High phosphate

[Xj reefing]

A few days ago some brown algae showed up on my sand bed. Today I tested my phosphate which is 0.12. Would this be the cause? How could I get it down to a better level? I feed pellets and flakes every morning and frozen food at night I also feed my coral pellets and reefroids a few times a week, every night I dose Red Sea ab+. I have 8 fish. The tank is 65 gallons total. My issue with cutting back on fish feeding is that my yellow coris wrasse only is awake for breakfast and only eats flakes and my lubboks wrasse does not eat frozen only pellets and flakes. My nitrates are 5 so dosing Red Sea nopox is not really a option unless at the same time I dossed nitrates back in. I have 8 trochus, 3 turbo, 3 money cowrie, 3 stomatella, 1 conch and 3 nassurias snails.

[Murphs_Reef]

I wouldn't say 0.12 was major if I'm honest. I would love to keep phosphate up at around 0.1 but struggle to keep it around 0.05. if your concerned I would cut the dosing back. There is enough phosphate in the water ATM to feed coral. 

[Xj reefing]

2 hours ago, Murphych said:

I wouldn't say 0.12 was major if I'm honest. I would love to keep phosphate up at around 0.1 but struggle to keep it around 0.05. if your concerned I would cut the dosing back. There is enough phosphate in the water ATM to feed coral. 

After posting I realised that it is not probably that bad. I had a mini panic attack as all the sudden some diatoms show up and it’s not a new tank

[Tired]

"8 fish" doesn't mean much; it could be 8 inch-long trimma gobies, or 8 softball-sized frogfish.

 

Never cut down on fish feeding to adjust nutrients. Fish should always be fed a good amount, period. If nutrients need lowering, do water changes more frequently, or do larger water changes. After all, you never hear about someone feeding their dog less food so they have to clean up less poo. 

 

That's a reasonable enough phosphate level. High by some standards, but fine for most tanks. Where do you get your water? Could be whatever filter it's going through to turn it into RODI/distilled needs cleaning. 

[Xj reefing]

I get my natural sea water and rodi water from my lfs. The tank stocking is 2 clowns, 1 blenny, 1 molly, 1 yellow fin flasher wrasse, 1 chromis, 1 yellow coris wrasse and 1 lubboks fairy wrasse. Every week I do 10% water changes. Most of my corals look good except for a acan which was never really healthy from when I bought it.

[FishI]

What are you doing for filtration now? 

[Tired]

Actual, natural sea water, as in from the ocean? Could be something different in it that fed the diatoms. They usually pop up when there's a lot of silicates, like with new sand.

 

If you want to lower phosphate, just increase your water change size a little. But really, that number shouldn't be any major problems.

[Xj reefing]

6 hours ago, FishI said:

What are you doing for filtration now? 

I have got lots of media, a filter sock and a skimmer

 

22 minutes ago, Tired said:

Actual, natural sea water, as in from the ocean? Could be something different in it that fed the diatoms. They usually pop up when there's a lot of silicates, like with new sand.

 

If you want to lower phosphate, just increase your water change size a little. But really, that number shouldn't be any major problems.

Yes natural sea water from the ocean. It would be interesting if something was coming from there as I have not really had the problem before even when my old tank had the same amount of nutrients at one stage.

[Tired]

The thing is, seawater can have a lot of variation, depending on currents, collection site, and if anything's been going on lately. It's entirely possible something was particularly different this time. 

 

What kind of media? A lot of the bioball-types will just trap detritus and grow nutrients. In reef tanks, our live rock is all the bio-media we need.

[Murphs_Reef]

For laughs, just tested mine and po4 is 0.24ppm.. I'll put the mysis away for this evening 👍🏼😂

[Tired]

That's edging a little higher than people tend to prefer, yeah. You should still feed the fish, though, just do a bigger water change next time. It's no good to have fish going hungry just to wrangle nutrients a little. 

[mcarroll]

1 hour ago, Murphych said:

For laughs, just tested mine and po4 is 0.24ppm..

I'm a whole 'nuther decimal place to the left.  The test kit only goes up to 2 ppm!

 

When I still hadn't seen any "bad" side-effects even when I "pegged the meter", I stopped paying attention to po4.

 

IMO, a tank running out of dissolved po4 is the only real worry to have over dissolved phosphate.

 

And if we feed our fish enough, running out should be fairly unlikely.

 

That said I do see some "red flags"...

 

On 10/2/2021 at 2:07 AM, Xj reefing said:

I feed pellets and flakes every morning and frozen food at night I also feed my coral pellets and reefroids a few times a week, every night I dose Red Sea ab+. I have 8 fish. The tank is 65 gallons total.

You could have a better food regimen:  

• Focus on the frozen food
• Use pellets and flakes on a limited basis (no more than 50%...the less the better)
• Eliminate wasteful feeding of things like reefroids and liquid "foods" like the AB+

With a Coris Wrasee and a Lubbocks wrasse, the other 6 fish would have to be Trimma gobies to be a good fit for a tank that is a mere 65 gallons.  

