Phosphates rising and alge are blooming and can`t get ammonia to 0

G

Gravis

New member
Hi guys!

I set up my new tank a little under 2 weeks ago.

When i got the rock in, i waited about two days before i did a ph4 test, and as you can se under, the ph4 values was at 0,12.

The same week the alge started blooming and the phosphates started getting lower. and here comes the question. The alge thrives on phosphates for nutrition, and there for, my phosphates go down when i get more alge?

Why do my phosphates rise again when the green hair alge are trying to take over my tank?

Should i throw in my phosphate reactor? or should i wait for it to stabilize?

to days other measurements are.

Ammonia 0,25 (this has been stable since day one, 10 days ago). any guesses to why it dont change?
No2 0
No3 0

Phosphate Po4

0,12
0,06
0,08
0,08
0,12

The readings are not day 1,2,3, there is 10 days between the first and last.

Thank you in advance guys! Love this forum
 
Are you adding any food source? Food has PO4 and the rocks themselves can still be leaching PO4, so even though algae is growing like crazy the amount of PO4 is greater than algae demand. What test are you using for ammonia, nitrite and nitrates. Seems odd that nitrites are still at zero. If it was dry rock when you started it just may take longer for the cycle to complete itself.
 
Mike Ordner said:
Are you adding any food source? Food has PO4 and the rocks themselves can still be leaching PO4, so even though algae is growing like crazy the amount of PO4 is greater than algae demand. What test are you using for ammonia, nitrite and nitrates. Seems odd that nitrites are still at zero. If it was dry rock when you started it just may take longer for the cycle to complete itself.
Click to expand...
I fed the tank a couple of grams with pellets when I got the water in the tank.

For the test kits I bought new salifert kits for the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. The phosphate test is red sea. It a bit old but still with in the expectation date on the bottle. I used live rock from my LFS for the tank.

Hope it goes down so I can move my fish and corral from my old tank. (Girlfriend about to kill me;) what would you guys consider safe parameters for the fish and corrals?
 
Safe is compete cycle. No ammonia, no nitrites and showing nitrates. How high is subject to debate, less important for fish (say 20 ppm nitrates) than sps corals. LPS and softies same level as fish. if the rock was good rock from the LFS, then it might go though a short cycle, but you should still see the other components. Take a sample to the store and let them check to have a second independent reading.
 
You should be adding some food source often to keep producing ammonia to start the bacteria growing.
 
Hi guys! Thanks for all your advice! Today I cleaned up my phosphate reactor and put it inn the tank. Hopefully that would do the trick!
 
Mike Ordner said:
Safe is compete cycle. No ammonia, no nitrites and showing nitrates. How high is subject to debate, less important for fish (say 20 ppm nitrates) than sps corals. LPS and softies same level as fish. if the rock was good rock from the LFS, then it might go though a short cycle, but you should still see the other components. Take a sample to the store and let them check to have a second independent reading.
Click to expand...
Hi Mike! I didn't fully understand the nitrate comment. Did you mean, that the fish could survive about 20 ppm. Same with my LPS and soft corals. But the sps should wait a bit longer?
 
Gravis said:
Hi Mike! I didn't fully understand the nitrate comment. Did you mean, that the fish could survive about 20 ppm. Same with my LPS and soft corals. But the sps should wait a bit longer?
Click to expand...


That is exactly what hes saying.

Nitrates are pretty harmless to fish(at least in the levels we see in the hobby), corals on the other hand are a different story. While some thrive on nitrates(lps and softies) other will slowly die(SPS).
 
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