Temporary high phosphates for SPS?

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

I have quite a bit of nitrates in my tank and never had a problem with SPS. Now my nitrates are around 5ppm but last month it was at 40ppm.

Well, that's good to know. Temp in my downstairs tank peaked at 81.2 last evening, so looking forward to getting these tanks combined soon, so the chiller can do its job. Weather is supposed to cool off a bit the next few days, so should still be OK.

[Reef Pilot]

I combined my tanks into 1 sump yesterday, so I can cool both with my single chiller. Just in time, too, as it is supposed to get real warm here on the weekend and next week.

My concern had been with high phosphates and nitrates in my downstairs tank, and when combined it would raise both. My main floor DT has SPS and has been used to zero nitrates and phosphates for some time with the use of bio pellets and GFO.

I have been using Foz Down to bring down the phosphates in my downstairs tank. It works great, as it brought it down from over 1.0 to near zero over a few weeks. But it won't stay there, and if I don't add it for a day it is over 0.1 again. Seems like there are still a lot of phosphates leaching out of the rocks and sand.

Anyway after combining, I checked my params this morning, and the phosphates are at 0.11 right now. So will have to keep adding Foz Down, I guess. My nitrates also went up to 10 ppm, which makes sense as the downstairs tank was running at about 20 - 30.

Will have to see now if my SPS reacts. I may have to add more bio pellets to my reactor (only about 1/4 full now, and haven't added for 6 months).

At least my temps are good now, steady at 78.4.