po4 how to lower it

[rogerwilco357]

ok i have tested with my hanna and the number was .30 i have the green stuff growing slowly on the rocks the tangs love eatting it but they are too slow will a phosphate reactor really bring it back to zero? i was over feeding did a 20% water change bi- weekly still the same.my tank is a 120 gallon,no3 is close to 0 , calcium is at 420,alk is at 9dkh, the salt is at 1.026 temp 79-81deg. ..so my question is if i buy the reactor hook it up and run it and it brings the numbers down on the phosphates will any of the other numbers go up ? what about the hair algae will it just disappear?
what will high phosphates do to the corals ? if it remains at .35 ? i know there are alot of questions just answer what you can i would appreciate it..thanks in advance..
Roger

[outy]

first GHA will develop and keep phos numbers from getting out of hand if you do nothing.

yes a reactor with GFO will reduce phos but you may need to use X amount of GFO to get to 0. so you could fill run it for a few days and then put new media in a few times until you get to 0. maybe not maybe the first batch will drop it to 0 only You will be able to tell.\

yes GHA will just fade

high phos can kill certain corals

[Mavrk]

Run GFO of some kind in the reactor. Run it slow enough that the effluent (exit water) comes out with 0.0 phosphates on your hanna. When the effluent starts showing a reading of anything higher, then change the media.

Some of it will be bound up in the algae and rocks, so your tank water is going to test lower than reality.

Edit: You can expect at least one mention of Vodka dosing or N/P biopellets. BTW, I believe SPS corals are more sensitive to phosphates.

[rogerwilco357]

yeah was thinking of trying that but scared that i might loose all my corals, and i need a better skimmer before i try . Need to talk with someone who has done this and can warn me of what to look out for also..
Roger

[fishchef]

My phosphates were .55 on a hanna. I've been using GFO for over a year and my test kit was faulty. So the local water guru said to change out my GFO about every 4 weeks, no more, until I get a zero. I was warned and told that there was no true zero. Changing the GFO too often could cause the PO4 to be leached out of the corals. After 2 changes I hit a zero. Probably .06 Two months later I was up to .26 so I did another GFO change. Partials were done as usual. We did not check the water coming out of the reactor. I have little algae just pesty cyno. There was no coral loss.