High Phospate

josephxsxn · Mar 30, 2021

Not sure if you have a test kid problem or not. But one of the things I never realized until this year was that rocks can absorb and release phosphates. The thread below is a great read.. I think Randy also has a link to someone doing a test with just aragonite rock to see how much phos it can absorb.

Did I unlock all the phosphate from 100#s of live rock?

Hi, @Randy Holmes-Farley Several months ago I did a tank clean up. I pulled all the rocks one by one, soaked them in straight vinegar for at least 15-20 minutes, washed, rinsed, and put back into the reef. My question, is it possible that at 2.5ph, the vinegar has unbound phosphate from my...

www.reef2reef.com

AngelFly · Mar 30, 2021

So I lowered sg due to triton labs telling me to lower to 1.024. The red sea test kits are difficult to read which may explain my numbers being off slightly. I mixed a bath of salt to specs 34sg and get 14.25dkh vs the 11.5dkh on box. Given that I redid my tank numbers and get 15.25dkh. assuming my numbers are off 3dkh that put me right on the 12.25dkh which is recommended. However my cal is 400 mg/l and mg still low at 800mg/l. I will add reef foundation mg supplement to try and balance. The reef buffer additive would also explain increased KH. Still curious why my sebae went south.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 30, 2021

I think you are trying to do too many things at once. Slow down and stop making changes. Spend the time talkign to folks about the issues.

Your magnesium is not 800 ppm. That is test error. Maybe you are reading the syringe backwards.

if salinity is fine, your magnesium is fine (presumably Triton showed it above 1300 ppm?) and I'd focus on other things.

Your alk target is excessively high. While that may be fine for advanced reefers trying for max coral growth rates, trying to maintain 12.25 dKH will be challenging and take a lot more effort than maintaining 7-8 dKH. Just ignore the alk and let it fall.