What foods are high in phosphates?

[ca1ore]

Is the phosphate level in mysis higher than in other frozen foods. Hard to see why that would be. Phosphate contained in biological organisms is essentially the same .... if I remember my biology class correctly. It has been a long time LOL.

 

[Reef.]

Is the phosphate level in mysis higher than in other frozen foods. Hard to see why that would be. Phosphate contained in biological organisms is essentially the same .... if I remember my biology class correctly. It has been a long time LOL.

If it is it would be marginal I would think, in my experience some frozen foods have dirtier water than others.

 

[Reef GE]

I’m dosing potassium nitrate. I started dosing enough to raise my nitrates by 2.5ppm daily (meaning that if nothing consumed the dose then my nitrates would go up by 2.5ppm) and have varied that a bit as I’ve been trying to dial it in. Right now I’m dosing about 3ppm daily.

Originally I started dosing manually once a day, then I switched to twice a day (adding half the dose in the morning and half in the evening), then I switched to a dosing pump (adding the dose slowly over a 24 hour period)

where do you buy your potassium nitrate. Does it matter what purity it is?

 

[Brett S]

where do you buy your potassium nitrate. Does it matter what purity it is?

I’m using spectracide stump remover right now. I’m sure purity matters to some extent, at least. I wouldn’t want to use something that was only 25% pure.

I may consider other options when I run out of spectracide, but for now it seems to be working for me.

 

[schuby]

Personally, I would reduce my large ball of chaeto down to a softball-size and reduce my fuge light to a few hours before I would dose phosphate and/or nitrate. Removing phosphate and nitrate is the only reason that I run chaeto. If it overperforms than it is adjusted, just like a adjusting the dosage of Calcium or Alkalinity.

 

[calanprc]

When nitrate increases, phosphate levels decrease. It's recommended to get nitrate dialed in to the level you want and then focus on phosphates. You only need a very very small amount of nitrate in the tank where as corals prefer a larger abundance of phosphate. So if you have detectable levels of nitrate, even small (.5-1), I would stop dosing nitrate and let it ride so phosphate levels can normalize.

That’s a good point to focus on nitrates first dnd then PO4. It’s a teeter-totter effect if you don’t.