Does phosphate kill corals?

[Notsolostfish]

I wanna know whats the truth for this? Does phosphate kill corals? Mine got to 0.31 and my duncans are super ticked 2 seperate colonies. Does phosphate stop corals from using calcium, alk, and mag? Im kinda worried. Whats randys input on this

 

[happyhourhero]

I constantly run my reef at .25 and corals look great. I think there are studies out there that indicate phosphate hinders calcium uptake but I personally never worry much about it.

 

[taricha]

I wanna know whats the truth for this? Does phosphate kill corals?

No, it doesn't (at the <1ppm PO4 numbers you are talking about)

Longer answer, here's a coral spawning system with consistent PO4 higher than most anyone would ever recommend.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/rich-ross-home-tank-guess-the-phosphate.296635/post-11884025

 

[Spare time]

The evidence is that is makes them more brittle.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I wanna know whats the truth for this? Does phosphate kill corals? Mine got to 0.31 and my duncans are super ticked 2 seperate colonies. Does phosphate stop corals from using calcium, alk, and mag? Im kinda worried. Whats randys input on this

lol

Truth is a very tricky concept in reefing, but there's no evidence that I have seen that any phosphate level we attain kills any corals. Some great tanks have phosphate north of 1 ppm. They may grow more slowly (or not), or in slightly different skeletal forms (or not) but they clearly thrive.