Help Needed with High Phosphates and Nitrates in My AIO Landen 26g 60p Reef Tank!

[Salt_ee]

Hey fellow reefers!

I’m reaching out for some advice on managing high phosphates and nitrates in my Landen 26g 60p AIO reef tank. I’ve been struggling with these parameters for a while (newish to the hobby -18mo with no prior experience). I could really use your expertise!

**Tank Setup:**
- **Chamber Layout (Left to Right):**
- **Chamber 1 (Intake):**
- Egg crate media basket (self-manufactured) with three levels:
1. Filter Floss
2. Chemipure Elite
3. Bio Media Balls
- Also houses the heater set at 78°F.

- **Chamber 2 (Refugium):**
- Innovative Marine caddy with copepods motel on the bottom and Chaeto above.
- JBJ refugium light glowing through tinted glass - running at night only and seems to be growing chaeto already.

- **Chamber 3 (Return):**
- ATO connected to a 5-gallon container mixed with kalkwasser.
- Upgraded from the 185g to a 265 g/h return pump for better circulation.

**Lighting & Flow:**
- Nicrew 100W light set 9" above the water, on a 12-hour schedule.
- Two Jebao wave makers (SLW-10 & SOW-4) for optimal flow (still experimenting with placement).


**Feeding Routine:**
- Feed Rod's frozen mix every other day, dry mysis shrimp every three days, and live brine shrimp every other day (just started these but the fish are LOVING them).

**Fish & Cleanup Crew:**
- Mocha Clown, Cardinal, Cowfish, Yellow Watchman Goby, and a Cleaner Shrimp.
- CUC includes 10 Nasarius snails and 5 Trochus snails.

**Coral Situation:**
- I currently have 26 corals, but I’ve had a rough history with coral growth and losses. The tank has even been dubbed "Death Row" due to previous losses!

Despite doing 20-30% water changes weekly and having a healthy-looking tank, my phosphates and nitrates remain stubbornly high. I’ve tried skipping feedings, running a protein skimmer, and I’m only two weeks into using the refugium, but the phosphates just keep climbing slowly - was up to .5 phosphates and .3 nitrates. Hanna test kits for Alkalinity, Nitrates and Phosphates, Salifert for everything else.

**Any thoughts on what I might be doing wrong?** I’m eager to hear your suggestions or experiences. Thanks in advance for your help, I am extremely hooked into the hobby and admittedly have entirely too much free time on my hands at the moment so I am most likely being impatient and tinkering WAY too much. I’ll be posting more pictures of the newly added corals tomorrow!

***I am not dosing anything except Chaetogro. Would love to keep it that way if possible - aiming at getting to minimal water changes / natural filtration if possible (eventually).

Looking forward to your insights!

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

having a healthy-looking tank,

^^ THIS is the most important thing. If it ain't broke, don't mess with it

 

[SanFernandoValleyAIOReef]

Probably like 20gallon of water in that 26g tank, just do a few 5g water changes lol not all at once & your nitrates and phos not that high so if your corals are fine just do 1 5 g water change

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

And omg, your nitrates and phosphates are nowhere near high!

 

[Salt_ee]

^^ THIS is the most important thing. If it ain't broke, don't mess with it

LOL I know right? I guess I'm just worried as the whole world seems to advise to keep the phosphates and nitrates low which I can't seem to do. I've never been in the .0x phosphates. I think the lowest I recorded is .18 and around that in nitrates.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

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www.reef2reef.com

This tank is at about N=50 and P=.75-1 now

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

LOL I know right? I guess I'm just worried as the whole world seems to advise to keep the phosphates and nitrates low which I can't seem to do. I've never been in the .0x phosphates. I think the lowest I recorded is .18 and around that in nitrates.

No, low nutrients is no longer the recommended way to keep most tanks.

 

[Salt_ee]

Probably like 20gallon of water in that 26g tank, just do a few 5g water changes lol not all at once & your nitrates and phos not that high so if your corals are fine just do 1 5 g water change

I am doing like 4-6g a week water changes and parameters are staying somewhat the same but again my gripe is the corals don't seem to be growing too much. They look pretty and they are slowly growing, however I am seeing massive growth in forums after 1yr which I am nowhere even close to?!?

