Keeping Phosphates Steady

[Luke Schnabel]

Hey guys I've been fighting to keep my Phosphates under control for quite some time now and it's starting to really get on my nerves.

I have a 125g display, 45g frag tank and a 75g sump. Total water volume is around 175g.

I cannot keep my Phosphates steady no matter how hard I try. It's always up and down, up and down. For a while I was only testing once a week. I've been testing every other day now using a Hannah. I try not to let my PO4 go above .04 or ever get to zero. I use GFO to remove Phosphates. How do you guys keep your PO4 stable and not so over the place???? I feed 4 cubes daily, 2 sheets of algae. No more, no less.

Would it be better to keep my PO4 at zero rather then it jump all around?

 

[swnoob]

Which model Hanna are you using to measure? I would recommend the ULR. Its slightly more accurate.

How much of a swing? The swings you see may be within the accuracy of the checker itself. I believe its +/- .03

 

[mtraylor]

Hey guys I've been fighting to keep my Phosphates under control for quite some time now and it's starting to really get on my nerves.

I have a 125g display, 45g frag tank and a 75g sump. Total water volume is around 175g.

I cannot keep my Phosphates steady no matter how hard I try. It's always up and down, up and down. For a while I was only testing once a week. I've been testing every other day now using a Hannah. I try not to let my PO4 go above .04 or ever get to zero. I use GFO to remove Phosphates. How do you guys keep your PO4 stable and not so over the place???? I feed 4 cubes daily, 2 sheets of algae. No more, no less.

Would it be better to keep my PO4 at zero rather then it jump all around?

If you want to keep it steady, use a high guality GFO like
BRS Bulk GFO Granular Ferric Oxide - High Capacity
or
RowaPhos Phosphate Remover
Make sure you tumble it well and make sure you have quality water (o phosphates) for auto top off and salt mix. The higher end GFO products work better and last longer to keep you more stable.

 

[Luke Schnabel]

Sometimes I'm up to around .04-.05 so I turn my GFO reactor on. Then shut it off after about 12hrs. Then I test 2 days later and I'm at .00. Then 2 days later I'm up again.


I'm using just the standard Low Range Phosphate... not the ULR

It's REALLY easy to keep my phosphate at 0... but is it better to keep them at 0 rather then having them jump all around?

 

[mtraylor]

I run my GFO reactor 24/7 and never turn it off. .04 phosphates in the aquarium is not bad. You can keep them around .03 to .04 with great results for corals.
From my experience, you will not want to keep phosphates at the 0ppm range. I agree with you that it would be easy to keep phosphates at zero.... I could dump
a couple cups of gfo in my reactor and watch them go to zero. There is a consequence to that. I can also watch all my corals bleach out and perish. So this is why
you want to be careful at the 0ppm range. Some people can keep their phosphates at or near 0ppm, but its risky. You could actually delicately increase your GFO
till you reach that parameter, but you will have to watch your corals to see how they react and ensure you don't go too far. Coral coloration is usually depleted.

What are you exactly trying to accomplish? Do you have issues with your tank, or are you just trying to get the meter to say .04 for example every time you test
your water? I use the same tester you have and keep my phosphates within .03 to .04. Do you have sps?

All your parms are going to vary a bit. You don't have to get the more expensive GFO to keep your parameters low, but the more expensive GFO does not exhaust
as quickly so it lasts longer. This means that what ever level you achieve will last longer.....thus keeping your parameters steady longer.

My recommendation is to get your phosphates at the level you want it. Do not turn the reactor on and off. When the reactor is off.... This allows the phosphate to
gain momentum. You are creating the phosphate swing with the method you are using. ONce you dial in the reactor to say .04, the aquarium will stay pretty much
dialed in. When you feed it will go up a bit, and the reactor will do its job and deplete it back to .04. This will continue until the phosphate is exhausted from cleaning
the tank. Then you will see your phosphates increase. This is the time when you will need to add more GFO to your reactor.

