How to increase phosphates

[DirtDiggler2823]

You've got a few fish. That's a good source of phosphates. The fish poop definitely helps. I cut my Neophos dosing way back after I got a new tang in my 75. Your N03 is at a good level. I think you'll need to keep it under 5 and try getting P04 up, and most importantly, keep it stable. I think the Nopox will deplete the P04 pretty quickly so you may have to cut back dosing the NoPox even more. I would get some P04 supplement and start dosing it and testing everyday. It sucks at 1st but after a week you get an idea of how your tank is using it. Also, you can try feeding more often. What's you feeding schedule like?

I feed once daily. Mostly flakes, but I do frozen on the weekends, and that's when I target feed my corals with coral frenzy.

 

[DirtMcGurt]

I feed once daily. Mostly flakes, but I do frozen on the weekends, and that's when I target feed my corals with coral frenzy.

I have about the same schedule. An auto feeder drops some pellets mid morning and then I feed some flakes in the evening with frozen LRS and coral feeding on weekends. I've learned to feed a little more which seems to help with P04. Idk if the food adds P04 or, most likely, the fish poop. They eat more, they poop more. Just another aspect to look at

 

[DirtMcGurt]

There is no magic bullet or singular fix. I've found that you have to figure out your own balance. Some ppl have really high P04, others sit at 0.02 which I think is bare minimum. The P04 will also help your chaeto, I believe.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

Hi I have zero phosphates in 2 of my tanks, both have around 5 nitrate, how fast can I safely raise phosphates. I'm using mono potassium phosphate at a mixture of 5g per 500ml of rodi. A 1 ml dose will raise 100l to 0.07. My tanks are a 90 and a 40 litre ish with displacement. I just dont want to over do. I dont have skimmers or sumps or run gfo at all so I'm the corals are using the phosphates, my red bubble tip has gone pale I assume due to no phosphates maybe?

 

[DirtMcGurt]

Hi I have zero phosphates in 2 of my tanks, both have around 5 nitrate, how fast can I safely raise phosphates. I'm using mono potassium phosphate at a mixture of 5g per 500ml of rodi. A 1 ml dose will raise 100l to 0.07. My tanks are a 90 and a 40 litre ish with displacement. I just dont want to over do. I dont have skimmers or sumps or run gfo at all so I'm the corals are using the phosphates, my red bubble tip has gone pale I assume due to no phosphates maybe?

 

[DirtMcGurt]

I haven't used or made my own phosphate supplement before but I have raised mine from 0.00 to about 0.04 without any noticeable issues. I would think .002 - .004 per day is pretty safe. My Rose Bubble Tip anemone also went pale and shrunk in size a good bit. It stayed closed for about 3 weeks until I started dosing for P04. It took a couple weeks of keeping a stable P04/phosphate level before it opened back up. Since then it has been open and recovering daily. It seems like having a just 0.04 phosphates in my tank made a huge difference. Just try to keep it stable. I had to test every day for about 2 weeks to figure the uptake of P04.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

I haven't used or made my own phosphate supplement before but I have raised mine from 0.00 to about 0.04 without any noticeable issues. I would think .002 - .004 per day is pretty safe. My Rose Bubble Tip anemone also went pale and shrunk in size a good bit. It stayed closed for about 3 weeks until I started dosing for P04. It took a couple weeks of keeping a stable P04/phosphate level before it opened back up. Since then it has been open and recovering daily. It seems like having a just 0.04 phosphates in my tank made a huge difference. Just try to keep it stable. I had to test every day for about 2 weeks to figure the uptake of P04.

Thanks for that, I thought I'd try a few days and retest as I assume the tank has been deficient of phosphates for a while and the 2 btas have shrunk right down.
I was doing water changes to see if it was an issue with the water but all I've been doing is annoying/starving them more. My nem tank only has maybe 2 nitrates so I've been feeding heavier, to see if that helped then realised that it was phosphates were more of a problem as I was getting cyano starting to grow, fingers crossed i can bring both tanks back around. I hope yours is stable now. I only started dosing yesterday, I retested an hour after dosing and it's still zero. My 3rd tank has both nitrates and phosphates of about 0.05 and I don't do wuch to it at all it's a 3 year old 7 gal tank.

 

[DirtMcGurt]

If feeding more doesn't raise nitrates then you may want to try dosing nitrates. I had to start with that since my N03 was at zero and P04 was at about 0.08. That also caused problems. I would think that after 3 hrs you should see something on a test. Unless it wasnt enough. Its always best to start small then increase. My tank has stabilized and everything is doing much better. Some things are still recovering but it takes time. Like, weeks or months even. Just depends. But you should be able to bring things back. I'm assuming your tank/tanks has been running well before and the only issue you found was low, or zero, phosphates?

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

If feeding more doesn't raise nitrates then you may want to try dosing nitrates. I had to start with that since my N03 was at zero and P04 was at about 0.08. That also caused problems. I would think that after 3 hrs you should see something on a test. Unless it wasnt enough. Its always best to start small then increase. My tank has stabilized and everything is doing much better. Some things are still recovering but it takes time. Like, weeks or months even. Just depends. But you should be able to bring things back. I'm assuming your tank/tanks has been running well before and the only issue you found was low, or zero, phosphates?

Well my main 90 litre was great, I had montipora digi growing like mad, hammer corals were going great, so much so I had to buy a doser as alk was being consumed at 1.5 dkh per day.

then growth started to decline corals were paling, cyano took over and I lost all the digi as all test were showing good results. I later got a second opinion on all tests and found i was at 0 po4 not the 0.05 my kit was saying. By then the damage had been done and I'm trying to slowly bring everything back in line. This is it currently (taken about 5 mins before lights out, so had to turn white on to get photo and they are closed up)

I also have fragments of the digi that survived and are growing again so fingers crossed on that tank.

