Phosphate Bound up in algae

[DeepBlueSeaV1]

Hanna checker & Salifert both test phosphates at 0.

I do have GHA, not out of control GHA but more than I'd like that's for sure. I also have a fuge which I harvest a good amount of macro from bi-weekly.

I scrape the glass every 3rd day of a light green haze

I feed lite once or twice a day. pinch of dry pellets and a cube of frozen. 7 smaller fish in a 120g tank

SPS colors lack, but have good growth.

Question -

If the phosphate is bound up in the algae, resulting in 0 test results, is it available to the SPS?

 

[Dan_P]

Hanna checker & Salifert both test phosphates at 0.

I do have GHA, not out of control GHA but more than I'd like that's for sure. I also have a fuge which I harvest a good amount of macro from bi-weekly.

I scrape the glass every 3rd day of a light green haze

I feed lite once or twice a day. pinch of dry pellets and a cube of frozen. 7 smaller fish in a 120g tank

SPS colors lack, but have good growth.

Question -

If the phosphate is bound up in the algae, resulting in 0 test results, is it available to the SPS?

The live algae is probably not releasing phosphate to the water, though the phosphate level is not zero but below 0.01 ppm. At that level, some organisms could be struggling to get what they need to flourish.

Locally, the story could be different. Very close to the surface, phosphate concentrations could be higher because of bacteria digestion of organic matter. If an organism can nuzzle up to these locales, they do well, like the green algae you scrape or the GHA that is living in your system. GHA also benefits from phosphate desorbing from aragonite surface.

 

[taricha]

Locally, the story could be different. Very close to the surface, phosphate concentrations could be higher because of bacteria digestion of organic matter.

@DeepBlueSeaV1 if you want a peek at the local action Dan is talking about, grab some tweezers and pull some GHA, put it in a bottle with a little water and shake. Pull the GHA out and look at all the material the GHA has been holding. It's eye-opening.
Are your corals suffering? Hard to say. There could be populations of inverts and bacteria that provide particulate food to the corals, or it might not be present in your system.