 

Unfortunately you have considerably more fish mass than 6 Trimma gobies...probably more like 50 Trimma gobies' worth of fish.  (How's that for a silly metric!?)

 

17 hours ago, Xj reefing said:

The tank stocking is 2 clowns, 1 blenny, 1 molly, 1 yellow fin flasher wrasse, 1 chromis, 1 yellow coris wrasse and 1 lubboks fairy wrasse.

How old is this tank?  And how long have those fish been all together?

 

Other than the Yellow Coris (which will outgrow even the largest home tank – must go; the sooner the better) that isn't a completely unreasonable list of fish, but it's on the high side.  

 

More fish require more feeding.  The associated higher nutrient inputs can definitely make a tank harder to manage...especially if the tank is on the new side.  (Double-especially if the tank-keeper is also on the new side.)

 

To put that the other way around...

 

Less fish makes a tank easier.  The less fish; the easier the tank.  A coral-only tank is the easiest thing since sliced bread.

[Xj reefing]

The tank is about 4 months old and the latest additions were the yellow Fin and lubboks wrasses which was about a 3 weeks ago. The yellow coris only grows up to 5 inches so could you please explain to me what you mean about it outgrowing the largest home tanks? @mcarroll

[mcarroll]

Sorry, had that fish name confused with another "Coris wrasse".  (Yours is not really a Coris wrasse, which is a separate genus of wrasses.  Your is (hopefully) a "Yellow wrasse" of the Halichoeres genus.)

 

Still a lot of fish....the rest of the analysis still stands.  🙂

 

Something to consider:  Nothing Good Happens Fast In A Reef Tank 

 

4 months is not long....the tank is still almost brand new.  

 

Sounds to me like your tank is overloaded FOR THE AMOUNT OF TIME ITS BEEN UP and it's just now going through THE UGLIES.

 

Because you've over-loaded your tank (causing you to feed the tank more than it can handle, due to its immaturity), THE UGLIES are likely to be worse than they would have been otherwise.

 

Also, your "65 gallons total" tank is really 54 gallons.....36" long.  Think of it as it really is, not as the marketing calls it.  😉 

 

If you have a way to offload half of your fish until the tank is mature enough to handle them all, I would do it.  (Sympathetic fish store?  Reefy friend?  Other tank?)

 

Otherwise, you're going to have to tough it out...including being prepared for a "normal" that includes higher nutrient levels and (potentially) higher growth rates for algae.  "Toughing it out" means not overreacting to the algae at any point along the way...just handling it appropriately as it comes.

 

This is not a catastrophe, but it does mean you've chosen a potentially more difficult path for you and your tank.

[Xj reefing]

4 hours ago, mcarroll said:

Sorry, had that fish name confused with another "Coris wrasse".  (Yours is not really a Coris wrasse, which is a separate genus of wrasses.  Your is (hopefully) a "Yellow wrasse" of the Halichoeres genus.)

 

Still a lot of fish....the rest of the analysis still stands.  🙂

 

Something to consider:  Nothing Good Happens Fast In A Reef Tank 

 

4 months is not long....the tank is still almost brand new.  

 

Sounds to me like your tank is overloaded FOR THE AMOUNT OF TIME ITS BEEN UP and it's just now going through THE UGLIES.

 

Because you've over-loaded your tank (causing you to feed the tank more than it can handle, due to its immaturity), THE UGLIES are likely to be worse than they would have been otherwise.

 

Also, your "65 gallons total" tank is really 54 gallons.....36" long.  Think of it as it really is, not as the marketing calls it.  😉 

 

If you have a way to offload half of your fish until the tank is mature enough to handle them all, I would do it.  (Sympathetic fish store?  Reefy friend?  Other tank?)

 

Otherwise, you're going to have to tough it out...including being prepared for a "normal" that includes higher nutrient levels and (potentially) higher growth rates for algae.  "Toughing it out" means not overreacting to the algae at any point along the way...just handling it appropriately as it comes.

 

This is not a catastrophe, but it does mean you've chosen a potentially more difficult path for you and your tank.

The tank was setup using everything from my old tank which was about 1 year old. This includes the sand, rock and media.the fish were added slowly and I am willing to deal with algae when it comes. Today I did a pulled a  extra 10litres of water from my usual 20.

[Arthur11]

If you own a reef tank, you should know how to lower phosphate in a reef tank as it can contribute to algae growth and have a negative impact on the corals. You can do frequent water changes to help lower the phosphate levels in your aquarium, or you can also avoid overfeeding your fish to prevent phosphate levels from rising. The next step is to use a high-quality protein separator at all times that will remove the organics before breaking down the phosphates.
 

[Arthur11]

On 11/20/2021 at 11:05 PM, Arthur11 said:

If you own a reef tank, you should know how to lower phosphate in a reef tank as it can contribute to algae growth and have a negative impact on the corals. You can do frequent water changes to help lower the phosphate levels in your aquarium, or you can also avoid overfeeding your fish to prevent phosphate levels from rising. The next step is to use a high-quality protein separator at all times that will remove the organics before breaking down the phosphates.
 

Knowing how to reduce the amount of phosphate in reef tank will help you avoid future complications and keep your fish safe.