Help dosing SeaChem Flourish

[g5flier]

In an effort to battle Dino's I'm wanting to increase the Phosphate in my reef tank to 0.1ppm, its now 0.01ppm. This is the recommendation of the Dino thread on R2R. I'll also be increasing my Nitrate's to 5ppm (now at <1ppm) and running UV.

I'd like to accomplish this slowly, maybe over 7-10 days, so an increase of 0.01ppm per day. The bottle says nothing other then to dose 5ml per 60 gallons, but that doesn't tell me anything about how much that will raise the Phosphate. Does anyone have any experience doing this that can share a formula? Like dosing Xml per gallon will raise NO3 by Xppm. Thanks !

Here is the product I'm referring to.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I'd personally have elected to dose food grade sodium or potassium phosphate, but this product will do.

They say:

http://www.seachem.com/flourish-phosporus.php

Use 2.5 mL (half a cap) for each 80 L (20 US gallons)

The beginner dose raises phosphorus by 0.05 mg/L (0.15 mg/L phosphate).

So if you want to boost phosphate by 0.01 ppm, dose 1/15th of this value, or 0.17 mL per 20 gallons

You may not detect that value for a few days when dosing since much of it may bind to rock or be sucked up by organisms.

 

[g5flier]

I'd personally have elected to dose food grade sodium or potassium phosphate, but this product will do.

They say:

http://www.seachem.com/flourish-phosporus.php

Use 2.5 mL (half a cap) for each 80 L (20 US gallons)

The beginner dose raises phosphorus by 0.05 mg/L (0.15 mg/L phosphate).

So if you want to boost phosphate by 0.01 ppm, dose 1/15th of this value, or 0.17 mL per 20 gallons

You may not detect that value for a few days when dosing since much of it may bind to rock or be sucked up by organisms.

Excellent,thank you Randy! I'm not convinced that increasing nutrients is the way to get rid of Dino's however several people seem to have had good success with that method. Going to give it a go and see!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Excellent,thank you Randy! I'm not convinced that increasing nutrients is the way to get rid of Dino's however several people seem to have had good success with that method. Going to give it a go and see!

I think it is worth a try, not because nutrients hurt Dino’s, but because it may allow other organisms such as algae to compete with the Dino’s, possibly competing for a trace element of some sort (hence why water changes may also be undesirable with Dino’s).

 

[g5flier]

I think it is worth a try, not because nutrients hurt Dino’s, but because it may allow other organisms such as algae to compete with the Dino’s, possibly competing for a trace element of some sort (hence why water changes may also be undesirable with Dino’s).

The "Dino removal recipe" says to: 1) increase nutrients 2) run UV 3) run carbon and change frequently 4) stop any coral feeding and adding amino's 5) weekly water changes, but that's mostly to remove sand and in my tank I run a bare bottom so I'll take your advise and limit water changes to avoid adding additional trace elements.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The "Dino removal recipe" says to: 1) increase nutrients 2) run UV 3) run carbon and change frequently 4) stop any coral feeding and adding amino's 5) weekly water changes, but that's mostly to remove sand and in my tank I run a bare bottom so I'll take your advise and limit water changes to avoid adding additional trace elements.

I’ve heard many times that water changes can make dino’s worse, but luckily, I never got dino’s, so I have no first hand experience.

 

[O'l Salty]

Nice dosing calculators: http://www.seachem.com/calculators.php

 

[Scott.h]

Use the stuff randy linked. I have been using a generic form of that now in two tanks for a long time. Throw the instructions out the window. I dose both tanks .25 ml each day in 100 gallons of water volume to keep it around .015. Works great. I feed the tank in the evenings and dose in the mornings to keep Po4 more stable. I've seen the biggest benefit with my lps from adding it.

 

[g5flier]

Nice dosing calculators: http://www.seachem.com/calculators.php

Thank you for posting this, thats a great link!

 

[jasonrusso]

I'd personally have elected to dose food grade sodium or potassium phosphate, but this product will do.

They say:

http://www.seachem.com/flourish-phosporus.php

Use 2.5 mL (half a cap) for each 80 L (20 US gallons)

The beginner dose raises phosphorus by 0.05 mg/L (0.15 mg/L phosphate).

