can't keep phosphate down. pls help

[kel8edg]

Hi everyone,

I am new to the forum and is still learning a lot. I would like to ask your opinion because i am currently converting my nano FOWLR to a nano reef with the set up as shown on the pics. But i cant keep my phosphate and my nitrates down despite having a built in refugium with chaeto and live rock in it. I have been doing weekly water changes and the only livestock i have are 2 clowns, a cleaner shrimp, three mushroom corals, a hermit crab and a bunch of astreas. Also i only feed my fish once a day taking the uneaten left overs out of the tank after 5 minutes of feeding.

please help and I greatly appreciate it

 

[kel8edg]

my nitrates are 10-20 ppm and my phosphates are 5ppm (which is high)

 

[kel8edg]

also, if i turn off my full spectrum light and turn on the flourescent bulb for the refugium, the water has a tint of green. But when i put some water in a clear container, the water is also clear

 

[edd]

if you had high phos when it was FOWLR, your rock may be leaching phos back into the water. are you running gfo, if not you should in a reactor. it will lower your phos.

 

[lrasser]

what is your water source and how long has the tank been established?

 

[kel8edg]

i use RO/DI for my water source. It has been running for a month.

 

[lrasser]

A month is VERY young for a saltwater tank. The refuge will help reduce Nitrate but not phos. Running a phosphate reactor is greatly beneficial. I wouldn't recommend adding any more live stock for a while until your bio load catches up with you. Once live rock is fully established (usually 4-6 months) it will filter your nitrates. Until then they will need to be manually removed using water changes. I would add a phosban reactor and continue with your water changes and in time everything will level out. Until then you will be in the "ugly" stage. Keep lights to a min. The more light the more algae blooms. The first 6 months of a saltwater tank are the most challenging and frustrating so the best answer any of us can give you is patients. Nothing goes quick in this hobby.

 

[kel8edg]

thanks for all your help guys. still new in the hobby and i am still learning

 

[kel8edg]

is it necessary for me to have filter media such as bio balls, ceramic rings, or filter pads? I see a lot of debris and detritus on my substrate and in my refugium

 

[OOtzie]

Start dosing Special blend, it's a product. It's essentially beneficial bacteria.

As Stated earlier, the first 6 months of a reef tank is difficult. The reef is an ecosystem with all levels of life living in it, your not just buying some hermits/snails and fish/corals your setting up a whole contained biosphere that'll contain millions microscopic organisms (aka the building blocks) all levels of life need to be accounted for when setting up a reef system or you'll have failure.

the first 6 months I am currently tackling as I am in my 4-5 month in my newest setup, nothing happens quick in this hobby with the exception of catastrophe.

 

[kel8edg]

very much appreciated guys!

 

[ZANYMASTER]

What skimmer do you have installed?A good skimmer can help

 

[Dan_P]

Hi everyone,

I am new to the forum and is still learning a lot. I would like to ask your opinion because i am currently converting my nano FOWLR to a nano reef with the set up as shown on the pics. But i cant keep my phosphate and my nitrates down despite having a built in refugium with chaeto and live rock in it. I have been doing weekly water changes and the only livestock i have are 2 clowns, a cleaner shrimp, three mushroom corals, a hermit crab and a bunch of astreas. Also i only feed my fish once a day taking the uneaten left overs out of the tank after 5 minutes of feeding.

please help and I greatly appreciate it

You might be doing everything correctly but waiting. It takes many grams of macro algae mass to reduce the nitrate level and many, many grams to bring down the phosphate level.

Use GFO to nail the phosphate. With a reactor, phosphate can become undetectable in 24-48 hours.

Nitrates might take time to get rid of unless you have very bright light in your refugium or supplement nitrate export by adding a deep sand bed or dose carbon. And there is the very low tech method of large water changes to reduce nitrates quickly.

Good luck!

 

[Nandez13]

my nitrates are 10-20 ppm and my phosphates are 5ppm (which is high)

As others have stated, your tank is very young and the first few months can be frustrating but it's part of the process so nothing to stress about.

People underestimate how much macroalgae they need to have a meaningful impact as a nutrient export. I think supplementing your nutrient export with a phosphate reactor is something to look into but first what are you using to test these parameters? Phosphates are difficult to test for and there are many unreliable test kits in the market.

 

[carlpica]

^+1 what kind of test kits? Just looking at the pictures, you don't appear to have algae issues, which would be indicative of higher nutrient levels.

 

[kel8edg]

i use API. now i am getting visible algae in my display but the mexican turbos are going a great job. also my chaeto keeps on dying

 

[jvu61]

take your time with everything. things happen slowly in a sw tank. I run both gfo and bio pellets in my 300 and my pho level is zero but it took a little while to get there.

 

[Mom2jayden]

Mine was high in the beginning. I added. Phosphate reactor and that helped ALOT

 

[Nandez13]

API test kit for phosphate is unreliable. The only parameters I would use API for are ammonia and nitrite while your tank is in its early stages. I use Salifert for nitrate, calcium, alkalinity and magnesium. Red Sea is another popular and reputable test kit. I don't test for phosphate as I have not had algae problems and my corals are doing great. The accurate phosphate detectors are much more expensive than your average test kit so I just never bothered getting one. Can you post an updated photo of the recent algae you've seen. From your original picture, it doesn't seem that you have elevated phosphate levels and either way seeing a bit of algae in the early stages is also fairly normal.

 

[salpet]

buy a phosphate pad for around 6 dollars and do frequent water changes it will get it down but your fighting a battle for the first 3 or 4 months see if you can get some gravel or sand from an established tank it will speed up the process also soft corals should be easy for you to keep