major phospate issue

[Vin7250]

i have a 90 gal reef which has been running for almost 4 years....up untill about 6 months ago this tank was amazing, recently though....the protein skimmer has not been skimming anything even after it was cleaned + pump was replaced. THis is an AETech ETSS downdraft reef devil....i talked to the owner of the company and he said skimmers do not remove phosphate and nitrate...i thought that was kinda bogus...he said id have to throw away all my Live rock and live sand and start over....i dont believe this story.....i then called my lfs they said get your skimmer running or get a new one thats why my water quality is bad right now he also said i dont have to toss my lr maybe my sand went anerobic but def not my rock.....how can i get this under control i was told 50%-70% water change get the skimmer running and use some phos absorber is this the best plan?? should i remove my DSB??? or my Live rock??? is the skimmer really not designed to remove phosphates and nitrates??? or is my tank just done????? im really upset about this so any help would be awesome. no ammonia or nitrite and my corals and fish are still alive and looking ok....i have a TON of cyano though

Vinny

[sir_dudeguy]

well it could have been your sand...but i see no reason to get rid of the rock, uless you'd like to throw away a couple hundred dollars at least as well.

But it could be your skimmer. Is the pump old? if so, replace it/fix whatever's wrong with it.
from what i can tell, the skimmer does remove nitrates and prolly phosphates. I left mine off for a couple days once and it did cause a small spike in nitrates.

also...what are you feeding? i've heard that flake food often has phosphates in it, along with the frozen foods (the liquid that they're frozen in).

the phosphates are likely the cause of your cyano too i think. Get rid of those, and you're cyano will stand less of a chance. If its still not going away after phosphates/nitrates are gone, then try chemi-clean.

[meco65]

The way I understand the skimmer is that it removes the dissolved solids from the water before they can go through the ammonia, to nitrite, to nitrate process. In so doing keeping the nitrates out of the water. I would try cleaning the skimmer again to make sure that you did not miss anything.

[sir_dudeguy]

ya thats how i was thinking that a skimmer prevents nitrates.

another thing...have you changed the water you used? like switch from ro to tap? tap often has both trates and phosphates.

[BurntOutReefer]

get some water movement into you r tank...that'll help with the cyano for now....but get your phosphates under control asap....
as far as the skimmer....its as meco said.

[ACBlinky]

If the sandbed hasn't been touched in 4 years, my guess is that's where the phosphate is coming from. If the sand is full of nutrients it may need to be partially or fully replaced, but I don't know what the process would be -- you don't want to just start pulling a DSB with fish in the tank, the deeper layers can release toxins into the water. I'd do some reading on DSBs and meanwhile run a phosphate adsorbing resin to keep levels in check.

[Vin7250]

thanks guys, im going to get a stronger pump in the tank, what type of movement is necessary for a 90 gal with softies and fish??? as well as the skimmer ill try and get a new pump for that if not ill fix the old one.......as for the DSB does anyone know how to go about replacing the sand without causing major issues???? i really want to get this tank back to the state it was. I used to beable to take pics of this tank and submit them and people would love the tank now it looks like crap and it makes me sad:(
-vin

[sir_dudeguy]

i would say go for around 15 times total volume turnover per hour. so i'd say 1350 gph at least. but dont get it all from one pump...use multiple pumps to get a nice random flow so theres no dead spots.