Please help with nutrient stabilization

[toddb93]

Hi everyone, I am in need of some help with my reef tank again. I was on here last month with a cyano issue that has now been pretty much-resolved thanks to the help of the users of this website. I have another issue that I am now tackling and am having some trouble with. After clearing green cyano, I performed a slew of water testing and noticed a big imbalance of nutrients in the tank. The issue that I am noticing right now is very high phosphates and almost 0 or under 1ppm of nitrate. I will list the parameters below. I am looking for advice on how to safely remove just phosphate from the tank. Just so you know some of the tank details, the tank is 38 gallon AIO, 16 month old, lightly stocked with 6 small fish (clowns, cardinals, etc.), and a mix of LPS, SPS coral (which are turning dark due to the phosphate levels I believe). As of last night, I put about 30 grams of RowaPhos in the media basket, turned my skimmer on after being off for about a week, water change was done 5 days ago (usually done weekly about 10%). If anybody can please help with some tips on reducing phosphate (that won't cost a lot of money) I would greatly appreciate the help. Below are the water reading from last night:

Phosphate: .20ppm (hannah reader)
Nitrate: in between 0-1ppm (using nyos color mathcing)
Calcium: 441
Alk: 7.2

Thank you in advance!

 

[BaliReefBox]

GFO it wont work overnight but you want to take it slow and up your NO3

 

[toddb93]

GFO it wont work overnight but you want to take it slow and up your NO3

Thank you BaliReefBox, really appreciate the help!

 

[X-37B]

Your no3 is fine as long as you are adequatly feeding your fish, imo.
You are on the right track using a po4 reducer, just go slow.
I prefer phosgaurd as its not as messy as gfo, either will work.
Once its below .1 then you will need a maintenance dose to keep it in range.
Just monitor po4 daily to see the drop and then reduce.

As a reference I use 2 tablespoons phosgaurd in my 20g and just cut it back to 1 as my po4 was 3 or .009 after a few days. It was .13 when I added it.
Good luck and keep checking your numbers. Any pics?

 

[toddb93]

Your no3 is fine as long as you are adequatly feeding your fish, imo.
You are on the right track using a po4 reducer, just go slow.
I prefer phosgaurd as its not as messy as gfo, either will work.
Once its below .1 then you will need a maintenance dose to keep it in range.
Just monitor po4 daily to see the drop and then reduce.

As a reference I use 2 tablespoons phosgaurd in my 20g and just cut it back to 1 as my po4 was 3 or .009 after a few days. It was .13 when I added it.
Good luck and keep checking your numbers. Any pics?

Thank you very much 90s Reefer. Appreciate the thoughtful input. I will link pics.

 

[X-37B]

Thank you very much 90s Reefer. Appreciate the thoughtful input. I will link pics.

Nice and I love the arch scape!
My 4 month old 20g for reference.

 

[toddb93]

Nice and I love the arch scape!
My 4 month old 20g for reference.

Wow 4 months and all that’s coralline algae that’s awesome. Just curious, are you dosing anything with all the SPS? My alkalinity is so hard to stabilize

 

[X-37B]

Wow 4 months and all that’s coralline algae that’s awesome. Just curious, are you dosing anything with all the SPS? My alkalinity is so hard to stabilize

Was dosing esv 2 part and dsr trace. About 2-3 weeks ago I switched to A4R on this system.
I dose 25ml in the morning to maintain an alk of 7.
So far its performing well. It took 9 days to get my alk stable from esv but now its pretty simple and the results are looking good.
I am now running a NP K7V3 and like the results so far.
Alot of coralline because all the rock was live from my other systems sump.
Same with all the coral. Most were decent sized pieces from my other systems also.

Alk should not be hard to stabilize.
A good 2 part is all you need or A4R.
I have dosed my 45 by hand for over 3 years with excellent stability. I dose twice a day.
My other system runs a carx.

 

[christwendt]

Was dosing esv 2 part and dsr trace. About 2-3 weeks ago I switched to A4R on this system.
I dose 25ml in the morning to maintain an alk of 7.
So far its performing well. It took 9 days to get my alk stable from esv but now its pretty simple and the results are looking good.
I am now running a NP K7V3 and like the results so far.
Alot of coralline because all the rock was live from my other systems sump.
Same with all the coral. Most were decent sized pieces from my other systems also.

Alk should not be hard to stabilize.
A good 2 part is all you need or A4R.
I have dosed my 45 by hand for over 3 years with excellent stability. I dose twice a day.
My other system runs a carx.

All for reef is game changer. People hate on it being an all in one saying it can make stuff elevated like certain trace elements or certain things will be low. After 3 years of AFR I find it just lacks iodine mostly. Which if that’s important I’m not even sure I think so from my observations.