Another 0 phosphate question

jeffrey750750 · Jan 5, 2021

I was using tropic marin phosphate tester which was at zero. So to make sure I bought a hanna phosphate url tester and confirmed 0 phosphates. If I have green macro "lettuce" in my refugium and some hair algae on the outside of my skimmer I do have some phosphates right. Their just being used up? I don't really want to dose anything, I feed heavy already

PBar · Jan 5, 2021

Hello!
A suggestion from Mike Paletta: he blows the base of the corals with a turkey blaster everyday to remove detritus.
Believe me, as much clean any tank can look, a lot of things will pop up... and then you should probably siphon it out.
He did a test on this “dirty“ water... and the level of phosphates was 3x higher.

As such, you can try it also.
Disclosure: I don’t know how it is your system... so go slow if starts to blow too many dirty things at once

Waters · Jan 5, 2021

If your algae is growing, and you coral looks good.....I wouldn't worry about that number. Chances are, yes, it is being used up. That phosphate test only shows usable, available phosphate.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jan 5, 2021

I would be concerned about the potential for dinos and I would dose or feed more. even if corals look fine.

jeffrey750750 · Jan 5, 2021

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
I would be concerned about the potential for dinos and I would dose or feed more. even if corals look fine.

No, we dont want dinos. I had those in my other tank before. Horrible.
The tank in question is a 180gal, the only coral is a gorgonian and 12 fish. I was taking this tank slow without adding any coral just yet. Its only been up for 5 months today actually. Other than feeding more which product would you recommend?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jan 5, 2021

jeffrey750750 said:
No, we dont want dinos. I had those in my other tank before. Horrible.
The tank in question is a 180gal, the only coral is a gorgonian and 12 fish. I was taking this tank slow without adding any coral just yet. Its only been up for 5 months today actually. Other than feeding more which product would you recommend?

Food grade sodium nitrate and sodium phosphate. They are cheap from online places like amazon.

Aqua Man · Jan 6, 2021

With all those fish and your food input. Alga is growing some. New tank. Po4 is getting sucked up by the sand and rocks too.
If it was my tank, test po4 regularly to get a good base line. Keep a close eye out for Dinos and order some po4 just in case.

Never tried turkey blasting and then testing, could give a different reading.

Sharebear · Feb 3, 2021

My phosphate has been showing 0 for the past 2 weeks but still getting cyano on my sand bed.... bought neophos and contemplating to dos or not..
I’ll try the turkey baster option blast the sand a bit.. move stuff around and try getting water from low side of the water to test... blah! Hope it shows higher than 0.. Bc I honestly don’t think it can be 0 with the darn cyano keep coming back..

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 3, 2021

Sharebear said:
My phosphate has been showing 0 for the past 2 weeks but still getting cyano on my sand bed.... bought neophos and contemplating to dos or not..
I’ll try the turkey baster option blast the sand a bit.. move stuff around and try getting water from low side of the water to test... blah! Hope it shows higher than 0.. Bc I honestly don’t think it can be 0 with the darn cyano keep coming back..

phosphate can be much lower in the water column than on/in the sand if there is organic detritus degrading in the sand bed, or if the sand has a coating of phosphate on the grain surfaces.

Sharebear · Feb 3, 2021

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
phosphate can be much lower in the water column than on/in the sand if there is organic detritus degrading in the sand bed, or if the sand has a coating of phosphate on the grain surfaces.

Ah... maybe I shouldn’t test phosphate so much and freak out.. and just see how my corals and sand beds are doing..
Thinking of using KZ cyano clean or KZ snow coral... but I’m not sure if that would go against the triton method i started... oh I wish I paid more attention in chemistry in high school..