High PO4 in a 13.5g tank

[xclusive252]

I have high Phosphate in my nano and Im looking for ideas on how to lower it. Im alrdy doing 5g water changes weekly and its not helping. I dont want to use gfo and im on the fence with bio pellets. I was thinking Vinegar but not sure of the formula or if I can even do it in a nano. Please any help or ideas would be great. I currently have 2 clowns in the tank and some inverts.

 

[piranhapat]

How high is high. Not a big deal with fish only. Maybe next WC do 10 gal. Watch over feeding. Do you have a good bio load?

 

[straightjiggy10]

any reason why you don't want to use GFO?

 

[Donewiththisplace]

Some more info will help pinpoint the problem...age of the tank? What test kit? What's the reading? Where is your water from? Have you tested that? What food? How much you feeding? Is all livestock accounted for? How long has it been elevated for?

Problems will only compound in time, so taking a few minutes to narrow down the problem and make the most accurate attempt to correct it the first time will hopefully stop the problem from getting worse. Knowing the answers to some of these questions will possibly point you in the right direction.

Keep us posted.

 

[xclusive252]

Tank is over 1 yr old
Hanna PO4 test kit
Reading 2.50
Water is made from rodi unit
Tested the water is 0ppm
1/4 cube of brine shrimp daily
All fish accounted for
It's been over a month like this.

 

[Donewiththisplace]

Do you rinse the food before adding it?

Do they eat all food thats put in, or does some reach the bottom? Maybe slow down the feeding to make sure they get it all and none goes to waste. Or even maybe feed every other day.

What kind of rock is in there and how much?

 

[piranhapat]

Did you every test your new saltwater mix. What is your reading on new 5 gal mix. Once my reading was high it came from a bad DI resin. What filter or any LR and how much. You using Protein skimmer? How much fish? How many times you feed?

 

[OOtzie]

I have only had success in nano reefs and I always took them down because I was impatient. Never had an issue with high PO4 because I used Chemi pure elite and Purigen, rinsed off weekly in tank water an replaced ever 10 weeks. Wish I took photos of my better systems.

 

[Donewiththisplace]

If high po4 is def a issue, I was gonna suggest the use of some means of chemical exportation. Ive been using chemi-pure blue and tank is moderately clean. Po4 was never really an issue, albeit I do need higher quality test kits.

I got a 30 gallon aio nano...no skimmer and water changes every 10 days. Whenever somethig starts to get a little out of whack, i do 2 wc's within a few days of each other and everything seems to fall back into line.

Perhaps you can consider grabbing some macroalgae as a natural export method if you don't want to go chemical??

It's always an option...