Nitrates and Phosphates gone up

[i love fish]

The trates in my DT have been between 0-10 since the begining of the year and all of a sudden they've gone up to 25ppm and will not go down. Also, just recently I started testing 4 phosphates and I found them to be 1ppm.
My system is a95 g FOWLR, I only have 4 fish in there, and I also have 3 skunk cleaner shrimps.
The skimmer is working fine.
I purchased some special phosphate removing filter media 4 my canister filter. Do u think this will eliminate the Phosphate problem?
Any tips on getting rid of the trates and phosphates? I do between 10-20% water changes weekly, should I increase this amount?
thanks

 

[socal57che]

Do you have areas of low flow where food and waste could be collecting and decaying?
Barnacles are notorious for becoming nitrate factories.
Do you, by chance, use a canister filter?
Also, what do you feed and how often?
I learned a lot from your profile...
My Equipment:
external canister filter
Here is the most likely cause of your nitrates
What I Feed:
spirunila algae flakes, iodine enriched marine pellets, home brew, brine shrimp(freeze dried)
Here is the source of your phosphates

 

[i love fish]

Originally Posted by socal57che
http:///forum/post/2767164
Do you have areas of low flow where food and waste could be collecting and decaying?
Barnacles are notorious for becoming nitrate factories.
Do you, by chance, use a canister filter?
Also, what do you feed and how often?
The water flow is fine, and if there is any food on the floor my foxface and shrimps fix that problem real quick.
Yes, I do use a canister filter, but I do not use any sponges in it, just bits of large-medium sized crushed coral.
I'm feeding pellet food, flakes, sprulina flakes mainly. I haven't yet used any frozen foods in the DT.

 

[socal57che]

Your canister will still collect waste that can lead to nitrates. It should be cleaned every couple weeks, IMO. Far more often than a HOB filter. Rinse everything in saltwater from a water change.
The foods you're using are likely very high in phosphates. Processed foods begin to release it as soon as they hit the water.
Try switching to frozen foods, rinsing them before you feed.

 

[socal57che]

Originally Posted by i love fish
http:///forum/post/2767115
I purchased some special phosphate removing filter media 4 my canister filter. Do u think this will eliminate the Phosphate problem?
It will remove phosphates, but needs to be removed when saturated or it will leach phos. back into the water. It will not, however, be permanent. The source of phosphates needs to be eliminated or reduced.
Originally Posted by i love fish
http:///forum/post/2767115
Any tips on getting rid of the trates and phosphates? I do between 10-20% water changes weekly, should I increase this amount?
thanks
This is fine once the source is eliminated. Until then I would do 30%.

 

[i love fish]

thanks, I'll do that, although the frozen foods thing is abit of a problem here, I'll have 2 make my own coz they don't sell the stuff in the LFS in this part of the world.
Do u hv any suggestions as 2 what kind of fresh/frozen fish i should get to mince up in the food processer and feed to them?
thank u

 

[socal57che]

Originally Posted by i love fish http:///forum/post/2767182
thanks, I'll do that, although the frozen foods thing is abit of a problem here, I'll have 2 make my own coz they don't sell the stuff in the LFS in this part of the world.
Do u hv any suggestions as 2 what kind of fresh/frozen fish i should get to mince up in the food processer and feed to them?
thank u
There are a few threads here on home-built foods. I'll try to dig some up and post links.
I use frozen silversides and mysis shrimp. Brine shrimp has little nutritional value.
Here's a nice thread...
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/280472/home-made-fish-food
and
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/328820/homemade-food

 

[i love fish]

thanks 4 that, very informative

 

[srfisher17]

1.) I agree on the above food comments & phosphates are very easy to remove.
2.) Nitrate of 25ppm is absolutly nothing to be concerned about in a FOWLR tank; fish are not affected at all at this level.

 

[socal57che]

My Invertebrates:
1 hermit crab,2 fireshrimps, 3 skunk cleanershrimps
Thes guys won't apprecate the nitrates.

 

[jeanheckle]

I too thought I had fine waterflow and struggled with nitrates at 20-25ppm even after cutting my feedings back to once a day.
I just added a nana filter on the opposit side of my tank and did my first water test since adding it one week ago. Nitrates were 0. That was the only change, so even though you think water flow is ok, if all else is fine than you might have dead areas you aren't aware of.

 

[i love fish]

I switched over to frozen foods (frozen mixed seafood cocktail and also mysis shrimps) and I also started feeding nori and quit the flakes and pellets altogether.
I cleaned out the filter and filter media, put the phosphate remover in the filter and did a 25 % water change.
unfortunately, for some reason the ammonia has now gone up to 0.05ppm, and the nitrates are the same (I know they will take some time to drop -after several water changes) and the worst of it all is the phosphates have some how doubled at 2ppm now.
I was thinking that it may be from the amount of nori being pooed out all day thanks to the foxface and regal tang or maybe some of the nori has broken off and fallen under 1 of the rocks.
What do u think?
I heard that putting frozen foods directly into the DT will cause phosphates so I'm actually defrosting the foods in a small amount of tank water, disposing of the water then adding more to the food and pouring the lot into the DT, is this wrong, could this be contributing 2 the problem?
thank u

 

[aztec reef]

Originally Posted by i love fish
http:///forum/post/2779529
I
I heard that putting frozen foods directly into the DT will cause phosphates so I'm actually defrosting the foods in a small amount of tank water, disposing of the water then adding more to the food and pouring the lot into the DT, is this wrong, could this be contributing 2 the problem?
thank u
All foods are composed with phosphates, this phosphor exists throughout the whole cube , not just on its surface.
Defrosting cube in tank water is pointless...the phosphate is in your tank already, so you're using the same impure water to wash off an impure substance. . Thus (Making no difference)...
Try rinsing in fresh ro/di water if u wanna make a difference.
That said: I would do a 60% water change with ro/di followed by the weekly water changes and decrease feeding portions in half, untill levels show stability...

 

[b0b82]

Did I miss something? What are you useing for top off water?