Phosphates sky high

BrentSA

BrentSA

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So I emptied my big tank after barely having it cycled , loading 8 25L containers ever time to be able to do a water change is no joke !

Two days ago I transplanted all my rocks , sand , canister filter and skimmer into a my 900 hospital tank and I hoped this would be enough to prevent any spikes , today I checked my phosphates and it was well over 10.0mg , everything else is fine but nitrates seems to be up a little aswel , I'd say a 1 , nothing to stress over but im hoping this is not going to be an ongoing trend and that I won't end up with algae .

I have one fish in there which came over from the big tank , so I ended up dosing a miniscule amount of vodka to hopefully get things under control . Will have to monitor things for a while . I'm assuming it's being cause by die off from the sand and live rock. Not sure if I should let it ride itself out or if I should add some polyfilter tomorrow .
 
Geez that is high. I would get a reactor going in there with some GFO. At those levels I would replace it every 3 days. Will take years to bring that down with Vodka or carbon dosing. You will probably not have enough Nitrates anyway so the process will be limited.

Best get some costic soda so you can rejuvenate your GFO or you will need a small countries defense budget to buy GFO.

Your corals still alive?
 
yoh even with gfo you will have a battle. not impossible but it will take some dedication to get it down. Some time ago i fought phos levels of 2.5 with gfo....and even replacing it religiously it took forever to come down. I wonder in your case if a big waterchange wont be better.
 
All my coral I gave to a friend to keep for me so I'm lucky I made that decision , was not much anyway so not too sad about it .
Adrian B said:
True probably cheaper as well. Probably need both.
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I am going to do water changes everyday , 25% for the next week but I am going to have to get more water again .... really I hope this is not going to be a heavy problem
 
BrentSA said:
I am going to do water changes everyday , 25% for the next week but I am going to have to get more water again .... really I hope this is not going to be a heavy problem
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Might not be a silly idea to double check that reading with something else too.
That or see what the kit your using says the waterchange water is.
 
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Checked the water itself, it's all good but I think that's where the 1for my nitrates came from and not my tank .
I'm going to take my water away to be tested today , It is a oldish kit that I've had a while so maybe it isn't accurate , only things is, I don't think pet shops check phosphates so I may have to buy the full test .
 
Then buy the test kit, it is one that you are going to use very often. I test phosphates once a week
 
I see you started carbon dosing. Just remember carbon dosing us goung to reduce nitrates a lot more than phosphates in a ratio of 10:1. You are going to have to run GFO or phosguard or phosbond to keep phosphates under control.
 
BrentSA said:
Checked the water itself, it's all good but I think that's where the 1for my nitrates came from and not my tank .
I'm going to take my water away to be tested today , It is a oldish kit that I've had a while so maybe it isn't accurate , only things is, I don't think pet shops check phosphates so I may have to buy the full test .
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i cant see were you stay but i get my phosphates tested by Jungle Aquatics with their Hanna checker. I use to use the salifert test kit but i find those colors dont work with my eyes.
 
I also find the salifert po4 horrible,if i was to recommend one it would be the redsea no3 + po4 that has the colours on the cd
"Algae control pro" its called that comes as a double No3/Po4 or you can also buy separate(nitrate pro/phosphate pro).
 
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Using a seachem testing kit , I'm in southern subs cape town and all the LFS stores don't do phosphate test , so did the next best thing and did a 25% water change and vacuumed the gravel and connected my GFO with PhosphateMinus by Aquaforest and added polyfilter too my canister and hopefully things will come rite.
 
What i was saying above is you can test the new water you are putting in & if the po4 test kit is off it should show up doing that.
If it tells you little po4 then its likely okay...if it tells you high po4 then its likely telling porkies
 
I think it's telling porkies, but maybe a natural tank to that extent is too much for me to handle , just knowing all the equipment ive had running before to keep my tank at "peak condition" makes me panic that something will go wrong and to me , by having my GFO and skimmer going ... Makes it "not natural" .
But that test is giving the same reading for my new water , think i will just get the full test kit again . I'm assuming if those drops and powders for the phosohates test are no good , the same goes for the rest , plus I kind of want new test vials anyway .
 
Nope I don't, I don't have any salinity testers, with my previous tank I was collecting water by the aquarium but bought some for this thank seeing as though it is less than 100L .
 
BrentSA said:
I think it's telling porkies, but maybe a natural tank to that extent is too much for me to handle , just knowing all the equipment ive had running before to keep my tank at "peak condition" makes me panic that something will go wrong and to me , by having my GFO and skimmer going ... Makes it "not natural" .
But that test is giving the same reading for my new water , think i will just get the full test kit again . I'm assuming if those drops and powders for the phosohates test are no good , the same goes for the rest , plus I kind of want new test vials anyway .
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Ok well at least you know your maybe chasing ghosts,that or your water source is a problem.
If your going out buying a new kit i see jungle has those redsea ones i mentioned at close to half price as long as they not close to or expired kits that's not a bad deal. Online store/they ship/good service.
https://www.jungleaquatics.net/online-store/Red-Sea-Phosphate-Pro-PO4-Test-Kit-p109449230

https://www.jungleaquatics.net/onli...Control-Multi-Test-Kit-NO3-and-PO4-p109449248
 
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I feel your pain bud. Battling nutrients is a pain in the backend. But its not something to give this awesome hobby up for.

You say that you moved your sand/rocks over to a new tank? I am not sure of your tank/stock levels and how long its been running. But disturbing a sand beach will cause the sand to leach nutrients/po4 into your system and then lead to a spike in params. You need to identify the source to your PO4 problem and then eliminating it, What are your no3 levels at? and no2?

Where do you buy your water from?
What is your Salinity reading?

Do you use filter socks and how often do you replace them?
How much do you feed?
Did you add good live rock?

Its super important to get accurate readings of your parameters. Otherwise its chasing something in the dark. Like trying to shoot at a target you cant see of have a clue of where it is. You wont get it. So getting accurate parameter tests, is key to sorting out your issues. Carbon dosing is tricky and you can do more harm than good if you are not 100% sure of what you are doing. You need nutrients and phosphates in ratio - redfield ratio(Google it) - you wont eliminate the one without the other - in balance.

Sorry for all the questions. But lets beat this PO4 problem you have. Remember - nothing good happens fast. So dont drop your nutrients too fast as it will affect your livestock.
 
Was chasing Casper :thumbup::tt2: .... so got my new test kits today , the phosphates spike is non existent , was my test kit giving problems . Time to celebrate the good news:1: .

Charl_Stanhope said:
I feel your pain bud. Battling nutrients is a pain in the backend. But its not something to give this awesome hobby for.
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I will never give up my tanks , ever ever ever , my mom used to nag me to stop because I was running 6 tanks at one time and every weekend was taken up by tanks , equipment and buckets laying everywhere ... but that's the hobby .
I love this hobby way to much to give up on it , a piece of me would be missing if I did. When it comes to situation like this , I adopt Dories philosophy ... just keep swimming swimming swimming.
I'd carry on with the song but i think that would be taking it too far. :swim:
 
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