High Nitrate and Phosphate

[jdm01]

I have a 90g tank that has been running for a couple of years. Over the summer I lost a lot of coral and some of the coraline algae has started to recede. What I have noticed is that the nitrate and phosphate levels have climbed to unacceptably high levels. I have a super skimmer in the basement that I am going to try to use in place of the skimmer that came with my sump (ProClear Aquatics sump) to see if that can help. I also swept out the bottom of the sump where a lot of sediment had accumulated over time. The sump holds about 7.5 gallons of water. I have about 75 lbs of live rock in the tank. And I top off with RO/DI water and buffer it with ph8.3.

My questions are:

1. Can I work on both at the same time or should I work on one over the other to start?

2. How much water can/should I change and how frequently?

3. I try not to over feed and I have a lot flow in the tank. Flow is 2 powerheads at about 1200gph each and a 400gph head behind the rockwork. The return from the sump is a MagDrive 9.5 that flows through a chiller.

suggestions???

 

[Percula9]

What exactly are the levels of nitrate and phosphate? I would start off by doing 10% water changes weekly. I would add a phosban reactor to the sump to lower the PO4 level. High PO4 will interfere with coralline growth. You might want to convert a section of your sump to a refugium. Add more live rock and get a bigger sump.

 

[desperate]

hi john have you given any thought on dosing vodka?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

There are lots of ways to reduce nutrients, and phosphate is probably the most important one. GFO (a phosphate binder), growing macroalgae, and dosing organic carbon can all work.

These have more:

The “How To” Guide to Reef Aquarium Chemistry for Beginners,
Part 4: What Chemicals May Detrimentally Accumulate
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-09/rhf/index.php

Phosphate and the Reef Aquarium
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/rhf/index.php

Nitrate in the Reef Aquarium
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/august2003/chem.htm

Iron Oxide Hydroxide (GFO) Phosphate Binders
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-11/rhf/index.htm

 

[jdm01]

Thanks everyone. I will try to track down a phosban reactor tomorrow. Then I will try to replace the stock skimmer with my SuperSkimmer (I just had a hard time getting it to work last time). I will continue weekly water changes. I am going to add more macro to the sump. Question is, I have a Coralife 18W light running over the macro that is in the sump. It runs on a light schedule that is opposite the light schedule for the main tank. Is that a bright enough light for the job?

 

[bertoni]

How big is the area with the macro? I got a lot of growth in a 29g system with a 65 W PC lamp.

 

[jdm01]

The macro area was about 4.5 x 11. I ended up buying a TLF 150 Phosban Reactor and a Vertex 100 skimmer. The Vertex is much larger than the skimmer that came with the sump so I opened up the center chamber to 9 x 11 in order to accomodate the Vertex. I am running the TLF in the first chamber of the sump where the tank drains. Phosphate was 1.0 and as of tonight is down to 0.25. The pump with the Vertex broke 1.5 hours out of the box and so I replaced it this evening. i will test nitrate over the weekend.

 

[bertoni]

Well, that sounds like excellent progress!

 

[gibson981]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13941178#post13941178 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Randy Holmes-Farley
There are lots of ways to reduce nutrients, and phosphate is probably the most important one. GFO (a phosphate binder), growing macroalgae, and dosing organic carbon can all work.

These have more:

The “How To” Guide to Reef Aquarium Chemistry for Beginners,
Part 4: What Chemicals May Detrimentally Accumulate
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-09/rhf/index.php

Phosphate and the Reef Aquarium
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/rhf/index.php

Nitrate in the Reef Aquarium
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/august2003/chem.htm

Iron Oxide Hydroxide (GFO) Phosphate Binders
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-11/rhf/index.htm

I just read some of that last article. The one about GFO. The part that really caught my attention was the part that talked about precipitation of Ca being a possible cause of the GFO caking. I have been using Phosguard from Seachem in a PM 13.5 inch tall phosphate reactor. Every time I go to change it out, I find that it is like a brick and I have to chip it out with a screwdriver. Is there something I can do to prevent it from becoming a brick? Lower or higher flow maybe? Or something else?

 

[bertoni]

I can't think of anything that'd help with the PhosGuard except perhaps checking alkalinity. Higher alkalinity might encourage precipitation of calcium carbonate, which might be what's happening to your PhosGuard.

 

[jdm01]

Less than a week in and my nitrate is down to around 25 and phosphate is down from 1.0 to 0.1. A little farther to go. The phosphate reactor was a huge help. The Vertex 100 is working exceptionally well now that I have a pump that works.

Two questions:

1. Should I run the phosphate reactor all the time or just intermittently?

2. How long should I maintain stable water parameters before I start adding corals back to the tank.

 

[Billybeau1]

I would run it 24/7.

Next, I would stop buffering your ro/di water with pH 8.3

Your alkalinity is probably through the roof.

 

[bertoni]

Most people seem to run phosphate reactors continuously, but I'd watch the corals, and work from there.

 

[atlantisaquari]

i do 20 % water change every month. use really bright lights to grow algae ( food) in the display tank, feed less. dose the heck out of 2 part to keep alk and calcium right. use at least a pound per gallon of live rock. and do not overstock the tank.

this seems to keep the phosphate and nitrate at undetectable levels on regular test kits.its also nearly completly natural.
if this does not work and you cant do a refuge then a phos reactor is next thing. the phosphate reactor media is supposed to work for about 3 months and then needs replacing.

 

[atlantisaquari]

by the way, i am not terribly familiar with thos proper ph powder thing. the ones that are supposedly supose to keep your ph at a specific level. but i once ordered some for a freshwater and it said it was a phoshate based bufferand not to use with live plants. and i was like...wuhh?? and i thought well it must work since they sell it right? but sure enough the water was green in less then a couple of weeks. it took longer than that to get all the phosphate out of the system . hope your buffer is not a phosphate buffer. yikes

 

[saltydog64]

jd........

As BillyB stated run the reactor 24 x 7 and I don't recall which media you got in there so I can only speak for what I use and that is ROWA phos.....and I run that 24 x 7 and a test this am phos @ > O.03 PPM or "clear" (using a Slaifert kit). Your reading of 0.10PPM is better but still to high, shoot for max of 0.03 PPM.

I wouldn't add ANY corals until you get your Nitrates alot less than 25 PPM some where around > 5 PPM or lower is perfered IMO... with PO4 @ >0.03PPM...