Phosphate Drowning My System

[Just1MoreTank]

Phosphorous is sinking my tank. I've battled it before, but this time it's back with a vengeance and nothing I'm doing is helping. I do weekly 20% water changes on the tank, and pick out green hair algae with every water change. The picture below is from three weeks ago. Looks decent in the picture.... Today I manually removed a gallon sized bag of green hair algae that covers roughly half or more of the rocks. I believe the phosphorous is leaching from some dry rock I picked up when I set the tank up way back when, considering certain rocks will be covered in algae, but rocks right next to them will be spotless. I've built my inhabitants strictly around algae control, to absolutely no avail. As seen in the picture (and still to an extent if the corals are not being smothered) every coral in the tank is thriving. Leathers, toadstool, goni's, tree corals, sinularia, mushrooms, you name it. I really, truly, don't understand, and am at the end of it. I'm at a point now where I really just want to shut it all down, it's been a losing battle and I've finally accepted that I need help. I have Microbacter Clean but have yet to dose it on a full time basis. When running the Phos Reactor, I can get the Phos. down to .1 or so after a few days before the GFO is used up. If that's the only solution, I will start changing it out every few days, I'm just worried it's going to be this way for an endless amount of time.

Inhabitants:
Tomini Tang
Algae Blenny
One-Spot Foxface
Flame Hawkfish
Coral Beauty Angelfish
Roughly 20 turbo snails that usually just end up flipped over and dead
Handful of red-legged hermit crabs
2 Tuxedo Urchins
1 sea hare (that I admittedly have not seen this week.)

Tank Details and parameters:

75 Gallon (corner overflow)
Wet/dry sump
Reef Octopus Classic 150 Internal Skimmer (Not currently running to see how strong the algae is)
Aquatop Maxflow Wavemaker opposite of corner overflow
Aquatop Phos. Reactor (Not currently running as I'm trying to see how strong the algae is)

pH: 8.2
Nitrate: 0 (GHA has to be sucking it up as soon as it shows)
Phosphate: .3 (I know, it's bad)
Alk: 8.7
Salinity: 1.026

I've been in the hobby a long time, but understand there's always more to learn, so please, roast me if needed, and just be brutally honest. I'm tired of fighting this.

 

[kharmaguru]

Seems like a good situation to employ an algae scrubber - get it growing outside the tank instead of in. I also think you'll need to dose nitrate. It should technically be 30ppm to be in 'balance' with that phosphate level (allegedly, successful tanks have been observed to average 100:1 nitrate to phosphate. Your tank looks great in the picture, I don't think you should give up.

 

[jason2459]

I wouldn't change a thing. That tank looks great to me.

 

[griss]

Agree the tank looks great. But, understand (and have been through) a high maintenance tank like you’re describing. I think Refugium or algae scrubber would be the way to go.

 

[kharmaguru]

Phosphorous is sinking my tank. I've battled it before, but this time it's back with a vengeance and nothing I'm doing is helping. I do weekly 20% water changes on the tank, and pick out green hair algae with every water change. The picture below is from three weeks ago. Looks decent in the picture.... Today I manually removed a gallon sized bag of green hair algae that covers roughly half or more of the rocks. I believe the phosphorous is leaching from some dry rock I picked up when I set the tank up way back when, considering certain rocks will be covered in algae, but rocks right next to them will be spotless. I've built my inhabitants strictly around algae control, to absolutely no avail. As seen in the picture (and still to an extent if the corals are not being smothered) every coral in the tank is thriving. Leathers, toadstool, goni's, tree corals, sinularia, mushrooms, you name it. I really, truly, don't understand, and am at the end of it. I'm at a point now where I really just want to shut it all down, it's been a losing battle and I've finally accepted that I need help. I have Microbacter Clean but have yet to dose it on a full time basis. When running the Phos Reactor, I can get the Phos. down to .1 or so after a few days before the GFO is used up. If that's the only solution, I will start changing it out every few days, I'm just worried it's going to be this way for an endless amount of time.

Inhabitants:
Tomini Tang
Algae Blenny
One-Spot Foxface
Flame Hawkfish
Coral Beauty Angelfish
Roughly 20 turbo snails that usually just end up flipped over and dead
Handful of red-legged hermit crabs
2 Tuxedo Urchins
1 sea hare (that I admittedly have not seen this week.)

Tank Details and parameters:

75 Gallon (corner overflow)
Wet/dry sump
Reef Octopus Classic 150 Internal Skimmer (Not currently running to see how strong the algae is)
Aquatop Maxflow Wavemaker opposite of corner overflow
Aquatop Phos. Reactor (Not currently running as I'm trying to see how strong the algae is)

pH: 8.2
Nitrate: 0 (GHA has to be sucking it up as soon as it shows)
Phosphate: .3 (I know, it's bad)
Alk: 8.7
Salinity: 1.026

I've been in the hobby a long time, but understand there's always more to learn, so please, roast me if needed, and just be brutally honest. I'm tired of fighting this.

Just wondering, have you verified that it's not bryopsis since your cuc are uninterested?

 

[jason2459]

If a change is made I vote an ATS as well. I'm running two now lol

But honestly, that phosphate level is considered high by many but also totally acceptable by many. There's some stunning tanks I've seen recently running higher then that. Weird how the hobby keeps shifting it's "standard.".

I myself have always liked seeing green in the tank. To me @Paul B tank has always been tank of the month material.

 

[kharmaguru]

If a change is made I vote an ATS as well. I'm running two now lol

But honestly, that phosphate level is considered high by many but also totally acceptable by many. There's some stunning tanks I've seen recently running higher then that. Weird how the hobby keeps shifting it's "standard.".

I myself have always liked seeing green in the tank. To me @Paul B tank has always been tank of the month material.

Yep I think Sanjay's tank runs phosphate of 3 not .3 and his corals grow like crazy. Of course his nitrates are above 100 as well IIRC and he has no algae.

 

[Timfish]

I'd look at somewhere else than PO4 as your problem (I'd be looking at the herbivores myself). Rich Ross ("Thales" on some forums) has had acros spawn in his system and his PO4 is 3 times yours. FWIW, upwelling exposes coral reefs to levels as high as .3 so you're only at the high end of what occurs naturally. It's also quetionable how much phosphorus is actually attached to rock as biofilms can significantly alter teh sorbtion properties of teh surfaces they grow on