Phosphates 0 confused..

will424 · Nov 1, 2017

My phosphates for the past 2 weeks have been 0.08 (hanna ulr) now all of sudden its 0. My feedings have not changed , feed about a chunk of LRS reef frenzy and a a cube of mysis a day. I even added 2 more fish 2 days ago. I have a high bio load just clueless as to why it’s 0 all of sudden. The only change i did was 4 days ago dosed my display with prazi so i had my skimmer off and carbon, i don’t run GFO or any algae export, if anything phosphates should be higher since i turned my skimmer off for 4 days. Any ideas or suggestions to get the phosphates back up?

Tank stats-
90 Gallons
20 fish
Alk- 9.5
calcium-430
Mag-1300
Nitrate- 10 ppm
Phosphates-0

Brew12 · Nov 2, 2017

will424 said:
My phosphates for the past 2 weeks have been 0.08 (hanna ulr) now all of sudden its 0. My feedings have not changed , feed about a chunk of LRS reef frenzy and a a cube of mysis a day. I even added 2 more fish 2 days ago. I have a high bio load just clueless as to why it’s 0 all of sudden. The only change i did was 4 days ago dosed my display with prazi so i had my skimmer off and carbon, i don’t run GFO or any algae export, if anything phosphates should be higher since i turned my skimmer off for 4 days. Any ideas or suggestions to get the phosphates back up?

Tank stats-
90 Gallons
20 fish
Alk- 9.5
calcium-430
Mag-1300
Nitrate- 10 ppm
Phosphates-0

When Prazi breaks down it acts like a carbon source (think vodka dosing) and feeds bacteria. The bacteria will consume both nitrates and phosphates as they bloom. Once the prazi is fully consumed your tank should go back to the values you were at. Putting the skimmer and carbon back online should help.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 2, 2017

I also would not assume that suddenly unusual results for your system are always accurate. Often, they are not.

Test result error is way more common than many people want to accept. Don't take it as a personal affront. It happens to everyone, both from user error and kit problems. I've sometimes left a step out of long procedures and was perplexed until I realized maybe I wasn't careful enough in following the directions that I was trying to do by memory.