Hope this helps.

 

[swnoob]

Sometimes I'm up to around .04-.05 so I turn my GFO reactor on. Then shut it off after about 12hrs. Then I test 2 days later and I'm at .00. Then 2 days later I'm up again.


I'm using just the standard Low Range Phosphate... not the ULR

It's REALLY easy to keep my phosphate at 0... but is it better to keep them at 0 rather then having them jump all around?

mtraylor asked a very good question. What are you trying to accomplish? Do you have lots of nuisance algae? Slow growth in sps or just chasing a number?

 

[Luke Schnabel]

I don't have any algae problems with my tank at all. My Acropora are not coloring up nor growing very well. Some of them are still brown. (Not because of lighting I promise) I'm trying to keep .03-.04 because I hear that's perfect to keep growth and coloration steady with little to no algae growth.
Thanks for all the input, it's been a crazy weekend that I wasn't able to spend any time on the computer.
I would assume that adding let's say 1/4cup of GFO would "slowly" remove phosphate compared to about 1 cup I'm using currently... keeping it more steady. Instead of the 1 cup compleatly stripping out all PO4 immediately? Is that what your kind of saying?

 

[swnoob]

I don't have any algae problems with my tank at all. My Acropora are not coloring up nor growing very well. Some of them are still brown. (Not because of lighting I promise) I'm trying to keep .03-.04 because I hear that's perfect to keep growth and coloration steady with little to no algae growth.
Thanks for all the input, it's been a crazy weekend that I wasn't able to spend any time on the computer.
I would assume that adding let's say 1/4cup of GFO would "slowly" remove phosphate compared to about 1 cup I'm using currently... keeping it more steady. Instead of the 1 cup compleatly stripping out all PO4 immediately? Is that what your kind of saying?

Sounds like you're chasing a number. I would pay more attention to your coral and not a certain number. Not all tanks like low phosphates. Something else could be causing the slow growth. We would need more info to see if anything stands out in your water parameters, lighting and maintenance to start off.

Have you tried taking the gfo offline completely? It could be that the gfo is stripping too much nutrients. Coral do need phosphates to grow. How is your nitrate?

I stopped using gfo several months ago. I now raise my nitrates if my phosphates get above .06 and they come down on their own.

 

[Undertaker]

I run my GFO reactor 24/7 and never turn it off. .04 phosphates in the aquarium is not bad. You can keep them around .03 to .04 with great results for corals.
From my experience, you will not want to keep phosphates at the 0ppm range. I agree with you that it would be easy to keep phosphates at zero.... I could dump
a couple cups of gfo in my reactor and watch them go to zero. There is a consequence to that. I can also watch all my corals bleach out and perish. So this is why
you want to be careful at the 0ppm range. Some people can keep their phosphates at or near 0ppm, but its risky. You could actually delicately increase your GFO
till you reach that parameter, but you will have to watch your corals to see how they react and ensure you don't go too far. Coral coloration is usually depleted.

What are you exactly trying to accomplish? Do you have issues with your tank, or are you just trying to get the meter to say .04 for example every time you test
your water? I use the same tester you have and keep my phosphates within .03 to .04. Do you have sps?

All your parms are going to vary a bit. You don't have to get the more expensive GFO to keep your parameters low, but the more expensive GFO does not exhaust
as quickly so it lasts longer. This means that what ever level you achieve will last longer.....thus keeping your parameters steady longer.

My recommendation is to get your phosphates at the level you want it. Do not turn the reactor on and off. When the reactor is off.... This allows the phosphate to
gain momentum. You are creating the phosphate swing with the method you are using. ONce you dial in the reactor to say .04, the aquarium will stay pretty much
dialed in. When you feed it will go up a bit, and the reactor will do its job and deplete it back to .04. This will continue until the phosphate is exhausted from cleaning
the tank. Then you will see your phosphates increase. This is the time when you will need to add more GFO to your reactor.

