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Cultivated Reef

Help with high phosphates.


Dprosser4

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So today i finally got the salifert phosphate test kit and was finally able to test my phosphate levels with a little more accuracy. I had been using the Api kit but was under the impression that it was really bad for phosphate. Anyway I tested my tank and it was really high  between .25 and .5 ppm. I tested my ro/di water and the salt water i get from the fish store and both were 0. Everything in the tank seems to be doing fine, i do notice some algae on the glass that comes back after about 2 days when I wipe it. Ive been doing 20-30% water changes every week.  All other parameters are  perfect Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate are all 0. Calcium is 480, dkh is 10, Ph - 8.1. What could I do to reduce  the phosphate? 

 

My Current Setup:

17 Gallon AIO 

Media rack with floss, purigen, and chemipure elite (added a week ago)

only 2 fish, both small, a damsel and a clown

Good amount of sand and live rock. 

I feed pretty light. About 3-4 pellets every other day some times i feed half a cube of mysis instead, that I rinse in RO/DI first. 

 

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It sounds like your doing all the right things. The API test kits are not the greatest for phosphate. I like the "Phosphorous Ultra Low Range Hanna Checker" as investigated on BRStv:

 

 

Algae on the glass every few days is not abnormal. Is this a bit of algae or a lot? Not all algae needs high levels of phosphate to live/grow.

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Do you vaccum your sand bed?

 

Use a turkey baster on the rocks?

 

How often are the back chambers scrubbed and syphoned?

 

How often is the pump and hose removed and cleaned?

 

How often is filter floss changed

 

Do you rinse your media bags weekly

 

All these things can lead to detritus buildup which leads to nutrient buildup

 

 

Api phos kit isn't bad, its just not efficient for SW.

Its high range so by the time you get readings, its already too high for reef tanks. 

 

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Thank you @Clown79 for the response! 

Ive been reading a researching a ton and pretty much started implementing all of the above to start bringing my phosphates down. I had no idea about the turkey baster method until a few days ago. During my last water change I bastered my rocks and there was so much built up detritus! I think that alone is helping my phosphate levels as I think my rocks were definitely leaching a lot. I can tell by testing with the salifert kit that my levels have already come down by half. A few more water changes and keeping up with the cleaning and it will be nice and low. 

 

Also on a side note it was my birthday a few days ago, and my Fiancé got me a Hanna Checker for phosphate. So I'll have even better reading soon:) 

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I wish I could get readings off the salifert PO4. The color test just does not work for me. I had .18 recently on Hanna ULR and started running a gfo reactor 3 days ago

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