need help with refugium

[ebrady1440]

my 180 mixed reef tank with a heavy bio load. has been running high phosphates for a long time i tried gfo also a bio reactor from reef dynamics still no luck. my refugium has a sand base of approximately 4 inches my question besides how to get these levels down is should i get rid of the refugium sand and go bare bottom i do weekly water changes of 25gals.of RO water any help would be great.

 

[fishome25]

in my opinion you should point your finger at your heavy bio load, not your sand.

 

[DgenR8]

What are you describing as "heavy bio load", What is your actual PO4 reading, how are you reading PO4 and what are your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate values?

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

A list of your test results would give us a starting place Ed.

 

[ebrady1440]

ammonia o ,nitrite 0,nitrate between 10 and 20, using hanna for phos. reading 250. 7 tangs 3 triggers a morish idle and i know but does not eat anything 5 wrasses 2 bass ,4 hawks 2 tile fish 4 gobies, copper ban,primed butt.

 

[quagmire]

What size is your fuge?

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

That's 30 fish!
Remember, all foods contain phosphates.
You are putting in plenty @ every feeding.
I'm surprised the nitrates are that low.
If it were me I would get a second check on PO4 from a different method.
I've seen nitrates well over 100 but did not know PO4 could be read @ that #.

 

[ebrady1440]

fuge is 36x15x15 the sand part is 15x12 i will get po4 checked again i know its a lot of fish but i like the way it looks I'm addicted !

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

Ed,
So are we all!
When I checked my sand in the other tank PO4 was almost twice the water content.
Sand tends to hang onto it.

 

[Editour2]

I have the same problem with my system except I have rock rubble covering my refugium bottom......I have posted here and in the Chemistry Forum....it was suggested that I incrementally remove the rock rubble....(25% at a time over 2 wks). Run GFO and test the water coming out of the reactor daily....when the phosphates test around the same as your DT water then it's time to change the GFO. I also drip vinegar. I was dripping approx 80ml daily but was told that I should slowly increase to approximately 200ml, (I have a total system volume of around 330 gallons). Be diligent in water changes .....and increase the frequency of water changes until the phophate levels drop. I am currently doing all these things and the phosphate level is slowly but surely decreasing.

 

[quagmire]

Have you guys measured the po4 in your RO water?

 

[ebrady1440]

so from what i understand is you guys think (and feel )as i was thinking is to slowly remove the sand i the refugeium and replace with some rock and chito then increase water changes to maybe 50 gal a week till i start to see a change .

 

[Editour2]

Have you guys measured the po4 in your RO water?

Yes.....zero.

 

[quagmire]

IMO that small amount of sand will do nothing positive in a system of 180gls or more. I would remove it and fill the entire refugium with chaeto. Forget about rubble or rocks too. Its all about the algae.

so from what i understand is you guys think (and feel )as i was thinking is to slowly remove the sand i the refugeium and replace with some rock and chito then increase water changes to maybe 50 gal a week till i start to see a change .

 

[Editour2]

so from what i understand is you guys think (and feel )as i was thinking is to slowly remove the sand i the refugeium and replace with some rock and chito then increase water changes to maybe 50 gal a week till i start to see a change .

Your phosphates are extemely high....so based on responses I received those are 2 of the things you should be doing.....run the refugium bare bottom OR with some larger rock....ALSO run phosphate remover of some sort.....phosguard, GFO, Elimi-Phos etc, and also I would suggest dripping vinegar or vodka dosing.

 

[ebrady1440]

thank you for all your help ill let you know how it goes have to find the best way to remove sand

 

[Editour2]

thank you for all your help ill let you know how it goes have to find the best way to remove sand

Just siphon out a little at a time into a bucket when you do your water changes, (mixing the water and sand).

 

[reefpro21]

it could also help adding a algae scrubber, phosphate reactor to lower your phosphates

 

[Iammatt219]

Carefully set up a system to dose lanthium chloride

 

[Spracklcat]

+1 to add lots of Chaetomorpha with a light, and a GFO reactor downstream of that. Once the macro algae starts growing it will help quite a bit.

Christine