Wits End! Phosphate and Nitrate Issues

[Av8tor2]

I have been battling high Phosphate and Nitrates... Really at my wits end.

I have a Red Sea 850 (225 gals). The tank has been running about 15 months now. Here is a quick background. I went out of the country for a month. Came back and the tank was out of balance. Phosphate shot up to .49 and Nitrates was at 29.5. I even hired a LFS to watch my tank while I was out of the country. (money not well spent).

These issues started back in late August when I returned. In the tank, I have a roller, refugium and skimmer. I have been doing weekly water changes of 40 to 50 gals of water. Using Red Sea Red salt. I have reduced the feeding and stopped using pellets and the auto feeder 4 months ago. During this time I have has a large number of sails die off. I added more cleanup crews and those snails died off with in two weeks. The crabs and other smaller snails are doing their job and still are alive.

Also I started adding Dr. Tim's Waste-Away at every water change. Before adding this I didn't seem to have any green hair algae but it exploded in the tank now. It's a weekly battle to remove it from the rocks. I have very few corals in the tank most LSP, 5 Hammers, Duncan, and Goni. The fish load is Sailfin, 3 Yellow tanks, Tomini, Rabbit, 2 Clowns, Flame, and 4 other small fish, all of them look health and no signs of stress that I know of.

As of last night my reading for phosphate and nitrate is: .27 and 13.2 . I added a GFO reactor last night fingers crossed this helps. But I need more advice in what do. I know patience is what is needed, but I think it's starting to run out.

Thanks for pointers and advice.

 

[Gill the 3rd]

How are your corals looking? .27 and 13.2 aren't terrible. Phosphate is .27 is high but there are many people who run that and higher and are very successful with corals and inverts.

Also what rock and sand did you start out with? Its possible the phosphate is bound in your rocks and is now leaching out into the water column.

 

[exnisstech]

How are your corals looking? .27 and 13.2 aren't terrible. Phosphate is .27 is high but there are many people who run that and higher and are very successful with corals and inverts.

Agreed. My 180 runs NO3 15 - 20 and PO4 0.4 - 0.6 and everything is doing great including, crabs, shrimp, snails and nems.

Be careful with the GFO as it can strip PO4 very quickly. Sorry if you are aware of this already.

 

[Av8tor2]

How are your corals looking? .27 and 13.2 aren't terrible. Phosphate is .27 is high but there are many people who run that and higher and are very successful with corals and inverts.

Also what rock and sand did you start out with? Its possible the phosphate is bound in your rocks and is now leaching out into the water column.

Started out with live sand and dry Marco rock.

The corals are okay, Nothing is taking off, but they all started out really small frags, but they seem to be growing. The Duncan is growing.

Haven't added anything like SPS or anything to difficult yet. Trying to get more thinking it might help with the tank.

 

[am3gross]

I was gunna ask the same thing about how the corals are looking, they should tell you everything. Also, do you have any algae issues? And lastly what test kits are you using and how old are they?

 

[Av8tor2]

Agreed. My 180 runs NO3 15 - 20 and PO4 0.4 - 0.6 and everything is doing great including, crabs, shrimp, snails and nems.

Be careful with the GFO as it can strip PO4 very quickly. Sorry if you are aware of this already.

That's what I am worried about. Trying to correct things to quickly. But I have been trying to reduce these for about 5 months now. And I'll be heading out of the country again in two months for another month.

 

[Av8tor2]

I was gunna ask the same thing about how the corals are looking, they should tell you everything. Also, do you have any algae issues? And lastly what test kits are you using and how old are they?

Green hair is starting to pop up everywhere and becoming a pain. It is starting to grow on everything and I have been removing it and scrubbing the rocks with a toothbrush etc.

The test kits are Hanna checkers, reagents are new.

 

[exnisstech]

I know many people recommend against it but I mix a few spoons of gfo in with my carbon and change it out every 3-4 weeks and my PO4 will stay pretty steady around 0.4 which I'm fine with. It will creep up if I stop adding the GFO to the carbon. Running it like that seems to work better for me. But I'm more or less maintaining rather than lowering if that makes sense.

 

[Gill the 3rd]

Started out with live sand and dry Marco rock.

The corals are okay, Nothing is taking off, but they all started out really small frags, but they seem to be growing. The Duncan is growing.

Haven't added anything like SPS or anything to difficult yet. Trying to get more thinking it might help with the tank.

The corals are doing well so that's a good thing. I started my tank with marco dry rock as well and I had high phosphates for like 2 years, when all of a sudden it dropped. I suspect the rock is your issue.

That being said and as others have mentioned, I wouldn't rush to drop your parameters since you can cause more harm than good. Take it slow, the corals are doing well and growing so you are doing something right.

 

[Doctorgori]

tank just set up this past Feb


I’ve been at this a lil while and honestly I’ve never seen anything “definitive” linking high nitrates to anything really other than some blame on dull coloration or polyp extension, et

Phosphates IME is a lil different, but no algae/ no panic …
if the glass gets funky fast; test ,,, I let anything under .3 ride, spa or whatever