So if you want to boost phosphate by 0.01 ppm, dose 1/15th of this value, or 0.17 mL per 20 gallons

You may not detect that value for a few days when dosing since much of it may bind to rock or be sucked up by organisms.

I bought some flourish to dose Phosphate, but I didn't realize that it was potassium Phosphate. I see you recommended sodium Phosphate (Amazon?), but what about calcium Phosphate? Bisodium or monosodium?

What are the side effects of putting potassium out of balance? I don't think I could make a dent in the calcium or sodium concentration, but I feel I could swing the potassium.

 

[Scott.h]

I bought some flourish to dose Phosphate, but I didn't realize that it was potassium Phosphate. I see you recommended sodium Phosphate (Amazon?), but what about calcium Phosphate? Bisodium or monosodium?

What are the side effects of putting potassium out of balance? I don't think I could make a dent in the calcium or sodium concentration, but I feel I could swing the potassium.

Potassium being higher shouldn’t have any effect, even though dosing a few ml won’t even register a difference. I dose potassium nitrate and potassium phosphate daily. I still have to add 5 ml of regular potassium weekly to keep it up. (No water changes). This particular tank isn’t super stocked with corals either. But I do keep a basketball size ball of chaeto in the fuge which is what uses the potassium.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I bought some flourish to dose Phosphate, but I didn't realize that it was potassium Phosphate. I see you recommended sodium Phosphate (Amazon?), but what about calcium Phosphate? Bisodium or monosodium?

What are the side effects of putting potassium out of balance? I don't think I could make a dent in the calcium or sodium concentration, but I feel I could swing the potassium.

Sodium or potassium phosphate is fine. Calcium phosphate likely won't dissolve.

 

[Johnson556]

I dosed this a well over month ago and ever since the tips on my acro's have been dying. No alk spikes, no changes to my lights etc. Granted I overdosed and went from 0.01-0.08. Once at 0.08, it dropped back to 0.01-0.02 in a few days. Is there any chance, that this being designed for planted aquariums the metals in it could be causing the havoc in my tank?

Also how did your dosing experience go?

 

[Jberge]

Sodium or potassium phosphate is fine. Calcium phosphate likely won't dissolve.

Would you be able to give me a link for either of the products you would use? Also, how do you calculate dosing?

 

[MrObscura]

Increasing nutrients works. I had dinos and it was killing corals, so I fed like crazy, didn't do any water changes, or clean the glass for 3 weeks and after that dino were gone.

The reason it seems to work is dinos are very simplistic organism that need very little to survive but can't out compete other organisms. So in a low nutrient environment that can't support other life dinos thrive.

But I wouldnt bother dosing anything just feed more until you get an elevated po4 and the glass is dirty as hell.

 

[Jberge]

Increasing nutrients works. I had dinos and it was killing corals, so I fed like crazy, didn't do any water changes, or clean the glass for 3 weeks and after that dino were gone.

The reason it seems to work is dinos are very simplistic organism that need very little to survive but can't out compete other organisms. So in a low nutrient environment that can't support other life dinos thrive.

But I wouldnt bother dosing anything just feed more until you get an elevated po4 and the glass is dirty as hell.

I’ve let it go and even when the glass is dirty as hell it seems to only be covered in dinos. I can try again though, just getting tired of it

 

[MrObscura]

I’ve let it go and even when the glass is dirty as hell it seems to only be covered in dinos. I can try again though, just getting tired of it

That sucks.

 

[Jberge]

That sucks.

Yes it does! Maybe I need to really start feeding like crazy

 

[Rishov]

Nice dosing calculators: http://www.seachem.com/calculators.php

So mines a 25.25gal reef tank and my current po4 stands around 0.0ppm and want to raise it to 0.1ppm (Nitrate 25-50ish ppm) so do I need to dose 1.9ml of seachem flourish(phosphorous) or 0.17ml of po4, just want to be clear ?!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Seachem is not clear in that calculator whether it is phosphorous or phosphate that it is calculating, but you will also likely need to dose much more than it says to stabillize at a target level. You may well need daily dosing.

I'd elect 0.03 ppm on that calculator for a start and add it each day for a few days and see what results you get in the tank.