My first ”mistake” was ordering p04 reagent after going over 7 years without testing. Next “mistake” was actually using it and seeing my p04 was 0.26. I had been feeding my tank pretty heavily, amino’s, reef roids, auto-feeder for fish, and frozen too. I then decided I was going to try to lower my phosphates (“mistake”) by reducing my autofeeder frequency, run my refugium a little longer, and start running a filter sock. Apparently my phosphate reduction ideas worked a little too well. My phosphate rapidly dropped to around 0.1 and 3 of my sps that I have had for a while were showing signs of alk burn. I do not run high alk, it typically stays under 8dkh, so I was a little puzzled by seeing the tips melt away. With that said, my woes seem to be tied to my decision to lower phosphates. The lower nutrients seemed to make the fox flame hyper sensitive to light and alk fluctuations. I had a couple fox flame frags in a lower par area that were unaffected.
Running lower phosphate hasn’t been all bad though. Many of my other sps are showing improved coloration and growth. It’s just the fox flame and a couple others that are not taking the nutrient change well.