Hope this helps.

mtraylor How do you keep your gfo dialed in? Every time I think I have the right amount of gfo in my reactor I'm wrong. I have cut the recommended amount of gfo from BRS to half and to a 3rd to a quarter. with the same results. When I put new gfo in my phosphates go down to .00. When they get to .06 I will change it out and try a different ratio to get it to read low without hitting .00 to no avail. I've been fighting with this for 6 months now. I test with the Hanna p checker.
my tank is a red sea reefer 350
ph 7.8 / 8.2
ammonia 0
nitrite o
nitrate 5 to 7
alk 8.4
ca 1420
mag 1400
phosphate .00 to .06

 

[mtraylor]

Well I do exactly what I have stated above. The recommended amount is basically a recommendation. That's it. Nothing more. Its best to start out at half the recommendation when you first start to see how your phosphates react, because you don't wan them to reduce them down too much at one time and kill your corals.

I use the high capacity GFO as I stated above. I put my GFO in a bio churn bio pellet reactor that I used to use for bio pellets. Its actually phenomenal for GFO. I can control my effluent separate from my flow that churns the media. I think that this is how I keep mine under control. When I used to use a dual reactor from BRS with carbon in the first reactor and GFO in the second reactor. It was really hard achieve consistency. Once I separated them and used the biochurn for the GFO, it was great. I'm not saying that you need a biochurn, but I really like the control.

I try to keep the GFO around .04ish..........It will stay pretty constant around this mark plus or minus one or two before it starts to deplete. Once it starts to deplete your phosphates will increase. I add new media in to the existing media once my phosphates get to 0.1 or just below that. It will drop back down to the amount of .04ish because I know how much to add because I have been doing it for a long time.

That is about it. When the reactor gets full to the top of media over several months. I will empty all contents and start with fresh batch. That is about it.

 

[Susan Edwards]

I was told to aim up to .1 po4. Mine sometimes goes higher. I don't have a reactor but use phosguard when it goes over 1. A few days later is down, sometimes even zero. I remove the phosguard and do the up and down. I figure it's just part of the package of variables. Everything looks happy and healthy, even with nitrates on the high side cronically (no problem algae)

 

[Lizbeth90]

Well I do exactly what I have stated above. The recommended amount is basically a recommendation. That's it. Nothing more. Its best to start out at half the recommendation when you first start to see how your phosphates react, because you don't wan them to reduce them down too much at one time and kill your corals.

I use the high capacity GFO as I stated above. I put my GFO in a bio churn bio pellet reactor that I used to use for bio pellets. Its actually phenomenal for GFO. I can control my effluent separate from my flow that churns the media. I think that this is how I keep mine under control. When I used to use a dual reactor from BRS with carbon in the first reactor and GFO in the second reactor. It was really hard achieve consistency. Once I separated them and used the biochurn for the GFO, it was great. I'm not saying that you need a biochurn, but I really like the control.

I try to keep the GFO around .04ish..........It will stay pretty constant around this mark plus or minus one or two before it starts to deplete. Once it starts to deplete your phosphates will increase. I add new media in to the existing media once my phosphates get to 0.1 or just below that. It will drop back down to the amount of .04ish because I know how much to add because I have been doing it for a long time.

That is about it. When the reactor gets full to the top of media over several months. I will empty all contents and start with fresh batch. That is about it.

Wonderful help! ive also been dealing with this same issue. so it seems im on the right path i think. ive been changing gfo about every two week. i only use 1 tbl for my small 20 galloin tank. once i see it go past .10 which is usually 2 weeks i change that gfo. but i never test phosphates after that to see where it leaves me. how long after should i test for phosphates after the change to see if i should lower or leave my gfo so phosphates can stay .02-.04?

 

[Bruno Pereira]

I have looked an

Sometimes I'm up to around .04-.05 so I turn my GFO reactor on. Then shut it off after about 12hrs. Then I test 2 days later and I'm at .00. Then 2 days later I'm up again.


