IowaJeeping
New member
Is it common for new saltwater to contain phosphates?
I have been battling some uglies in my tank for a while. Thought i finally got rid of it, but alas it is back again. I have noticed that my phosphates do not seem to be affected much by waterchanges , while my nitrates on the other hand fall with every waterchange. I actually struggle to keep nitrates above 5ppm.
Today i decided to test a batch of red sea blue bucket that i mixed a few days ago, and my new water is mixing at 0.04 phosphates.
This makes a lot of sense as to why my phosphates do not seem affected by waterchanges. Is this normal or should phosphates be 0 in new water?
I have been aiming to keep the tank around 5ppm nitrates and 0.03 phosphates, bc i know that 0 can promote dino's.
I have noticed if i stop waterchanges, my sand bed clears up, and when i start waterchanges again, the stuff on the sand comes back.
I have had an icp test done in the past on both my tank water as well as my ro/di water. My ro/di water showed high silicates. I switched to the pro series resins, and added a booster pump to hopefully eliminate that issue. I did this several months ago and cleaned the storage tanks really well, as well as did a series of large water changes to remove silicates from the tank water. I have essentially changed around 210% of the water 30% at a time.
I have sent in samples for icp testing again and am waiting for the results, but i doubt i still have a silicate problem with my ro/di water. If i do, i have no idea how to fix that. Source water is 26 tds, 4 tds after the ro membrane, and 0 coming out of the resins.
Thoughts?
Update on some more info....
tank has never had excessive no3 or po4 from the start. I feed frozen mysis and reef roids. If i stop the reef roids and waterchanges, no3/po4 falls to 0. I know that 0 is bad, which is why i feed reef roids to keep no3/po4 above 0.
It's been a struggle for sure. I didnt test for no3/po4 for a long time and wondered why my colors were pale and my chaeto always died out. Upon research i found that pale colors could be caused by lack of nutrients. Tested no3/po4 and they were both 0. This was a while back, like 9 months probably. At that point i tried dosing them directly and corals responded negatively. I lost a few sps frags. So i started feeding reef roids to raise them. Now my chaeto grows good and my coral colors are 10x better. I have been aiming for no3: 5-10 po4: 0.03-0.04. Once no3/po4 started to rise slightly above 0, i started getting this stuff on the sand. I believe it is dino's. It doesnt look horrible now but I've been here before, it got much much worse last time. Research found that dinos thrive in a low nutrient tank, so i kept going with reef roids and raised no3/po4 to 15ppm no3 and 0.08 po4, and also stopped waterchanges as recommended by my research. After a few weeks at those levels, the sandbed cleared up, but i had gha everywhere.
I let that ride for a few weeks and then began manual removal of the gha, i did a 30% waterchange during gha removal. The spots on the sand bed came back, not terribly bad, but they were there.
I dose the tank with fluconazole to help kill gha that was down in the rocks that i could not get to, and stopped waterchanges for 4 weeks while the fluconazole did its job. Sandbed cleared up a few days later, and gha has almost completely disappeared. At this point i was feeding reef roids sparingly. No3 had fallen to around 8ppm, but phosphates were staying around 0.06.
After the fluconazole treatment, i did another 30% waterchange (instructions say to do large waterchange). No3 fell to about 4ppm, yet po4 has remained at 0.06. That is what prompted me to test the new water. I assumed if waterchanges were reducing no3 and not po4, then i must have po4 in the new water, and i was right. And now here we are, with an ugly sandbed yet again after a waterchange.
Parameters in the tank are:
1.025
79f
Ca 430
Alk 9
Mg 1400
No3 4
Po4 0.06
Ph 8.0-8.3 (according to apex probe)
I dose saturated kalk water every other hr throughout the day via a dosing pump.
Lights are hydra26hd's set to ab+ spectrum. 8hrs total on time with a 2hr ramp time.
This is from BRS ask Facebook group
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
I have been battling some uglies in my tank for a while. Thought i finally got rid of it, but alas it is back again. I have noticed that my phosphates do not seem to be affected much by waterchanges , while my nitrates on the other hand fall with every waterchange. I actually struggle to keep nitrates above 5ppm.
Today i decided to test a batch of red sea blue bucket that i mixed a few days ago, and my new water is mixing at 0.04 phosphates.
This makes a lot of sense as to why my phosphates do not seem affected by waterchanges. Is this normal or should phosphates be 0 in new water?
I have been aiming to keep the tank around 5ppm nitrates and 0.03 phosphates, bc i know that 0 can promote dino's.
I have noticed if i stop waterchanges, my sand bed clears up, and when i start waterchanges again, the stuff on the sand comes back.
I have had an icp test done in the past on both my tank water as well as my ro/di water. My ro/di water showed high silicates. I switched to the pro series resins, and added a booster pump to hopefully eliminate that issue. I did this several months ago and cleaned the storage tanks really well, as well as did a series of large water changes to remove silicates from the tank water. I have essentially changed around 210% of the water 30% at a time.
I have sent in samples for icp testing again and am waiting for the results, but i doubt i still have a silicate problem with my ro/di water. If i do, i have no idea how to fix that. Source water is 26 tds, 4 tds after the ro membrane, and 0 coming out of the resins.
Thoughts?
Update on some more info....
tank has never had excessive no3 or po4 from the start. I feed frozen mysis and reef roids. If i stop the reef roids and waterchanges, no3/po4 falls to 0. I know that 0 is bad, which is why i feed reef roids to keep no3/po4 above 0.
It's been a struggle for sure. I didnt test for no3/po4 for a long time and wondered why my colors were pale and my chaeto always died out. Upon research i found that pale colors could be caused by lack of nutrients. Tested no3/po4 and they were both 0. This was a while back, like 9 months probably. At that point i tried dosing them directly and corals responded negatively. I lost a few sps frags. So i started feeding reef roids to raise them. Now my chaeto grows good and my coral colors are 10x better. I have been aiming for no3: 5-10 po4: 0.03-0.04. Once no3/po4 started to rise slightly above 0, i started getting this stuff on the sand. I believe it is dino's. It doesnt look horrible now but I've been here before, it got much much worse last time. Research found that dinos thrive in a low nutrient tank, so i kept going with reef roids and raised no3/po4 to 15ppm no3 and 0.08 po4, and also stopped waterchanges as recommended by my research. After a few weeks at those levels, the sandbed cleared up, but i had gha everywhere.
I let that ride for a few weeks and then began manual removal of the gha, i did a 30% waterchange during gha removal. The spots on the sand bed came back, not terribly bad, but they were there.
I dose the tank with fluconazole to help kill gha that was down in the rocks that i could not get to, and stopped waterchanges for 4 weeks while the fluconazole did its job. Sandbed cleared up a few days later, and gha has almost completely disappeared. At this point i was feeding reef roids sparingly. No3 had fallen to around 8ppm, but phosphates were staying around 0.06.
After the fluconazole treatment, i did another 30% waterchange (instructions say to do large waterchange). No3 fell to about 4ppm, yet po4 has remained at 0.06. That is what prompted me to test the new water. I assumed if waterchanges were reducing no3 and not po4, then i must have po4 in the new water, and i was right. And now here we are, with an ugly sandbed yet again after a waterchange.
Parameters in the tank are:
1.025
79f
Ca 430
Alk 9
Mg 1400
No3 4
Po4 0.06
Ph 8.0-8.3 (according to apex probe)
I dose saturated kalk water every other hr throughout the day via a dosing pump.
Lights are hydra26hd's set to ab+ spectrum. 8hrs total on time with a 2hr ramp time.
This is from BRS ask Facebook group
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
