I'm at a loss when it comes to my phosphates. Please help

[Ironclad]

As the title says, I'm at a loss. Right now my phosphates are literally through the roof. The last test I did had them at .3. Let me first break down the tank for you. It is a 20-gallon long with 4 fish. I have 2 clowns, a royal gramma, and a diamond goby. All fish are growing great and nice and healthy! The tank is about 10 months old. For filtration, I'm running the tidal 50 HOB filter. I have a sponge, TONS of filter floss, carbon, and GFO (to help reduce the phosphates). About a week ago I also added a Bubble Magus mini protein skimmer with little to no change to phosphates. Everything that I have read says that the reason for high nutrients is the fault of the hobbyist. I am 100% sure that the food that I'm putting into the tank is all being eaten and that hardly anything is settling on the bottom. For coral, I have 3 different hammers, 3 different zoa's, 3 goni's, a duncan, and GSP. AND THIS IS THE MOST INSANE PART ABOUT THIS. The coral all seems to be knocking it out of the park. Everything is doing REALLY well. I also have to look really hard for any algae growing in the tank. Sand is white as snow, thanks to diamond goby I'm sure. Is this even a problem? Should I care about this? If so, help me solve this problem!

 

[JohnnyBlowfish]

If I’m not keeping SPS then I’m not going to be urgently concerned about .3 phosphates. Is it elevated? Yes. An emergency? Probably not. Will others disagree with me? Absolutely

I would just change my GFO more frequently and slowly bring it down to the desired level. Just take it slow!

 

[VintageReefer]

I measured .98 last week. High? Yea. Emergency? No.

I’m down to .44 now and gradually reducing daily.

The issue is your tank is at that point where rock becomes bound up with phosphates. Happens to new reefers almost always. Takes 6-12 months to happen and several months to fix

Skimmers don’t remove phosphates

Water changes don’t really help because as you remove water with phosphates the rocks leach it back out and pollute the new water. Happens in like a day or teo. Numbers go back to what they were before

Gfo will slowly absorb it and change out the gfo every few days. As it absorbs from the water, the rocks will release more. Eventually, all that bound up phosphate will be released less and less and then no more can be released. When this starts, at that point, the numbers will go down


This is from months and months of slightly more import vs export. Very very slowly, over time, more phosphate was being put in the tank / created, vs removed. The rock and sand absorb it. Like a sponge. Eventually they can’t hold anymore. And then we have what’s called “phosphate bound” rock. And water with levels that don’t decline. They will go down, but it will take time, effort, and gfo. Or an algae scrubber

 

[bkwonnn]

Don’t chase numbers. If all is doing good why change? And especially why change aggressive?
Also really thoroughly check how you test. Maybe your test is false, maybe the Siringe is dirty. Consider cleaning with rodi. As long as all is doing good, I would prefer that over chasing numbers and upsetting your tank. .3 is not shocking for me

 

[SliceGolfer]

If feeding dry food, that could be a source of phosphate being introduced.

 

[Ironclad]

I measured .98 last week. High? Yea. Emergency? No.

I’m down to .44 now and gradually reducing daily.

The issue is your tank is at that point where rock becomes bound up with phosphates. Happens to new reefers almost always. Takes 6-12 months to happen and several months to fix

Skimmers don’t remove phosphates

Water changes don’t really help because as you remove water with phosphates the rocks leach it back out and pollute the new water. Happens in like a day or teo. Numbers go back to what they were before

Gfo will slowly absorb it and change out the gfo every few days. As it absorbs from the water, the rocks will release more. Eventually, all that bound up phosphate will be released less and less and then no more can be released. When this starts, at that point, the numbers will go down


This is from months and months of slightly more import vs export. Very very slowly, over time, more phosphate was being put in the tank / created, vs removed. The rock and sand absorb it. Like a sponge. Eventually they can’t hold anymore. And then we have what’s called “phosphate bound” rock. And water with levels that don’t decline. They will go down, but it will take time, effort, and gfo. Or an algae scrubber

If everything in the tank is looking great is this even worth fixing?

 

[Ironclad]

If feeding dry food, that could be a source of phosphate being introduced.

I'm feeding frozen only.

 

[VintageReefer]

If everything in the tank is looking great is this even worth fixing?

Yes because on a graph you are not linear. Forget about the test kits for right now. They can only test the water column and not what’s bound up in rocks.

Your level is much higher than you realize

You need corrective action or you will be in a worse spot 6 months from now. You don’t need to be super aggressive. But you need to do something different. You need to make an impact and start seeing the numbers go down and stay down until they get to a comfortable spot. Around .05 to .1. Then you start using less gfo, or using it on a timer to keep the numbers in a better zone

 

[Red_Beard]

If everything in the tank is looking great is this even worth fixing?

IMO, no way. I sit just under .5 regularly. Monti, seriatopora, acropora(easy, not tennies or any super picky), lobo, turbinaria, euphies, nems, etc all going strong and great. If it is going good, definitely not an emergency. Dont chase numbers, just start adding more phos export slowly to keep things balanced.

 

[VintageReefer]

I misread and want to apologize. I thought it was a higher number.

.3 isn’t bad at all. But. Keep an eye out for trends. If it’s staying at .3 then that’s fine and gradually see if you can get it down a little.

If you notice it’s slowly trending higher, then look into stronger gfo, or changing it more often

There’s a lot of variables with phosphates and everyone’s system is different. Some peoples corals close up when levels cross .1. Others thrive. Just keep an eye on it

You said your last test was .3. What have other tests been? If you get an app it will graph this for you and you can watch for trends