Undetectable Phosphates???
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Scott.h
Valuable Member
I use a generic form of seachems product here:
http://www.seachem.com/flourish-phosporus.php
Keep in mind it only takes a few drops a day to keep it detectable in 100 gallons of water volume, depending on how much you feed the fish. I feed in the evenings and dose P in the morning to keep it consistent. Also keep an eye on the nitrates as I've found dosing N reduces P and vice versa. It will most definitely increase the algae film on the glass even at levels around .015. When I started daily dosing my tank also went though another little "ugly stage" but the tank will mature another step as it did in the beginning. It will mature and go away like usual. The important thing is the health of the corals.
I have experienced health issues when one element is way out of wack in relationship to the other, referring to the redfield ratio. I don't think they need to be 16:1 but I try to keep both in relation somewhat. I wouldn't worry about nitrates of 10. One of my tanks runs really well between .75 and 5, while another I've increased from 25 to 35ish because the corals were looking too pale. Obviously there are other factors that come into play that I don't understand, but I see what I see. 25, No algae, or film, starving corals. The other can be 3, algae film all over.
I think maturity plays a big part. Even if you have top notch equipment and do everything correct (with patients) from the start, a tank started with dry rock is not mature at one year imho.
http://www.seachem.com/flourish-phosporus.php
Keep in mind it only takes a few drops a day to keep it detectable in 100 gallons of water volume, depending on how much you feed the fish. I feed in the evenings and dose P in the morning to keep it consistent. Also keep an eye on the nitrates as I've found dosing N reduces P and vice versa. It will most definitely increase the algae film on the glass even at levels around .015. When I started daily dosing my tank also went though another little "ugly stage" but the tank will mature another step as it did in the beginning. It will mature and go away like usual. The important thing is the health of the corals.
I have experienced health issues when one element is way out of wack in relationship to the other, referring to the redfield ratio. I don't think they need to be 16:1 but I try to keep both in relation somewhat. I wouldn't worry about nitrates of 10. One of my tanks runs really well between .75 and 5, while another I've increased from 25 to 35ish because the corals were looking too pale. Obviously there are other factors that come into play that I don't understand, but I see what I see. 25, No algae, or film, starving corals. The other can be 3, algae film all over.
I think maturity plays a big part. Even if you have top notch equipment and do everything correct (with patients) from the start, a tank started with dry rock is not mature at one year imho.
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EmdeReef
2500 Club Member
What are your other parameters like alk/ca? How old is your tank? You could increase feeding pellet foods and your phosphates will go up in a few days... hard to tell if it’s a nutrient issue or something else. You may end up increasing phosphates and not fixing anything.
Randy Holmes-Farley
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Maybe, but that would not be my preference because skimmers help in other ways, such as aeration.
Dosing most any food grade sodium or potassium phosphate is a good way to go, IMO.
For example:
https://www.swansonvitamins.com/swa...MI1JWSrczr2AIVz7XACh12dwsVEAQYAiABEgIB9fD_BwE
madweazl
2500 Club Member
OK, that is commonly referred to as STN or RTN (slow or rapid tissue necrosis). Bleaching generally describes something as losing color. It is unlikely that nitrates and phosphates have caused this (especially given your levels). Alkalinity and salinity would be the things I'd probably look at in this case; for example, what are the current levels, have the current levels been stable (i.e. no or very little fluctuation day to day), and what are you using to measure them with?
You cant starve out algae and expect coral to live. It just wont happen. You just gotta keep nutrients in the tank and use predators so algae cant grow to plague proportions.
Correct, however I do think that some algea looking outbreaks come from an imbalance in parameters and once that will Straighten out and under control it will go away. Or another option Is to keep nutrients very low and target feed the corals.
madweazl
2500 Club Member
Because my tank has very low nitrates (difficult to measure but generally 0 to <.2 on a Salifert kit) for the better part of five months and phosphates of 0-.05ppm for the same period. I dosed nitrates for about a month and saw no difference so I stopped doing it. My SPS have maintained good color and are growing just fine.
The "limited nutrition" would have manifested differently in regard to your corals response. While hard to judge coloration in your picture because of the quality, that coral appears to have good color but is suffering from RTN.
