Angry Phosphate Man: Mitigating High Phosphates In Your Reef Aquarium

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Today let's talk about.......Mitigating High Phosphates In Your Reef Aquarium...dum dum dum!

Angry Phosphate Man

The first thing we need to get out of the way is that fact that phosphates is not something that can be avoided. It can't be avoided but it can certainly be minimized. Why is that important? Well if you like uncontrollable algae then you need not worry about your level of tank phosphates. BUT if you're like most reef aquarium hobbyists then you want a clear, beautiful and nuisance algae free tank! So if phosphates can't be avoided then how do you mitigate it in your aquarium? Let's talk about it!

1. What can you do to keep phosphates under control and at levels that you are comfortable with? What are some things YOU do?

2. What is a comfortable level of phosphates for you in your aquarium?


image via @ReefNerd

 

[vabben]

I run GFO to help keep my phosphate levels under control. I keep my phosphates levels around .08 - .15. Once my levels reach .15 I know its time to change out my GFO.

I love my Hanna ULR phosphate checker.

 

[PokeFish]

I have chaeto and red ogo and undetectable phosphates :OOO

 

[lapin]

Mine are at .147 Hanna UL checker
Mixed reef of mostly soft ( nems, shrooms leathers and LPS corals)
I do run GFO
My NPS tank is plumbed to my main tank. It gets fed a lot of small foods Oysterfeast , R.O.E, Phytofeast, Rotifers ect...

 

[jda]

I use a fuge, skim heavy and change water from time to time. This keeps me about 1-3 parts per billion on Hannah Ultra Low - I do not like to get over 10 ppb. I will use some Lanthanum Chloride to treat new-to-me used rocks that have been mistreated - easy and cheap.

 

[piranhaman00]

I just started LaCl dosing, incredibly effective and cheap. I broke down two refugiums in place of just dosing this once a week.

 

[SDK]

1. What can you do to keep phosphates under control and at levels that you are comfortable with? What are some things YOU do?

I run a good skimmer/refugium combo that keeps my nitrates around 2 with no other intervention, but my phosphates slowly creep up over time. I keep a small amount of GFO in my secondary filter sock slot and do a small quarterly dose of LaCl when it starts drifting up close to .1 ppm

2. What is a comfortable level of phosphates for you in your aquarium?

For me, anything between .02 and .08 ppm seems to be the sweet spot.

 

[zoaprince]

I have mostly Zoas so I actually WANT higher phosphates. I'm at ~0.03 right now but would like it around ~0.1. Unfortunately it doesn't budge :/

 

[stanleo]

I have a fuge with chaeto and run my skimmer continuously. I also am strict about 20 gallon water changes every two weeks. My phosphates have never been above 0.1 on Salifert and usually stay at 0.03. I test weekly and if it ever goes above a 0.25 I might start looking at other methods but for now this is all I have to do.

 

[Timfish]

I use GFO and water changes to help control phosphates. I haven't seen a correlation between PO4 and algae so seeing levels above 0.1 or 0.2 mg/l doesn't bother me. (I've seen PO4 levels increase asa nusance algae dissapears when people have asked my to fix algae problems in their systems.) Higher levels aren't too concerning but are reason to start reducing it.

Unfortunately we can't test for all the forms of phosphorus in our systems so there is no magic number for PO4/DIP except keeping it above the .03 threshold level identified by Southampton University. This paper by Christine Ferrior-Paģes, et al, is a good review of phosphorus in marine animals with simbionts. Besides Dissolved Inorganic Phosphorus aka PO4 (DIP) there's also Dissolved Organic Phosphorus (DOP) and Particulate Organic Phosphorus (POP) taht's being used by corals. (So far there doesn't there's no evidence corals are using Particulate Inorganic Phosphorus or PIP.) Here's fig 4 from their paper:

Here's some other papers for those interested:

An experimental mesocosm for long-term studies of reef corals | Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom | Cambridge Core

An experimental mesocosm for long-term studies of reef corals - Volume 92 Issue 4

www.cambridge.org

An Experimental Mesocosm for Longterm Studies of Reef Corals

Phosphate Deficiency:
Nutrient enrichment can increase the susceptibility of reef corals to bleaching:

