My 225 Gallon Set-up

aw man.. hate to hear about the fish bud! that stinks! very odd. I am still fighting hte HA issue. it has been a complete PITA!!! I have a sea Hare on the way and may actually try some algaeside. IDK. pissin me of.

I did get a new fish though.. a tiny little yellow tail cherub angel. tiny bugger. doing great so far. hasnt touched the corals.

 

It just dawned on me.

lololol I had a blonde moment.

 

Nice little pickup you got. I was looking at a flame angel myself. You are running the bio pellets right? I have a friend who has afro algae and her phosphates are lower than mine. I think her's were .24. Mine were tested last week at .39 and my tank is clean. I just dont get it. Someone on the forum told me that there will always be phosphates in the water. So now I will have to purchase a phosphate reactor and get some GFO from BRS.

 

There are always phosphates in the food we feed our fish, no way around that. Feeding larger fish and you are going to see an increased phos level. Phos either comes from introduction of a water source with higher phos levels, food or supplements. I do not believe it is typically found in quality mixes or that it is always present in saltwater.

 

I totally agree. It is because of you and another member that I rinse my frozen food in the sink before I place it in my tank therefore i eliminate atleast as much of the phosphates as possible. I just can't who it was that said no matter what its always going to be in the water column within the tank..

 

Too bad they did not give you a value.

Bob Goeman lives locally I saw him in the LFS lately and asked him that question " What value of phosphate should I expect to see, in my sw after mixing?" his reply was 0.05 ppm or lower. Now does this accumulate over time in the system if not removed either by chemical or another method I do not know.

 

Well I have an RO/DI unit and my TDS does read 0. The past two Sundays have been the first time that I have done a true water change since starting my tank. Maybe it accumulated from that stand point. I will find out through weekly testing.

 

There is always some in the water. what we measure with our kits is the available P and N. I have plenty of P leaching out of the rocks now as I used tap for the first 6 months of my tank due to inability to hook up the Ro/DI. now that I have it, we are having to suck all of that down and out. the pellets are kicking in. I get a large ammt of very dark skimmate out that is about a very dark tea color. I am changing the GFO every 2 weeks. I am also going to recycle it using the sodium Hydroxide method. this way I dont spend a fortune in GFO. also ordering a sea hare to come munch.

 

So even if you are running the pellets you still run a GFO?

 

Yes. I have some serious Phosphate residual in my tank cause of the tap water. ill get it out with the GFO and once that is done, the pellets will maintain what is added thru the foods.