Phosphate problem

[Sm1t7y]

So I bought a Hannah phos test kit knowing my levels where high. I’ve been running Rowaphos for a couple months now and my levels as of yesterday are at 0.25. Is this high? If so what can I do to lower them. I’m only feeding frozen foods once every other day and at 4 mm. To 16 fish in a 120. What am I doing wrong?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Chris A.]

Try gfo for a couple weeks and or do a few 30% water changes

 

[MarvinsReef]

I keep my Phosphate around 0.15 and do not have any issues. I also keep nitrate at 3-5ppm and this works for my sps. When I ran the phosphate too low my corals started bleaching out. I do run red sea nopox to keep nitrate and phosphate where they need to be along with water changes every 2 weeks

 

[Andy V]

It's a little high but not terrible. You can bring it down with GFO and water changes as suggested, but it might take awhile depending on if you have phosphate bound in rocks and algae. Many people will have 0.00ppm in the water, but massive algae issues...how? Because the phosphate is being sucked into the rock and algae faster than it gets in the water.

If you already have coral in the tank, you do not want to do it quickly. Think about trying to reduce over 2-3 months.

You could also try and algae turf scrubber, or a refugium with algae. Or dose nitrates, which can actually bring down phosphate.

For most people the easiest way is GFO. I would shoot for 0.03 - 0.12ppm. And make sure you are doing the test correctly!

Edit: I missed that you are running GFO already...keep doing so.

But how often are you changing it?

You need to test when the GFO is fresh, and then every couple of days. The minute the phosphate increases, you know the GFO is exhausted. If you have a lot of algae, this could get exhausted in a day or two. Eventually you will only have to change it every 2-3 weeks. Don't use more than recommended because it will drop too fast. You need to run GFO 24/7 right now.

You are definitely not overfeeding and are most likely vastly underfeeding. I feed far more than that in a 60 gallon tank. What is your nitrate level? 5-15ppm is desirable. The thinking here has changed from a few years ago. Higher nitrate helps coloration and will help keep phosphate in check. Look up the Redfield Ratio.