Phosphates need advice

[nightmarepl]

so I’m semi new to reefing and was told after testing my water that my phosphates are little too high so my readings are about 1.5 people say to lower to about .25-.5 and was recommended using the product by sea chem called phosgard I’ve ran it for a few days now and hasn’t lowered them at all maybe to 1.0 hard to tell but today it made my water very cloudy have it on the front of my hang on filter running max power
I rinsed it and all

Need some advice how to control phosphates keep getting a lot of build up on my glass and basically everything


Tank specs
10gallon
Ai prime HD
Ammonia 0
Ph 7.8-8.0
Calc 480
Alk 9
Nitrites 5-10.

 

[SPR1968]

The ‘arguable’ ideal target for phosphate is very low so around 0.03ppm for example

You don’t say if it’s in a reactor or not, a reactor is certainly the best way for it.

Because you have high phosphate to start with you will need to change the media regularly as it becomes spent, and the instructions say after 4 days retest and change if necessary. Just keep doing this and it can’t not work, and over a period of weeks or a month or so the media will last longer until your changing every 4-6 weeks or so.

Having said all of the above, if you have corals in the system go slowly with the reduction so they can adjust as they may not like the changes in the water parameters, so maybe use smaller quantities of the media for a while until the levels slowly drop.

 

[Jason mack]

The thing with phosphates is they can be absorbed into your rocks and take a while to remove with things like phosgaurd or rowaphos ..it gets depleted quick so you need too change it a few times in the begin, when you test for phos and you see it rising again then it needs changing ..its also beter when used in a media reactor ...I would increase the amount you use a little each time till you see it come down and stay down for longer

 

[cromag27]

since it’s only a 10g id do some large water changes and test again. maybe around 50%.

you’ll want to make sure you’re only using 0tds rodi water and that you’re not over feeding.

 

[WVReefJunkie]

I agree with cromag27, if it is only a 10 gallon system do some water changes. I would start off with a 1 gallon water change over a few days. You can reduce them faster with larger changes but but stripping them too fast may have some effects to your corals if applicable. I would say with a 10 gallon system you are overfeeding too much.

 

[nightmarepl]

The ‘arguable’ ideal target for phosphate is very low so around 0.03ppm for example

You don’t say if it’s in a reactor or not, a reactor is certainly the best way for it.

Because you have high phosphate to start with you will need to change the media regularly as it becomes spent, and the instructions say after 4 days retest and change if necessary. Just keep doing this and it can’t not work, and over a period of weeks or a month or so the media will last longer until your changing every 4-6 weeks or so.

Having said all of the above, if you have corals in the system go slowly with the reduction so they can adjust as they may not like the changes in the water parameters, so maybe use smaller quantities of the media for a while until the levels slowly drop.

Yah no reactor i was thinking of making a custom refugium with micro in it

 

[nightmarepl]

Yah I’ll reduce my feeding and next water change I’ll do a larger one replacd the phosguard twice and see what happens

 

[KrisReef]

Did you use liverock in your tank? It can hold a lot of phosphate that can take a lot of media to remove.

Also, what kind of livestock are you hoping to keep in this 10 gallon? The phosphates promote algae growth but are otherwise not that toxic to fish and inverts, but they do promote choking algae that can compete with coral for space.

 

[JumboShrimp]

For what it’s worth, I would say that hanging the PhosGuard in a bag may be of limited effect (usually because water is finding its way ‘around’ it instead of ‘through’ it), but in a reactor it would definitely work. BRS sells a mini reactor (their own BRS brand) that would be plenty for a 10 gallon tank. It can stand outside your tank, below, behind, or to the side of it, and it will quietly do its thing. There is a valve to crank it off when it’s working ‘too’ efficiently. Watch the BSR video on reactors. Having one, you could also run carbon, or a PhosGuard/carbon mix. Best wishes.

 

[nightmarepl]

For what it’s worth, I would say that hanging the PhosGuard in a bag may be of limited effect (usually because water is finding its way ‘around’ it instead of ‘through’ it), but in a reactor it would definitely work. BRS sells a mini reactor (their own BRS brand) that would be plenty for a 10 gallon tank. It can stand outside your tank, below, behind, or to the side of it, and it will quietly do its thing. There is a valve to crank it off when it’s working ‘too’ efficiently. Watch the BSR video on reactors. Having one, you could also run carbon, or a PhosGuard/carbon mix. Best wishes.

Honestly i have a question for all of you guys whats the point of a reactor and how the hell does it work looks like a tube? What do you put inside of it?

 

[CJS80]

The point of a reactor is to direct all the water through the media inside the chamber instead of just going around it. 2 types of media you will hear people use a lot is carbon and GFO.

 

[nightmarepl]

The point of a reactor is to direct all the water through the media inside the chamber instead of just going around it. 2 types of media you will hear people use a lot is carbon and GFO.

Aha i see well what i was told from my lfs was to get myself. A small Breeder box from like Walmart connect a air line to it fill it with micro algae and pods and that will degrees the phosphates that true?

 

[KrisReef]

Microalgae in a refuge could help. As the algae grows, you thin it to remove ("export") nutrients nitrates & phosphates being the main targets. Chaetomorpha is a good algae for this exercise.

 

[Braves Fan]

If you decide to use a reactor ,, test the output side of the reactor every few days also ,, that will tell you when you need to change the media ,, instead of just waiting to get a reading with tank water ,,, then changing the media ,, saves a few $$$ by changing the the media in the reactor when it is getting used up ,, the more you test ,, the more in tune with your tank you will become ,,,

 

[nightmarepl]

Microalgae in a refuge could help. As the algae grows, you thin it to remove ("export") nutrients nitrates & phosphates being the main targets. Chaetomorpha is a good algae for this exercise.

Would a hang on breed box work good for this?

 

[JumboShrimp]

As someone indicated, your LFS was referring to a refugium, which is apples and oranges to a reactor. A small tank set-up likely would not have a decent sized refugium to do much. Again, BRS’s 52-Week video series will cover reactors, refugiums, algae scrubbers, other phosphate reduction methods— well worth giving some of the videos a watch.

 

[KrisReef]

Would a hang on breed box work good for this?

Folks make hang on refugia that sit outside of the tank and those work great. A hang inside of the tank box would do the same job, just takes up space in your tank. If there is flow in your tank, you might not need the air + airline to create water movement into the box?

 

[nightmarepl]

Folks make hang on refugia that sit outside of the tank and those work great. A hang inside of the tank box would do the same job, just takes up space in your tank. If there is flow in your tank, you might not need the air + airline to create water movement into the box?

Yeh i would probably do outside of the tank due the fact it’s a small ten gallon no room for more equipment i was thinking of using a Breeder box from like Walmart or something

 

[KrisReef]

Yeh i would probably do outside of the tank due the fact it’s a small ten gallon no room for more equipment i was thinking of using a Breeder box from like Walmart or something

Ok, I looked those up on Walmart, they look like they would work fine. Someone commented there:
"Best Fish Breeder box
Average rating:5out of5stars, based on0reviews

This is a great box for my Angel fish fry! I did get a small submersible water pump because using the air pump was too noisy for me."
-------------------------------------------

Based upon that comment, I think I would also use a small submersible pump because air tend to be noisy, increase evaporation and salt creep, but it would still work if you like air pumps.

 

[nightmarepl]

question for you guys will a protein skimmer help reduce phosphates aswell? i have a tunzo 9001 thats not being used maybe i should set it up will that help?