Low nitrates high phosphates

[boboyo]

my thank is 2 months old.
turned my hob filter into a refugium to naturally lower nitrates and help pods reproduce for my mandarin

nitrate is 6ppm
Phosphate is .09-.13 using Hanna checker. I tested it 5 times (using the same 2 bottles) 0.09 was the lowest, 0.13 the highest but I got 0.11 twice

is there a natural way to lower phosphates? I don’t want to put chemicals like phosphateRX unless it’s absolutely necessary.

I took out my sponge filter today as I only rinced it out every 2-3 weeks I’ll try a couple of weeks without it. I also run carbon under my cheato.

The only root cause I could think of for high phosphates is my nori always flying all over the place and sometimes I don’t always pick up the floating parts. I found a solution for my nori today, hopefully it’s gonna work.

i know my phosphates aren’t incredibly high but I’m just asking for advice on preventative measures because problems don’t happen overnight... better to act early than late

 

[Frozen Tundra Reef Dreams]

2 month old tank with a mandarin? if it wasnt for your hob pod hotel i would think youre nuts. unless you have algae problems let the phosphates ride. or a lil phosguard in bag or something. water changes. what are you feeding the nori to?

 

[boboyo]

2 month old tank with a mandarin? if it wasnt for your hob pod hotel i would think youre nuts. unless you have algae problems let the phosphates ride. or a lil phosguard in bag or something. water changes. what are you feeding the nori to?

I also have my own copepod production in my room where I feed them live phyto just in case my mandarin won’t have enough food.

feeding nori to blue tang, foxface, yellow tang and desjardini tang. Don’t worry they’re all small and I’m currently setting up my upgrade with sump 125g as I have a purple and scopas tang in QT.

Im obviously nuts about fish lol but I spend hours reading and make sure to take good care of them.

I dont really have algae problems and coraline is starting to grow. The only algae problem I'd say I have is that green algae on the glass which is pretty hard to scrape off when you have a round shape on your tank (its a bullnose aquarium). Hence my 125g rectangular aquarium upgrade

I'll look into phosguard, thanks for the tip. Im good with my WC change schedule and do 15% every 8 days

 

[Greg P]

Your N&P levels aren't terribly high, and are actually helping keep your pods growing by feeding algae. This is good for your mandarin.
I'd leave things alone for now.

If you really wanted lower levels, the natural way is to add many corals.

 

[Frozen Tundra Reef Dreams]

2 months old and growing coralline huh? thats alot of fish too.

but hey if yougot it going good, kudos

 

[boboyo]

2 months old and growing coralline huh? thats alot of fish too.

but hey if yougot it going good, kudos

Thanks! Most of my friends cant believe it either. There was a time where I'd put 10+ hours a week in maintenance/testing/wc to lower nitrates and make sure everything is perfect after my super cycle but things have been pretty smooth and stable these last 2-3 weeks.

 

[Frozen Tundra Reef Dreams]

i knowit a big tank but there will be tangs fighting and problems. have a backup plan for rehoming or selling the problem fish.

 

[boboyo]

i knowit a big tank but there will be tangs fighting and problems. have a backup plan for rehoming or selling the problem fish.

Thanks for the advice. I figured I’d put all 4 at the same time so no ones gonna have their own territory yet.

My yellow tang is feisty. Had to return a longnose butterfly the day after I put him in my DT cuz I’m pretty sure the tang would’ve killed him. He kind of bullied my foxface too but they’re ok now. I can’t have any more yellow fish I guess. He’s friends with the desjardini which is surprising to me.

 

[Kevin ranger]

my thank is 2 months old.
turned my hob filter into a refugium to naturally lower nitrates and help pods reproduce for my mandarin

nitrate is 6ppm
Phosphate is .09-.13 using Hanna checker. I tested it 5 times (using the same 2 bottles) 0.09 was the lowest, 0.13 the highest but I got 0.11 twice

is there a natural way to lower phosphates? I don’t want to put chemicals like phosphateRX unless it’s absolutely necessary.

I took out my sponge filter today as I only rinced it out every 2-3 weeks I’ll try a couple of weeks without it. I also run carbon under my cheato.

The only root cause I could think of for high phosphates is my nori always flying all over the place and sometimes I don’t always pick up the floating parts. I found a solution for my nori today, hopefully it’s gonna work.

i know my phosphates aren’t incredibly high but I’m just asking for advice on preventative measures because problems don’t happen overnight... better to act early than late

My phosphates are the darkest colour on the salifert test kit its propper destroying my brain I have gone through 50 pounds worth of gfo in a month and its not moved I have started using pro bio s and np pro its brought the nitrates down to 15 but phosphates not budging I used fluvel clear max its seems like it little balls of ferric I only normaly use the chippings type I thought that this was that what is best gfo on market uk I have found my source too much nori to my 9inch naso or possibly red sea reef energy ab + stopped rsre and took 75% of nori away I do know that tangs need nori for gut health so just need info of a high quality gfo thanks