Torch coral!!

Just tested my prams. they are : KH 190 CA 460 Nitrates- 0 Phosphates 1.5 ppm.
specific gravity 1.023

My phosphates are too high

 

Phosphate way too high. Are you using ro/di or using flake or pellet food? Also your SG is a little low try to bump it up to around 1.025 - 1.028 or so. Get it in as low of flow as possible the love low flow. Also when moving it never expose it to air.

 

I use frozen food.. sometimes flakes. ughhh I have the hardest time with phosphates. I don't use ro/di.. explain it to meee pleease. I know what it is I just don't know much about it.. cost.. what kinds best. feed me info Im sick of dealing with phosphates!

 

Well a lot of the flake and pellet foods are high in phosphate so that can be adding to it. Are you draining out the water from the frozen food after it defrosts before adding it to the tank? That can add to it. But my hunch is that the water you are using for water changes is high in phosphate. Test the source of the water before adding it to your tank and that will help you determine where they are coming from. If your water source tests for contaminants then you know its time for an ro/di.

 

I take the frozen food cubes and swish them around in the water to feed them... is that bad? I don't feed flake food very often I feed my fish like... three times a week. I use instant ocean sea salt with tap water treated with the API stress coat.. I'll test it next time before I put it in.

 

i would focus on getting the sg up to natural seawater first..then start dealing with your phosphates..

right now my torch is completely sucked in showing skeleton, but when the lights come on its back out to super long...

but get the salinity back to around 1.026 and you should start seeing it come back out..and good luck with your torch

 

If you are only going to be able to use tap water - I would try to pick up GFO and carbon it would help a lot. Do you have any algae issues?
Do you have a refugium?

+1 on the salinity

Hope that helps

 

as far as rodi water..theres ton of threads about it on here and everywhere on google..but long story short, rodi filtration just filters water to where there 0 tds(total dissolved solids)..your tap may have little phosphates and stuff, baton rouge has very low phosphates for tap water, but tap water contains tons and tons of metals, nitrates, chlorine, and alot of other stuff that is terrible for a reef tank, some tap water even include copper, which can completely crash a tank..ive always used rodi, i dont have a 250$ rodi system, but i pay $.22 a gallon at winn dixie in the glacier machines that rodi filter it and also runs it through 3 ultraviolet filters as well, so its super clean water..the cleaner your water in your tank the better, you wont have any bad algaes and a cleaner tank puts less stress on your inhabitants..if you wanna know the full story of rodi filtration and the reason too then search on here for rodi..but it just cleans your water to where it is 100% pure water, no other nasty shi!

 

RO water is water that has been filtered by Reverse Osmosis. I buy mine at Walmart. I only have a 12 gal. so I only do 1 or 2 gal. water change a week.

Good luck.

 

alright I will work on the SG first! thanks everyone, he's lookin a bit better now... so we'll see