Phosphates waaay to low, need advice

  • Thread starter Thread starter bct15
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Tropic Marin USA
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I'm surprised nobody asked you about your DKH. When you have it up as high as you do, burnt tips are pretty common as you're going to get more swings with it that high. That may be more of your problem than your phosphates being so low. If I were you, I might looking at SLOWLY letting your dkh drop closer to 8-9 and see how your corals look from there. I know when I used to keep mine that high, I would burn the tips and color didn't show up as well in the corals. Now I keep mine at 8.
 
BRS
Top Shelf Aquatics
I'M SORRY, this statement is plane and simple false. Coral do need a certain amount of po4 (.03-.05) and nitrates to do well and maintain color as others have mentioned. FEED your tank.:wave:

Reefing Madness said:
Don't need phosphates, how is your Nitrates? Bet they are to low for your LPS. Your phosphates are right where they should be.
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maharsreef said:
I'M SORRY, this statement is plane and simple false. Coral do need a certain amount of po4 (.03-.05) and nitrates to do well and maintain color as others have mentioned. FEED your tank.:wave:
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If you say so. Got a guy above me says his are 0 also and doesn't have any problems. But, what the heck do i know.
 
Ecoscape Reef Rock
Not sure I have any.... I just know what works for me.;)

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I''ve heard some people say they have success with phosphate and others who say the have success without. So obviously good results can be achieved both way. I think the people with zero phosphates probably have to feed their corals as do i. Maybe I should raise phosphates so I don't have to bother feeding them. :)
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Deltec
bct15 said:
Some of my larger sps colonies are showing burnt tips, and a couple frags a little recession around the base. I had a chalice frag slowly recede to death, and a couple blastos are staying deflated. Some macro algae in my fuge is turning clear, and I haven't had to wipe my glass in about two and half weeks. I also had two small Zoa colonies stop opening and melt in the last month and a half. Also, my pizza anemone hasn't been able to find a place to stay put for about two months now. Even the back glass and side that I don't wipe (for my snails and tangs to graze) is clearing up. I was excited about no algae at all, but now I think it is clean to a point that it is causing problems.
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I'm having the same problem with my garf bonsai acro and one othe frag.




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The phosphate issue really depends on how u remove it. Agressive filtration like biopellets and gfo strip it to fast so the corals dont get what they need. Less aggressive methods like algae can run a tank at 0.00 and do fine. If u dont believe me come look at my corals or the ocean. I use an algae scrubber and run at 0.00 hanna checker and sps has great color. Also have a good number of fish and feed fairly heavy. And i do not feed corals.
 
Deltec
I'm running a full Zeovit system so I'm already low on nutrients.


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maharsreef said:
I'M SORRY, this statement is plane and simple false. Coral do need a certain amount of po4 (.03-.05) and nitrates to do well and maintain color as others have mentioned. FEED your tank.:wave:
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Corals do need certain amount of phosphate but nowhere near (.03-.05) like you mentioned.

Another important not us the Hanna checker only has an accuracy of +/- 0.04 I believe. That means a 0.00 reading could actually be 0.04. Don't go crazy over a 0.0 reading on a cheap Hanna checker.
 
WesF said:
Corals do need certain amount of phosphate but nowhere near (.03-.05) like you mentioned.

Another important not us the Hanna checker only has an accuracy of +/- 0.04 I believe. That means a 0.00 reading could actually be 0.04. Don't go crazy over a 0.0 reading on a cheap Hanna checker.
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What is a good/accurate way to measure phosphate.




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The Hanna is probably the best affordable way to check it. To get more accurate you are going to spend some serious money on more sophisticated equipment.

+/- 0.04 is pretty good. Certainly better than test kits.
 
FYI

The +/- .04 error is not a constant value, it is a value you plug into a formula to get your true error based off of the measurement reading. A reading of zero is a reading of zero based on the zero level calibration point and the true error will come back as zero + calibration error. That number they give comes from the point of maximum error on a data set containing the measurement range if the equipment.

I am 95% sure on what I said, I haven't done an error analysis in a while though and may be a little bit wrong, I can go digging through my books if further verification is required.


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BRS
In think the accuracy means that the instrument can potentially be +\- 0.04 the actual value at any given point within the instrument range.

For example, when we perform a 3 point calibration on an instrument at work. We have a specified accuracy. If our specified accuracy is let's say 0.04 and the as found value is within +\- 0.04 of the standard at the low, middle, and high points it is considered to be within calibration and no adjustments are necessary.
 
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