Need Advice... please

[Syntax1325]

I have a 29 gallon tank with a 10 gallon sump. I have about 10 lbs of live rock in the sump and a SCA-103 skimmer. I have another 25-30 lbs of live rock in the display. I have Carab Sea black live sand (mistake, yes, it's magnetic...ugh) about 1 inch deep... for looks basically. I have a Rio 1400 for a return through a DIY spray bar, Acan 600-24b LED fixture that is running at about 35%.

My tank has been up and running for a month. I started my tank with established water and cured live rock. I immediately put a clown fish in the tank and have not experienced any kind of ammonia or nitrite spike. I have since a few corals, frogspawn, Zoo's, star polyps, candy cane and even two Seriatopora's. Everything is doing very well! Polyps are fully extended on all the corals and I've even seen growth on the Seriatopora (pink birdsnest).

My question is in regard to my water parameters: Everything is good except my P04, it's .5. I have no hair algae and have just passed through a diatom bloom. Corraline is now growing on the rocks. I bought an Phosban Reactor with media but I have been hesitant in using it because everything is going so well. I hate to mess with a good thing. Here are the stats:

PH: 8.1 API
KH: 11 API
Nitrate: 5 API
P04: .5 API
CA: 420 API
Ammonia: 0 API
Nitrite: 0 API
MAG: N/A

Red Sea Coral Pro with RODI registering 0 TDS is what I use for water changes... The system was started with established water using IO from an Aquarium Service Company in my area. What would you do??

[disc1]

There's no such thing as "established"water. If you mean you used water someone else took out of their tank then you used garbage water to start the tank. There's nothing in the water from an established tank that you need. The bacteria all live on the surfaces, not in the water. What is in the water is all the waste and nutrients.

Now you have a nutrient problem. It would be a goo idea to get that down before too long lest it turns into an algae issue.

My first suggestion as new as the tank is would be to do some large water changes and see if that doesn't bring it down some. You want to do that before you start running a phosphate remover or you're just going to burn through the media really fast.

[bertoni]

The phosphate level is very high, although the kit might be the problem. Does some freshly-mixed saltwater measure zero? I might try some 20% water changes once I'd confirmed that the test kit was okay.

[Syntax1325]

I used 5 gallons of water from their tanks. Here's a picture of the test kit.... So hard to read these things... Thoughts?

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u128/dsovetsky/8EF652B1-C229-42C0-B7A3-5E1A9ACB0B02.jpg (http://s167.photobucket.com/user/dsovetsky/media/8EF652B1-C229-42C0-B7A3-5E1A9ACB0B02.jpg.html)


I'll need to mix up some salt water to test the p04... I completed a 10% water change earlier today.

[bertoni]

Well, I agree that the phosphate level is above 0.25 ppm according to the kit. :) They are hard to read.

[Syntax1325]

I need a better kit... It's so hard to read and it really could be anywhere from .01 to .25? Kind of a useless test that goes from 0 to .25 as the first step.

[Sk8r]

Since you say the sand is 'magnetic'---is it iron? Phosban is granulated ferric oxide. Hmmm. Disc1?

[Syntax1325]

Sk8r, the sand is Carib Sea Hawaiian Black.

http://www.caribsea.com/caribsea/itempage_marine_substrates_aragalive.html

[disc1]

Since you say the sand is 'magnetic'---is it iron? Phosban is granulated ferric oxide. Hmmm. Disc1?

Being magnetic does imply a high iron content. That's what makes a lot of black sands black. It seems a little bit sketchy to me, but I've seen enough tanks run with it to figure it can't be the most awful thing in the world.

[Syntax1325]

Thank you for the suggestions. Please allow me to summarize how I should handle this: I should I perform water changes daily until P04 is below .25 on my kit and then install my Phosban reactor? If I bring my P04 down quickly won't it have an adverse reaction on my corals?

The P04 test result that I posted in the picture above was taken after a 5 gallon water change, seemed lighter than before. Nitrates also dropped to about 2.5.

[bertoni]

You can try doing water changes to lower the level. Depending on the source of the phosphate, that might get expensive, too. I'd stop feeding for a few days and do maybe a 15% change every day, and see what happens.

[h8z2luze]

That test kit is useless. The best way to accurately measure phosphate is with a hannah meter. Alot of LFS will check it for you for a dollar or so.

Check this thread.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2374847

[bertoni]

The test kit doesn't have very high resolution, it's true, but a lot of people have problems with the Hanna meters. The Hach kit has worked well for me, although it's pricey and still requires color matching.

[h8z2luze]

I haven't seen that kit. I will have to check it out.

[tmz]

Never heard that sand was magnetic before . I have a bunch of it in my system as substrate on the seahorse tank. Nice color for that tank. Been using it for quite awhile with no issues. If it's got iron in it it's insoluble anyway. My systems iron on tests is is always low.

[tmz]

Some will run tanks at that PO4 level with those corals. Personally, I'd take it down to .1ppm slowly via water changes or small amounts of gfo and watch it for a while at that level. If all is well in terms of coral health and nuisance algae ,I might keep it at around .1. My mixed reef tanks do very well at .02 to .04ppm as best as I can measure .

[Syntax1325]

I'm going to complete a 5 gallon water change every 2 days until I get it down until it is almost not detectable. And then I'll keep an eye on it and see if it climbs. I agree that a sudden elimination of P04 could be detrimental to the corals.... They are doing fine. Check out the pictures and let me know if you see any problems please.

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u128/dsovetsky/3531139C-223B-4B1E-AA50-522903724040.jpg (http://s167.photobucket.com/user/dsovetsky/media/3531139C-223B-4B1E-AA50-522903724040.jpg.html)

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u128/dsovetsky/13F25AE9-BEA3-4137-B1F7-8224B6CE480C.jpg (http://s167.photobucket.com/user/dsovetsky/media/13F25AE9-BEA3-4137-B1F7-8224B6CE480C.jpg.html)

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u128/dsovetsky/647BDD0E-DBD3-4B64-8573-70E683259BF6.jpg (http://s167.photobucket.com/user/dsovetsky/media/647BDD0E-DBD3-4B64-8573-70E683259BF6.jpg.html)

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u128/dsovetsky/61AC169D-435F-461A-887F-A677FF2900EB.jpg (http://s167.photobucket.com/user/dsovetsky/media/61AC169D-435F-461A-887F-A677FF2900EB.jpg.html)

[Syntax1325]

Just performed a 5 gallon water change and my P04 dropped from .25 to somewhere between 0-.25, A change for the better at least. I'll proceed to do another 5 gallons on Tuesday and Thursday, then maybe put a little Gfo in the reactor next weekend if it is not tickling 0 by then. The newly mixed salt was 0 for P04.