PO4 - is .5ppm a problem?

[Reefahholic]

Let me show you what 0.5 PO4 and 10+ NO3 did to my young reef. This would have eventually went away on its own, but I’m not the type of person who likes to stare at brown coral, brown rocks, and heavy diatom blooms.




So instead of letting the tank go....I knocked it down. A better word would be balanced. In this after pic, I’m currently running at 0.06 PO4 and 5 NO3. Tank is about 3 months now. Corals are consuming more Cal and Alk now and actually growing a little.

 

[Punchanello]

How young is your system. How far in from day one did you notice the jump in PO4 levels?

System is now 5 months old. I noticed the nitrates climbing about a month ago. But the recent increase seems sudden.

 

[scardall]

Hi everyone,

I have a young mixed reef and have had my fair share of parameter swings, algae blooms and mess-ups. One think I always had though is very low or undetectable nitrates and phosphates. All of the sudden my nitrates have jumped up to 10ppm (which I think is ok for my livestock and planned approach) but my phosphates are at .5ppm. This seems really high judging by other peoples parameters.

My corals generally look unhappy. My Acans are retracted and not puffy, my limited number of SPS are losing colour and turning beige or brown.

I had a light malfunction (ATI Led Hybrid Powermodule) which is being fixed (been out nearly a month) and I have had to replace it with some cheap LEDs in the meantime. I assumed this was the problem with my corals, but could it be my phosphates?

grateful for your thoughts.

I have a 700 litre system. Running chaeto in a refugium under grow lights and Nyos 160 skimmer.

IMO 2-5ppm NO3 is preferred and .1 ppm and less for PO4. So I would say .5ppm is too high for SPS/LPS for sure.

 

[Reefahholic]

IMO 2-5ppm NO3 is preferred and .1 ppm and less for PO4. So I would say .5ppm is too high for SPS/LPS for sure.

I agree. I can tolerate anything to about 0.3- then it’s game time. :mad:

 

[Reefahholic]

System is now 5 months old. I noticed the nitrates climbing about a month ago. But the recent increase seems sudden.

That’s really weird. If the system is 5 months already and this is new...I’ll have to say your increased PO4 is due to over feeding something. You’d be surprised, feeding will make the PO4 creep up on you.

 

[Punchanello]

That’s really weird. If the system is 5 months already and this is new...I’ll have to say your increased PO4 is due to over feeding something.

Agree, it has to be something.

By way of update, I'm not sure but I think I might have found the source of the nitrates and phosphates....Nori. I was cleaning out my sump and underneath the filter socks there's a small chamber I keep a bunch of golf ball sized liverock. I thought it would be an ideal space for sponges and cryptic critters. I started to find quite a bit of old slimy nori in it. I had a closer look at my chaeto in the next chamber and what I thought was hair algae was more old nori.

I decided to watch what was happening when I added a clip of nori to the tank. I had assumed by tang and lawnmower blennie were going through heaps of it because I was adding a bunch every day and coming back to an empty clip. Turns out my Longnose Butterfly is the culprit. He/she surgically snips the nori right along the nori clip until the vast majority of it breaks off and disappears over the overflow. It's been getting caught in the refugium and chaeto chamber.

I'm not sure if this explains the high nutrients but if that's what's been happening all this time when I drop some nori in and run out the door in the morning it's the only viable reason I can think of.

I added a small amount of GFO and my phosphates are slowly coming down. Now at .35. I hope that now I have worked out the Nori issue the Chaeto will begin to keep up with my nitrates which have been increasing also.

 

[wesman42]

According to Salifert, 0.25 is considered "coral retardation". It's listed and explained in their test booklet.

 

[ZaneTer]

According to Salifert, 0.25 is considered "coral retardation". It's listed and explained in their test booklet.

I am not dismissing what you say but, just as food for thought, Sanjay and Rich Ross both run their tanks substantially higher with exceptional coral growth. Personally the only thing that bothers me is low phosphate. If I start seeing more algae I just add some more CUC. My rabbitfish is by far my most valuable fish.

 

[BigJohnny]

I am not dismissing what you say but, just as food for thought, Sanjay and Rich Ross both run their tanks substantially higher with exceptional coral growth. Personally the only thing that bothers me is low phosphate. If I start seeing more algae I just add some more CUC. My rabbitfish is by far my most valuable fish.

Too much phosphate is better than not enough phosphate, that's for sure.