Stripped all po4 from tank!

olecaptainj · Mar 9, 2018

Did my dose of seaklear today at 1.5 ml but did not take into effect that this dose takes out .3 of po4, so now I tested and getting the under range error on Hanna ulr. Po4 was at .19 prior.

Alk is at 10.41 so it didn’t deplete that much.

Did I just nuke my tank???

reefndude · Mar 9, 2018

No you did not. Best way to reduce alk in your tank is to let it fall naturally or water changes with lower point

olecaptainj · Mar 9, 2018

Im not trying to reduce alk, as it’s fine in my tank at 10-11.

I’m reducing po4 that leaching from 15 yr old live rock and feeding heavily due to my naso, idol and regal angel in which I have done, just took out too much po4 today as it at 0.

reefndude · Mar 9, 2018

I misunderstood. Corals, especially sps may show some negative signs with the rapid drop of po4. But as far as nuking the tank, it will be fine.

rkpetersen · Mar 9, 2018

I agree that is a precipitous phosphorus drop, it would make me nervous too. Especially because there could still be excess lanthanum ion remaining in the water, which could continue to bind phosphate as it's produced, keeping the level at zero for a time. What do you have in the way of corals? At the very least, feed your fish liberally tonight and see if you can get that level up by tomorrow morning so that it at least registers something.

olecaptainj · Mar 9, 2018

Thanks for the reassurances! I did use a 5 micron sock with a one drop per second rate of flow, so the excess binding should hopefully be limited.

I did throw an extra brine cube in now and will definitely do a targeted and broadcast feed of reef roids.

Corals are mostly sps frags of wwc stuff about 30 I’d say. Some lps consisting of a goni, hammer, and trumpet, 2 chalices. A bta as well.

Guess I’ll test tomorrow.

Velcro · Mar 9, 2018

Good chance you'll see some STN or RTN to be honest. Especially with alk that high.

Scorpius · Mar 9, 2018

STN from the base always happens when I bottom out Po4. Sucks man.

olecaptainj · Mar 9, 2018

Well I was getting a roughy .1 increase every other day on average so perhaps that will help.

That’s why I am dosing, po4 got too high as in too high to test on the ulr and with the extra feedings to get the newer fish eating since they aged the more difficult ones I started getting browning out.

I had no algae issues or browning even with the elevated po4 at .5, but over that the browning started.

reefndude · Mar 9, 2018

The rapid decline is what's concerning for your sps. My fingers are crossed for you.

Frogger · Mar 9, 2018

Ultra low PO4 with high alk not good. Have had it happen twice in the past year and a half. I lost half my corals the first time when I didn't catch it quickly. Stressed corals the second time with some minor tip burn.

olecaptainj · Mar 10, 2018

Woke up this morning and made my way to the tank hoping to not find a bunch of dead sps. So far so good, everything looks normal for now.

Velcro · Mar 10, 2018

olecaptainj said:
Woke up this morning and made my way to the tank hoping to not find a bunch of dead sps. So far so good, everything looks normal for now.

Good to hear. Fingers crossed for an uneventful following few days.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 10, 2018

Phosphate should rapidly come back after a feeding or two, unless there's excessive lanthanum still in the water.

olecaptainj · Mar 20, 2018

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Phosphate should rapidly come back after a feeding or two, unless there's excessive lanthanum still in the water.

Well the po4 today is up to .28, however every Acropora had completely browned out and I lost 2 small nub frags and my pearlberry frag isn’t looking good, hopefully it doesn’t stn.

Corals been like this since about Thursday last week.

I’m guessing the shock of lowering the po4 so rapidly really created an issue even though it was a short event?

Frogger · Mar 21, 2018

Unfortunately it happens really fast and it takes a very long time to recover. I still have corals that have not fully recovered a year after I crashed my phosphate.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 21, 2018

olecaptainj said:
Well the po4 today is up to .28, however every Acropora had completely browned out and I lost 2 small nub frags and my pearlberry frag isn’t looking good, hopefully it doesn’t stn.

Corals been like this since about Thursday last week.

I’m guessing the shock of lowering the po4 so rapidly really created an issue even though it was a short event?

I'm not sure. Browning is more often associated with high nutrients (elevated zoox), not low or rapid drops.

olecaptainj · Mar 21, 2018

Thst is exactly what I was thinking too, however it is a more pale translucent brown/ purplish hue.

Here are a few.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 21, 2018

I don't know what it looked like before, but I'd say those are pale and low P can do that.

Frogger · Mar 21, 2018

Those corals look to me like what my corals looked like when I dropped my phosphates to 0 when I started adding nitrates to my tank and I foolishly didn't take the GFO offline.

It is my understanding that high nutrients lead to browning but the corals continue to grow and survive unless overgrown by algae.