I just started to cycle my rock today and took my first water readings. The phosphates were off the charts; .58 ppm. I have dry rock, some live rock and recycled sand that I cleaned as best I could. I am fairly certain it's the sand. Is this temporary? Will this leach out quickly? Should I start over with fresh sand? I use fresh sea water. My first readings were; Alk - 7, PH - 7.9, Ammonia - 0.1, Nitrites - 0.0 , Nitrates - 0.0, Salinity - 1.024.
Phosphate question
- Thread starter HHN
- Start date
The rock (not pukani) was live about 5 weeks ago, but I wasn't set up in time, so I cured in the dark for 4 weeks. Even doing that, there is some coraline aglae, asterinas, hermit crab and snail that survived. I got the sand used and it was dirty. I took forever to clean; that is why I think it comes from the rock. The NSW I used tested at 0.11 (hanna checker may be off). I am knew to this, but I found it odd that my skimmer was pulling yellow skim from day one even though I have nothing in there. Some people have told me to start over. I'd rather not pulling everything out, but maybe its smarter. I have leftover sand and am going to test it outside the tank today.
Either the rock or the sand could easily be the source, if either was exposed to a tank with high phosphates they would absorb it. Just because the sand was dirty does not necessarily make it the culprit, although I don't advocate using dry sand. If you have a reactor I would run GFO during the cycle to try to pull out the phosphate. It will not hurt anything to remove the old sand if you want to go that route, but there is no guarantee that removing the sand will help.
What did you cure it in ?
I cured rock in a Rubbermaid Roughneck Container for weeks (Not BRUTE) and had a reading of 0.40. I removed all the water, and put the rock in my tank, and had a reading of 0.00 across the board. The rock was years old when it was sold to me, so I doubt it leached out. The container was to blame, IMO.
I cured rock in a Rubbermaid Roughneck Container for weeks (Not BRUTE) and had a reading of 0.40. I removed all the water, and put the rock in my tank, and had a reading of 0.00 across the board. The rock was years old when it was sold to me, so I doubt it leached out. The container was to blame, IMO.
Hi...I cured it in a Home Depot Rough Tote. Unfortunately i can be a lot of sources at this point. Trying to isolate each one now. Can I run macro algae in my refugium while I cycle? Also, is the yellow skimmate the phosphates? I have read that is possible. I am testing the left over sand today (ie, what was not in the tank).
I went through that less then two months ago. I can tell you that as a test, I filled my container with normally RODI water (Well, put some in it, not filled to brim).
I left it for a week with flow and heat, just like when I had rock in it. When I tested it, it had phosphates.
I am 100% confident in saying it leaked from my container.
I left it for a week with flow and heat, just like when I had rock in it. When I tested it, it had phosphates.
I am 100% confident in saying it leaked from my container.
I would not worry about it. 0.58 is in the range of what reefs see and in my experience in my maintenance business is there's not a direct corallation between normal or high PO4 and nuisance algae. Keep in mind the maturing process is 8-12 months and you will see different algae show up and disappear. Do your water changes, use urchins for algae control and don't chase numbers. Keep in mind lowering your PO4 too much can be very detrimental for corals. Here's some links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRIKW-9d2xI
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d706/f6699d553313e2391945c3007d07f906d0d4.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R2BMEfQGjU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRIKW-9d2xI
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d706/f6699d553313e2391945c3007d07f906d0d4.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R2BMEfQGjU
