Phosphate help

[Pjy95]

Struggling with phosphate levels , been checking nitrates and phosphate weekly with Hanna test kits. Had the phosphate at .04 for a good while but they managed to bottom out and now I can see good old Dino’s returning and dosing neophos hasn’t been raising anything. Skimmer has been off as well. And I’m really not sure what I’m doing wrong any help is appreciated. Already been a rough week with my dog having to be rushed to the er to start off the week but now that he’s on the mend I really don’t wanna close off the week with an all brown tank …

 

[Casino]

Is that 0.40? What is your NO3? Your tank might be unbalance or carbon limited. Might need to dose bio fuel. Red Sea AB and Reefroids will definitely raise your PO4.

 

[Chris.sturgis]

Did you mean .04? I guess the bigger question is what are your other parameters and what is the age of the tank? The solution I find best to raise nutrients is just feed more. Reefroids always does the trick.

 

[ifarmer]

what do you keep in your tank right now?
Unless you are keeping sophisticated stony corals where you think you are loosing colors...etc. otherwise, I would not worry about it. Dont go crazy and chasing after the numbers.
i setup up my for nearly 2 years and the only thing that I test is just salinity (upon each water change) and that is it. corals are happy and fish are happy. (of course, I don't have any special SPS in my tank).

 

[Pjy95]

Is that 0.40? What is your NO3? Your tank might be unbalance or carbon limited. Might need to dose bio fuel. Red Sea AB and Reefroids will definitely raise your PO4.

My mistake should’ve said .04 I tested last night and no3 was at 4.7. I’m still learning all this stuff so I’m sure I’m making a mistake somewhere lol

 

[Pjy95]

Did you mean .04? I guess the bigger question is what are your other parameters and what is the age of the tank? The solution I find best to raise nutrients is just feed more. Reefroids always does the trick.

Yes I did my mistake I should probably go back and fix that lol , as far as testing the only things I know for sure are accurate are my nitrate and phosphate and that’s cause I have the hanna testers for everything else I’m still using api testers which seem all over the place. Tank has been running since about mid May with fish in it

 

[Pjy95]

what do you keep in your tank right now?
Unless you are keeping sophisticated stony corals where you think you are loosing colors...etc. otherwise, I would not worry about it. Dont go crazy and chasing after the numbers.
i setup up my for nearly 2 years and the only thing that I test is just salinity (upon each water change) and that is it. corals are happy and fish are happy. (of course, I don't have any special SPS in my tank).

Nothing crazy for coral , small bubble tip anemone, torch , small zoa frag , hammer coral and two more that I just can’t think of the name right now. As for fish 2 clowns , 2 tangs, a goby about 7 turbo snails colors seem to be looking good only thing I have noticed is the torch isn’t as open as it was when I first got it

 

[Casino]

Just bump your po4 a bit and maybe your no3. Neophos actually bumps up your Po4 to the desired level. Kinda difficult to go past that according to brightwell. Reefroids will help get you there. Check your mag. LPS love mag.

 

[Pjy95]

Just bump your po4 a bit and maybe your no3. Neophos actually bumps up your Po4 to the desired level. Kinda difficult to go past that according to brightwell. Reefroids will help get you there. Check your mag. LPS love mag.

Perfect thank you , definitely gonna throw reefroids into the mix

 

[JohnK]

Phosphate levels and dosing can get pretty confusing because of the tendency of phosphate binding to rock and substrate. As phosphate is removed (one way or another) and the level goes down, it will reach a point where what’s bound to surfaces starts to leech back out and then (by testing numbers) it won’t appear to be going down. Then eventually you get it low enough to purge what’s bound up, and suddenly you’re at zero/ undetectable.
In that scenario ^ it’s likely to see more and More phosphate removal (GFO or other) seem to do nothing……. Then seemingly suddenly it falls to zero AND it’s very hard to bring back up because new additions of phosphate go right to binding to surface’s again.

Sounds a lot like what you’re describing. If that is correct (?), you will probably need to add an awful lot before you see it stabalize in a normal, low, but detectable range.


Second on the suggestion to feed reefroids as it tends to be relatively high in phosphate (seems to work well to raise phosphate more than nitrate). That and probably continuing to to dose something to raise phosphate directly. Just don’t stop monitoring, because you are likely to hit a threshold where the phosphate level will get back to normal, then start climbing relatively rapidly if supplementation continues.

 

[SteveDola]

I might consider bacteria dosing before dumping PO4 into the system which could possibly cause other issues. What do the corals look like with .04 PO4? thats a very acceptable range typically.

 

[Liam]

As others mentioned I would not try to manipulate PO4 to fix the issue, it's notoriously hard to test accurately at low range and you might find you raise it too high and create other problems.Your numbers look fine anyway.
Based on what you say you have for corals you may want to consider turning the lights out for a day or two.Normally dinos increase when the lights are on. You can treat with uv temporarily if you have one or can borrow one,providing they are free swimming dinos.
Blow the rocks off regularly and skim wet, as long as you keep corals clear it will normally resolve itself, frustrating for sure though.
You would need a microscope to identify the type of dinos.

 

[JohnK]

Just to clarify
-Does the phosphate currently appear to bottomed out / zero, OR currently testing .04 ?

-Are you currently seeing dinos, or worried you are about to see dinos?




If phosphate is currently at .04 , I would definitely leave that alone and not be trying to increase it.

 

[Pjy95]

I might consider bacteria dosing before dumping PO4 into the system which could possibly cause other issues. What do the corals look like with .04 PO4? thats a very acceptable range typically.

They looked awesome at the .04 but right now I have no phosphate reading it’s at 0. They still don’t look bad other than the torch isn’t as fluffy as it was

 

[Pjy95]

Just to clarify
-Does the phosphate currently appear to bottomed out / zero, OR currently testing .04 ?

-Are you currently seeing dinos, or worried you are about to see dinos?




If phosphate is currently at .04 , I would definitely leave that alone and not be trying to increase it.

It’s bottomed out at zero right now , which is why I’m confused cause I’ve been testing weekly and for whatever reason this week it shot down to 0 but previous weeks was staying around .04-.06

Definitely starting to see Dino’s , I’ve had them before and the uv and getting the phosphates back up cleared them right up which is why I’m guessing now they I hit 0 they’re back

 

[Pjy95]

As others mentioned I would not try to manipulate PO4 to fix the issue, it's notoriously hard to test accurately at low range and you might find you raise it too high and create other problems.Your numbers look fine anyway.
Based on what you say you have for corals you may want to consider turning the lights out for a day or two.Normally dinos increase when the lights are on. You can treat with uv temporarily if you have one or can borrow one,providing they are free swimming dinos.
Blow the rocks off regularly and skim wet, as long as you keep corals clear it will normally resolve itself, frustrating for sure though.
You would need a microscope to identify the type of dinos.

I’m probably gonna end up doing a blackout again , this is my second go around with them and last time once I hooked up the uv and got the phosphate back up they cleared up rather quick which is why I’m assuming it has to do with my phosphate bottoming out cause until this they’ve been gone