Reef nutrition

Jake’s 90 gallon mixed reef

tribbitt said:
2.13ppm phosphate is somewhat unusual considering your nitrate is fine. Do you do anything weird like nitrate resins? Can you retest?
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I dont use anything weird like that, I think the high phos is from old, used rock that I bought 2nd hand, as well as old sand that I used from the previous tank owner. Spent a few hours rinsing the sand out in small batches to get the water to run clear lol. The water came out very dark for quite a few flushes
 
Fish Boss said:
I dont use anything weird like that, I think the high phos is from old, used rock that I bought 2nd hand, as well as old sand that I used from the previous tank owner. Spent a few hours rinsing the sand out in small batches to get the water to run clear lol. The water came out very dark for quite a few flushes
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If you didn’t cure the rock that would definitely cause your phosphate to be that high. I bought second hand live rock that looked fairly clean but even then when I first started curing it and tested the phosphate was insane. If you added that to your tank without curing I’d imagine that could be your cause. The sand may or may not add to the issue depending how well you rinsed
 
MarcosDelgado0 said:
If you didn’t cure the rock that would definitely cause your phosphate to be that high. I bought second hand live rock that looked fairly clean but even then when I first started curing it and tested the phosphate was insane. If you added that to your tank without curing I’d imagine that could be your cause. The sand may or may not add to the issue depending how well you rinsed
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I “cured” the rock in tank for a month, before adding anything, and did a fairly large water change towards the end, but that was it. Completely agree
 
Fish Boss said:
I “cured” the rock in tank for a month, before adding anything, and did a fairly large water change towards the end, but that was it. Completely agree
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I’m almost at 3 months curing roughly 100lbs of rock that I got in a 32 gallon brute. Still can’t get a reading with a Hanna ulr phosphate checker because it maxes out at 0.9 so I’m above that, but now sure by how much. I’ve done multiple 100% water changes already. I’m going to start using lanthanum chloride to try to remove it before it goes into my tank. I’d definitely look into that as well
 
Fish Boss said:
I “cured” the rock in tank for a month, before adding anything, and did a fairly large water change towards the end, but that was it. Completely agree
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Were water changes a part of your curing proccess? If the water was never changed not sure if the rocks wouldn't have just held on to the stuff inside.
 
MarcosDelgado0 said:
I’m almost at 3 months curing roughly 100lbs of rock that I got in a 32 gallon brute. Still can’t get a reading with a Hanna ulr phosphate checker because it maxes out at 0.9 so I’m above that, but now sure by how much. I’ve done multiple 100% water changes already. I’m going to start using lanthanum chloride to try to remove it before it goes into my tank. I’d definitely look into that as well
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Have you tried curing with muriatic acid? I want to try it out. Do you want to experiment? I'll supply the acid if you supply some rock :p
 
dangalang said:
Have you tried curing with muriatic acid? I want to try it out. Do you want to experiment? I'll supply the acid if you supply some rock :p
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I should’ve done that from the start. But now it’s been cooking for 3 months and I seeded it with live rock so it’d just kill any beneficial bacteria it’s accumulated in this time. @MichaelB has a ton of dry rock though maybe he’d be down
 
MarcosDelgado0 said:
I should’ve done that from the start. But now it’s been cooking for 3 months and I seeded it with live rock so it’d just kill any beneficial bacteria it’s accumulated in this time. @MichaelB has a ton of dry rock though maybe he’d be down
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Oh yeah I just got some rock for him actually, I left it outside and forgot about it cause it smells like wet dog hahah.

@Fish Boss it looks like you epoxied your rock together already so taking some out to cure is probably not an option. Lanthanum Chloride is probably your best option for phosphate that high. Check out this guide if you decide to go that route: https://www.bareefers.org/forum/threads/guide-lanthanum-chloride-dosing-for-phosphate-control.36708/
 
I find that STN in acros is often flow related, so seconding @Darkxerox thought there.

Normally I would say high phos is not a big deal but 2.3 is very, very, very high. Probably good idea to bring that down. Still probably not the issue but...phos that high is pretty uncharted territory. You could fertilize your tomatoes with that water.
 
dangalang said:
Oh yeah I just got some rock for him actually, I left it outside and forgot about it cause it smells like wet dog hahah.

@Fish Boss it looks like you epoxied your rock together already so taking some out to cure is probably not an option. Lanthanum Chloride is probably your best option for phosphate that high. Check out this guide if you decide to go that route: https://www.bareefers.org/forum/threads/guide-lanthanum-chloride-dosing-for-phosphate-control.36708/
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I Just bleached it and let it dry out mainly to kill everything on it. I didn't rinse it off and all that. So i would definitely cure it if it's planed to be used. I Don't have outside space to sun dry that much rock unfortunately.

But I'm open to donating a few pieces for experimenting purposes.
 
I found keeping Acros really difficult prior to the 1-year mark in my tank, I lost a few to STN in the early days. I know others have success much earlier, but my experience was different. Must be something related to the microbiome in newly established tanks.

But yeah, phosphates are pretty high as others pointed out.
 
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