Too much LR in my tank?

[carey]

Is it possible to have too much LR? I have 48 lbs in my 29 gallon regular tank. When I was buying a new coral today they tested my water and the phosphates are still high= 1.0. They suggested something might be leaching phospahte since I've been doing crazy water changes and I am running FO in my filter.

Any input? Or just a crazy thought?

 

[PrettyFishies]

48 lbs is fine for the 29g. Look into your water supply. I use chemi pure. Works wonders. You get two so you can dry one to recharge it and always have one in the sump.

Where did you get the LR?
have you tested your SW mix? Some salt mixes have phosphate

 

[carey]

I'm using ro water now since my tap water is at 2.0 phos. lol

I got 33 lbs of it from a guy breaking down his 300 gallon and 15 at the LFS.

I've tested the ro water though, just to be sure and it's clean.

Unfortunately I dont have a sump. Running an HOB and a skimmer though.

Any suggestions?

 

[PrettyFishies]

Do you know what kind of rock it is? And where he got his and the LFS got theirs?

 

[carey]

They are both fiji rock. Pretty porous. The 33 lbs came from a tank over 3 years old so no idea and the LFS well, the one I got it from who knows. i dont shop there anymore. I will say the LFS rock was in better shape and had some coralline which has since bleached off since my cycling.

 

[jenatron]

If you haven't completely changed out all the water with high phosphates it could be lingering?

 

[carey]

LOL I've prob changed the water volume 4 times or more already. Not all at once of course. I'm even running some FO in the HOB and I can't seem to get lower than 1.0.

I'll be doing a 10 gallon pwc shortly so hopefully that will help. I also took out some of the nastier looking rocks.

 

[DA fisherman]

Try and contact the person and ask them if they used tap water.

 

[carey]

Actually, I know he used RO cause he showed me the setup and told me I had to use it too. LOL

See, kinda baffling isnt it?

 

[Gti_Leo]

what about your mixing bucket, do you rinse it out with normal tap water or RO water. the phosphates could linger on it. as well you could try and changed all the water in the aquarium to try and drop the phosphate level. do like a 25 gallon water changeand check it all out

 

[carey]

I have a seperate bucket for ingoing water and outgoing water. So the nasty water doesnt get mixed back in. I did wash out the buckets, though not with ro water.

I just did a 10 gallon water change which by volume is like 50%. Letting the dust settle then I will test again. Theoretically it should be about half what it was. Give or take a bit.

I also had two smaller not so nice looking rocks that I took out. They had some clingy yucky stuff and fossilized clams on them. They were ugly anyway lol

I plan on doing another 10 gallon change this weekend sometime as well. The another by tuesday and that should get rid of them. In theory of course.

Thanks guys anything else anyone can think of? Think I'm going the right route? Always open to suggestions.

 

[melosu58]

Flake food and frozen food are big phosphates players in the SW aquarium. Are you using any of these.

 

[carey]

nope. No fish yet.

 

[carey]

Just did my testing went as follows:

API liquid test- .50 ( could even be .25 was close)
Saifert test- .75 ( kinda still close to 1.0 )

So a large pwc did bring down the numbers. Now if they go up theres something else going on. I started the tank over 2 months ago with regular tap water but it should be gone by now I'm thinking.

 

[Gti_Leo]

should be but remember the water all goes into one once its mixed so the phosphate ppm will dispurse, as you take it out it'll slowly get less and less depending on the volume you take out.

have you tried to use some chemicals to neutralize the the phosphates?

 

[carey]

I'm running FO in my HOB filter.

 

[reefcowboy]

I have 40 lbs of rock in my 20 gal(some in my sump too)I used to have issues with algae and phosphates all the time. I bought this phosphate reactor(its called viaaqua multi-media reactor) for around $40 and use it with Phosban media. The next day after my purchase I tested my water and had 0 phosphates. After using it, i notice algae getting thinner and thinner, and then they just fall off and you get a much clearer tank...It also helps in case u use tap water(emergency) or some other source that has phosphates, since the next day or two the phosphates will be gone...