And metal halides. Old School trifecta!How about I always ran my tank .01 and it was good, but now I run it at .16 and it looks better than ever! Sticks are growing faster if you ask me! Dirty water and higher alk is what I’m liking personally.
Let's talk phosphate levels
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schooncw
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I have a heavily rocked LPS dominant system and my PO is at a constant 1.0.
Tho I have changed tanks, the system is 30 or so years old and I know the PO is bound in my rock. I run GFO 24/7, a packed bio pellet reactor, add Fauna Marin Bacto Energy every day and do regular water changes and still always 1.0 and NO3 around 45.
Although my corals look great, no nuisance algae, etc., the high PO really bothered me-hence the reactor, GFO-so I went the LAN route and it was the worst thing I ever did. I confess to going too quickly but my tank suffered when PO was 0.3 or so.
My solution was to stop the panic, keep on adding corals and fish and feeding as much as I ever did and rely on my eyes.
Tho I have changed tanks, the system is 30 or so years old and I know the PO is bound in my rock. I run GFO 24/7, a packed bio pellet reactor, add Fauna Marin Bacto Energy every day and do regular water changes and still always 1.0 and NO3 around 45.
Although my corals look great, no nuisance algae, etc., the high PO really bothered me-hence the reactor, GFO-so I went the LAN route and it was the worst thing I ever did. I confess to going too quickly but my tank suffered when PO was 0.3 or so.
My solution was to stop the panic, keep on adding corals and fish and feeding as much as I ever did and rely on my eyes.
Head Case
Community Member
I’m in the early stages of seeing benefits. My phosphates are definitely bound in the rock, as it is 7yrs old. GFO brought it from 2ppm to 0.5. Corals didn’t show much improvement and they definitely didn’t like the fines that came through. I’d turn the reactor off, they’d rebound a bit then phosphate would be right back at 0.5-1.0.
Next tried dosing Phosphate-e. Daily squirt of 2mL diluted into 50mL and slowly added to a 75gal tank. Took about a week but phosphate is below 0.1. Corals looking happier now but too early to tell.
Next tried dosing Phosphate-e. Daily squirt of 2mL diluted into 50mL and slowly added to a 75gal tank. Took about a week but phosphate is below 0.1. Corals looking happier now but too early to tell.
ElementReefer
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Reef Roids!
Jimbo327
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I really don't think phosphates levels (obviously not zero) matter as much if you have a mature reef...the corals are soaking up the phosphates and there is little room for other bad stuff to grow since all the real estate is taken by corals But if you don't have a mature reef, then I think it is best to keep phosphates in the lower range as that is probably how most of your acquired corals are used to and discourages other bad things to grow on empty rocks.
My conception of low phosphates are shattered when I see gorgeous full SPS tanks that is running above 0.5ppm. Case in point, the recent TOTM winner is running phosphates at 0.5-0.66 (maxed out on his hanna tester). https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/reef-of-the-month-november-2024-aaronfreefs-sps-dream.1080686/
My conception of low phosphates are shattered when I see gorgeous full SPS tanks that is running above 0.5ppm. Case in point, the recent TOTM winner is running phosphates at 0.5-0.66 (maxed out on his hanna tester). https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/reef-of-the-month-november-2024-aaronfreefs-sps-dream.1080686/
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Randy Holmes-Farley
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I understand, and that is partly true, but not with the exact words you are saying. Corals do use organic forms of phosphate, of which there are many. Some hobby products add these. Tropic Marin has one.
All important forms of P in a reef tank (from an aquarist perspective) are phosphates of one sort or another. Some types are accurately tested by kit, while most kits will not detect any organic phosphates unless they specifically say they do. The Hach total P kit does so, but it involves a tedious digestion step.
ICP detects all forms of P. Since P by ICP is not regularly and greatly larger than phosphate by kit, we can assume that in reef tanks, these other forms are not dominating the total P pool (at least when microorganisms are removed before the ICP). Nevertheless, these other forms can form a large part of a coral diet (such as while bacteria and phytoplankton), and I referred to it in the first post of this thread:
Years ago we assumed that matching the ocean was desirable, but those levels seemed too low in practice (likely due to lack of particulate sources of P for corals in reef tanks)
The very, very few forms of P that are not phosphates (which still are not phosphorus) are phosphonic acids and phosphonates, such as 2-aminoethyl phosphonate.
The biological role of the natural phosphonates is still poorly understood.
which is from:
Phosphonate - Wikipedia
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