Nutrient enrichment can increase the susceptibility of reef corals to bleaching - Nature Climate Change

Increased dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) concentrations in sea water have been linked to a reduction of the temperature threshold at which corals bleach, however, the mechanism underlying this change is not known. This phenomenon is now explained in terms of increased phosphatase activities...

www.nature.com

Ultrastructural Biomarkers in Symbiotic Algae Reflect the Availability of Dissolved Inorganic Nutrients and Particulate Food to the Reef Coral Holobiont:

Frontiers | Ultrastructural Biomarkers in Symbiotic Algae Reflect the Availability of Dissolved Inorganic Nutrients and Particulate Food to the Reef Coral Holobiont

Reef building corals associated with symbiotic algae (zooxanthellae) can access environmental nutrients from different sources, most significantly via the up...

www.frontiersin.org

Phosphate deficiency promotes coral bleaching and is reflected by the ultrastructure of symbiotic dinoflagellates

Phosphate deficiency promotes coral bleaching and is reflected by the ultrastructure of symbiotic dinoflagellates

Enrichment of reef environments with dissolved inorganic nutrients is considered a major threat to the survival of corals living in symbiosis with din…

www.sciencedirect.com

Effects of phosphate on growth and skeletal density in the scleractinian coral Acropora muricata: A controlled experimental approach

Effects of phosphate on growth and skeletal density in the scleractinian coral Acropora muricata: A controlled experimental approach

Phosphate contamination can negatively affect corals, modifying growth rates, skeletal density, reproduction, mortality, and zooxanthellae. We determi…

www.sciencedirect.com

High phosphate uptake requirements of the scleractinian coral Stylophora pistillata

High phosphate uptake requirements of the scleractinian coral Stylophora pistillata

SUMMARYSeveral untested aspects of the regulation of inorganic nutrient uptake were examined using nutrient depletion experiments with the symbiotic coral Stylophora pistillata. The total inhibition of phosphate uptake in artificial seawater lacking sodium indicates the involvement of a...

jeb.biologists.org

Phosphorus metabolism of reef organisms with algal symbionts

https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ecm.1217?casa_token=ziDzrEEJ8g0AAAAA%3AHnfuGTIntMdqOtx2ij-lnoTh7qVg8VBhYFz98e60zfBEvx5IcIVGhmlpUYmzIJuqUNVm0sG8_0vth6lq

 

[George209]

I just started LaCl dosing, incredibly effective and cheap. I broke down two refugiums in place of just dosing this once a week.

Whats LaCI and how do you dose it?

 

[CoralReefer13]

Clean food and GFO! Mine are currently around 0.03, but no worries until they reach .10, for me anyway.

 

[George209]

Clean food and GFO!

Thanks

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Thank you all for the great info so far!

 

[Jax15]

Chaeto fuge and Nyos skimming have been highly effective. I prefer to run between 0.03 - 0.05. I don't have much success with zoas, probably because this number is low, but my SPS seem to like it.

What I also like about the fuge is you can just scale your coral feeding along with the growth. After harvesting chaeto, I feed reef roids a bit less. As it grows, I up the feeding. That way the export is usual in balance.

 

[ZodFather]

I run GFO in a media reactor. That, along with regular water changes generally keep my phosphates in my comfort zone, which is generally 0.04-0.11. I know it's time to change out my GFO when they start creeping up into the 0.15-0.20 range.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Phosphate give you algae this was my icp not long ago and the tank was algae free

 

[Marc2952]

I wish i had problems with high phosphates, seems to be easier then dealing with phosphates dropping to 0 everyday lol my phosphates drop from 0.08 to 0.00 every 24 hohrs and theres not a single spec of algae in my tank. I try to keep mines at .15 since it gives me time to catch it before ot drops too much.

 

[schuby]

LaCl is used on here as an abbreviation for lanthanum chloride.

 

[piranhaman00]

Whats LaCI and how do you dose it?

LaCl is used on here as an abbreviation for lanthanum chloride.

LaCl3 is the correct formula but people say LaCl