Controlling Phosphates

[blalaw87]

Good Evening and Happy Halloween!

The last couple times I have measured my phosphates they have started to climb. I am currently using the Hanna Phosphate ULR checker. I have a 425xl and my current phosphate measurements are:

Oct 18th: 0.11 ppm
Oct 24th: 15 Gallon water change (Working a weekly water change right now to bring up my salinity slowly. It started at 1.021 about 5-6 weeks ago and I am trying to bring it up to 1.025 or 1.026. Right now I am at 1.023 and should be a little higher after tomorrows water change)
Oct 25th: 0.16 ppm
Oct 31th: 0.23 ppm
Planning on another 15 gallon water change tomorrow just letting the salt mix over night

A couple things have changed since the 0.11 measurement which is the lowest I have ever had and and am not sure what could be causing the phosphate to rise or if it could be a combination of all of them at all and just wanted to get some advice.

• I have started to dose twice a week Red Sea AB+ for a couple weeks now and not sure if that would be driving my phosphate up at all
• I have started to feed my fish more as well. Before I was feeding twice a day once in the morning and once in the evening but I have switched to three times a day:
  • Morning: Flakes, Mid Day: Flakes or 1/2 Cube Frozen Mysis Shrimp, Evening: Depending on Mid Day just swap between flakes and shrimp. So flakes twice a day and shrimp once a day. I usually turn off return pump and keep my wavemaker running and turn the pump back on about 15 min later
  • My current bio situation: 2 Clowns, 1 Cleaner shrimp, 1 Flame Hawkfish, 1 Dispar Anthid (1 had one die a couple days after I brought it home but the other one has been acting fine), Clean up crew featuring snails, hermits and 1 medium sized conch,
• I recently re did my aquascape and moved my life rock around. I am adding more rock and about 2 weeks or so ago I started adding dry carbisea base rock. I just started with two piece and plan on adding one piece every couple weeks or should I space it out more?

I wasn't sure if anything above was causing anything I am not aware of or if I should start maybe removing some phosphate using a single reactor with some GFO or some other method. Thanks for all the help!

 

[vetteguy53081]

I simply use chemipure blue or elite which will lower it and keep it and nitrate in check

 

[blalaw87]

Is that something that I should be worried about harming anything else like corals?

I didn’t think my nitrates are too high. Right now running at around 7 or 8 for my nitrates. I don’t want to get them too low where they bottom out.

 

[arking_mark]

I've had good success through in/out regulation and have progressed to heavy in/out.

My ins are typically food/waste and out is filtration and water changes.

Dry foods are heavier in PO4 and wet/frozen foods heavier in NO3.

My outs are coral/algae, roller mat (mechanical filtration), refugium (biological uptake of NO3/PO4), a skimmer (mostly used for pH regulation but provides some nutrient export) , and 1% daily AWC.

Maturity of the tank is also critical for regulation as new substrate and rock can act like a PO4 sponge. Also, if you don't have enough coral/algae, you are missing a key nutrient out mechanism,

Generally speaking, I monitor PO4/NO3 once a week now and have been tweaking my dry vs wet/frozen feedings to maintain stable NO3/PO4 levels.

 

[Lavey29]

Is that something that I should be worried about harming anything else like corals?

I didn’t think my nitrates are too high. Right now running at around 7 or 8 for my nitrates. I don’t want to get them too low where they bottom out.

Do you have a refugium? As Vetteguy indicated chemipure works well. You can add a bag to your sump that covers half your total volume so you don't drop numbers to fast. Just walk it back down to the .06 range.

 

[blalaw87]

I don’t have a refugium currently but just researching them. I had a 425 which has the V3 sump and comes with the baffle to create a refigium so I might look into that! I will look at the chemipure as well and and take it slow with maybe a dose for half my volume to bring it down!

 

[reefz]

Brs gfo for phosphates, Biopellets for nitrates. Keeps the low around 0.02 and 10ppm.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Is that something that I should be worried about harming anything else like corals?

I didn’t think my nitrates are too high. Right now running at around 7 or 8 for my nitrates. I don’t want to get them too low where they bottom out.

Phosphate at 0.23 ppm is not harming corals, if that is the question.

 

[Lavey29]

Phosphate at 0.23 ppm is not harming corals, if that is the question.

Doesn't it slow down coral growth and lead to nuisance algae?

What level is considered high phosphate? Over .4 ?

 

[homer1475]

I keep my phosphates in the 0.1 to .02 range, and have had them as high as 0.6. Never been an issue as far as growth is concerned.

I have read high phosphates slows growth, but not sure whats considered high?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Doesn't it slow down coral growth and lead to nuisance algae?

What level is considered high phosphate? Over .4 ?

This tank has 1 ppm phosphate:

Skeptical Reefkeeping 9: Test Kits, Chasing Numbers and Phosphate

By Rich Ross and Chris Jury There are many standard parameters in the reefkeeping world that aquarists strive to match in their home reefs – water quality,

reefs.com

 

[Lavey29]

This tank has 1 ppm phosphate:

Skeptical Reefkeeping 9: Test Kits, Chasing Numbers and Phosphate

By Rich Ross and Chris Jury There are many standard parameters in the reefkeeping world that aquarists strive to match in their home reefs – water quality,

reefs.com

I think very low phosphate or 0 cause much worse problems and .1 is not high to me or .2 for that matter so is there such a thing as to high level for phosphate? I have been hovering in the .07 to .1 range with managed fish feeding and feeding corals every other day. My levels have been over .3 previously but as I added more corals the numbers stabilized better.

 

[shadow_k]

My phosphates are kinda high

I am working on lowering it but I don’t have any algae at all

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Some folks misunderstand the relationship between nutrients and algae.

Algae needs many things to thrive, including sufficient N and P (also a lot of other elements such as iron and manganese, light, space, freedom from herbivores, etc.). If ANY one of these is insufficient, the algae will not thrive. It needs ALL of them.

The operative word is "sufficient". 0.2 ppm phosphate is certainly sufficient for many algae. Even 0.05 ppm is for many species.

The thing that DOES NOT happen is that if you have way more than enough to be sufficient (of anything), more phosphate doesn't make it grow faster. 10 ppm phosphate will not make algae grow any faster than 0.2 ppm phosphate for most species in a typical reef tank. Something else is limiting the growth. In the ocean, N, P, and iron can all be limiting in different places or for different species. herbivores also greatly limit algae in the ocean.