phosphate level

[blazehok68]

hello, i have a 55g salt tank and its been up and running for about 4 months. i have a couple of damsels, a green mandarin dragonet, a couple of camelback shrimp, some hermits, and some snails, and 45 lbs of fiji live rock. anyway, i am ready to buy some coral and all of my levels a perfect except my phosphate level, it is through the roof. my understand is that once i start adding corals that this phosphate level will go down and be used up by the corals. is this true?? someone please help, i am new to reef tanks and i dont want to waste my money.

 

[effloresce]

take your mandarine dragonette back to your LFS trade it in for more live rock, mandarins need 100+ pounds of live rcok, and a very astablished tank (7 months at least)
what do you have for lighting, corals need special lights....

 

[effloresce]

sorry forgot to add this..
you want al leat 1 pound of live/base rock per gallon for proper biologfical filtration, corals dont use phosphates.

 

[blazehok68]

thanks for replying. i have a 3" deep crushed coral bed with live sand over top of it. my lighting consists of 2 18" corallife 50/50 bulbs.

 

[blazehok68]

what should i do about the phosphate level?

 

[effloresce]

you CC is the cuprit, CC trapes uneaten foods and turns them into Nitrates, then into phosphates, TAKE OUT THE CC and replace it with live sand. CC is the root of all evil in the marine hobby,
and you dont have enough lights, PC bulbs arent good for larger tanks, DO research on "VHO" bulbs, these are what you want, eithe rthose or Metal halide bulbs.

 

[blazehok68]

thanks for your help effloresce, thats gonna bea a pain in the butt but i guess im gonna have to do it

 

[blazehok68]

what about having no sand bed?? i remember reading somewhere that people were starting reef tanks with no substrate.

 

[effloresce]

YES! bare bottom tanks ROCK! literaly the least amount of build up, it still need matainice like siphoninh out deterius during a water change, or haveing powerheads blowing at the bottom to blow up the deterius up to the overflow were it gets taken out by the sump/fuge, you can buy "starboard: its white cutting board used for cooking, take otu all the CC and add that to the bottom of the tank, it will look like "sand" and will also reflect light up to croals for you.

 

[blazehok68]

awesome....tons of help. can i put u on my buddy list?

 

[effloresce]

sure i dont mind

 

[ohioreef]

Effloresce,
Do you happen to have any photos of tanks with the starboard in them?
I'm assuming that you would still use a clean-up crew?

 

[effloresce]

I dont have any pictures of them, on reefcentral under the SPS section, they have lots though.
yeah stilla clean up drew like Hemrit crabs, emerald crabs, astrea snails,
but not burrowing inverts like Conchs, cucmbers, nassarius snails, or jawfish/sand gobys...

 

[golfish]

Originally posted by phipps
Effloresce,
Do you happen to have any photos of tanks with the starboard in them?

here's mine

 

[ohioreef]

golfish,
That looks nice. A lot nicer than my sand.
How do you keep the bottom looking so clean and bright? How long has your tank been set up?
What size is your tank? Did you use one piece or did you have to use 2 pieces? If 2 pieces, how did you hide the seam?
If you'd prefer, email me at ohioreefer@yahoo.com
Gary

 

[golfish]

Originally posted by phipps
golfish,
That looks nice. A lot nicer than my sand.
How do you keep the bottom looking so clean and bright? How long has your tank been set up?
What size is your tank? Did you use one piece or did you have to use 2 pieces? If 2 pieces, how did you hide the seam?
If you'd prefer, email me at ohioreefer@yahoo.com
Gary
Gary, its only been a few months, nothing really seems to be growing on it, yet..I did notice a few small dots of Coralline.
The tank is 48" long x 26" deepwide x 22" tall..My overflow sits off the back wall and I have Euro bracing, I had to cut it in 4 pieces to get it in the tank. You can't tell where I cut it. This stuff is real easy to work with.

 

[mrmaroon]

Also, r u using RO/DI water? A DI is supposed to take out phosphates. I had the same problem, which has fueled some algae growth. So I bought a DI, and hopefully that will work. Also, if you alread have an RO, you can just get an add on DI.