.41 phosphate. Is it time for GFO ?

[Lavey29]

How dangerous are my current number. What I mean is do I have the luxury of time to try raising No3 with feeding frozen foods or should I overnight express PNS ?

Nothing in this hobby happens quickly. You don't need to rush delivery. I would just get a small bottle of neonitro and dose that then when you get to 10, maintain it with feeding and maybe water changes every 2 weeks instead of weekly. Address your dinos with a light adjustment and manual removal.

 

[Dburr1014]

PNS Probio for the win. Why use chemicals when bacteria will do the job and there’s no risk involved.

That's not like vibrant is it?
(did I just type that)

 

[wwcgroupie]

I thought it and started to type it and decided I shouldn’t even go there lol

 

[Lavey29]

That's not like vibrant is it?
(did I just type that)

I've never used vibrant but have read good and bad comments. I like the PNS because you don't need the fridge and it doesn't screw up the skimmer when you turn it back on. In 2 months my tank and sump are much cleaner

 

[minus9]

That's not like vibrant is it?
(did I just type that)

No! Read up on PNS, it's really good stuff and it's been around for a while.

 

[wwcgroupie]

So none of the LFS near me sells brightwell aquatic neonitro :/ I also noticed it doesn’t explain how much to dose. It just said “ for advance reefers”

 

[wwcgroupie]

No! Read up on PNS, it's really good stuff and it's been around for a while.

From what I've been reading PNS turns NO3 into coral food, but I currently have low levels of NO3

 

[Lavey29]

From what I've been reading PNS turns NO3 into coral food, but I currently have low levels of NO3

It does lower nitrates and phosphate but minimal amount and making coral food is good.

 

[Lavey29]

So none of the LFS near me sells brightwell aquatic neonitro :/ I also noticed it doesn’t explain how much to dose. It just said “ for advance reefers”

It says on the label 4.7ml or one cap full will raise nitrates by .5 in 75g tank. I was dosing 10ml daily in a 80g tank for several weeks to get measurable nitrates level.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

No! Read up on PNS, it's really good stuff and it's been around for a while.

Do you recommend other PNS products?

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

PNS Probio for the win. Why use chemicals when bacteria will do the job and there’s no risk involved.

The website for PNS Probio does not mention any effect on phosphates. In your experience, does this product help reduce PO4?

 

[BVF]

How dangerous are my current number. What I mean is do I have the luxury of time to try raising No3 with feeding frozen foods or should I overnight express PNS ?

My PO4 started climbing on me and didn’t come down until I intervened. It rose from .1 gradually up to .63, and I added a cheap reactor with Chemipure Elite and brought it back down to around .09 in 2-3 weeks. Nothing was showing any real stress when it was high, but I didn’t want to let it ride.

 

[madweazl]

How dangerous are my current number. What I mean is do I have the luxury of time to try raising No3 with feeding frozen foods or should I overnight express PNS ?

My opinion, not dangerous at all. My phosphates are "high" at .50 in my tank and the acroporas didnt look any different than they did at levels at/around .1. We heavily feed the fish and I've yet to see any issue with our corals at the higher phosphate levels. I don't prefer them to be high but I don't particularly care either. Nitrates are around 25. I did start the refugium up to see how it works on this tank.

 

[minus9]

The website for PNS Probio does not mention any effect on phosphates. In your experience, does this product help reduce PO4?

Yes, that’s what it’s designed to do and it will never deplete nitrogen, it will fix its own source if there’s not enough to utilize. Reach out to @Kenneth Wingerter he’ll expand on its many uses. Yello Sno is a good companion product, as it provides a source of vitamin B, which Probio needs to grow and also feeds your corals.

 

[damsels are not mean]

Frozen food is higher in nitrates than phosphate. Dry foods are higher than in phosphate and nitrates such as pellets or flake. So you're going to want to feed more frozen foods.

That really depends on what the food is, not whether it's dried or not.

 

[rhostam]

How dangerous are my current number. What I mean is do I have the luxury of time to try raising No3 with feeding frozen foods or should I overnight express PNS ?

I have been wondering the same thing. Though I’ll accept hobby recommendations as I’ve only been doing this for just over a year.

I’ve had sustained elevated phosphates of 0.4 for over a month or so. Probably closer to our over two. I’ve been trying to deal it with it slowly by reducing dry feeding, changing refugium schedule, PNS, and ever added a reactor for GFO.

My values start to decline slowly. Only by a few hundredths if a point, though. Nothing to where I’d like it. But just as slowly as they do drop, they start to rise.

At this point I think I’m going to let it ride and try to remove what I can as I think I’m seeing phosphate leech from my rocks after months of probable over feeding.

