high phosphate

[Hans24hrs]

Does anyone have any knowledge or ran a system with higher phosphates and had long term success? I always seem to have high nitrates, but my corals look healthy and colorful. The only thing that might be off is the growth rate, they grow slow(er).

Has anyone else had this situation. If so what approach did you take to correcting it or did you just keep everything the same.

 

[WVReefJunkie]

I didn't have a good way to test for phosphates until I got a Hanna digital checker. My phosphates were at 0.50 ppm and I would say that they were at that level most of the time. I started reducing my levels down to 0.04 ppm, I am monitoring growth in my corals now. Will let you know if I think there is a change in growth.

 

[jdpeters]

I felt with my prior set up the worse my water got, the more algae on the glass, the longer without a water change the better more corals looked. mostly softies with some lps. baffles me

 

[Sabellafella]

Does anyone have any knowledge or ran a system with higher phosphates and had long term success? I always seem to have high nitrates, but my corals look healthy and colorful. The only thing that might be off is the growth rate, they grow slow(er).

Has anyone else had this situation. If so what approach did you take to correcting it or did you just keep everything the same.

Well as in how high?

 

[Sabellafella]

 

[Hans24hrs]

Your gonna fall of your chair but at one point they were at 2.02. Yes 2.02 according to triton test. I couldn't believe they were that high. J Asked my buddy to check with his hannah and it was around the same reading. Oddly enough the corals looked really good. Very good polyp extention on the sps and outstanding color.

Made absolutely no sense to me. I have been doing water changes and added gfo reactor (small amount compared to ssystem size). I do have a refugium and use a Natureef system on my tank.

The phosphate has dropped down to about 0.5-0.6 but I know they should be lower

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Does anyone have any knowledge or ran a system with higher phosphates and had long term success? I always seem to have high nitrates, but my corals look healthy and colorful. The only thing that might be off is the growth rate, they grow slow(er).

Has anyone else had this situation. If so what approach did you take to correcting it or did you just keep everything the same.

Certainly there are systems that run with 1 ppm phosphate and higher and look great. Algae likely needs to be limiting in other ways, such as low iron, or lots of herbivores.

here's an example tank:

http://packedhead.net/2014/skeptical-reefkeeping-ix-test-kits-chasing-numbers-and-phosphate/

from it:

Rich’s 150 gallon display, on a 300 gallon system, is running a phosphate level of 1.24 ppm, a level at 24.8 times higher than the often recommended .05 ppm. Photo by Richard Ross.

 

[Sabellafella]

Your gonna fall of your chair but at one point they were at 2.02. Yes 2.02 according to triton test. I couldn't believe they were that high. J Asked my buddy to check with his hannah and it was around the same reading. Oddly enough the corals looked really good. Very good polyp extention on the sps and outstanding color.

Made absolutely no sense to me. I have been doing water changes and added gfo reactor (small amount compared to ssystem size). I do have a refugium and use a Natureef system on my tank.

The phosphate has dropped down to about 0.5-0.6 but I know they should be lower

Lol maybe other people would fall off their chair not me but hey it happens. iMo the beginning stages of a tank is more then likely to accumulate aglae while a mostly large packed tank wouldnt if the p04 would start to creep up. If i were you i wouldnt drop it too fast as it may cause some harm but i keep mine at .05- .1

 

[Hans24hrs]

Tank had been up and running for about 14 months. No algea problems (hope I didn't just jinx myself).

 

[Hans24hrs]

Great video thank you

 

[Hans24hrs]

Certainly there are systems that run with 1 ppm phosphate and higher and look great. Algae likely needs to be limiting in other ways, such as low iron, or lots of herbivores.

here's an example tank:

http://packedhead.net/2014/skeptical-reefkeeping-ix-test-kits-chasing-numbers-and-phosphate/

from it:

Rich’s 150 gallon display, on a 300 gallon system, is running a phosphate level of 1.24 ppm, a level at 24.8 times higher than the often recommended .05 ppm. Photo by Richard Ross.

Great read. I run a 75 gallon refugium with 4 different types of macro. I also have a few mangroves and added some pulsing Xenia to the fuge. My main display is 315, with the 75 gallon fuge and another 60 gallon sump. I should add I do have an 80w UV on the system too. I have 6 tangs in the display the keep the rocks clean. I do notice that after water changes (40 gallons every 10-14 days) my sps don't look as happy as the day before. Not sure why.

In the next week or so I will be switching from 2 part dosing to a calcium reactor. I had an apex outlet stick in a few months ago and it dosed alk for about 12 hours straight. Not great end result from that