How normal is 0.1 phosphate on SPS dominated tank ?

SouL_Shaker · Dec 10, 2015

Hi ,

I have 0.1 phosphate , 10 nitrate , 9.7 kh on my tank. It is mostly sps dominated but I keep nutrients high because there are lots of nps which are carnation corals , sun corals , sea fans , sponges etc. on the other side of the tank where there is no light.

Phosphate calculation is tested by Milwaukee mi412 low range photometer.

Will it cause any problem ?

DMan · Dec 11, 2015

Sabellafella · Dec 11, 2015

People are going to tell u its high but imo its not, i try to keep my nitrates around 4 to 8 nd phosphate around .04 to .1

SouL_Shaker · Dec 11, 2015

Sabellafella said:
People are going to tell u its high but imo its not, i try to keep my nitrates around 4 to 8 nd phosphate around .04 to 1.0

I quite agree with you.

Sabellafella · Dec 11, 2015

Sry edit .1 lol but anything above .5 in a non established tank leads to unfavorable algae problems

SouL_Shaker · Dec 11, 2015

Sabellafella said:
Sry edit .1 lol but anything above .5 in a non established tank leads to unfavorable algae problems

My phosphate is 0.1 , not 0.01

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 11, 2015

Well, people will say it is high because is high. Far higher than the ocean. Maybe 20 fold higher than surface seawater.

It can allow a lot of problem algae growth AS LONG AS something else does not limit the algae. To limit algae growth with phosphate, you may need to keep it below 0.03 ppm phosphate.

IF something else limits algae growth, it isn't necessarily a problem. Richards tank is a case in point. However, more people find it easy to limit algae growth and not limit coral growth too much by controlling nutrients, rather than by controlling other parameters (such as iron). In some cases, herbivores (such as Rabbitfish) may also serve to limit growth.

Some scientific data suggests that elevated phosphate can limit hard coral growth.

I discuss phosphate issues here:

Phosphate In The Reef Aquarium
https://www.reef2reef.com/blog/?p=3184

SouL_Shaker · Dec 11, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Well, people will say it is high because is high. Far higher than the ocean. Maybe 20 fold higher than surface seawater.

It can allow a lot of problem algae growth AS LONG AS something else does not limit the algae. To limit algae growth with phosphate, you may need to keep it below 0.03 ppm phosphate.

IF something else limits algae growth, it isn't necessarily a problem. Richards tank is a case in point. However, more people find it easy to limit algae growth and not limit coral growth too much by controlling nutrients, rather than by controlling other parameters (such as iron). In some cases, herbivores (such as Rabbitfish) may also serve to limit growth.

Some scientific data suggests that elevated phosphate can limit hard coral growth.

I discuss phosphate issues here:

Phosphate In The Reef Aquarium
https://www.reef2reef.com/blog/?p=3184

There are no algea growth in my tank with 0.1 phosphate. I have low phosphate problem. Not enough fish. I dose it until 0.1 after calculation.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 11, 2015

SouL_Shaker said:
There are no algea growth in my tank with 0.1 phosphate. I have low phosphate problem. Not enough fish. I dose it until 0.1 after calculation.

You are dosing phosphate to 0.1 ppm? Why that high? 0.02-0.03 ppm is, IMO, a reasonable target if it is naturally too low for your system. Nothing you want to keep should need it higher.

How low is it without dosing?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 11, 2015

Your title says SPS and your post says NPS.

Do you keep both in the same tank?

It makes an important difference, since more light (for SPS) causes more algae risks.

SouL_Shaker · Dec 11, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
You are dosing phosphate to 0.1 ppm? Why that high? 0.02-0.03 ppm is, IMO, a reasonable target if it is naturally too low for your system. Nothing you want to keep should need it higher.

How low is it without dosing?

I change water every 20 days. Then I dose it. %75 sps , %25 nps dominated tank so that's why I keep it really high.

DMan · Dec 11, 2015

my RSM130d is about 1.5 years old and has just soft and lps coral. Its po4 hovers around 0.1ppm. But has gone as high as 0.4ppm. In both cases I get the usual dusting of crud on the glass that I clean every few days. I've never had hair algae, but do keep up with husbandry at least once a week. I have a 90g system that is just about 5 months old, and has at the moment got mostly chalice and favia, with a large clam and some polyps. It's po4 is at 0.00ppm - 0.06ppm. And also no hair algae but I get the same amount of stuff like diatoms and whatever as I so the other tank with such high po4.
I usually try to find that sweet spot that a tank likes and let it stay around that mark. If I tried to lower the po4 to much in the lps tank I'd probably mess it up. It seems to do better closer to 0.1 than 0.4 so thats what I shoot for on this tank. The other one is still to young so I'm not sure what to expect yet. It's the first time I've started a tank with all dry rock ( looked nice and clean anyways). But so far I've seen all the same stages of algae and diatoms as when I've used live rock. Only difference is this time I've actually got a lower po4 reading. So who knows?? I don't but it's fun anyways.

DMan · Dec 11, 2015

double post

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 11, 2015

SouL_Shaker said:
I change water every 20 days. Then I dose it. %75 sps , %25 nps dominated tank so that's why I keep it really high.

How long has this tank been set up?

Nothing in that tank should need phosphate higher than 0.03 ppm since they never get it in the wild.

I'm still a bit confused. People often feed NPS heavily and have elevated nutrients for that reason. Do you feed them much?

How much water do you change?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 11, 2015

Here's what I mean by an NPS tank where the feeding drives phosphate so high that aggressive phosphate control is needed to get down to 0.05 ppm:

http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index.php/current-issue/article/86-tank-of-the-month

from it:

"It requires a change in mentality to accept the amount of feeding required to keep many NPS corals, especially the very difficult species such asDendronephthya. I find that these species not only require regular feedings throughout the day, but a high food density within the water column in order to capture a sufficient amount of food. The persistent high food density can quickly cause a system to go downhill.

The key to success lies not only in feeding, but extremely aggressive water quality management. My philosophy is that all the filtration methods are tools in a toolbox. , "

SouL_Shaker · Dec 11, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
How long has this tank been set up?

Nothing in that tank should need phosphate higher than 0.03 ppm since they never get it in the wild.

I'm still a bit confused. People often feed NPS heavily and have elevated nutrients for that reason. Do you feed them much?

How much water do you change?

I dose 40 ml grotech nutrimarine. I feed 6 times a day with phytoplankton. And goniopower 2 times a day.