I'm lost... algea... death... defeat

[fishdoc11]

The whole idea behind preventing it is to make sure you are exporting phosphate by other means. In older tanks with sandbeds it very often becomes a problem sometimes called "old tank syndrome". Sometimes it apparently doesn't. In bare bottomed tanks it doesn't typically become a problem.
Water changes, running phosphate remover and getting your skimmer working are going to be the easiest ways to get a handle on it.

Chris

 

[Pickupman66]

Do you use any other bagged medias? Chemi pure? Purigen? Phosban? I do run all 3 in my tank from time to time with the purigen a must. really polishes the water.

 

[rsteagall]

If I gather correctly then, it will just keep leaching until it can't leach any more?

Ya know what stinks is that back for those 2 months or I did a bunch of water changes... I ran some phosphate filter pads (the ones that you run for a day or tow and throw away) and seachem phosguard. I put the phosguard in a reactor I bought from Wayne on my return pump. The dang thing would clog up after about a day running. I got tired of it and emptied it out. All this time since, I've been running a reactor with nothing in it. heh. What is a good method to run some kind of phosphate remover in? The reactor I have is very similar to this (minus the logo):

But, I didn't like it at all running it from the return of my fuge one bit because of the clogging and reduced flow.

I enjoy the hobby, but sometimes I feel like its nothing but bad money on top of bad money. The ONLY successful thing I've ever been able to do completely and positively is remove flat worms without losing anything via Flatworm eXit.

 

[rsteagall]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11373785#post11373785 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Pickupman66
Do you use any other bagged medias? Chemi pure? Purigen? Phosban? I do run all 3 in my tank from time to time with the purigen a must. really polishes the water.

I don't run any media at all on a regular or persistent basis. I'm not certain my design allows a place for any of it.

 

[fishdoc11]

Phosphate reactors are designed to be run with slow flow pumps like a small powerhead from what I understand. It's generally not a good idea to run your return pump through one. Sounds like you also had the water running in the wrong hose. If run in the correct hose most of those reactors are designed to flow upwards and tumble the media and keep it from clogging.

 

[rsteagall]

... last thought of the night.

I don't feel that I've ever had an excessive bio-load, nor have I ever fed excessively.

Off the wall question... has anyone ever had or thought they had issues with Oceanic Salt that could lead to PO4 issues? I have noticed that its buffering capacity is sub-par. I will be switching salt in the future. In fact I have some Tropic Marin - Pro Reef salt that I'll be using for my next water changes.

 

[gsusfreak]

ive used oceanic when i first started out....first 6 months maybe, and never noticed anything.....but who knows, phosphates can come from anywhere

 

[rsteagall]

I've done two water changes now within the past week. PO4 is down to about 1ppm after this last change.

Sadly though... after that first water change last week, sucking as much of the sand bed as I could, and blowing off rocks... my perfectly healthy Kole tang that was eating very well died in about 3 days time. Tonight I saw his little skull picked clean. Man, that makes me a little angry.

 

[NeveSSL]

Sorry to hear that, man.

Brandon