I'm using just the standard Low Range Phosphate... not the ULR

It's REALLY easy to keep my phosphate at 0... but is it better to keep them at 0 rather then having them jump all around?

I have looked in Hanna's site and they do not have ULR for phosphate only phosphorus

 

[West1]

How long after feeding do you guys check for phosphates?
Minutes, hours, days?

I feed a couple pitches of NLS pellets per day and reef roids twice a week.

Phosphates start to show if I check within a couple hrs of reefroids, otherwise they seem to fall back to 0.00 po4 using the hanna ulr.

Would waiting 24hrs from coral feeding be a good time to get a true Po4 reading?

 

[B-ridge]

I’m dealing with the same issue in my tank. Last 3-4 days po4 has been 0 using the Hanna po4 checker. My nitrates are 25 using salifert. But when I check low range the color looks to be 100. Divide that by 10 according to salifert and nitrates are 10. So I’m gonna say anywhere between 10-25. I’ve been feeding heavy frozen cubes 3 times a day instead of normally once. Took brs high grade gfo and rox Carbon offline 2 days ago. Po4 still reading 0. Corals are definitely stsrtihg to suffer. Lost a few zoas already. I would like to get my po4 to 0.03-0.05. Once they go up and I put gfo back online there gonna go back to 0. Wouldn’t this go on until the gfo is completely exhausted? Then it would need to be replaced and then right back to square one. Any suggestions?

 

[achillestangz]

Well I do exactly what I have stated above. The recommended amount is basically a recommendation. That's it. Nothing more. Its best to start out at half the recommendation when you first start to see how your phosphates react, because you don't wan them to reduce them down too much at one time and kill your corals.

I use the high capacity GFO as I stated above. I put my GFO in a bio churn bio pellet reactor that I used to use for bio pellets. Its actually phenomenal for GFO. I can control my effluent separate from my flow that churns the media. I think that this is how I keep mine under control. When I used to use a dual reactor from BRS with carbon in the first reactor and GFO in the second reactor. It was really hard achieve consistency. Once I separated them and used the biochurn for the GFO, it was great. I'm not saying that you need a biochurn, but I really like the control.

I try to keep the GFO around .04ish..........It will stay pretty constant around this mark plus or minus one or two before it starts to deplete. Once it starts to deplete your phosphates will increase. I add new media in to the existing media once my phosphates get to 0.1 or just below that. It will drop back down to the amount of .04ish because I know how much to add because I have been doing it for a long time.

That is about it. When the reactor gets full to the top of media over several months. I will empty all contents and start with fresh batch. That is about it.

Do you rinse the new media before adding it to existing media in reactor ?

 

[achillestangz]

Well I do exactly what I have stated above. The recommended amount is basically a recommendation. That's it. Nothing more. Its best to start out at half the recommendation when you first start to see how your phosphates react, because you don't wan them to reduce them down too much at one time and kill your corals.

I use the high capacity GFO as I stated above. I put my GFO in a bio churn bio pellet reactor that I used to use for bio pellets. Its actually phenomenal for GFO. I can control my effluent separate from my flow that churns the media. I think that this is how I keep mine under control. When I used to use a dual reactor from BRS with carbon in the first reactor and GFO in the second reactor. It was really hard achieve consistency. Once I separated them and used the biochurn for the GFO, it was great. I'm not saying that you need a biochurn, but I really like the control.

I try to keep the GFO around .04ish..........It will stay pretty constant around this mark plus or minus one or two before it starts to deplete. Once it starts to deplete your phosphates will increase. I add new media in to the existing media once my phosphates get to 0.1 or just below that. It will drop back down to the amount of .04ish because I know how much to add because I have been doing it for a long time.

That is about it. When the reactor gets full to the top of media over several months. I will empty all contents and start with fresh batch. That is about it.

Do you rinse the new media before adding it to the existing media ? I change mine completely every mo th due to having to rinse it ,,, also donu rinse in tap water or rodi,, or do u rinse out with tank water during a water change ?