NItrates and Phosphates still too darn high

A.VOID

Premium Member
OK, so I have all my parameters basically pegged, but these two are frustrating the crap out of me.

20-40 in Nitrates and about 0.5 for Phosphates.


Tank:
- 55 gallon
- Rock ~ 60+ lbs (probably closer to 75)
- Sump holds about another 15 gallons with another couple pounds of rock gravel in there
- Sand bed 2-3" and well established
- Always RO water

I don't have algae blooms, but I have some browning on the back glass that the snails seem to take care of pretty well. My coraline grows great and is filling in weel, skimmer pulling well (at least I assume since I get plenty of poo)

- 9 nass snails cleaning the bottom
- 4 fish
- 6 frags of zoos, plays, finger leather, chalice, brain, ric
- Nice sized open brain (forgot the name for the moment)
- couple 'shrooms

Things seem to be growing/ surviving (except the brain frag is pretty rough right now from bad placement)

I want these other parameters down to get things cleaned up.

Thoughts? Overfeeding (I probably am somewhat ...)

Do you "need" a reactor to ever get these things under control?
 
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How about getting some plants that pull phosphates out of the water and putting them in your sump? Are you putting the phosban in your sump?

Suzi
 
Id bang out some more waterchanges, and make them bigger. You could also get a phosban reactor, in fact i would highly recommend it. AS for your trates the water changes will help, or you could use a product called purigen, personally i use purigen in my tank and i love it.
 
Yes, I had some chaeto that got destroyed by the return pump. I didn't have the egg crate set up right, and it got sucked in. I'll redo it next week-end with the water change, and try some more chaeto.

I saw people putting some of the phosban bags in their sump and I saw some the "Absolute Zero Nitrates" product, but I always see mixed feedback on doing things that way. I don't want to just throw away the money (although this hobby seems to make you do that).
 
I was getting a lot of green algae in my quarantine tank. I put a small packet of phosban in the filter and the tank has been mostly clear since.

Suzi
 
If you are feeding frozen food rinse? thaw it to get rid of the packing water. Blow off your rocks and sand a couple of times a week to put detrius in suspension so your skimmer can get it befoe it disolves putting nitrate and phosphate in your water.
 
OK, I guess I'm a fool on the frozen food bit. I drop the cube in a 1 cup of water and generally pour about 1/2 the cup into the tank and use the other half for another feeding.

Whats the rinse method? :confused:
 
I mix up a couple of days of food at a time. I fill a plastic coffee container with tap water and let it thaw. I pour it back through a fine mesh net(brine shrimp net). Then dump the net into the now empty can add a little ro water and garlic if yoou choose. Feed with a turkey baster and refrigerate the leftovers . I use chlorinated tap water for thawing to counter any vibrio bacteria on the food which are harmful to fish.
 
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