, and all seems good. Slow and easy with a game plan.

 

[TheHerbanLegend]

TH, I had similar situation. started a new tank 190 with 80 gal fuge, chaeto and skimmer. Rock was from 4 to 5 years old from established systems, I think phosphates were absorbed into these rocks. Within 3 months my phosphates were at .5 ppm but all other waste tests were zero. I started fighting hair algae bad. I added a phos /gfo reactor to sump, brought my PO4 to under .2 ppm, once it was under .15 ppm i switched to gfo only. with PO4 between 0.0 ppm and .07 ppm the algae started to die off. Cheato kept growing all the time. I ran the GFO for 3 years at this low level basing my gfo replacement on my test readings. Then for 1 year PO4 stayed at 0.0 ppm, algae was all gone, now corals started to look a little less happy. I removed my reactor completely, corals have been looking better and better, NO3 still stays at about 1 ppm with nyos test kit, PO4 between 0.05 and 0.13 ppm with checker. I think I finally got rid of my phosphate problem, 8 months running without reactor, and all seems good. Slow and easy with a game plan.

Glad to see your success story, after I tested with a Red sea kit I got way different results than I was expecting after my API tests. My Po4 was .08 and my No3 is .03 chaeto growing strong and added a Royal Gramma Basslet early yesterday and he is exploring and loving his new caves.