Reducing po4 with just refugium and no reactor
- Thread starter ivans75
- Start date
I have 3 caulerpa lentifera (sea grapes) on rock, 3 bunch needle grass on rock (one of the chaeto sp), 5 bunch of silk hair (also one of the chaeto sp) I also have 5 bunch of lentifera in main tank. Please bear in mind, I just acquired most of these. I mentioned that my fuge is 2 months old but it was only sand and a couple needle grass. I am using RO water for top off. What's tds?
I change water once every 3-4 weeks, so far I just change water 3 times for 20 percent.
Test kit: all salifert: mg, ca, p04, kh (just bought). All API: amonia nitrite nitrate, ph.
I have calcium hydroxide ready for kalkwasser, reef fusion 1 and 2 by seachem, reef complete and reef plus also by seachem.
Tank is 80 g
I change water once every 3-4 weeks, so far I just change water 3 times for 20 percent.
Test kit: all salifert: mg, ca, p04, kh (just bought). All API: amonia nitrite nitrate, ph.
I have calcium hydroxide ready for kalkwasser, reef fusion 1 and 2 by seachem, reef complete and reef plus also by seachem.
Tank is 80 g
lolgranny
The DQ King
TDS is total dissolved solids, if your ro water has TDS above 0 that might be the issue. You can find a TDS meter online or your local fish store might have one that they can test your RO water with. Just because your using RO water doesnt mean its completely clean.
20% every 3-4 weeks is good. I shoot for swapping out 40% a month, but then again i have a large load of sps / fish.
How old is the tank?
I would assume your top off water has higher TDS then you would like, or your overfeeding.
20% every 3-4 weeks is good. I shoot for swapping out 40% a month, but then again i have a large load of sps / fish.
How old is the tank?
I would assume your top off water has higher TDS then you would like, or your overfeeding.
danil
New member
Oh yeah its absolutely possible. I saw beautiful tanks with SPS and LPS happily coexist with no problems. If you want to take your phosphate down do it very slowly (check other treads on what might happened if you wont) and I would recommend to get GFO media reactor for that purpose. To achieve the same result with fuge you have to make it huge. Few plans here and there will do very little. Cutting on your feeding helps a lot too. I also tried and change my fish food to one with no phosphate - helped! 
lolgranny
The DQ King
Oh yeah its absolutely possible. I saw beautiful tanks with SPS and LPS happily coexist with no problems. If you want to take your phosphate down do it very slowly (check other treads on what might happened if you wont) and I would recommend to get GFO media reactor for that purpose. To achieve the same result with fuge you have to make it huge. Few plans here and there will do very little. Cutting on your feeding helps a lot too. I also tried and change my fish food to one with no phosphate - helped!
I would agree with looking into a reactor, but i have a ULNS(ultra low nutrient system) with no GFO reactor. I only have 6" of sand and a massive ball of cheato in a 8"x14" space. Im testing 0.00 PO4 with hanna / api / salifert.
I would also agree with DANIL and look into getting food with no phosphates, flakes usually have some. I know there are some good pellets out there with 0, or you can try rods food.
danil
New member
sorry we don't know your country specifics so you know better what options you have. Tanks are close systems you may work on phosphate export but it could be more beneficial (and cheaper) to work on reducing phosphate import. Though there is natural phosphate production in the tank (mostly from dead organisms or leaching from rocks/sand) your import is the main source of it. Just few grams of fish flake can rise phosphate in your tank by 0.5ppm. Your bottle RO water also could be source of phosphate. DI stage is almost required to get rid of all unwanted elements and it never applies to drinking RO water. I would recommend test your RO water TDS but again dont know is it possible in your situation.
Good luck!
so you know better what options you have. Tanks are close systems you may work on phosphate export but it could be more beneficial (and cheaper) to work on reducing phosphate import. Though there is natural phosphate production in the tank (mostly from dead organisms or leaching from rocks/sand) your import is the main source of it. Just few grams of fish flake can rise phosphate in your tank by 0.5ppm. Your bottle RO water also could be source of phosphate. DI stage is almost required to get rid of all unwanted elements and it never applies to drinking RO water. I would recommend test your RO water TDS but again dont know is it possible in your situation. Good luck!
allsps40
New member
When I had my fuge I always had 0 PO4 and 0 NO3. Fuge works well at keeping them in check. The problem I ran into after having my fuge running for a few years is it was taken over by unwanted algaes that ending up moving to the display. Took my fuge off line now no algae and low NO3 and still 0 PO4.
I have an ro unit with di filter and my tds is 40. My tap water tds readings is 320. 3 months back I replaced with a 5 micron filter and carbon block filter. I have also replaced the di resin. Could the problem be the membrane? Isthe 5 micron filter ok or should I change to 1 micron?
Psyops
Still Learning
+1 on that one. Also use DI water for top off and changes. An easier option is to use a reactor with GFO in it. You can get it from Bulkreefsupply.com. Hope this helps.
Coraldomination
In Memoriam
I think in order for a refugium to work well is by having it heavily lit. You are trying to remove phosphate via the biomass you remove when you harvest the algea out if the system. The more photosynthesis, the more adsorbtion of phosphates into plant material you can harvest .
