why do people want no po4???

[H2Ocorals]

At 10ppm wouldn't that tank be infiltrated with algae all over the place?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

At 10ppm wouldn't that tank be infiltrated with algae all over the place?

Not if other things limit it, such as herbivores or a trace element. Some nice tanks have very high nitrate and phosphate. What exactly limits algae in them is not always apparent.

 

[hart24601]

I found my best colors when running undetectable phosphate, 0ppb Hanna, and detectable nitrate but only a little color on salifert test. I could see when my gfo was exhausted because mariculture acros start to brown out at a couple ppb. Now there is a lot of bioload and feeding so it’s not like there was 0 phosphate entering the system, just 0 detectable.

That is what worked for me. I will add pics (how can anyone take advise with no pics!)

Imo hobby is like a pendulum, we discovered some nutrients are good after hating them for years, and now overcorrected in the area of many saying high levels of phosphates and nitrates when my experience is very little phosphate and just a bit of nitrate.

This is all led system which is a conversation for another day. Haha

Only white balance on pics done in camera. No post processing.

 

[slayerhellfire]

how do we balance the two for ultimate growth and color, regarding zoas mostly I want my zoas fat and happy. Everything else in my tank is spot on so I think its a lack of nutrients 0.04 on my hanna. I do a 10 gallon change everyweek wonder if I should be doing one every two weeks. My tank is 60 shallow with a 40 sump aprox. 75 gallons if I had to guess.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

how do we balance the two for ultimate growth and color, regarding zoas mostly I want my zoas fat and happy.

That's what makes it a challenging hobby!

I doubt the water changes are causing any problems. Its not your primary means of removing nutrients.

 

[DSC reef]

I found my best colors when running undetectable phosphate, 0ppb Hanna, and detectable nitrate but only a little color on salifert test. I could see when my gfo was exhausted because mariculture acros start to brown out at a couple ppb. Now there is a lot of bioload and feeding so it’s not like there was 0 phosphate entering the system, just 0 detectable.

That is what worked for me. I will add pics (how can anyone take advise with no pics!)

Imo hobby is like a pendulum, we discovered some nutrients are good after hating them for years, and now overcorrected in the area of many saying high levels of phosphates and nitrates when my experience is very little phosphate and just a bit of nitrate.

This is all led system which is a conversation for another day. Haha

Only white balance on pics done in camera. No post processing.

Show off

 

[slayerhellfire]

That's what makes it a challenging hobby!

I doubt the water changes are causing any problems. Its not your primary means of removing nutrients.

would a oversized skimmer be a issue ??

 

[NS Mike D]

IMO, a ratio is not a good perspective. IMO, they should be targeted independently to optimal values. (say, 0.02-0.03 ppm and a few ppm nitrate)

If one is excessively high, why should the other also be excessively high?

And if one is excessively low, why should both be excessively low?

could be a consequence of aquarists misunderstanding the Redfield ratio and the correlation of driving their NO3 down to zero with PO4 being present and then experiencing a cyano outbreak. we know (from reading your articles) that cyano has the ability to grab N from other sources when NO3 is stripped from the tanks and this can out compete the corals' zooxanthellae. I suspect this may also be true with other nuisance algae.

I am not 100% convinced the ratio doesn't favor nuisance algae to some extent, but i do agree with you on targeting the numbers as absolutes and not a ratio.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

would a oversized skimmer be a issue ??

It might help drive nutrients or trace elements too low.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

could be a consequence of aquarists misunderstanding the Redfield ratio and the correlation of driving their NO3 down to zero with PO4 being present and then experiencing a cyano outbreak. we know (from reading your articles) that cyano has the ability to grab N from other sources when NO3 is stripped from the tanks and this can out compete the corals' zooxanthellae. I suspect this may also be true with other nuisance algae.

I am not 100% convinced the ratio doesn't favor nuisance algae to some extent, but i do agree with you on targeting the numbers as absolutes and not a ratio.

No other pests/algae in our aquaria can get nitrogen from N2 except cyanobacteria. But certainly some can get N and P from organics they may consume, and some are better than others at that.

These issues are complex when many organisms are competing for the same space, light, trace elements, and N and P. For example, I expect the reason that dinos can become a problem at low nutrients is because it is more competitive under those conditions, not because higher nutrients negatively impact it directly.