Confused on phosphate

[rick13]

My reef is 45 gallons, if I don’t dos phosphate I always get a reading of 0 on Hanna checker.
Alk 8.3
N03 12 ppm
P04 0
Ph low 8.1 high 8.4
When I dos p04 alk goes up about .5 dkh ,phosphate shows up .02 and ph goes down low 7.8 high 8.2
I have 4 good size fish and feed pellets once a day, frozen once a day, nori every other day and reef Chilli 2 a week. Just wondering if I have enough organic phosphate in the water and not to worry about testing. I’m worried about keeping p04 at 0 because I don’t want Dino’s coming back. I do have some bubble algae , not sure if that’s what’s consuming phosphate. Tank seems to be better without dosing p04 but like I said worried about Dino’s

 

[TheSheff]

My reef is 45 gallons, if I don’t dos phosphate I always get a reading of 0 on Hanna checker.
Alk 8.3
N03 12 ppm
P04 0
Ph low 8.1 high 8.4
When I dos p04 alk goes up about .5 dkh ,phosphate shows up .02 and ph goes down low 7.8 high 8.2
I have 4 good size fish and feed pellets once a day, frozen once a day, nori every other day and reef Chilli 2 a week. Just wondering if I have enough organic phosphate in the water and not to worry about testing. I’m worried about keeping p04 at 0 because I don’t want Dino’s coming back. I do have some bubble algae , not sure if that’s what’s consuming phosphate. Tank seems to be better without dosing p04 but like I said worried about Dino’s

Do you have any filtration like GFO or a skimmer running on your tank at all times?

You at least want to have detectable phosphates.

It is true that algae will absorb some of those nutrients.

I cant say i've ever heard of alkalinity increasing when dosing phosphate, what product are you dosing?

 

[rick13]

Gfo no, skimmer yes running 24/7
Didn’t think dosing phosphate would raise alk maybe just bothered corals so the weren’t absorbing as much alk. Phosphate is from fishohex. Didn’t think skimmer would stripe that much out. I will keep skimmer off for awhile and see what happens.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

My reef is 45 gallons, if I don’t dos phosphate I always get a reading of 0 on Hanna checker.
Alk 8.3
N03 12 ppm
P04 0
Ph low 8.1 high 8.4
When I dos p04 alk goes up about .5 dkh ,phosphate shows up .02 and ph goes down low 7.8 high 8.2
I have 4 good size fish and feed pellets once a day, frozen once a day, nori every other day and reef Chilli 2 a week. Just wondering if I have enough organic phosphate in the water and not to worry about testing. I’m worried about keeping p04 at 0 because I don’t want Dino’s coming back. I do have some bubble algae , not sure if that’s what’s consuming phosphate. Tank seems to be better without dosing p04 but like I said worried about Dino’s

What exactly are you dosing for phosphate?

 

[rick13]

KH2PO4 Mono Potassium Phosphate and RO/DI Water.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

KH2PO4 Mono Potassium Phosphate and RO/DI Water.

OK, that should not boost or deplete alk noticeably.