How's my water?

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Dlaria

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How's my water? I'm fighting to bring down phosphate with PHosBuster. (Doesn't seem to work very well.) Waiting on phosban or some such item to come in. (Think it comes in a filter bag. Thought I'd add it to the first stage after the protein skimmer/at the first stage of the refugeum.)


Phos. It's at 5.0 :(
pH between 8.2 & 8.4
Ammonia 0
Nitirite 0
Nitrate 5.0 (I'm guessing this may be up a bit from switching from HOB filter running carbon filter, to just running the refugeum? My filters had lots of good green goo on them, so I probably lost quite a bit of good bacteria there.)
I'm not sure if I should knock that down with chemicals, or wait for the tank to bring it down itself. Please advise. Did do a partial water change.
Salinity 1.024. Going to LFS to get some straight RO. I've been getting their saltwater mix, but I need some RO just for top-offs.


I just hung the HOB protein skimmer and refugeum last week. It only has crushed coral in it. I'm waiting for argonite sand and the phosban, or whatever it is I ordered.

I've got about 4" argonite & crushed coral in Display tank, and will put more argonite in the HOB refugeum when it comes in.
 
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That phosphate reading is really high. What make of test kit are you using? What have you been using for topoffs?
 
I was using saltwater from the LFS for topoff/changes. Going to get some RO. I'm using reefmaster marine test kit. I originally used tap water to set up the tank, but I've done several partial changes, using saltwater from the LFS. Maybe they are not using RO to make their saltwater? The tap water in Texas is horrible, what with the farming and cattle run-off. If you put out a pan of water for a dog outside, it turns green in a day. Oh, and if you think 5.0 is high; it was maxed out over 10 to start with. I've been dosing every 3 days with the Phosbuster, to get it to 5.0.
 
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Why not try bacteria to help with your phosphates and maybe hook up phosphate media to the outlet of your RO unit along with deionising resin. If your source water is already high with phosphates then the RO unit will only remove about 95% of pollutants. The post filter resin and phosphate media may just nab the last bit.
 
I'll see what the LFS has in the way of bacteria to help with the phosphates. I get my water from the LFS, so maybe his RO is better than his saltwater. I'll test what I get from them, before I put it in the tank; to see if what they are giving me is high.
 
LFS salt and RO water are at a 1.0. I added some Cheato. Maybe that will help. Maybe some of the live rock I got was saturated with it. Some of it came from older tanks.
 
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Dlaria said:
Maybe some of the live rock I got was saturated with it. Some of it came from older tanks.
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Quite possible. Can you take a sample of water from your tank to your LFS and ask them to test the phosphate, just in case your test kit is not reading accurately, those API kits are not the best of kits, well they weren't a while ago, not sure if they've upped their game since. I'm a bit sceptical about that reading as you should have horrendous nuisance algae all over your tank with such a high phosphate reading, yet from looking at your pics you have none?
 
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I know where the Phos was coming from! When my son was feeding the fish, he was plopping in the frozen fish food; without thawing it/rinsing it. That could be it, couldn't it?
 
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I dont think it will cause the readings you're talking about unless you feed a lot of frozen a day
 
Dlaria said:
I was using saltwater from the LFS for topoff/changes. Going to get some RO. I'm using reefmaster marine test kit. I originally used tap water to set up the tank, but I've done several partial changes, using saltwater from the LFS. Maybe they are not using RO to make their saltwater? The tap water in Texas is horrible, what with the farming and cattle run-off. If you put out a pan of water for a dog outside, it turns green in a day. Oh, and if you think 5.0 is high; it was maxed out over 10 to start with. I've been dosing every 3 days with the Phosbuster, to get it to 5.0.
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How old is the tank and what do you have in it? Where did the crushed coral come from, was it well cleaned before you added it in?

I have also just battle with a phosphate and nitrate issue when moving from one tank/sump to another, my levels were nowhere near as high as yours but here is how I handled it and my levels are now near 0 in just over a week.

For the phosphates I used Seachem Phosguard in a diy reactor. I had to swap the media out a couple of times. I have been doing 5-10% water changes daily with salt water from my LFS which I know is of good quality. I also only ever top up with RO.

I started dosing Seachem Stability as soon as the new tank/sump was up and running. This helped reduce the nitrates and gave my bio filtration a little bit of a boost.
 
Oh, forgot to ask if you are running any type of filter floss in your system. If not changed regularly this can be a big contributor to high nitrates.
 
I've been doing small water changes every week, with saltwater from the LFS. I did wash the crushed coral and sand. It took forever. I don't have floss in the tank right now. I'm waiting for some phosban or similar bag to help reduce. I added Cheato. I think all that should help. It may have been coming in the tetra fish flakes, too. It's about a 6-7 week tank. I got established LR from LFS, and some from the chain pet store. I only have a tang, clown, couple hermits, and a candycane shrimp in there. Now running CPR Aerofuge hob refugeum and protein skimmer. DSB in DT, and SSB in refugeum. I'm waiting on more argonite to deepen the refugeum. I have not had any problems with algae, which I thought I would, with Phospates high.
 
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thats good, now to get it below 0.1 :)

try BRS Phos remover and NP pellets
 
Thanks! I'll read that. I got a package in today with a bag of phoszorb in it. I stuffed it in the refugeum, in the section between the skimmer and main part of the refugeum tank.
 
Getting closer.
Amonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
PH 8.3
Phosphates 0.5
Calcium 440
dkh was off the chart high. Not sure if that's a problem. Time to do more checking the forums.


Ok did partial water change. I'd buffed for PH before I got the test for the Alk. :p

After partial water change, alk / dhk at 15. I'll let it sit until tomorrow and do another partial change.
 
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I need to get this book for my son. (He's 20, but he could learn from it)...


Don't over feed, and you can't have a big enough tank...
 
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lol.
Dlaria said:
dkh was off the chart high. Not sure if that's a problem. Time to do more checking the forums. Ok did partial water change. I'd buffed for PH before I got the test for the Alk. After partial water change, alk / dhk at 15. I'll let it sit until tomorrow and do another partial change.
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Do you wait for a few hours after dosing and doing water-changes before testing? You should do as it allows everything to mix and the parameters to settle. Otherwise you can get spikes and incorrect readings on your test kits.
 
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