 

[Salt_ee]

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www.reef2reef.com

This tank is at about N=50 and P=.75-1 now

Drooling...OK I'm going to admit. Most of these "fears" come from the manager of m LFS who seems to be GOD of reefing as every experienced reefer who I overhear talking to him kisses his tushy. But he is incredibly rude and abrupt with me as I am a newbie and the second I say the wrong thing he chastises me, telling me I am doing it all wrong and there is only one way to do it - HIS WAY! Based on these responses I'm seeing, I'm never stepping foot in there - despite the high reviews of the shop, I really think its just mostly people that bow down to him. Ugh... The amount of money I've spent in there is ridiculous, I'm almost 5G's into a 26 gallon less than 2yrs...but whatever its just money. I'm wayyy too in love with the hobby and it makes me happy so...thank you for the reassurance!! I can sleep again! LOL

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Personally I find you feed your fish very little already, I would not feed even less in attempt to reduce nutrients.

 

[Salt_ee]

Personally I find you feed your fish very little already, I would not feed even less in attempt to reduce nutrients.

I appreciate that Mr. Mojo - the feeling is absolutely mutual! I have been watching a lot of BRSTV and Ryan says he feeds like crazy so I trust him A lot of the other stuff he says are way way over my head haha. I don't want to just go crazy on feeding without addressing export though..

OK so I want to feed them all the time but with my nutrients always on the rise I was reluctant to...SO. What did I do despite saying, no more hovering and tinkering? Obviously I tinkered some more...because you are right, I want them to always be eating in a way and with this many corals in this tiny tank, I felt I may be starving them as well so to your point:
- I plan to feed BBS every other day. I have a hatchery right next to the tank which provides ample light for the shrimp as they hatch and I can simply drop them in for the first 2 days/then plan to freeze the remainder and start another batch pretty much right away. I will also have frozen on hand if I skip a day or week etc.
- I also have Rod's frozen which I have been feeding sparingly and since it comes in a bag its hard to say how much but I would say half a teaspoon max every other day - just break a frozen piece and drop it in as I turn off return and flow for 10min. I think I will start feeding that daily at 7pm so corals can chomp on it through the night.
- Dry frozen mysis I have been feeding every other day in the morning - just a 1/4 of a teaspoon mixed in some salt water but I can start doing that daily in the AM.
- I can put the AF back in the mix and have that also drop in some pellets in the morning daily.

Now some of you are really going to laugh or chastise the crap out of me based on the recent messages, but hear me out
I had a two little fishies reactor I had used a few months ago but decommissioned that was just laying around. I also had a 300gph pump laying around. I felt like the return pump that the LFS manager recommended was just not pulling enough water through the tank. There was stagnant water in first chamber and last chamber. I know it shouldn't really matter as it will just pull nutrients at a slower rate but I'm not entirely sure that's true all the way. I have no more stagnant water, and I can physically finally see the water moving through the intake at a nice rate, where before floating food would just pass by...not anymore! So I put that in place of the 235gph and moved that pump to the GFO/Carbon mix reactor and put that in the last / return chamber which is now creating very nice and strong surface agitation. Yes I am running Chemipure in the media basket as well and its a bigger bag designed for a 50g however it just wasn't doing enough in my opinion so the Phosban reactor is somewhat redundant but I also plan to only run it for 12-16hrs a day. Again my point here is I want to feed more and filter more!
I know...I KNOW...I'm doing all the wrong things here, everything at once, however I'm too OCD to just wait for days and weeks while nutrients are just rising. I tried that early in the hobby and it bit me hard! Tank looked great and all of the sudden GHA and diatoms just came from nowhere and crushed everyhing.
Now I make changes but I'm really meticulous about it. Wear gloves, clean the crap out of everything I'm touching, clean tank every week (chambers, pumps, substrate, glass). Also the tank is looking incredible at the moment so as I tinker I can really see how it affects the inhabitants even better than if its not doing well and I'm throwing the kitchen sink at it all trying to revive. IDK it's just my relentless pursuit to feed more, grow beautiful corals and ULTIMATELY be one of those elites that doesn't perform any water changes but 2-3 times a year.

