Cannot achieve traceable phosphate for love nor money

[cdw79]

Tank is 210 gallons altogether and has been up for about 3 months. I've been checking nitrate and phosphate at 24 hour intervals for several days now. Nitrates remain consistent at about 50, yet phosphates never register- 0.00 on my Hanna checker. I've gone from adding 15, to 20, to 40, to now 75 ml per day of NeoPhos with no difference in my reading come 24 hours later. Tonight I put in 100ml of the stuff and I'm getting to a point where this just seems insane.

I've never had this issue as part of cycling a tank. Definitely still experiencing the ugly stage- dealt with Dinos about a month ago, now I've been getting cyano. I'd let it run its course but for the fact I have some torches I brought over from my previous tank that are struggling. My LFS is suspicious that the Marco Rock I used (which I have never used before) may be absorbing the phosphate I'm adding, but that's the only lead I have.

Am I doing something wrong? The directions on NeoPhos don't actually address what to do if nitrate stays level but phosphates never register, as I understand at least, so I'm kind of at a loss (and ideally would like to avoid spending a fortune on neophos that doesn't seem to be doing anything right now). Any help would be really appreciated

 

[PocketGoose]

Dry rock start?

EDIT: Sorry I skimmed over the macro rock part. I’ve dealt with the same thing and even after a year into the tank I’ll still have to add some PO4/NO3 every so often. The first few months were filled with dinos like you mentioned. I was dumping absurd amounts of neophos and nitro into a 14 gallon tank, only to see it hit 0 the next morning. Used macro rock myself

 

[ReefingDreams]

What are you using to test phosphates? How many days have you been dosing phosphate?

I do think it is at least partially related to your rock.

 

[saltcats]

That doesn't sound out of line to me - pulled up my dosing records to look and I was dosing 3ml/day of NeoPhos into a 10 gallon tank for over a week before I had even the slightest tint of detectable phosphates. It really seems to absorb fast, at least at first.

It sounds as though you've only been dosing the phos for a few days so far?

You could look into getting the dry chemicals for a cheaper alternative since you need such a large amount. I bought some to make my own phosphate solution (haven't actually mixed it up yet); $10 got me enough for dosing several hundred thousand gallons

 

[gbroadbridge]

Tank is 210 gallons altogether and has been up for about 3 months. I've been checking nitrate and phosphate at 24 hour intervals for several days now. Nitrates remain consistent at about 50, yet phosphates never register- 0.00 on my Hanna checker. I've gone from adding 15, to 20, to 40, to now 75 ml per day of NeoPhos with no difference in my reading come 24 hours later. Tonight I put in 100ml of the stuff and I'm getting to a point where this just seems insane.

I've never had this issue as part of cycling a tank. Definitely still experiencing the ugly stage- dealt with Dinos about a month ago, now I've been getting cyano. I'd let it run its course but for the fact I have some torches I brought over from my previous tank that are struggling. My LFS is suspicious that the Marco Rock I used (which I have never used before) may be absorbing the phosphate I'm adding, but that's the only lead I have.

Am I doing something wrong? The directions on NeoPhos don't actually address what to do if nitrate stays level but phosphates never register, as I understand at least, so I'm kind of at a loss (and ideally would like to avoid spending a fortune on neophos that doesn't seem to be doing anything right now). Any help would be really appreciated

The rock will bind an enormous amount of phosphate to start with.

I'd suggest sourcing some sodium phosphate powder and make your own dosing solution as it will be a lot cheaper and purer than a commercial additive like Neophos which is of unknown composition and purity.

 

[Miami Reef]

Just keep dosing it. You got this. It’s only temporary until the rocks saturate.

 

[cdw79]

Seems like it's the rock then! What a nightmare lol. I also forgot to mention the tank is fallow right now, but I only have a couple more weeks of that left thankfully. Brook isn't fun.

I've been dosing for a week and a half or so, but going to keep it up. My only concern is the coral. At the moment I am pumping this tank full of neophos, which presumably makes my phosphate fly up, but then back down to 0 within 24 hours. I am desperately trying to keep it detectable for the corals' sake, but I'm also wary of unintentionally engineering some giant fluctuations in the process. Any thoughts?

For reference, the torch is a 12 head HG I've had forever, so it's definitely a big priority to keep it going.

 

[saltcats]

Seems like it's the rock then! What a nightmare lol. I also forgot to mention the tank is fallow right now, but I only have a couple more weeks of that left thankfully. Brook isn't fun.

I've been dosing for a week and a half or so, but going to keep it up. My only concern is the coral. At the moment I am pumping this tank full of neophos, which presumably makes my phosphate fly up, but then back down to 0 within 24 hours. I am desperately trying to keep it detectable for the corals' sake, but I'm also wary of unintentionally engineering some giant fluctuations in the process. Any thoughts?

