PO4 and Algae

Agsellers04 · Nov 5, 2020

At what PO4 level do you start seeing GHA and red algae die off? My PO4 got out of hand and spiked up to 1.25 ppm accompanied by a significant algae bloom. I have it down to around .4ppm now and am using GFO to lower it further.

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Subsea · Nov 5, 2020

There is no magic number for phosphate concentration. What is more important is feeding the competition. As a general rule, nuisance algae will thrive in low nutrients. Specifically, species of Cynobacteria are capable of dissolving substrates rich in calcium phosphate and converting nitrogen gas into ammonia.

Agsellers04 · Nov 6, 2020

Subsea said:
There is no magic number for phosphate concentration. What is more important is feeding the competition. As a general rule, nuisance algae will thrive in low nutrients. Specifically, species of Cynobacteria are capable of dissolving substrates rich in calcium phosphate and converting nitrogen gas into ammonia.

Yeah I have a big problem with red slime/cyanobacteria right now. I have my phosphates at about 0.2 ppm and nitrates at around 10. Trying my darndest to starve the stuff out.