Help me with my phosphates

[qasimja]

I will admit I haven't checked my phosphates in atleast 5 months the only algae I have is film algae on the glass tanks 13 months old I checked them twice already to be sure I've never had phosphates this high and had no algae

also the last water change I did was about 6 weeks ago after I ran chemiclean all corals are doing great but I had a stylophora Frag die on me in about 3 weeks so thats why I checked my phosphates

Running gfo should help some right? Ive yet to run gfo on this tank and I've only ran carbon for a week total after I ran chemiclean

 

[qasimja]

also the test im using is the seachem phosphate test kit for marine and freshwater

 

[qasimja]

possibly a bad test?

 

[bhodges82]

Gfo should help, but finding out why your level is high is a better option. Do you have a refugium? What is your nitrate level?

 

[qasimja]

Gfo should help, but finding out why your level is high is a better option. Do you have a refugium? What is your nitrate level?

sadly i haven't tested my nitrate levels in about 3-4 months lol ill check it now and report back

 

[qasimja]

Well my nitrates seem to be about 40 I guess large water changes and gfo is in my future

 

[qasimja]

i have been feeding reef frenzy 2 times a week over the same course of time and it always makes a big mess maybe thats why along with the non constant water changes nitrites and phosphates have begun to pile up maybe

 

[Rainblood]

I had issues with phosphates as well and ended up using Seaklear to lower them. I figured it was the dry reef rock leaching.

However I have to throw this out there...if everything is doing fine...is there a point to try to lower them?
The only issue I've noticed with higher phosphates is SPS browning out and/or dying.

 

[qasimja]

The only issue I've noticed with higher phosphates is SPS browning out and/or dying.

thats the reason im looking into lowering phosphates i had a frag of stylophora die on me in 3 weeks so i started investigating i dont want a ton of sps in my tank just a few but i dont want to keep killing them im not 100% sure it was phosphates it could have been my rabbit fish picking at it also because he picked at my brain and acan til they died but i just wanna eliminate the possibly of it being too high phosphates

 

[bhodges82]

With both nitrate and phosphate being high I would suggest only water changes, if you start using gfo you will reduce phosphate faster that nitrate levels which will create an imbalance in the system. Water changes removes both proportionally. Might want to incorporate a natural corn of export like an algae reactor or refugium to keep the levels in check or buy a lot more coral which will work too.

 

[jcook54]

If things are looking alright, I'd increase the frequency or volume of your water changes. I'd be hesitant to start GFO or use any other means of bringing them down especially since your nitrates are on the high side as well.

Edit: Pretty much exactly what Bobby said!

 

[qasimja]

thats the reason i stopped doin so many water changes my system was too clean and i started getting dinos battled that for 2 months what killed it for me was i stopped doin so many water changes and i ran UV i let my system get dirty i guess you can say to get rid of the dinos

 

[Rickdareefa]

I highly recommend going with the hanna checker for po4.

 

[ZapataInc]

thats the reason i stopped doin so many water changes my system was too clean and i started getting dinos battled that for 2 months what killed it for me was i stopped doin so many water changes and i ran UV i let my system get dirty i guess you can say to get rid of the dinos

Just watch out with high levels like that. I did the same thing when I was battling Dino's and then I started to get cyano...but that was a few months after I finally beat the Dino's. And just like you I stared losing SPS left and right. Now I got all of that under control all of my surviving sticks and new SPS are doing wonderful.

 

[qasimja]

Just watch out with high levels like that. I did the same thing when I was battling Dino's and then I started to get cyano...but that was a few months after I finally beat the Dino's. And just like you I stared losing SPS left and right. Now I got all of that under control all of my surviving sticks and new SPS are doing wonderful.

Whats funny is I just had cyano 2 months ago and used chemiclean to finally get rid of them lol

 

[ZapataInc]

Whats funny is I just had cyano 2 months ago and used chemiclean to finally get rid of them lol

Yeah I thought about doing that but I wanted to try to do it the natural way...so I just upped my refugium lighting schedule. So now I'm good...nitrates stay around 0-10 and phosphates are .01-.02

 

[qasimja]

I don't have a refugium but I might consider an algae reactor perhaps

 

[qasimja]

so i decided last night to build a diy chaeto reactor found plenty of designs on youtube tunze makes one but its 350 dollars but i can get everything i need to make one off amazon for 95 dollars ill update later this week when i get everything

 

[qasimja]

and of course some water changes to bring it down

 

[jcook54]

Yes sir, it's all a balance. I've been doing this for a long time and still do exactly the same things. Testing, finding things out of whack, changing maintenance, rinse, repeat...

The best piece of advice I ever got was to look at the tank and not the numbers. If the system is looking good, don't do anything drastic. At some point you'll be able to look at the tank and tell what the problem might be. At this point testing for NO3 and PO4 only confirm what I suspect by just looking at things.