Phosphate

countrykat

New member
I have been fighting an algae problem for the last 2 years. First I was under the assumption that it was leaching from the Pukani dry rock from BRS and some other dry rock from some other place I ordered online, can't recall the name. I have never been able to get my p04 below .08 no matter how many water changes I did or how much GFO I added. It normally runs at .18 - .26. Needless to say the algae I have been fighting is winning the battle. I have a 4 stage ro/di unit from brs because I thought that would fix the problem, it didn't. I bought a TDS meter for the unit and it reads 170 in and 0.0 out. Today I tested the water coming out for p04 and guess what it messured, .08.

So the problem is not only the rock but the very water I am using. I am looking for some help because I am (and the wife) are completing sick and tired of looking algae on the glass. How can I get rid of this phasphate? i am almost ready to throw in the towel. Even if I switched to fish only tank I would still have the same problem. Oh, nitrates have been 0 for over a year.
 
Yeh forgot to mention that. I originally used a brute can and thought that was part of the problem so I switched to a spare 30 gallon glass tank, no change.
 
I'm interested in the answer to this, as well, as I have a similar issue (BRS Stage-5 Plus RO/DI, 4 TDS before, 0 TDS out, .06 PO4 ppm right from the RO/DI). My tank is in the middle of cycling, and PO4 is reading .10 ppm right now, though I did add some GFO to a media bag in the sump to help lower phosphate.
 
I am sure you have read all the algae threads and ruled out all the other questions. Overfeeding? light cycle? bulb life? Changing spectrum of bulbs etc, etc.
If you have then maybe you should look at other options like "cooking" the rock, or just replacing it all together.
Have you thought about a refugium?
 
I have change the spectrums a few times, adjusted my feedings and everything else that has been proposed. I never thought about adding a second di unit, may give that a try but my tds meter says everythings a 0.0. I did find some liquid p04 remover called ultralife reef liquid phosphate remover and control. I may give that a try in my water change tank so I can get it to 0 to start with. Anyone ever use this?
 
The liquid phosphate reducers may give you some temporary relief (they also bind desirable elements), but for long term control I would recommend either running GFO in a reactor, using a phosphate reducing resin also in a reactor and/or a refugium with macro algae like chaeto. Using kalkwasser in your top-off water would also help raise your PH and thus reduce the phosphate levels through precipitation.
 
I run gfo in a reactor and have to change it every week because it's loaded up, I also have chaeto in the fuge. Never used kalk though, I'll have to read up about it. I just found this post about an acid bath http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1914426&highlight=cooking+rock I may start this process. It's a really good read. If I read it right the bath would take care of the p04 and all other dead organisms that are there. I'll just have to do it in cycles.
 
Phosphates at 0.08ppm will not cause an algae bloom. The reading is a little high, but not at all critical. You can happily keep most SPS in those phosphates, just can't expect much of a growth.

Some pictures of your problem algae would be helpful in identifying the cause. Also, which test do you use for nitrates?

And btw, if the output of the RODI unit reads anything but 0 phosphates, it may be time to replace the DI resin. The resin is primarily responsible for filtering out phosphates and may have been saturated already. 170 tds IN is a lot to filter out. If the tap water is that bad I would suggest getting a 5/6 stage unit and keep a very close eye on the output.
 
As you can see it covers the glass. I scrape the sides 1 or 2 times a week.

DSC_0004-17_zpse32e9c07.jpg



DSC_0003-21_zps624c26c7.jpg
 
Oh, that's it?

That's not a problem at all... I have to clean the glass from this stuff every other day. My nitrates are at 0 - 0.25 with red sea test kit and phosphates at 0.03 with hanna checker.

Just get a decent magnetic floating scraper and all is good. Also get some snails as well to do some of the work for you...

I also see some coraline growing on the glass - a sign of a healthy tank. You've mentioned that you use GFO for phosphates. How often you replace the media and do you rinse it real well first? In my experience, I get some brown tint on the glass if I don't rinse a fresh batch of GFO, I believe tiny GFO particles end up contributing to the glass tint.
 
I use the red sea test too but I don't have a hanna meter. There is coraline covering everything in the tank. I see these beautiful reef tanks without a spec of green anywhere in them and that what I want.
 
Check out full shots of tanks of the month here on RC and look closer at the bottom corners of these tanks. You will see this brown/greenish tint even in those tanks. The difference is they cleaned tanks by hand real well before taking pictures. Hopefully others will chime in here, but I'd say that cleaning this tint is regular maintenance for all of us. So is scraping coraline from the glass...
 
Check out full shots of tanks of the month here on RC and look closer at the bottom corners of these tanks. You will see this brown/greenish tint even in those tanks. The difference is they cleaned tanks by hand real well before taking pictures. Hopefully others will chime in here, but I'd say that cleaning this tint is regular maintenance for all of us. So is scraping coraline from the glass...


+1 one on this

You are putting a piece of the ocean in a small box expect it to need some manual clean up from time to time :beer:
 
I understand that it will require maintenance but the pictures above is at 2 days since the last time I scraped the glass. But back to my original question about removing p04. I just ordered another di unit and a gallon of resin maybe that will help somewhat. Do they make a fish food and coral food that is phosphate free? Right now I use tetra flakes, NLS pellets, Reef chili from brs, kent zooplexand korallen-zucht coral vitilizer all mixed up throughout the week. I would like to get my p04 down to 0 - .02
 
+1 one on this

You are putting a piece of the ocean in a small box expect it to need some manual clean up from time to time :beer:

Even nature sends in a hurricane to move things around everynow and then.
 
Back
Top