For reference, the torch is a 12 head HG I've had forever, so it's definitely a big priority to keep it going.

Purely anecdotal but I felt my tank reacted well when I split my 3ml dose into 1.5ml morning and evening, to help even things out. Are you dosing manually or with a doser? Either way, if you can split the dose into several smaller ones I feel that has to help keep it more stable.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I've been dosing for a week and a half or so, but going to keep it up. My only concern is the coral. At the moment I am pumping this tank full of neophos, which presumably makes my phosphate fly up, but then back down to 0 within 24 hours. I am desperately trying to keep it detectable for the corals' sake, but I'm also wary of unintentionally engineering some giant fluctuations in the process. Any thoughts?

How much are you dosing? I agree with others that more is needed. 0.1 ppm phosphate per day is not unreasonable when trying to first bring it up.

 

[cdw79]

I am dosing progressively more every day. Yesterday I did 100 ml and at 24 hours later I still had a 0 phosphate reading. Upped the dose further today. Probably a good point from @saltcats to split this dose up- I have been doing it all at once originally because of the neophos instructions, but maybe worth spreading it out. It's all just really frustrating right now, as I've never had this much of a struggle with a new tank. Making me really question why I used Marco Rocks, especially if it's going to lead to coal dying on me

 

[gbroadbridge]

I am dosing progressively more every day. Yesterday I did 100 ml and at 24 hours later I still had a 0 phosphate reading. Upped the dose further today. Probably a good point from @saltcats to split this dose up- I have been doing it all at once originally because of the neophos instructions, but maybe worth spreading it out. It's all just really frustrating right now, as I've never had this much of a struggle with a new tank. Making me really question why I used Marco Rocks, especially if it's going to lead to coal dying on me

My tank was set up with 50/50 Marco rock and Life Rock just about 3 years ago and I had to dose a lot of Phospate to start.

No real live rock at all.

I've never had problems with coral, but I left SPS for 12 months.

 

[Miami Reef]

My tank was set up with 50/50 Marco rock and Life Rock just about 3 years ago and I had to dose a lot of Phospate to start.

No real live rock at all.

I've never had problems with coral, but I left SPS for 12 months.

Incredible!!!

 

[Nburg's Reef]

I dosed trisodium phosphate when my tank was new to keep it up... then one day I guess my rocks became saturated and my phos shot up really quick. now I couldn't drop it below 0.1 without drastic measures. Im fine with 0.1 ppm with a heavily stocked SPS tank, but just watch phosphate if you dose because once your substrates are saturated, you may never need to dose phos again and it may then turn into a struggle to keep it low.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I am dosing progressively more every day. Yesterday I did 100 ml and at 24 hours later I still had a 0 phosphate reading. Upped the dose further today. Probably a good point from @saltcats to split this dose up- I have been doing it all at once originally because of the neophos instructions, but maybe worth spreading it out. It's all just really frustrating right now, as I've never had this much of a struggle with a new tank. Making me really question why I used Marco Rocks, especially if it's going to lead to coal dying on me

Spreading out the dosing is not needed.

It just takes a lot, and the Brightwell product is quite dilute.

DIY food grade sodium phosphate is much less expensive and has a purity guarantee the Brightwell product lacks.

 

[twentyleagues]

Throw some reefroids in there. I can see a noticable increase in po4 on a salifert test kit in short order. My hammers, rfas, zoas like it my torches not so much.

 

[Troylee]

Reef roids! Corals will love it and po4 will shoot right up!

 

[saltcats]

My phos has been detectable recently (low, but detectable) without any recent dosing, using all dry rock. So don't give up! It'll saturate and stop absorbing everything you add

 

[jerrod]

You stated the tank is fallow right now, are you still feeding it actual food other than dosing Neo phos. Reef Roids or oyster feast helped me raise my phosphates when they plummeted.

 

[Reefahholic]

The rock is binding. You need to dose it up to 0.15 and it will saturate faster. Check it with a Hanna Phosphorus ULR. I’d spread out the dose as much as possible. It’s more beneficial for the tank and corals. PM if you need help.

 

[DenverSaltyFarm]

I had the same problem with a 200 gallon tank so I made my own very strong solution to dose my tank daily. I used monopotassium phosphate and mixed 10grams of that powder to 1000ML of RODI water to make my solution.

1ml of that solution would raise my 200 gallon tank .01 Phosphate. After dosing my tank would use up that phosphate fast so through the course of 24 hrs on a doser I would dose 6ml of that solution per day spread out to slowly raise my phosphate to .1 phosphate after about a week. I had to do this for about 3 months before my tank would hold phosphate on its own at .08 without dosing anything. hopefully this helps

James' Planted Tank - Dosing Calculator

this is the calculator I used to make my solution I used the potassium phosphate setting to calculate my monopotassium phosphate solution.