high phosphate

[popper]

Tank was at .70 phosphate. stopped dosing for a month, changed 10-15% water 3 times in 3 weeks. Now phosphate is at .90. I'm using phosguard with a medium media reactor on a 200g. what's the deal?

Help, need to lower it.

 

[Thales]

I ran my system at that or higher for years, and there weren't any issues.
Why do you want to lower it?

Water changes are not a good way to lower phosphate, specially at that low level. Phosphate can often bounce up after a quick lowering as it can be sequestered in all kinds of substrate. If you want to lower it, GFO as needed, or Lanth chloride.

 

[Alexander1312]

It would still be great to know conceptually why water changes do not seem to impact phosphate at all in some cases. I had the exact same experience in my first nano tank, where 50% water changes would hardly impact phosphate parameters. Since then, I blame the precipitations from Kalkwasser dripping after 18 months, but this might be as well just a mindstory.

Short term fixes such as GFO or LC seem problematic to me. GFO will strip out all traces according to Oceamo testing, and LC works great but if (accidentlally) overdosed might impact fish/tang health. And it would be a perennial thing to do.

Accepting the actual (high) phosphate measurement as suggested seems like a better approach. However, not being able to control any continuous trend except fixing the symptoms vs the root cause worries me as a newbie.

And all of my thoughts probably do not make sense as they might miss the big picture, but this was my thinking here, as I would like to avoid this specifc issue with my new tank if possible at all.

 

[derek_SR]

It would still be great to know conceptually why water changes do not seem to impact phosphate at all in some cases. I had the exact same experience in my first nano tank, where 50% water changes would hardly impact phosphate parameters. Since then, I blame the precipitations from Kalkwasser dripping after 18 months, but this might be as well just a mindstory.

Short term fixes such as GFO or LC seem problematic to me. GFO will strip out all traces according to Oceamo testing, and LC works great but if (accidentlally) overdosed might impact fish/tang health. And it would be a perennial thing to do.

Accepting the actual (high) phosphate measurement as suggested seems like a better approach. However, not being able to control any continuous trend except fixing the symptoms vs the root cause worries me as a newbie.

And all of my thoughts probably do not make sense as they might miss the big picture, but this was my thinking here, as I would like to avoid this specifc issue with my new tank if possible at all.

Why does lanthanum have to be perrenial?

I slow dose it every single day into my skimmer and keep my phosphates pretty much pegged in the .15ish range. I mix up 2L of the diluted solution and it lasts several months. I never touch anything, clean anything, or think about it.

It does require a versa pump or similar.

 

[Alexander1312]

Why does lanthanum have to be perrenial?

I slow dose it every single day into my skimmer and keep my phosphates pretty much pegged in the .15ish range. I mix up 2L of the diluted solution and it lasts several months. I never touch anything, clean anything, or think about it.

It does require a versa pump or similar.

Is this not the definition of perennial what you are describing .

 

[derek_SR]

Is this not the definition of perennial what you are describing .

I guess but if no action or intervention is required what’s really perennial?

Are you expecting there to be some product that you add to the tank a single time and then never have to worry about phosphate ever again?

Edit - Added a smiley face. Sorry for coming across as argumentative - I just don't understand all the stress about phosphates all the time when lanthanum is so incredibly simple and effective. There's very few things in the hobby that are cheap, easy, and work exactly as intended. Lanthanum is one of those things and yet it always gets dismissed for some reason!

 

[Alexander1312]

I guess but if no action or intervention is required what’s really perennial?

Are you expecting there to be some product that you add to the tank a single time and then never have to worry about phosphate ever again?

I was referring to the continuous use of these methods if root causes for phosphate spikes are not understood and only symptoms are being treated.

I believe in your case the higher phosphates are related to your heavy feeding, but in other circumstances the reasons are not as clear. For example, I have not been feeding my nano tank at all and can still not significantly reduce phosphates unless I use GFO, then it goes down, I stop GFO, and it will go up again.

If you want to invest in a dosing pump to maintain your heavy feeding, which keeps these sharks at bay, then that is a relatively straightforward logic I can follow. But to manage old tank symptoms/past precipitation issues this way is something I would prefer not to need to do, if possible. Not sure if this makes sense but this is how I think about it.

 

[Finnaddict]

.70-.90 is pretty high. You will want to bring that down slowly. My frag tank reached .90 and wreaked havoc on all coral in the system. Also had a customers tank with .75 and the coral in that tank were showing signs of stress.

I use GFO at half recommended dosage. I test to see how far it went down and adjust my doses accordingly. If not used carefully it can take it down to 0 which will definitely stress your coral. I’m running it in a TLF 150 with just enough flow to make it look like it’s at a low boil.

 

[L/B Block]

Carbon dosing such as tropic Marin’s bacto balance or Elim-NP works well. I like it over GFO as once you have the dose dialed on-pretty consistent. You really need a doser IMHO to get the proper dose consistently though.

Note: as I found out lately - things can interfere with it. My PO4 was at .3 using elim-NP and then it went up to .8. I think due to restarting a refugium that caused all sorts of issues stemming from a hot algae mess in the sump.
Switched back to bacto balance and bringing it back down. Now at .6-.7 but bringing down slowly.

Corals including acros were fine with upper range- it’s the heat though that is causing some acros to bleach though.