Are elevated nutrients a problem, or not?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I keep my phosphates at 0.00. Hanna checker can't even detect it. And nitrates at 5ppm, I've found favia,leptastrea,favites absolutely hate phosphate, the rest of my corals also enjoy the low levels

Do you feed particulate foods for the corals?

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

Do you feed particulate foods for the corals?

Yep! Only way it works with phosphates at zero, my tank is 120 gallons and (for now, hopefully not for much longer) fishless. LPS dominant system, I feed 4 cubes of Hikari coral gumbo nightly, I have my refeugium running to keep the phosphates low

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

Do you feed particulate foods for the corals?

The feeding response in last night's feeding

 

[jda]

I found a Hach Total P test kit - I thought that I had used it all up. It was expired by a few months, but it showed total P of about .08 in my tank with a po4 level of 2 ppb, or .004 ppm. Again, i would venture to guess that anybody with even very low po4 levels are not limited on phosphorous for corals unless you are not feeding fish. You still might be limited if you are looking to poison dinos, or the like.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Yep! Only way it works with phosphates at zero, my tank is 120 gallons and (for now, hopefully not for much longer) fishless. LPS dominant system, I feed 4 cubes of Hikari coral gumbo nightly, I have my refeugium running to keep the phosphates low

OK, then IMO, that's a critical thing to mention when discussing undetectable phosphate and successful growth of corals.

 

[Projects with Sam]

Yes, corals adapt specifically to high phosphate concentrations and may have difficulties to adapt to lower concentrations, especially Acropora.

If there is a threshold I would think it is around 0.1 ppm. I would expect that lowering phosphate by half from 0.4 to 0.2 ppm is not as problematic as lowering it from 0.1 ppm to 0.05 ppm.

What might also be the case is that it is only an adaptation process and after a few days the corals open up again.

I was running phosphates over 1ppm since May and recently dropped it to around .5 and have not noticed much difference in my corals. I am still waiting to see if there are any changes. The frozen food I make for my fish has a ton of particulate food that is broadcast as they eat.

 

[Superlightman]

I keep my phosphates at 0.00. Hanna checker can't even detect it. And nitrates at 5ppm, I've found favia,leptastrea,favites absolutely hate phosphate, the rest of my corals also enjoy the low levels

Wich method you use?

 

[Pod_01]

The feeding response in last night's feeding

How long did you have those in the zero PO4 environment for?

Mine did this when I experimented with zero PO4:

Few fish and some feeding was done. Not fun to look at.


Same coral with PO4 in the 0.1 range:

Another one:

Lot more fish and lot more feeding as well.

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

Wich method you use?

Refeugium and Daily filter sock changes

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

How long did you have those in the zero PO4 environment for?

Mine did this when I experimented with zero PO4:

Few fish and some feeding was done. Not fun to look at.


Same coral with PO4 in the 0.1 range:

Another one:

Lot more fish and lot more feeding as well.

The Lobo? For about 1 1/2 months, I do nightly feedings so he's getting the nutrients he needs

Lobo tonight

Right before the lights turn off

 

[Thales]

My phophaste is currently 1.11

 

[Pod_01]

The Lobo? For about 1 1/2 months, I do nightly feedings so he's getting the nutrients he needs

Lobo tonight

Right before the lights turn off

From my experience Favia can take a long time to show starvation. If they start to be deflated and the mouth are gaping open you should increase the feeding . From my experience Fauna Marin coral dust works well but reef roids should work as well.

The reason I bring this up is that when I experimented with zero PO4 the Favias looked ok for long time (3-5 months) and suddenly they did not.
In your case with newish looking tank the PO4 might be getting absorbed by the substrate / rock or there might not be enough P/ PO4.
Corals do require P/PO4 either from fish poop/ feeding or sometimes from the water.

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

From my experience Favia can take a long time to show starvation. If they start to be deflated and the mouth are gaping open you should increase the feeding . From my experience Fauna Marin coral dust works well but reef roids should work as well.

The reason I bring this up is that when I experimented with zero PO4 the Favias looked ok for long time (3-5 months) and suddenly they did not.
In your case with newish looking tank the PO4 might be getting absorbed by the substrate / rock or there might not be enough P/ PO4.
Corals do require P/PO4 either from fish poop/ feeding or sometimes from the water.

Yep, looks newish because the lights are positioned behind the rockwork which keeps that side shaped, for the LPS. I do feed reef-roids every 1-2 weeks, I feed nightly 4 cubes of particulate-frozen meaty foods to provide said nutrients, and by the frequency and amount of waste my corals produce its pretty clear that they're getting enough nutrients. Currently I actually don't have favia as I killed the last one, but I am looking to get one soon

 

[Miami Reef]

My phophaste is currently 1.11

Why so high again? I thought you had a good, easy method to keep them lower (lanthanum). Lazy? Lol

 

[Thales]

Why so high again? I thought you had a good, easy method to keep them lower (lanthanum). Lazy? Lol

I cut dosing partially to see if it would make a difference. No difference!

 

[Reef By Steele]

I would say since the hobby‘s embraces the use of Cheato and other algae growth to reduce nitrate concentration, then the “algae growth vs coral growth“ concern is generally not, as far as macro algae exudates go, interfering with coral growth.

I think the discussion of algae growth hindering or killing corals in this discussion isn’t about the growth of algae causing a detrimental effect, but that algae growth in the DT can smother, shade, or otherwise impact the corals health, while growing a macro algae in a refugium or other place does not have the same results as it doesn’t block the corals light source.