How much phosphate is too much?

[CoralClasher]

I'm not sure where the copper is coming from? Maybe the diotom filters that get rinsed in tap water daily? Should I use Poly filter to remove the copper or will that remove more than I want?

 

[Neoalchemist]

I'm not sure where the copper is coming from? Maybe the diotom filters that get rinsed in tap water daily? Should I use Poly filter to remove the copper or will that remove more than I want?

Copper that high, yeah I would probably run a poly filter.
And If my tank was still consuming po4 like yours I would be trying to dial in a doser for po4.

 

[CoralClasher]

So after I sent the test I did a three day blackout and added a bunch of phosphate and now steady at 0.22 still no GHA

 

[CoralClasher]

 

[CoralClasher]

Yes looking better every day. I've been to this point before thinking Dinos are gone enough to let phosphate drop I know better now not to go below 0.06 but when can I stop using diotom filters? I shut them down for two days so I could bleach the filters and I could see Dinos starting to grow on the glass.

I'm definitely hooked on silicate dosing. Last week I added a sand bed to DT and got a small Dino bloom. I added 200 drops for my 150 gallon setup and everything is looking better again. Is there any reason not to dose silicate all the time?

 

[Neoalchemist]

I don't know of any other than the golden brown look on the sand and on a bare bottom you would barely notice diatoms unless you were looking for them. I did have a vermitid explosion but I'm not sure if I would attribute that to the the silicates, the diatoms, or all the bacteria I was adding.

 

[CoralClasher]

I don't know of any other than the golden brown look on the sand and on a bare bottom you would barely notice diatoms unless you were looking for them. I did have a vermitid explosion but I'm not sure if I would attribute that to the the silicates, the diatoms, or all the bacteria I was adding.

So I added 200 drops four days in a row and diotoms are actually looking Dinos long strings? Under microscope didn't find Dinos just diotoms linked together to form strings.

 

[Neoalchemist]

That would likely be because your silicates aren't eminating from your substrate they are coming from the water column. So they are reaching out into the water column for first dibs. (more of a guess than anything, but I saw similar behavior). Currently, I have a few diatoms growing on/in the sand that was removed during heavy silicate dosing and was subsequently added back in.
You could probably cut back to a maintenance dose or stop all together. Probably depends on how the tanks overall look is and from pics it looks pretty good. I'm thinking of dosing again for the pod explosion and overall health.

 

[CoralClasher]

That would likely be because your silicates aren't eminating from your substrate they are coming from the water column. So they are reaching out into the water column for first dibs. (more of a guess than anything, but I saw similar behavior). Currently, I have a few diatoms growing on/in the sand that was removed during heavy silicate dosing and was subsequently added back in.
You could probably cut back to a maintenance dose or stop all together. Probably depends on how the tanks overall look is and from pics it looks pretty good. I'm thinking of dosing again for the pod explosion and overall health.

Yeah 800 drops might have been a little to much lol. Everything is still alive and the snails are active. My nitrogen finally went down to 1.5ppm phosphate is staying at 0.06.

 

[Bret Brinkmann]

I beat a nasty case of dinos and have been dino free for around a year. I dosed Si to help create diatom blooms. The reason this helps is because they produce polyunsaturated aldehydes or PUAs. PUA is toxic to dinos and helps to suppress the bloom. However the thing that really beat them back was keeping PO4 at 0.1 ppm min and NO3 at 5 ppm min and manual removal as needed. Took about 6 months, again my case was REALLY BAD, but they haven't come back.

Randy wrote an article about Si in sea water and its benefits for the aquarium. The Si itself doesn't help with dinos, just the PUAs from the resulting diatom bloom. Si is also used by snails so should help their long term survival and health theoretically. You can continue to dose but ot probably won't do any good once you get past 2 ppm. The only Si tester I found that is worth while is the Hanna one.

 

[CoralClasher]

I beat a nasty case of dinos and have been dino free for around a year. I dosed Si to help create diatom blooms. The reason this helps is because they produce polyunsaturated aldehydes or PUAs. PUA is toxic to dinos and helps to suppress the bloom. However the thing that really beat them back was keeping PO4 at 0.1 ppm min and NO3 at 5 ppm min and manual removal as needed. Took about 6 months, again my case was REALLY BAD, but they haven't come back.

Randy wrote an article about Si in sea water and its benefits for the aquarium. The Si itself doesn't help with dinos, just the PUAs from the resulting diatom bloom. Si is also used by snails so should help their long term survival and health theoretically. You can continue to dose but ot probably won't do any good once you get past 2 ppm. The only Si tester I found that is worth while is the Hanna one.

I totally agree with phosphate and nitrogen above normal really helps. I'm a pro at growing Dinos. I started this tank 6 years ago and couldn't get anything to grow but Dinos then I joined Reef2Reef around the first of this year. I was ready to give up then I had some progress after I was told here to stop GFO, biopellet reactor and skimmer. Now I'm excited about Reefing again. I just can't leave things alone and I'm sure adding this sand bed made the Dinos bloom again but I'm not sweating it yet. My Dinos must not be toxic anymore haven't lost any snails in a year. Is there any other nutrients safe to over dose to encourage growth? Like manganese?

 

[BeejReef]

Is phosphate something I should just setup on a dosing pump?

I've had reasonable success dosing phosphate (sodium triphosphate) to the ATO reservoir, though I aim a little higher than you (.1 - .15). It takes a little trial and error, but it's pretty forgiving overall if you're off. The levels rise and fall pretty incrementally. If you're really off, u can dilute reservoir with more RODI or add more phosphate if you're low.

Way more forgiving than using Kalk in ATO.

 

[CoralClasher]

I've had reasonable success dosing phosphate (sodium triphosphate) to the ATO reservoir, though I aim a little higher than you (.1 - .15). It takes a little trial and error, but it's pretty forgiving overall if you're off. The levels rise and fall pretty incrementally. If you're really off, u can dilute reservoir with more RODI or add more phosphate if you're low.

Way more forgiving than using Kalk in ATO.

I've been closely watching phosphate over the last few months there will be some weeks that don't need to add phosphate then all of a sudden phosphate is all gone.

 

[Bret Brinkmann]

I totally agree with phosphate and nitrogen above normal really helps. I'm a pro at growing Dinos. I started this tank 6 years ago and couldn't get anything to grow but Dinos then I joined Reef2Reef around the first of this year. I was ready to give up then I had some progress after I was told here to stop GFO, biopellet reactor and skimmer. Now I'm excited about Reefing again. I just can't leave things alone and I'm sure adding this sand bed made the Dinos bloom again but I'm not sweating it yet. My Dinos must not be toxic anymore haven't lost any snails in a year. Is there any other nutrients safe to over dose to encourage growth? Like manganese?

Nitrates and phosphates are the only two that that I know of. If your Mg gets close to 1500 ppm, then your snails will start dying. I currently have that issue. Plus Mg is for corals more than algae. Iron is a trace element that algae needs but I'm not experienced with it. I don't think it is safe to overdose it though.

I've been closely watching phosphate over the last few months there will be some weeks that don't need to add phosphate then all of a sudden phosphate is all gone.

I noticed the same thing with phosphates. You add and add but they don't go up, then boom! You over shot a little, or a lot. Then they stay there or slowly go down until boom! You're back to zero in a day. As time went on things got more stable and predictable but at the beginning of dosing it was inconsistent.