After 5+ years of struggling getting some readable PO4, Is this the reason?

Bramzor

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Been struggling with my tank for 5 years now. Never been able to get a stable reading of PO4 (Hannah Phosphorus checker), even after dosing tons of it. I was able to get some after weeks of dosing because rocks would absorb it (at least that is what I assumed), but after a few days it would drop to 0 again. Also resulted in tons of algae, which I assumed consumed some of the PO4 too but never was able to get it stable. This while everyone told me an unreadable PO4 is bad. Was able to keep some corals alive using KZ running ULNS which was nice since I didn't have to try to raise the PO4 with that system.

Even today, I was not able to keep SPS alive for long, LPS was suffering. Only softies seemed to be happy (except for green star polyps for some reason, they just die off).

Tried PO4 dosing but shifted to dosing Tropic Marin Plus NP. However even with that, never a stable PO4.

Today, I cleaned my gyre pump again and noticed a brownish (under UV light highly reflecting substance) growing on my pump. Thought it was some kind of growth but its now the second time that I clean that pump again after 2 months and figured out it is some kind of iron/rust. So it has been growing a lot the last 6 months.
This Maxpect Gyre has been in my tank from the start so more than 5 years. It still runs fine with the rust but have replaced it now with a different brand. Sad to see that expensive gear like this rusts from all the sides.

2024-03-24 17.55.38.jpg


Long story short, is it because of the iron leaking out of my gyre pump that caused zero phosphates and probably directly or indirectly killing my corals? It's a nano tank.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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I’m not sure enough iron would be released to keep phosphate down, but it might be. Soluble iron is used by some as a phosphate binder.

But the rust may obtain other metals, and perhaps they have reached a problematic level.
 

Chrisv.

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Been struggling with my tank for 5 years now. Never been able to get a stable reading of PO4 (Hannah Phosphorus checker), even after dosing tons of it. I was able to get some after weeks of dosing because rocks would absorb it (at least that is what I assumed), but after a few days it would drop to 0 again. Also resulted in tons of algae, which I assumed consumed some of the PO4 too but never was able to get it stable. This while everyone told me an unreadable PO4 is bad. Was able to keep some corals alive using KZ running ULNS which was nice since I didn't have to try to raise the PO4 with that system.

Even today, I was not able to keep SPS alive for long, LPS was suffering. Only softies seemed to be happy (except for green star polyps for some reason, they just die off).

Tried PO4 dosing but shifted to dosing Tropic Marin Plus NP. However even with that, never a stable PO4.

Today, I cleaned my gyre pump again and noticed a brownish (under UV light highly reflecting substance) growing on my pump. Thought it was some kind of growth but its now the second time that I clean that pump again after 2 months and figured out it is some kind of iron/rust. So it has been growing a lot the last 6 months.
This Maxpect Gyre has been in my tank from the start so more than 5 years. It still runs fine with the rust but have replaced it now with a different brand. Sad to see that expensive gear like this rusts from all the sides.

2024-03-24 17.55.38.jpg


Long story short, is it because of the iron leaking out of my gyre pump that caused zero phosphates and probably directly or indirectly killing my corals? It's a nano tank.
Patent it as a GFO generator, build a time machine, travel back to 2002, and sell it to the whole community!
 
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