PO4 spike after phyto

[reefteaser]

Been dosing phyto every other day with live phyto and seeing a good response from my coral. Yesterday’s bi-weekly tests showed a spike In PO4 from .11-.15 to .35 (Hanna).
Are the two related? PO4 stayed steady for the previous 2 months when I started dosing.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Are you growing the phytoplankton yourself?

 

[reefteaser]

No. I started with buying from someone who did, but now using Reef Nutrition Phyto Feast.
Just re-read the directions—a teaspoon a day for my 100 gal. I think we’ve been dosing more, like a “squirt” straight from the bottle. Perhaps we need to measure.

 

[Dan_P]

Been dosing phyto every other day with live phyto and seeing a good response from my coral. Yesterday’s bi-weekly tests showed a spike In PO4 from .11-.15 to .35 (Hanna).
Are the two related? PO4 stayed steady for the previous 2 months when I started dosing.

How much phosphate is in the phytoplankton culture medium you are dosing?

 

[reefteaser]

It’s not listed on the bottle. As I read more about phyto, it doesn’t seem likely to be the cause of the spike, as it’s supposed to consume NO3 and PO4.
I did have some new pellet food in my feeder last week, that may be it.

 

[BriDroid]

If the Reef Nutrition stuff isn't the "Live" stuff, then it's not live phytoplankton. That could be the issue vs the live stuff you were feeding.

 

[GARRIGA]

I'm old school where phyto is single cell algae or green water which like any other plant like matter consumes nutrients including phosphates therefore should not raise any levels of that they consume and even if fed dead, likely not enough material to raise PO4 unless overdosed. Might be something else causing this.

 

[Dan_P]

It’s not listed on the bottle. As I read more about phyto, it doesn’t seem likely to be the cause of the spike, as it’s supposed to consume NO3 and PO4.
I did have some new pellet food in my feeder last week, that may be it.

To a first approximation, label claims are BS in this hobby. Test the phyto for PO4 for the heck of it. You might find it pretty high.

 

[formallydehyde]

Most algal growth media have a significant amount of phosphate and I doubt most vendors go through the trouble of removing the growth media from the bottles they ship out and just assume it's all consumed by the algae. I saw a similar phosphate spike when I was dosing OceanMagik, prior to dosing it whenever I tested phosphate it was undetectable. It could have been from something else as I didn't test the bottle directly but I have some pretty strong suspicions.

 

[BristleWormHater]

To a first approximation, label claims are BS in this hobby. Test the phyto for PO4 for the heck of it. You might find it pretty high.

Yeah cultures have residuals of the fertilizer used to grow the phyto so it could spike po4 .

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

No. I started with buying from someone who did, but now using Reef Nutrition Phyto Feast.
Just re-read the directions—a teaspoon a day for my 100 gal. I think we’ve been dosing more, like a “squirt” straight from the bottle. Perhaps we need to measure.

Are you using Phyto Feast, or Phyto Feast Live?

 

[reefteaser]

Photo Feast Live. I brought down the PO4 with Rowaphos. Removing it tomorrow and we’ll see what happens.

 

[killer2001]

I had an issue with PO4 when I was dosing my homegrown phyto. Turns out I was adding too much f/2 fertilizer in my cultures. I've since reduced the amount of fertilizer and PO4 has been under control for the most part.