How to control phosphates???

I seem to have the water chemistry down except for controlling phosphates. I don't have a refugium, which I know can help....but is there another way? Currently I use a phos-guard phosphate remover in a mesh sock pretty much all the time. Any help would be appreciated...

 

i got the ECO back and it helps with nitrates and pos

 

There are two parts to the equasion. You have to avoid adding phosphates, and you have to get rid of what does make it into the tank.

Run you phosphate remover actively in a reactor, rather than passively in a bag. The water is forced through the media in this way, and it makes a significant difference. Two Little Fishes makes one for about forty bucks.

Also, if you feed frozen, defrost the food in some RO/DI water, drain, and discard the liquid.

Finally, use RO/DI water.

Good luck!

 

put the gfo into a reactor

 

Sparky, I was at my lfs just hrs ago and he told me the same thing. If you feed frozen food. I use brine. To defrost the food in some RO water, drain, and discard the liquid. Also he recommended a better skimmer.

 

Sparky is on the money. But I dont discard the defrosted liquid b/c i think (hope) that the tinny little food particles maybe of some use for the corals.

About a year ago i bought a phosphate reactor from BRS to help lower the phos that was feeding my aiptasia making them grow like crazy. about 3 weeks after running the reactor phos level was undetectable and even better all the aiptasia were gone! I still run the reactor but with much less GFO and have a near zero reading on phos. and I feed my fish pretty liberally everyday.

 

I also wonder if he is mixing his own water, keeping lights on long, or tank near a window? Just guessing.

 

I get my water from the store, so it is RO. The lights run about 9 hours a day and the tank isn't near a window. I have a small bubble algae problem and some algae collects on the glass that I clean every couple days, but nothing on the sand...so that's good at least. I am interested in the idea of a phosphate reactor. I might go check one out. They don't seem to expensive.

 

For my 120 g system, I too run the BRS reactor with GFO... http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store/brs-gfo-and-carbon-reactor.html...I have lots of room there...I had a bit of aiptasia start but, never took hold...

But for my seahorse tank I'll be running the Simplicity Reactor with a mix of carbon and GFO...I realize that this is not ideal...but space is a premium...Simplicity Chemical Reactor - English

 

+ thing to add to the excellent advice thus far is

GFO or phosguard are like carbon, in that they dont tell you when they are exhausted
there are no visible indicators

as stated running them in a reactor ensures that the surface area of the media is open to more water and you dont get the reduced performance that you can get when a mesh bag in a filter starts getting clogged

if you run GFO or Phosgaurd from day 1 - then going with the MFG instructions and changing regularly should help maintain low - zero Phosphates (providing you adopt the sensible feeding methods advised above)

but if the GFO or Phosgaurd is a later addition and a reaction to elevated phosphate levels then IME - most of the MFG instructions I have read, I have learned to ignore

any drastic parameter change - even one that should be creating improved conditions can adversely affect tank inhabitants

so its better to start with less than is recomended and then build up QTY of media
starting with 50% of the MFGs recomended amount and changing it every other week is a good technique for reducing phosphates IME (Better than using twice the amount and changing monthly - because by week 3 it may be exhausted, thus stopped reducing PO4 and then the levels in the tank start to increase again, even though your running GFO)

Smaller QTYS changed more frequently have had a better effect on algae issues for me
than larger amounts changed less often

Once you get the problem under control - then you can switch to the recomended dose and the recomended frequency of changes


Steve

NB - Phosgaurd is Aluminum based and there are accounts of this media having an adverse effect on some corals (mostly softies like leathers and toadies etc)

GFO on the other hand has not attracted any negative feedback when used in sensible amounts ( to much as stated above means to rapid a chemistry change and corals can be affected by that)