I did a water test this morning (again) and now I am at .14 N and .29 P. All the other numbers are the same.
So basically the nitrates haven't budged much in 24hrs .13 but the P was at .52 yesterday - moving in the right direction I feel. I did notice that my Ph dropped though as I took out the protein skimmer. I was steady at 8.1 and now I am at 7.9. I am thinking of pulling out the egg crate media basket out of chamber 1 (intake) and modifying it / making it a bit narrower so I can also include the protein skimmer to that chamber. From an economical perspective that will also cut my filter floss consumption in half.
I don't plan to do that right away though as I am leaving in a couple of days to the FL keys and I will be gone for 12 days. I will have my AF drop the minimal amount of pellets once in the am and once in the evening while I am gone. I will also have my wife put in a piece of nori on the clip for the cowfish in the mornings.
I will have a camera pointed at the tank so I can view the status of the tank while I'm away. I also just bought an ink bird controller for the heater and actually have a second titanium heater on the way which I will implement later today once it arrives (redundancy). I don't have a controller, however the tank is hooked up to a UPS battery backup for the return pump and heater. I've tested it and it works great - not sure for how long but I did several tests one of which I left the breaker off for an hour and it was working just fine. I also have a Ecoflow 2700W Delta 2 Battery generator on standby (I live at the beach in FL) .
I did also purchase a Kasa power strip so I have the ability to turn on/off devices remotely or on a timer schedule like the LED for the refugium which is set to only run from 8p-8am. I also plan to run the reactor on a schedule but do you have any recommendations whether it should run through the night or through the day? Once I plug the protein skimmer back in the mix, I also plan to only run that from 12am - 7pm. I usually feed around 7pm before lights out, that gives the corals and fish enough time to consume whatever they will consume without the protein skimmer pulling simultaneously.
How often and how much Reef Roids should I feed to the corals based on what you've seen in my 26g with 26 corals? I also have Fuel which I have been mixing half a cap along with 1/4 reef roids and surface spread that 2x a week with return/powerheads shut off.
Lastly, my new Zoa's aren't doing too hot. I just got them a few days ago but maybe I have them too close to the top as they are shrinking like crazy. Maybe lighting is too much for them at 200-250par? I did dip them initially for 15 min - should I move them back to the frag rack while I'm gone?
I also have Benepets and Brightwell amino on the way, arriving tomorrow as I hear both are good for corals.



Lets hear it ladies and gents - I have tough skin and LOVE learning and sponging criticism and advice equally!

P.S. I swear it looks way better in person LOL. Also I tried doing a video but not sure I know how...maybe there is a file size limit?

 

[Heres_doe_]

If the tanks doing good I would leave it. But if you want run gfo at a 1/4 of recommended in a compartment with the highest flow. If still “high“ bring it up to half dose. The gfo will exhaust quicker in the beginning due to more phosphate removal. Slowly bring those phosphates down to your desired number.

 

[Doctorgori]

Probably like 20gallon of water in that 26g tank, just do a few 5g water changes lol not all at once & your nitrates and phos not that high so if your corals are fine just do 1 5 g water change

Exactly…
heck, I’m not sure I would even own a doser for a small tank…
for that matter not sure I would even supplement or chemically adjust anything …
…on a smaller tank I would think just water changes should work as a cure all for most every issue

 

[Salt_ee]

Exactly…
heck, I’m not sure I would even own a doser for a small tank…
for that matter not sure I would even supplement or chemically adjust anything …
…on a smaller tank I would think just water changes should work as a cure all for most every issue

I do not dose anything and fully agree with this statement! I have 2 part, All for reef, Magnesium, and a few other bottles like Microbacter 7, chaeto-gro etc. They are all just sitting idle though which is fine because I feel like any day I am going to just pull the trigger on a big setup and can utilize them there.