lundi 5 septembre 2016

PO4 - at my wits' end

Hi all - I really need some help with PO4 - any and all help from more experienced reefers is appreciated.

Background - about 18 months ago I bought a 90G (400L) tank, first ever attempt at the hobby. I spent a truck-load and had is stocked and looking great - for a while. Then, I screwed up (holidays / overfeeding / lack of water changes etc) and the tank went to ****.

About 4-5 months ago, I got my LFS guys in to 'reset' the tank. Full clean, gurney the rock, re-do of electronics etc etc, at that point, trace elements were fine, but nutrients were unreadable (on the high side).

Once the reset was done, I went uber-husbandary. For 2 months I did twice weekly 15-20% water changes, cleaned the sump every 2nd day, and also started vodka dosing (using the recommended charts). As the water got better, I started re-stocking.

So, as of now, my trace elements are all good (KH is a little high at 9.2) and my nitrates are down to 0.5 (all tests are Red Sea).

My issue is PO4 - it simply won't budge. Well - I say that, but I've reduced it 90+%, but in the last month, it won't move. It is stuck at 0.34 - it won't move. I'm running a GFO with a product called Siliphos, which I swap out every couple of weeks, I'm backing off my Vodka because 0.5 is as low as I want to go, I still do 15-20% water changes weekly, but nothing.


When I test the water straight out of the GFO, it is lower (0.16) so that tells me that somewhere in my system, PO4 is being produced at a pretty decent rate - how do I find that 'somewhere' and fix it?

Feeding is either 3x small feedings a day with with New Era or New Life pellets (fish outlined below) or 1x pellets plus some Marine Green & Rotifers.

What could be causing my PO4 issue? I'm honestly at my wits' end trying to get it down, everything seems useless.

Tank Details:
90G (400L)
Mised LPS / Fish
Fish - 1x Blue, 1x Hawaiian Yellow tangs. 1x Flame Angel, 1x Lawnmower Blenny, 2x small clowns, 1x Fiji Foxface, 1x Damsel.
Sump: Tunze 9410 Skimmer (rated to 1000L) Bio-balls, GFO, little rubble - plus some sponges.
Lighting: 3x aquabeam 1000 hd ultra (run for 12hrs/day)
Running 2x WP40's


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