Rice Reef's 120 SPS Reef Tank

[Delphinus]

Those parameters are not bad at all. As far as the Mg goes I'm not sure I'd even bother raising it, 1300 is already not bad.

Pretty much anything we add to the tank is going to have some effect on phosphate (it's in everything or so it seems, anyhow). I found that the biopellets also don't do a lot for me for PO4 reduction, although having said that, I think I read that they can only reduce PO4 alongside NO3. NO3 becomes the limiting factor, ie., once it's down to zero or near zero then the pellets can't reduce the PO4 any further than wherever they are at. So getting some GFO might not be a bad idea going forward.

Although if you're doing vodka isn't that supposed to take care of PO4 as well as NO3? I'm not really sure about that.

If you ran Chemiclean recently to take care of cyano, you might need to let that run its course before things completely settle out. I find it takes at least a week plus a water change or two plus new carbon to get a tank to settle back in after doing a cyano treatment.

Originally Posted by Rice Reef

I checked and the "ppm" is on the checker... Must be my old age...missed it entirely and googled it for more details thinking I had to do calculus to figure it out.

I am only using the following zeovit products... Coral snow, Zeozym and Biomate... I wonder if it is a coincidence... The phosphate had only shot up recently when I started to use Zeozym... It is suppose to help break down protein as well as helping to increase build up of bacteria. I had recently used chemi clean thinking that I had cyano and probably reduced the good bacteria in the tank... so I started to use Zeozym, MB7 and Biomate together. I did another test with the Hanna today and it dropped to .21... Making morevRO water right now so I can do another water change tonight... All the fish are well, the tangs are picking at the algae off the rocks and all the corals are seemed to be content...
Ca is at 460; mg:1300 (working to bring this up to (1400); Alk: 8;sg: 1.026; no3: 2(low range).
Going to try and get some phosphate remover while doing more water changes as I have stopped running GFO when switched over to biopellets... Currently also dosing vinegar... Guess I had better pick some GFO too... Lucky I am on holiday right now...

Any suggestions appreciated.

[lastlight]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

maths...

Quick refresher for those of us who are rusty:

http://vimeo.com/13497928

[Rice Reef]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Those parameters are not bad at all. As far as the Mg goes I'm not sure I'd even bother raising it, 1300 is already not bad.

Pretty much anything we add to the tank is going to have some effect on phosphate (it's in everything or so it seems, anyhow). I found that the biopellets also don't do a lot for me for PO4 reduction, although having said that, I think I read that they can only reduce PO4 alongside NO3. NO3 becomes the limiting factor, ie., once it's down to zero or near zero then the pellets can't reduce the PO4 any further than wherever they are at. So getting some GFO might not be a bad idea going forward.

Although if you're doing vodka isn't that supposed to take care of PO4 as well as NO3? I'm not really sure about that.

If you ran Chemiclean recently to take care of cyano, you might need to let that run its course before things completely settle out. I find it takes at least a week plus a water change or two plus new carbon to get a tank to settle back in after doing a cyano treatment.

I did have the mg at the high 1400 before but lately the tank demanded more and when it slipped down to 1250 did I started to raise the daily dosage. Could it be the drop in the mg creating the imbalance cause the red turf?

I used to dose VSV before running biopellets but I am only dosing vinegar along with the pellets. The no3 isn't too bad... Using the low range testing the no3 is at .02 (or so based on the colour chart). Not certain either if this had an effect on the po4...

I did the chemiclean back in early November so I am assuming that it may not be that. But I then jumped right into Zeozym two weeks later...

Guess I'll just work on the water change and see if the numbers will continue to drop or not...

[Delphinus]

I've something along the lines that higher Mg can impede the growth of certain algaes like Bryopsis, but I was under the impression that Mg had to be pretty low, like maybe <1000 or something. Natural seawater is supposedly somewhere in the 1250 ballpark so I think 1300 is fine. I tend to target my tank to have Mg around 1450 but I do this for 2 reasons unrelated to algae - 1) I can't definitely explain how or why, but my anemones just look better and more inflated and so on when Mg is at 1400 then when it is at, say, 1100 or 1200. In fact, if I notice my anemones looking less inflated I immediately check Mg and so far 100% of the times this has happened I've found Mg to be low (this was before I would adjust my water change water to have higher Mg, this way when I do a waterchange it bumps Mg back up and I never need to dose the tank itself anymore). 2) Since Mg will deplete over time at a rate proportional to Ca and Alk, having it higher than needed allows for it to deplete without it getting too low in between waterchanges. It seems things are more tolerant of Mg being slightly too high than slightly too low (if that makes any sense).

Anyhow long story short, at 1300 I wouldn't sweat the Mg value but just maybe add a little to your water change water so it goes up to say 1400 after that and you should be set.

Otherwise, stay the course, sounds like you have a good plan for things to settle out. Good luck!

[freezetyle]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

T I found that the biopellets also don't do a lot for me for PO4 reduction, although having said that, I think I read that they can only reduce PO4 alongside NO3. NO3 becomes the limiting factor, ie., once it's down to zero or near zero then the pellets can't reduce the PO4 any further than wherever they are at. So getting some GFO might not be a bad idea going forward.

Thats the ticket. You might have to deal with the extra iron in your tank wayne and run gfo intermittently.

[Rice Reef]

Originally Posted by freezetyle

Thats the ticket. You might have to deal with the extra iron in your tank wayne and run gfo intermittently.

Yep, I may just have too. After reading more on Zeozym I am thinking that it could be breaking down the proteins in the rocks thus resulting in this sudden po4 spike. Just did another 20 gallon water change. Tested the water before the change... Still at .21. Will be testing the water tomorrow and hope that it has dropped... Will be preparing another batch of water in the morning. So far no casualties ( knock on wood )...

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by freezetyle

Thats the ticket. You might have to deal with the extra iron in your tank wayne and run gfo intermittently.

Does running GFO tend to increase the iron readings in the tank? I know you can get test kits for iron but I've never tried one.

[Rice Reef]

This morning's po4 reading was .25... It went up. After a strong cup of coffee I traced back to everything that i did in the last four weeks, including the water changes... could it be a defective Hanna or the RO unit? I don't recall checking the RO water lately... I had just made a fresh batch this morning... The TDS read 016. Tested the tap water... .019... Then it hit me... I forgot to change the RO units membrane! To be certain I took it to a LFS and had the tap water and the tank water tested and it came up with very similar results. The last four week of water changes was all for nothing. I could have prevented the build up of po4 had I used the TDS meter.
Will be making a large batch of RODI water tonight ( with a new membrane).. . The lesson learned is to not assume the water is po4 free even though the last batch was. I will put off in using GFO at this time and try reducing the po4 naturally. Will be testing the po4 regularly for now.

[Werbo]

Have you tested the tap water for PO4 or just used the TDS?

I'd do a Hanna PO4 test on the tap water.

Have you ever flushed the RO membrane? I'd try flushing the RO membrane before replacing it.

[Delphinus]

I thought I read somewhere that the Hanna checkers for phosphate don't give correct readings on freshwater. Having said that I can't seem to find the link where I read that, so I'm not 100% sure. I guess it can't hurt to have a new RO membrane regardless..