phospate levels

[bowhunter42]

Recently I swapped out sumps and now have a larger sump with built in reactors ,I run carbon in one and phosphate remover on the other , these cylanders are larger than I had before and not sure how much phospahte remover to add ? I checked my levels last night and its high at 0.1 !!!!!!!
Can I just add more phosphate remover to the sock to drop the levels ? Or do I just need to do water change ?
Thanks

 

[dzhuo]

0.1 does seem a little on the high side. How much phosphate binder to add depends on your tank size and current phosphate level; it has less to do with how big the holder is. The general rule is 1 cup per 50g of water so I would start with that. Check phosphate again in 2 days and go from there. Water change with RO/DI would reduce phosphate but you also need to understand where the phosphate are coming from (most likely food) so you can control this import process as well.

 

[bowhunter42]

0.1 does seem a little on the high side. How much phosphate binder to add depends on your tank size and current phosphate level; it has less to do with how big the holder is. The general rule is 1 cup per 50g of water so I would start with that. Check phosphate again in 2 days and go from there. Water change with RO/DI would reduce phosphate but you also need to understand where the phosphate are coming from (most likely food) so you can control this import process as well.

Ok , then I definatally don't have enough , I have a 125 tall and probabally only have a little more than half a cup ? Actually 1/2 lb. I will add more to equal the tank volume , is it from over feeding then ?

 

[dzhuo]

I have a 125 tall and probabally only have a little more than half a cup ?

I would up the GFO. Make sure to check GFO every couple of days to see how fast phosphate falls which would be a better indication of how much GFO you need to add. When phosphate is lower, GFO should last anywhere from 3 weeks to a month.

is it from over feeding then ?

Generally speaking, food is the #1 source for phosphate (assuming you are using RO/DI and your rocks are reasonably "clean" with little die off, etc). Are you feeding a lot? What kind of food you use and how often do you feed?

 

[bowhunter42]

I would up the GFO. Make sure to check GFO every couple of days to see how fast phosphate falls which would be a better indication of how much GFO you need to add. When phosphate is lower, GFO should last anywhere from 3 weeks to a month.



Generally speaking, food is the #1 source for phosphate (assuming you are using RO/DI and your rocks are reasonably "clean" with little die off, etc). Are you feeding a lot? What kind of food you use and how often do you feed?

I use ro/di and I feed a mixture of mysis rods food and brine every day now when I feed I feed my corals this mix with the fish . I spot feed everything and twice a week I feed reef snow when the lights go off
Now I was to the understanding that gfo lasts up to 2 months when lower ?

 

[dzhuo]

Now I was to the understanding that gfo lasts up to 2 months when lower ?

It's possible but it all depends on exhaustion rate which in term depends on your phosphate level. Different phosphate binders also have different capacity. For example, BRS sells a high capacity version of their popular GFO which could last twice as long as the standard one. I would say in general, 1 month is very common. If you could get it to last 2 months, good for you.