Phosphorus greater than 50 ppb what should i

[wet_rocks_reef]

Hi All,

So after migrating my 50g AIO tank in Jan. I was excited to finally test my Phosphates and Phosphorus. With the Hanna ULR

WhenI 1st checked, it landed at 69 ppb phosphorus... yikes... I did 2, 10 gallon water changes over two days, reduced feeding... and changed my GFO which I usually do every month anyways. Also rinsed and removed 20% of my Cheato in my refugium in the back of my AIO

I did get it down to 49-55 ppb...Over those 3 days.

what do you all think I should do? keep chasing it down? Or leave it? Other ideas like doubling the GFO?

 

[Albertan22]

Do a water change.

 

[andrewey]

Nothing? Something? Both are acceptable answers to your question.

I'm a bit confused- what level do you usually run your tank at and what level are you targeting? 50ppb phosphorous is an acceptable level to run a tank at. Some people target lower levels (10-20ppb) and others run their tanks at much much higher levels.

I'll say one thing- trying to drop your phosphate levels too quickly is likely to do more harm than good. If you do lower your phosphate for whatever reason, do so slowly.

From the looks of it, your tank looks happy and is doing well. Anything I would do one way or another, I would do SLOWLY.

 

[Albertan22]

All kidding aside, you're on the high side, but not crazy high. You want to get it down around or 25ppb which equates to roughly 0.08ppm. Right now you're at about 0.15ppm. You should be able to manage that with water changes, don't do anything drastic like GFO at this point.

 

[piranhaman00]

My tank is well over 200ppb

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

Do you mean a Hanna Phosphorus ULR Checker gave you a reading of 50 ppb? If so, nothing. That's about 0.15 ppm phosphate. Many tanks do fine with higher levels than that. Some do fine with levels even 5 - 10x higher than that.

 

[andrewey]

For reference, on my current tank, anything below 30ppb and my dinos come back, so I stay around 30-40. On my last tank, I averaged around 6-9ppb. On the tank before that, I'd wager it ran around 300ppb. In all tanks, my corals grow at about the same rate and have the same coloration. Every tank is different. Phosphate is just one piece of the puzzle.

 

[wet_rocks_reef]

Do you mean a Hanna Phosphorus ULR Checker gave you a reading of 50 ppb? If so, nothing. That's about 0.15 ppm phosphate. Many tanks do fine with higher levels than that. Some do fine with levels even 5 - 10x higher than that.

Yes exactly the Hanna checker I am using

 

[Steven Nelson]

I’m running my large, mixed reef at 200ppb. That’s with a skimmer and PhosBan reactor. The tank is highly populated with fishes and corals. I’m getting a bit of GHA on a Favite and consider that reason to accelerate my reduction. I’ll do a series of 1/10th water changes and use Brightwell Phosphat-E to get to 100 in about a week, then continue with ongoing water changes until I’m around 40-50. I’m keeping magnesium levels up to keep my Calcium/carbonate in solution until I’m in a happy range.