Need Phosphate Help!

[reefeel]

My phosphate levels are at 5mg/l. I feed my fish 2x a day, dry food by Ocean Nutrition in the morning, and I alternate various frozen Ocean nutrition foods at night. I also feed my eel a figertip amount of shrimp 5x a week. I use Chemi-Pure instead of carbon. Where can the phosphates be coming from and how can I get rid of them? Thanks for the help.

 

[farslayer]

You may be overfeeding. I only feed once a day, no more than is completely gone in two minutes, no exceptions; I also spot feed certain animals. Make sure you have an excellent skimmer and also test the water you use for water changes to see if there are any phosphates. You can use a polyfilter or something such as PhosGuard to remove phosphates from your water.

 

[dburr]

It could be a # of things. The food, to much food, water, poop laying around, ect...
Start with a high quality food once a day. RO/DI water, and your next water change look for poop or scum in the sump and syphone it out.
HTH.

 

[golfish]

ok, lets get a few questions out of the way
1) are you using RODI water?
2) what Carbon?
3) what Skimmer?
4) Fuge?
5) Kalkwasser?
6) what's the Nitrate levels?
7) what's the fish load?
8) Coral load?

 

[reefeel]

1) are you using RODI water? I use a Kold-Stir Il becasue we have spring house water and the water that comes out of it is just as pure as a ro.
2) what Carbon? Chemi-Pure
3) what Skimmer? AquaC Remora
4) Fuge? Have some macro algae in my tank and a 3.75 in deep sand bed.
5) Kalkwasser? No.
6) what's the Nitrate levels? 15-20ppm
7) what's the fish load? 1 12in snowflake eel, 2 yellow tailed damsels, 2 percula clowns, 1 fourline wrasse, 1 niger trigger fish-3in, and my newest addition at 2in Hippo tang, oh and before a get arrested by the tang police he will have a bigger home of at least 180 gallonsin a year and a half.
8) Coral load? 1 sebae anemone, 3 feather dusters, colony sand polops, yellow colony polyps, buble coral, kenya tree coral, and a acropora frag I am experimenting with.

 

[golfish]

1) I have to ask if your 100% SURE about the water coming off your Kold-Stir. I know these things started off like a bang a few years ago and fizzled out big time because they have to have almost PURE water going into them. What's the P04 and 03 level off the KS?
2) ok
3) ok
4) good
5)might help to use
6) OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
7,8) The loads kind of high and you have some eaters in there. There comes a time where you have to decide what you want to keep.. Lots of big fat bio load fish, or corals..
I'd be more worried about the trigger police then the tang police.

 

[reefeel]

Ou water is pretty good but the problem is, is that we get runoff from fields so we have tons of nitrates and phosphates and I can't measure either with my test kits when I run it through my DI.

 

[reefeel]

Nitrates are a bit higher then normal, normally at 5-10ppm but I missed a water change due to pH imbalances.

 

[reefeel]

And on the trigger police Seaweed-the niger trigger-will eventually follow the hippo tang.

 

[reefeel]

When I add up all my fish inches it is only around 24in, but I divide my eel in 2 to getter a more acurrate answer.:notsure:

 

[cathy joe]

i dont think your nitrates are that high. mine stay around 40, now thats kinda high. i tried some spring water once, found out it had too much phosphate in it. use either distilled or ro water

 

[farslayer]

Well, if your water that you use for changes contains phosphates and nitrates then you're only adding to the problem. Buy distilled water and try using that for about a month and you may solve the problem. My phosphates are about .15 right now which is why I'm buying a polyfilter.

 

[bang guy]

Originally posted by reefeel
1) are you using RODI water? I use a Kold-Stir Il becasue we have spring house water and the water that comes out of it is just as pure as a ro.

RO can only remove about 70% of PO4 from water so this statements doesn't really say a lot
Have you tested this water?
PO4 is one of those nutrients that needs to be exported. Skimmer, feeding less, DI, water changes, macro algae, etc. A PO4 level of 5mg/l is the highest I've heard of so it's a pretty serious problem.

 

[reefeel]

Just for the record my water going in is fine. It has a little if not any nitrates and phosphates are either zero or .15ppm. So I believe the source is either the fish food or the fish themselves.
It could be a # of things. poop laying around, ect...
I don't think it is this because my tank water really flips gets pushed up and forward from a powerhead then gets hit back down from my 4 centipead returns to the other end to the prefilter so its like a giant convection.

 

[golfish]

Have you double check with another test kit? So I would think you've cut down on feeding the fish, right?
FWIW, I feed my fish a small pinch of flakes once every other day, if their lucky.

 

[reefeel]

I did a water change, 25%, so far my phosphates have dropped to around 1ppm I don't know if I hit a spot with less concentration or what. The only feeding I am doing is an algae clip for my tang, of course the trigger has to have some and I am still feeding my eel every day or so mainly to keep the peace in the tank don't want a grumpy eel in with 2 little clowns and a 2in Hippo tang.

 

[golfish]

You'll probably be able to drop them a little but it sounds to me like your beating a dead horse if you keep those fish and feed as much as you do.
You don't have to feed em every day. I'd dump the algae clip and feed a pinch of flake food for the tangs and other fish every other day. Feed the trigger and eel every 3-5 days

 

[reefeel]

I'll try to cut back on the eel but I know when he is hungry becuase he comes out of his cave and sits in a place where I can see him and waits for food and if I don't feed him for a while he goes after the smallest fish. The trigger eats with everyone else he dosn't get special food but every couple days or so and the other fish get it too. The only things I spot feed are my sebae, eel, and yellow bristle star. Should I cut back on morning flake food feedings to every 2 days or so?

 

[reefeel]

Ohh and what is the proper way to feed frozen food? I thaw it out a bit in the sink then chip some of the food off but some is just too small for the fish and is just a waste.