Almost a disaster dosing phosphate

[swallace]

Need a quick sanity check please.

So my first mistake and my tank is only 5 months old, thankfully there are no corals in it yet. However, in prep for corals and because my nitrates and phosphates were low N: 1.3 and falling same with my P: 0.02, I decided to start dosing nitrates and phosphates, especially as I started to see Dino in the tank.

Well long story short I used Trisodium Phosphate and used the Planted Tank Aquarium calculator, but somewhere in my head I thought I needed to convert from ppM to ppB so as an end result for the last two days I have been dosing 0.25ppm into my tank instead of the intended 0.02 . I just checked and my phosphates are around 0.4 so its being consumed.

I dont think I am going to hurt anything in the tank and my plan is to stop until I get under .1 then pick back up dosing the right amount.

Can someone confirm that I shouldn't be worried and that my plan is fine?

 

[DE FISH]

As there is no livestock I would not be worried just rectify your mistake

 

[swallace]

As there is no livestock I would not be worried just rectify your mistake

No corals but I do have 4 fish.I’m not entirely sure if that level of phosphate is bad for fish or potentially just coral.

 

[Dan_P]

No corals but I do have 4 fish.I’m not entirely sure if that level of phosphate is bad for fish or potentially just coral.

It seems only certain sps coral are fussy about low PO4.

 

[Reefahholic]

You’re good, just get it back on track. If SPS would have been in there for sure you would have had major issues with a swing that high.

 

[Reefahholic]

It seems only certain sps coral are fussy about low PO4.

Which ones aren’t?

 

[Dan_P]

Which ones aren’t?

That’s a good point. My comment needs clarification, A limited number of coral species were actually tested (that I am aware of) but the effect is assumed for all. There is doubt about this assumption because there are reefers aquaria water with high PO4, several tenths of a ppm, that grow large beautiful coral.

I think we generally err on the side of caution in this hobby and just shoot for low PO4 for everything.

 

[Reefahholic]

That’s a good point. My comment needs clarification, A limited number of coral species were actually tested (that I am aware of) but the effect is assumed for all. There is doubt about this assumption because there are reefers aquaria water with high PO4, several tenths of a ppm, that grow large beautiful coral.

I think we generally err on the side of caution in this hobby and just shoot for low PO4 for everything.

I err on the side of higher PO4. Not crazy high, but not .02- .03 ppm low either. I like .08 - .15 ppm. I’ve literally had Acro’s check out in .03 ppm PO4. It’s always in a new system when that happens. It would have went differently in a 3 yr old system. Sometimes, even in a mature system if you push them with too much light and they’re sitting in .01-.02 they will outgrow their resources and start to STN or check out. I’ve also had frags come from well established ULN systems barely surviving in residual’s and if the PO4 swings 0.1 ppm or more…some will check out, but others won’t blink. This hobby is very interesting and it’s extremely difficult to pinpoint certainty, because every system is different.

BTW, if you YouTube Rico’s Aquariums and go back in his videos to some of his first ones you’ll see a good example of a very low nutrient tank where the corals were living on residual’s from fish poop. They were doing ok, because the tank was so established.

 

[Dan_P]

I err on the side of higher PO4. Not crazy high, but not .02- .03 ppm low either. I like .08 - .15 ppm. I’ve literally had Acro’s check out in .03 ppm PO4. It’s always in a new system when that happens. It would have went differently in a 3 yr old system. Sometimes, even in a mature system if you push them with too much light and they’re sitting in .01-.02 they will outgrow their resources and start to STN or check out. I’ve also had frags come from well established ULN systems barely surviving in residual’s and if the PO4 swings 0.1 ppm or more…some will check out, but others won’t blink. This hobby is very interesting and it’s extremely difficult to pinpoint certainty, because every system is different.

BTW, if you YouTube Rico’s Aquariums and go back in his videos to some of his first ones you’ll see a good example of a very low nutrient tank where the corals were living on residual’s from fish poop. They were doing ok, because the tank was so established.

I think your observations about New v Old systems is an important one. I wonder if commercial coral growers would agree?

 

[piranhaman00]

Even with corals that wouldn’t be an issue

 

[Reefahholic]

I think your observations about New v Old systems is an important one. I wonder if commercial coral growers would agree?

Not sure, but I’d be interested to listen to the opinions of any coral farmer’s.

 

[Reefahholic]

Even with corals that wouldn’t be an issue

Depends on which corals. Some would have major issues with a 0.38 ppm swing.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Richard Ross has great corals at 1.24 ppm phosphate:

Skeptical Reefkeeping 9: Test Kits, Chasing Numbers and Phosphate

By Rich Ross and Chris Jury There are many standard parameters in the reefkeeping world that aquarists strive to match in their home reefs – water quality,

reefs.com

 

[piranhaman00]

Depends on which corals. Some would have major issues with a 0.38 ppm swing.

No they wouldn’t

 

[Alex's Nano Reef]

Let it rideeeed

 

[Kniezz]

Hey all, i just wanted to share my experience with a PO4 disaster.
I run a 20g cube with a few LPS and a encrusting Monti, which i have set up 15 months ago, since a while i have been dealing with PO4 bottoming out on me.
I started dosing DSR PO4+ to prevent my nitrates from rising to much, all seemed to work well. To make my life easier i purchased a single wifi dosing pump, calibrated it and set up the dosage, once i was finished setting it up i pressed ON.

Turns out that was the biggest mistake until now in my reefing 'career'.
As i pressed ON, the pump didn't start the program but it just started pumping. Before i got aware of that, the whole bottle was EMPTY! That means i just dosed +-150ml in my 20g tank, resulting in a (calculated) level of 25ppm of PO4!

I did several 50% waterchanges that night, and dosed Lanthanum Chloride the next morning after i drove to the other side of the country to get it.

Luckily i managed to get the PO4 level back down to 0,1ppm within 24 hours.

It is now 2 weeks later and the corals all have survived, my Zoa's even got a little bit more color.

I think i got really lucky there! Did anybody else have such a mistake happen to them?