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Cultivated Reef

Rowaphos and phosphates


Rpc07

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So Ive been running Rowa to bring my phosphates down. They have been hovering .03-.04 tested with a Red Sea pro test kit. Today I noticed that they stopped tumbling in the reactor and my phosphates shot up to .16 in 2 days since I last checked.

 

I am not sure how long the media stopped tumbling for is there anything I should do aside from getting the media moving again?

 

Another phosphate question I have is how do I determine where my phosphate problem is coming from? I'm running 100% ro/di water at 0 tds, cut back on my already small feedings and cut back on my lighting to help with cyano.

 

Thanks, Ryan

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What sort of reactor are you running? Most likely the pump or the sponges stopping the media washing out of the reactor have gotten clogged with free floating debris the pump has sucked in. I had to clean my D+D reactor after 2 weeks the other day as I had done a rescape and stirred up a lot of crap that quickly clogged my sponges.

 

As for what's causing the phosphates..... you say you have cut back feedings, but how much are you feeding and how many fish do you have in your system.

Another favorite is the rock work leaching, this is often an issue with dry rock or rock that has come from an established system but been left out of water for a while etc causing die off.

 

How old is the tank, it could just be settling in and the system just needs time to come into balance.

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Im running an IM minimax reactor. I just changed the media a few days ago I think I may have set the flow to low from the start and the media clumped.

 

I have a Red Sea E170 all in one tank.

Stock list is:

Cardinal

Pair of occilarus clowns

Flasher wrasse

Leopard wrasse

Talbot damsel

Flametail blend

 

I feed nls pellets and ocean nutrition flakes 3-4 days a week and I feed very slow and only what the fish consume in a few minutes. The other days I feed either rods foods, mysis or blood worms. I feed 1/4 cube that I defrost and rinse in tank water before feeding.

 

I started with dry rock that I cycled in a brute container until it could convert 3ppm ammonia in 24 hours (about 5 weeks) The tank has been up and running about 2 months. I do weekly 10% water changes.

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I would lean towards your rock work leaching. This will reduce and go in time. How much time however is any ones guess.

Most phosphate medias should have a slow tumble and some can clump if there isn't enough flow through them, don't have water blasting through the media though as some can break up and you'll get fines in your tank that are really annoying to remove.

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I would lean towards your rock work leaching. This will reduce and go in time. How much time however is any ones guess.

 

Most phosphate medias should have a slow tumble and some can clump if there isn't enough flow through them, don't have water blasting through the media though as some can break up and you'll get fines in your tank that are really annoying to remove.

I appreciate the help, I just ordered a new reactor to allow me to control the flow a little better. Guess it's just a waiting game now to let the tank mature and run its course.

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