Ryan’s 75 gallon

[ryany25]

I found a guy on Facebook willing to give me chaeto so I brought him some pods. He also gave me this hammer that was laying in his sand. I am thrilled about both. My phosphate is way high and is affecting my sail fin I think. Please correct me if phosphates (poor water quality) could not be the cause of the HLLE on the fish in the picture.

 

[tbrown]

Do you run any activated carbon/charcoal?

 

[ryany25]

I do not. I started GFO a few days ago. My Salifert test was darker than the darkest blue on the phosphate test.

 

[tbrown]

What little reading I've done suggested that high nitrates are there in almost 100% of the cases so I would imagine phosphates would do the same thing. What are your nitrates?

 

[ryany25]

I assumed that the nitrates would also be high but was too lazy to test when I tested phos a few days ago. Testing today after 3 days of gfo:
Salinity- 1.026
Ph- 8.2
Alk- 10.9
Ca- 425
Phos- 3+
Nitrate- 100+

Do you recommend that I take any measures, or just let the gfo and chaeto do their thing?