My nem tank was great it's only a 13.5 gal evo but it was great and the nem was huge then it split after about 6 months then slowly it got smaller and smaller and then pale to the fact that it just looks fed up with life. My green nem looks huge albeit paler than when first put in I didnt even think it was a po4 issue as had a faulty kit. This is the green and a photo of the 1 red that isn't hiding under a rock

To finish off my little 7 gal

 

[DirtMcGurt]

Those are some nice looking tanks! It seems like we both have had similar experiences. Since my coral and anemone have reacted almost identically. My LPS corals were never fully extended and my RBTA hide under a rock and stayed closed up. Seeing this gives me a little more confidence in thinking that your low P04 was the cause. I'm no expert with reef tanks but I've learned a good bit and it just seems like raising and stabilizing your P04 levels will help get things straighten out.

I was always under the impression that you wanted nitrates and phosphates as low as possible. So that's what I did when I got into this hobby. I was never told that you didn't want them at zero lol. Lesson learned the hard way.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

Those are some nice looking tanks! It seems like we both have had similar experiences. Since my coral and anemone have reacted almost identically. My LPS corals were never fully extended and my RBTA hide under a rock and stayed closed up. Seeing this gives me a little more confidence in thinking that your low P04 was the cause. I'm no expert with reef tanks but I've learned a good bit and it just seems like raising and stabilizing your P04 levels will help get things straighten out.

I was always under the impression that you wanted nitrates and phosphates as low as possible. So that's what I did when I got into this hobby. I was never told that you didn't want them at zero lol. Lesson learned the hard way.

When I started 14 years ago I just did water changes, tested the main 3 parameters. I had growth, some losses and I had algae and just assumed the corals that died I just couldn't keep. Now with alot more research I've realised algae isn't bad and it's a compromise between nitrate and phosphates. I never had cyano until this tank which is to do with the imbalance between them.
I have wandered that I also have a toad stool in my main tank, and after nearly 3 years it hasn't grown at all, when in my old tank I ran for 8 years my toadstool got quite large and it was hosting my clowns. I'm thinking it's just surviving and not growing because the tank is too clean.

I've still got the first coral I ever bought which was 2 heads of green hammer.

 

[DirtMcGurt]

It sounds like, when you started out, that you just got lucky with the balance. I've seen many successful tanks whose owners never test for N03 or P04. And I'm like... what the heck? Lol. That hammer coral you mentioned... the 1st coral you ever got, has it grown at all? Or just stayed the same? I ask because my frogspawn coral has been the same size ever since I got it. About 1 1/2 years ago. Only recently has it started to fully expand and inflate. I'm wandering if its always been because of my imbalance.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

It sounds like, when you started out, that you just got lucky with the balance. I've seen many successful tanks whose owners never test for N03 or P04. And I'm like... what the heck? Lol. That hammer coral you mentioned... the 1st coral you ever got, has it grown at all? Or just stayed the same? I ask because my frogspawn coral has been the same size ever since I got it. About 1 1/2 years ago. Only recently has it started to fully expand and inflate. I'm wandering if its always been because of my imbalance.

Funny you should say that my green hammer grew loads, and it's what is in my 7 gal I've sold enough of it to buy my nem tank and most of what's in the main tank pic is that same coral. But frogspawn, I cant grow that for squat. It was a pale colour and should be green with pink tips and that has taken nearly a year to get a hint of green in it.

 

[DirtMcGurt]

Hmm... makes me question whether it's a phosphate/nitrate issues or something else that's causing the pale color. The color in my frogspawn frag has gotten a lot better. It may be the type of frogspawn you had. The one I have is super hardy. It's the smallest of the euphyllia that I've tried to keep and it's also the only one that's stayed alive in my tank. I lost a torch and a hammer coral in the past. But now that little frogspawn is thriving lol. So weird.

 

[DirtMcGurt]

Have you ever done an ICP test?

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

Have you ever done an ICP test?

Nope I dont think I'm at that stage yet.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

I need to get an orange filter but
Red is the original green hammer coral
Yellow is supposed to be the gold/yellow
Purple is my ultra green
White is my frogspawn.

they dont all look as green (maybe they do) as I think.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

The white circle was the frogspawn. So its definitely got colour now.

 

[DirtMcGurt]

The frogspawn does look a little washed out. I only mentioned the ICP test to see if any trace elements are depleted. Phosphates might also be causing the paleness. Like I said before... I'm no expert lol. So these are just theories. When I finally got my levels up and stable, the colors definitely came back. Even my entrusting corals looked "flat" and pale. Now there's is much more depth in the encrusting corals.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

The frogspawn does look a little washed out. I only mentioned the ICP test to see if any trace elements are depleted. Phosphates might also be causing the paleness. Like I said before... I'm no expert lol. So these are just theories. When I finally got my levels up and stable, the colors definitely came back. Even my entrusting corals looked "flat" and pale. Now there's is much more depth in the encrusting corals.

That is what I'm hoping I have dosed 3 times now of 1 ml of my diy solution and I retested tonight and there is a very,very slight raise in P04 so I think I'll keep at it 1ml per day and retest in another 3 days, I don't want to raise it too fast and annoy things that way, or cause a massive algae outbreak. I think my nem tank will be a little slower to recover though as 1 of the reds has now come out of hiding and is clear and very poorly. I'm just glad its hanging in there and didnt die. I just hope it can, with time come back to where is was.

I think it's going to take a very long time.