phosphates and nitrates

[nycmat]

hi everyone. I am sorry to say that i still am very depressed regarding my fathers passing this month. i havent really been taking care of my tank at all. i have been doing things with no real effort and out of habbit. I did a water change and had a leak and changed approximately 100 gallions. i have lost several of my fish due to lack of taking care of it. thats my depressions fault.

but recently i tested the levels trying to force myself to get some interest again and found that i have 10 ppm of nitrates and between .25 and .5 phosphates. I am running two phosban reactors and i am starting to see brown algae. because of the expenses of my dads funeral i am stuck on funds until next month. any ideas on how to control this . any ideas??

thanks
matt

 

[nycmat]

oh yeah 1 other question-- i soak my food in garlic extreme. as well as vita chem. i then add it all to the tank. is this advisable?? its great for the fish but i was wondering if this could be doing it

thanks again
matt

 

[marrone]

Matt

Sorry to hear about your father and it takes time for things to fully heal and everything to get back to normal so just hang in there.

Question what type of tank are you trying to keep, is it a FOWLR or a reef tank with a lot of fish.

 

[nycmat]

well i was having a fish established tank and with a reef set up. and after all parameters are right i am going to start adding corals. i find that once you establish the fish its a trial and era process regarding the corals. it will be a sps tank when its time. i just want to get the right parameters. sucks that i lost all those fish though

and thanks marrone for my family and dad most of all i really appreciate it more then you know

matt

 

[jhale]

hey matt, those levels are not that bad for a folr tank. the nitrates could come down to 5 and the Po4 could be lower, but for fish they will not notice those small amounts.

check the sump and tank for detritus and siphon out any that you see. with a BB tank those will be the sources for your nitrates.

like marrone said with time things will get better.

 

[nycmat]

thanks john i hope so . but i know they wont notice it. but i want to get the chemistry right so that i can start dosing. any ideas before next month i go and buy about $200 worht of phosphates control?? LOL

 

[marrone]

Matt

Some of your increase in nitrates could be from the fish dying. As for the increase in Po4 if your using RO/DI water the only way that could have been introduce into the tank would be from either food or some product that leak it into the tank. I would check what you been using recently as I'm sure that could be the cause.

On my FO tank I would kill for 10ppm nitrates specially with the amount that I feed.

Michael

 

[jhale]

thanks john i hope so . but i know they wont notice it. but i want to get the chemistry right so that i can start dosing. any ideas before next month i go and buy about $200 worht of phosphates control?? LOL

start dosing what?

don't make any more impulse tank buys without asking first, lol

 

[nycmat]

thanks marrone. do you think in adding and soaking garlic extreme and vita chem to my food and adding it to the tank could be causing the increases??

thanks johnathan. Once i get my levels back down to earth i plan to start getting a cal. reactor and adding calcium as well as other fun stuff lol for an sps tank to go with the fish

 

[marrone]

I don't think garlic extreme would increase the nitrates in the tank as a lot of people use it and if it did cause nitrates to go up you would have heard about it already. As for Vita Chem it's mostly vitamins so I'm not sure if that would increase nitrates either but you may need to check the bottle and see if it contains nitrates or vist their web site. I would think from the amount of fish that you have and the combination of some dying and you feeding them it caused the nitrates to go up. 10ppm isn't a very high amount so a water change should take bring it back down. If you then see if it continues to go back up there maybe a problem otherwise it just could be from all the other things.

 

[roverrange]

Hey Matt,

Good to see you are back in action. Sorry about your father.

Rick

 

[Tonyscoots84]

my regards go out to u and ur family.. sorry about ur father. i lost my grandfather about 2 years ago and he was like my father so i no what you and ur family are going through.. its not easy... g00d to see ur back in the game... take ur time and lets get your tank up back to par....

 

[nycmat]

thanks rick and calvin. i am triing to do this its not easy. i wish i had more passion and heart but i have to try. trying to fix this nitrates and phosphates most important