Phosphate question

[jeffmr4]

I recently purchased the Hanna Low Phosphate Checker and tested my phosphate. I got a couple of different readings possibly because sometimes I was not able to get all the reagent into the vials from the small packages but the overall reading was probably about .1 ppm. How does this fare as far as low phosphate goes? Is it high? I know its supposed to be below .003 but was just curious. I don't have any sps corals and I do have somewhat of a green hair algae problem. My nitrates are at about 5.

[Mariaface]

If you have algae, that means it's been using up phosphates and you're still at .1ppm - 'high' just means you have more than you want/need. And if you have algae you don't want, then it follows that you have nutrients you don't want

[jeffmr4]

I said problem but I'm not sure if it really is. There are a lot of good things that algae does.

[Clown79]

Hair algae can become a problem. It quickly spreads. Its not a good algae.

Macro algae's are the algae that export nutrients, those are good.

 

 

Not sure what your cuc is but get some astrea snails, they apparently eat hair algae. Ceriths and nassarius will help keep the sand bed clean.

 

Do you vacuum your sand bed? How often do you change filter floss?

 

When you test your phos, try putting some sand in the test, see what the reading is.

[NYfishies]

How old is your tank?

 

Hair algae loves PO4. So do Mexican Turbo Snails.

 

Try feeding less and upping your water changes for a good month. I do not suggest using PO4 removers like GFO.

 

Manually remove the hair algae as much as you can. I am battling this in my frag tank and I manually remove daily to stay ahead of it. Pain is the butt for sure, but you can beat it by starving it, having you CUC munch it and you manually remove it.

[Clown79]

Why not use Po4 removers passively? Many do.

 

I've been battling hair algae on my sand bed and have done numerous large water changes, 1 fish only, a lot of flow in the tank, vacuum the sand, feed 1x a day pellet by pellet, stopped frozen, stopped coral food and upped all cuc...still hair algae, and i syphoned the actually algae with the sand out. It just comes back.

 

Sometimes everything we do doesn't beat it.

[NYfishies]

I have found GFO to be too harsh. I am not sure about other avenues. Things like NOPOX will do the same, but again harsh. I have witnessed in my tank good results from only feeding the fish what they will eat and weekly 25% water changes. I remove as much as I can daily and hope my CUC will do as much as they can. I can see the end of it in 2-3 weeks ahead of me.

[jeffmr4]

Hair algae can become a problem. It quickly spreads. Its not a good algae.

Macro algae's are the algae that export nutrients, those are good.

 

 

Not sure what your cuc is but get some astrea snails, they apparently eat hair algae. Ceriths and nassarius will help keep the sand bed clean.

 

Do you vacuum your sand bed? How often do you change filter floss?

 

When you test your phos, try putting some sand in the test, see what the reading is.

 

Hair algae can be helpful if you use it to your advantage. If you don't want it in the tank you can use an algae scrubber which provides the benefits of algae (filters water, removes nitrates and phosphates, provides beneficial chemicals to water for tank inhabitants, provides a place for micro fauna to hide so they can grow [i don't have a sump or back compartment]). I currently have an algae scrubber although it hasn't really taken off. The algae in the tank is out-competing it or there are phosphates leeching out of the rock.

 

I vacuum my sand bed every week and change the filter floss once per week.

 

How old is your tank?

 

Hair algae loves PO4. So do Mexican Turbo Snails.

 

Try feeding less and upping your water changes for a good month. I do not suggest using PO4 removers like GFO.

 

Manually remove the hair algae as much as you can. I am battling this in my frag tank and I manually remove daily to stay ahead of it. Pain is the butt for sure, but you can beat it by starving it, having you CUC munch it and you manually remove it.

 

My tank is about 3 months old. I had a Sea Hare which ate all the algae in the tank but it then mysteriously died. There are no places to get Mexican Turbo Snails around here so I ordered one from Premium Aquatics but it didn't survive the trip. I do feed less and do 25% water changes once per week. I am kind of lacking for reef janitors. I have an Astrea snail and a Hermit Crab and that's it.

 

I have been using chemipure blue but am going to try rox carbon and gfo for a while. When you say 'harsh' NY what do you mean? Does it strip the water of phosphates too much?

 

Thanks for the replies.

[Clown79]

Well I know I do everything one can do to get rid of it and none of it has worked.

 

I know phos removers csn be harsh on a tank but used sparingly while testing is the best way to prevent that.

 

If you just dump a media bag in with phos removers and not monitor, it can be an issue.

 

If you do go with a phos remover, test your phos first, use smaller amounts of media, test in 4 days. Follow the directions carefully. It says to remove the media if phos has lowered to desired level after 4 days.

[NYfishies]

 

Well I know I do everything one can do to get rid of it and none of it has worked.

 

I know phos removers csn be harsh on a tank but used sparingly while testing is the best way to prevent that.

 

If you just dump a media bag in with phos removers and not monitor, it can be an issue.

 

If you do go with a phos remover, test your phos first, use smaller amounts of media, test in 4 days. Follow the directions carefully. It says to remove the media if phos has lowered to desired level after 4 days.

 

 

What Clown said

[no694terry]

I'll share what ive been learning the hard way and a couple things i read this morning.

 

Algae can form at phosphate levels above .03ppm.

 

Trying to grow cheato or other macro is almost impossible in a tank that has preexisting GHA, as its like a weed and sucks up the phosphates the macros need before they can get them.

 

So heres what i think our two options are

 

Run a phospahte absorber to stop new growth, remove gha manually and with CUC until gone. THEN once nuisance algae is gone. Religiously from GFO the rest of your life, or find a better place in the system, like a fuge to grow a macro algae. Having a macro like cheato is very beneficial, but i've tried 3 times to grow it to combat GHA, each time is just died of starvation.

[jeffmr4]

I think part of my problem may be my source water. I tested it today and it was .07. My tank water was .14. The source water is petco's imagitarium water. I've just started running gfo and had a sea hare which ate all the algae in my tank but then it died. I bought a mexican turbo snail but it died during delivery and acclimation. I also have an algae scrubber which could outcompete the algae in the tank but it hasn't gotten going well enough to do that. I've found, for it to do that, something has to eat the algae in the tank first, then it can get a leg up on the tank algae.