Prepping for a new tank upgrade, but a problem with phosphates

[nanoman71]

Long time lurker, first time poster.  Getting ready to move into a new tank, and have spent some time trying top get my stuff together.. Tested for phosphates for the 1st time, and am really confused.. See below for details.

 

Have a 14G Biocube that has been running for a couple of years. Other than some red slime issues when I started it - everything has been stable and looks good. I'd like to start a new Innovative Marine 25g lagoon tank with some SPS in addition to my current zoas. I have really never spent much time testing water other than nitrates, but in anticipation of the SPS, I decided to get some "Advanced" test kits, one of which is the Low Range Hanna 713 Phosphate checker.   Needless to say, I was very surprised by the results. 

 

Tank Setup

14g Biocube, Intank media basket, filter floss, chemipure-elite,

Nanobox duo +m light

Ecotech MP10 powerhead (25%-75% power)

MJ1200 return pump

RO water, 50% water change 2 weeks ago. All top of water= RO

2 clownfish, a cleaner shrimp, various snails and other CuC.  

Various zoas and an obnoxious mushroom coral

Red Sea Coral Pro Salt 1.024

Minimal "bad" algae; sand is clean/white (purple in picture is from camera white balance being off I guess)

Thin sand bed, 1" at thickest point, 1/3 of tank is bare bottom

 

Tank Parameters

Temp - 79F

Nitrates 5 ppm

ph 8.2

Alkalinity 195 ppm / 11.0 dKH

Calcium 432 mg/l

Phosphates 1.5 ppm (WTF) I tested twice, and got similar results.

 

Again, have not done a water change in two weeks, so would expect parameters to be as bad as they would ever be (just surprised how bad,) because it sounds like my phosphates are 300X higher than what I need to maintain SPS corals?

 

I don't think so, but am I missing some sort of calculation conversion? Otherwise, what in the hell?

 

Jeff Bridges

[WV Reefer]

26 minutes ago, nanoman71 said:

Long time lurker, first time poster.  Getting ready to move into a new tank, and have spent some time trying top get my stuff together.. Tested for phosphates for the 1st time, and am really confused.. See below for details.

 

Have a 14G Biocube that has been running for a couple of years. Other than some red slime issues when I started it - everything has been stable and looks good. I'd like to start a new Innovative Marine 25g lagoon tank with some SPS in addition to my current zoas. I have really never spent much time testing water other than nitrates, but in anticipation of the SPS, I decided to get some "Advanced" test kits, one of which is the Low Range Hanna 713 Phosphate checker.   Needless to say, I was very surprised by the results. 

 

Tank Setup

14g Biocube, Intank media basket, filter floss, chemipure-elite,

Nanobox duo +m light

Ecotech MP10 powerhead (25%-75% power)

MJ1200 return pump

RO water, 50% water change 2 weeks ago. All top of water= RO

2 clownfish, a cleaner shrimp, various snails and other CuC.  

Various zoas and an obnoxious mushroom coral

Red Sea Coral Pro Salt 1.024

Minimal "bad" algae; sand is clean/white (purple in picture is from camera white balance being off I guess)

Thin sand bed, 1" at thickest point, 1/3 of tank is bare bottom

 

Tank Parameters

Temp - 79F

Nitrates 5 ppm

ph 8.2

Alkalinity 195 ppm / 11.0 dKH

Calcium 432 mg/l

Phosphates 1.5 ppm (WTF) I tested twice, and got similar results.

 

Again, have not done a water change in two weeks, so would expect parameters to be as bad as they would ever be (just surprised how bad,) because it sounds like my phosphates are 300X higher than what I need to maintain SPS corals?

 

I don't think so, but am I missing some sort of calculation conversion? Otherwise, what in the hell?

 

Jeff Bridges

 

Are you Jeff or is the fish Jeff?

 

 

welcome.

The tank looks pretty good so I wouldn't freak too much.......I don't see any crazy Algae or anything. 

[Reid_bry]

Nice tank  The z&p garden is dope!

 

[nanoman71]

I think I have found my problem.  I tested a new batch of water; 0 phosphates, so that rules out bad source water. I had a bag of chemipure elite and a seperate carbon bag in my media basket (been there a month;) the carbon must be leaching P04 - the only rationale explanation.  

 

I just did a 2/3 water change and retested @ .47 in tank so  I am going to do another large water change again tomorrow- try to get my baseline under .2 or so. Then I will monitor daily, adding chemipure elite (only) once it stable.

 

I will report back to confirm.

[Clown79]

On 07/07/2017 at 9:28 PM, nanoman71 said:

I think I have found my problem.  I tested a new batch of water; 0 phosphates, so that rules out bad source water. I had a bag of chemipure elite and a seperate carbon bag in my media basket (been there a month;) the carbon must be leaching P04 - the only rationale explanation.  

 

I just did a 2/3 water change and retested @ .47 in tank so  I am going to do another large water change again tomorrow- try to get my baseline under .2 or so. Then I will monitor daily, adding chemipure elite (only) once it stable.

 

I will report back to confirm.

Media bags kept too long can do that.

 

Your media bags should be rinsed weekly.

 

Carbon needs changing every 2-3 weeks