What exactly does a phosphate reactor do? Do I need one ?
All it is, is a GFO (Granular Ferric Oxide) holder. People use it because they don’t have room in the sump for a filter sock that you put the GFO in or they just like the look of the reactor hanging on the side of the sump.
Reactor such as twolittlefishes phoban reactor and it requires a pump.
It removes phosphates from your tank, which in turn helps control nuisance algae. Very effective
The reason I am asking is because my corals haven’t been looking happy the last few weeks.
Calcium 440
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
PH 7.8
Salinity 1.025
Temp 79
Nitrate 5ppm
These are the only test kits I have.
PH is a little low rest look ok
You should have kits to test for phosphates and nitrates they are the 2 that will cause algae and if there high enough can cause worse problems
You calcium, alkalinity and magnesium are the 3 that really need to stay up . ph should be 8.1 or higher while the lights are on and dkh be above 9 this helps corals grow.
oops I forgot to put that my nitrates are 5 ppm.
What is the safest way to bring the ph up? The PH should be about 8.2? I will pick up those other test kits tomorrow.
Doing a kalk water drip at night will help to keep it up at night and will then be higher during your light cycle.
I have no clue on how to do that.
If the phosphates are high will that lower the PH? I do get a good bit of algae on the glass.
If phosphates are high enough can cause lots of problems
A kalk drip is pretty easy, kalk is calcium hydroxide . I use 5 - 30 millitre cups of kalk in a 5 gallon bucket, fill it full of RO water stir it up and let it sit for a day. Siphon off the water in the middle, don’t use the skim on the top and don’t use any of the extra kalk that falls to the bottom.
Here’s a pretty good link. A Simple DIY Kalk Dripper by Agu Lukk - Reefkeeping.com
so once I set this drip up I let it run through the entire night?
Yeah you fill what ever bottle your gonna use and just let it drip till it’s done.
how do you know how much to needs to drip into the tank? And do I do it every night?
I am nervous that I will overdose it
Karen, exactly what is your worry about your tank?
the corals are not looking happy/good. The gsp doesn’t even come out. The zoas edges look like they are turned up a little. The hammer frogspawn Xenia look great. The Duncans look just ok. They could look better.
What size tank do you have?
90 gal
I would think stating with a 20 ounce bottle would be ok to start, and see how the tank responds.
I have alot of corals and was doing more then a gallon a night on my 300 with no problems at all.