During this time I’ve lost seven LPS. After just over a year of being apparently healthy. Among them some of my favorite.

I got worried when I first noticed my duncans looking upset. They only do that when someone is out of whack.

Before then, my lobophyllia we’re getting visibly irritated and slowly started to recede. Then pectinia. By the time duncans were impacted they we’re all beyond recoverable. Then the duncans (two colonies not in proximity) both contracted BJD.

Total losses:
2x lobophyllia
2x duncanopsammia
1x euphyllia ancora
2x cynarinas



What it the sustained high phosphates?

I can’t be certain. Even if everything else in the tank appears happy, I’m not willing to risk it.

You ask “how did you over feed?”

When I made my last batch of food mix for the AFS I inadvertently added reef roids. I guess I was in a rush or something because I always feed reef roids sparingly and only before I was recommended better alternatives.

Whatever you do, good luck!

 

[Spieg]

I really don't like using GFO. It's a pain to setup and easy to overshoot your goal. Lantanum Chloride is easy and works almost instantly (start with 20-30 drops into the overflow with some 5-10 micron socks to catch any precipitant and test to measure the effect... adjust dosage as needed).

While your current PO4 levels probably wont kill any corals, it is well known that it will slow coral growth.

 

[Dburr1014]

That really depends on what the food is, not whether it's dried or not.

Yes, I was generally speaking.
Didn't want to spend an hour listing every food you could possibly buy.
So generally speaking, pellets and flake food is higher in phosphate. Natural foods that are frozen are generally lower in phosphate than pellet or flake foods.

 

[Kenneth Wingerter]

Yes, that’s what it’s designed to do and it will never deplete nitrogen, it will fix its own source if there’s not enough to utilize. Reach out to @Kenneth Wingerter he’ll expand on its many uses. Yello Sno is a good companion product, as it provides a source of vitamin B, which Probio needs to grow and also feeds your corals.

As minus9 stated, these bacteria (Rhodopseudomonas palustris) are diazotrophs, meaning they can "fix" nitrogen (i.e., make NH4 out of nitrogen gas, essentially the opposite of denitrification) when nitrogen becomes limiting to growth. The purpose of this is of course to support their own growth. It's worthwhile to note though that this function is shut down in the presence of any ammonia (so they cannot harm the system by increasing NH4 to toxic levels). In fact, most of our systems are excessively rich in fixed nitrogen (mostly NO3), which these microbes utilize both in growth (assimilation) and respiration (denitrification). As such, they maintain a low but steady nitrogen import. In other words, they uptake excess NH4/NO3 but nevertheless cannot cause them to bottom out (google Rhodopseudomonas+ammonia switch-off).

As they are grazed by corals and other picoplanktivores, this fixed nitrogen is transferred up the food chain. Reef-building corals, which characteristically inhabit nitrogen-poor environments, owe their extremely high productivity to bacteria such as these (see Coral Magazine vol. 18 no. 4, "Meet the diazotrophs: The under-appreciated role of nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the secret life of corals").

Diazotrophic Bacteria in the Reef Aquarium (The Most Important Article You'll Ever Read About Coral)

Tropical coral reef ecosystems are oligotrophic (i.e., nutrient-poor) environments with nitrogenous macronutrients such as ammonia in very short supply. This explains—at least in part—the relative scarcity of algae there. However, it makes the characteristically high prolificity of...

www.hydrospace.store

Like any organism, it takes requires phosphorus to survive. In fact, it can take up much more phosphate than it requires for growth.

https://www.hydrospace.store/post/r...ore/post/removing-phosphate-with-pns-bacteria

PNS YelloSno is a different type of product, a food, which is made using these bacteria. It is essentially a marine snow simulation. Also as minus9 stated, it is rich in B vitamins, particularly B12; not only does B12 promote the growth of these and other beneficial bacteria, but it's also beneficial to both corals and zooxanthellae (both require it for growth, yet neither is capable of synthesizing it themselves). It is complimentary to PNS ProBio (i.e., the live product).

What is PNS YelloSno™?

PNS YelloSno helps to complete the reef aquarium food web by simulating marine snow.

www.hydrospace.store

 

[Kenneth Wingerter]

That's not like vibrant is it?
(did I just type that)

Oh Lord, nothing like Vibrant. For one, it actually, certainly, definitely has live bacteria in it. In a completely non-toxic growth medium. Technically, PNS ProBio could be certified organic. We even identify the species of bacteria in each product (;Jawdrop)! Hell, we practically go so far as to show our users how we make it. Totally transparent and 100% guaranteed.