Bio-Pellets and Phosphate export no Skimmer

[Chris Villalobos]

I ran a bio-pellet reactor for a couple years and it was so efficient at removing both nitrate and phosphate that my corals suffered (but that's a different story).

I can understand how Nitrate is turned into nitrogen gas to export and my tank still does this without bio-pellets (stays at 2 ppm without skimmer, or macro algae), but where does the phosphate go? Now I run GFO, but was may tank making something like Phosphine Gas when I was running bio-pellets?!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Definitely not phosphine. It doesn't happen and is super toxic.

The N and P may have mostly been incorporated into organism tissues (bacteria, creatures that ate the bacteria, etc.) . N is needed for all proteins, DNA, RNA, etc. P is needed for DNA, RNA, phospholipids, some proteins, etc.

FWIW, with N, we really have no idea how much N2 is produced relative to other uses, such as making new organism tissues, but the fact that organic carbon dosing most often consumes all the nitrate before phosphate runs out would suggest that at least some does.

 

[Chris Villalobos]

Definitely not phosphine. It doesn't happen and is super toxic.

The N and P may have mostly been incorporated into organism tissues (bacteria, creatures that ate the bacteria, etc.) . N is needed for all proteins, DNA, RNA, etc. P is needed for DNA, RNA, phospholipids, some proteins, etc.

FWIW, with N, we really have no idea how much N2 is produced relative to other uses, such as making new organism tissues, but the fact that organic carbon dosing most often consumes all the nitrate before phosphate runs out would suggest that at least some does.

So was I physically exporting phosphorus for years without realizing it? I guess there was a lot of bacteria buildup on my filter socks and every now and then I would remove some hair algae, but it seems that it was always zero while running bio-pellets and now that I quit I use GFO.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

So was I physically exporting phosphorus for years without realizing it? I guess there was a lot of bacteria buildup on my filter socks and every now and then I would remove some hair algae, but it seems that it was always zero while running bio-pellets and now that I quit I use GFO.

yes, that makes sense.

Happy Reefing.