Leaching phosphate. Replace sand and rock?

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

If rocks are a major source of phosphate, lanthanum is likely the most cost effective way to deal with it.

But note that foods are likely adding 0.05 to 0.2 ppm phosphate per day in a typical tank.

 

[djf91]

If rocks are a major source of phosphate, lanthanum is likely the most cost effective way to deal with it.

But note that foods are likely adding 0.05 to 0.2 ppm phosphate per day in a typical tank.

As stated here I think we underestimate how much phosphate food adds. In my large system, I’ve noticed what I assume is the fish food keeping my phosphates above what I want. They fluctuate between .04-0.1 throughout the week with dosing lanthunum chloride several times a week into a filter sock. I’d like to keep them ~.02 and would also like to be done with constantly adding lanthunum. I’ve added a 75 gal. Refugium with caulerpa and mangrove pods in the hopes that this will in time control phosphates and nitrates naturally.

 

[QuinnLee512]

My tank is a 75g. I use an apex afs to feed twice daily. I actually feel like I'm underfeeding since most times the afs does not drop the right amount of food. I have stopped feeding entirely to see if that makes a difference. I have read quite a few articles on here about dry rocks leaching phosphates which is why I assumed that my rocks are the source.

 

[brandon429]

As someone who likes working tank invasion challenges I want to question the attribution here

the link, to cyano as you see po4



show me the thread that managing phosphates to control cyano comes from


does it have more cyano cures than this thread, where we don’t want to know anyone’s parameter, for any measure? (We beat cyano by you cleaning the tank correctly)

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

I need to to a tank swap out here in the next few weeks. same tank size just a full replacement. red sea 650P around 180ish gallons I have 2" of carib sea special grade my fav. sand. I plan to put the fish corals and LR in to a tank with HOB filter, flow heater and light for maybe (...

www.reef2reef.com

before you assume your rocks are doing anything but displaying the best benthic diversity on the site, show me a link where a mere ten reef tanks were directly fixed of cyano by messing with phosphate.


just because you read a hundred individual testimonies that someone’s cyano went away with X po4 level, it’s not the same thing as one method testing forty eight pages of tank challenges in reefs as they post. That’s on demand, live time work vs theory



my way isn’t very helpful for large reefs though. For nanos? Doing anything but this way above is a waste of time

our way preserves that pretty rock and you don’t leave thinking cyano means your tank was bad in some chemical way. We think cyano is normal for all reefs, pronounced where matched grazers are missing, so that thread above is us being the grazers.

 

[brandon429]

You mustn’t stop feeding

we need you to feed, have basic exports in place, without doing food restriction control the cyano


having a large reef tank and no UV sterilizer is a huge implicated cause for your condition. Again, that’s no mention of phosphate


you’re heading towards getting dinos in this succession


any thread posted where entrants mess with nitrate and phosphate are GHA bombs waiting to happen, they alternate one ugly invasion for another. Case in point:


https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/d...-tired-of-battling-altogether.293318/page-592


see how 89% of that thread is dinos, cyano, gha, dinos cyano Gha over and over, with 11% cure rate? That’s messing with po4 destiny.

the truth is that’s an important thread, they do work in large reefs. But 11% cure rate for six hundred pages = you’re more likely to cycle through three other invasions after this one, comprising the next year or two of your tank if you manage po4 *without trying simple controls such as no sandbed for a while or UV or simple lighting adjustments in some cases


look at the return on effort we are getting in the rinse thread, where one or two strong cleaning runs are the sole way. That’s an 89% cure sustain rate and 11% someone wouldn’t bother to lift a hand for months after lol they expected permanent fix off one cleaning pass. We have a very consistent outcome pattern. There are no instances of tradeoff invasion cycling in sand rinse works.