No phosphates question

[saturn13]

hey everyone,

So I had a issue with higher phosphates .26-.28 over a month ago, I built a alage scrubber and now phosphate are at zero, and nitrates are .10 - .25, a number of my coral browned and dyed. I'm thinking because of some of the swing in the nutrients. Is the zero phosephate going to cause browning or color loss as well? I've ordered some neophos and I may have ro order a new grow light for the alage scrubber as well, the current light has a built in timer - set to it's lowest at 3hrs a day and still no phos and low nitrates.

other parameters
calcium 440ppm
alk 9.5
salinity 1.026
nitrite 0.00
Ammonia 0.00
temp 77.8
mag 1350

Thanks

 

[HuduVudu]

Coral populate their tissue with ... wait for it ... wait for it ... algae. Algae are plants that need phosphate and nitrate to reproduce and grow. Running your nutrients at zero to get rid of unwanted algaes has very serious unintended consequences.

 

[Backreefing]

You should tweet your algae scrubber to leave some phosphate and nitrates for your aquarium. Reduce photo period for example, or light intensity. What ever it takes . Good luck

 

[Pistondog]

You should tweet your algae scrubber to leave some phosphate and nitrates for your aquarium. Reduce photo period for example, or light intensity. What ever it takes . Good luck

Or remove some algae from the scrubber.
No algae = no nufrient reduction, but we do want some.

 

[blasterman]

Bouncing nutrient levels are what kill corals. Not sustained hyper low nutrient levels. Plenty of ULN tanks out there with zero phosphate levels and no problems.

Last year I tried an experiment. I was removing a 10gal frag tank and had a couple of birdsnest frags that weren't growing but were otherwise healthy. I artificially cranked up phosphate to like .15 and nitrate levels to 20. The birdsnest frags immediately took off and started growing at a stupid fast rate. After a month I proved my point, and moved the frags to a more typical tank with 5ppm reading of nitrate and trace levels of phosphate. They bleached and died within a week. That tank was packed full of healthy SPS, but the roller coaster ride killed the test SPS.

 

[JaykS]

Or remove some algae from the scrubber.
No algae = no nufrient reduction, but we do want some.

Removing within reason would help, agreed. Viewing your fuge or algae reactor as a tunable piece of filtration via photoperiod and even algae content would also help. You could also potentially increase bioload with fish, feed more or even just dose phosphate and or nitrate

 

[PatW]

The commensal Algae in your corals need phosphates and nitrates. If they starve for nutrients, your corals will suffer and possibly die. You want measurable nitrate levels somewhere between .05 and 10 ppm (different reefers like different levels). For phosphate levels, I often see something above 0 to less than .03 ppm but many people do fine with higher levels.

In your case, adjusting a few things will probably work: shorten the photoperiod and/or cropping the Chaeto back. You want to get some phosphate ASAP, and the easiest way is probably feeding quite a bit more until you get a reading. You could also dose phosphate. There is a product called Neophos that is for dosing nitrate. For a DIY, you can use a reagent grade trisodium phosphate... cheaper than Neophos for long term.