Chasing Number - I would love others Input

Braveheart! · Oct 12, 2023

My tank is doing great. I'm over feeding a little and may have a few too many fish/invertebrates (maybe). (I'm reducing my feeding) The result is my phosphates are a little high (.08/.09). So I run GFO which brings my phosphates to .06. But my alkalinity drops to 7.7 from 8.2. I dosed my tank with bulk reef supply soda ash to bring it to 8.1. The problem is my favorite Duncan Coral just disappeared and died. This is my game plan (please help). Reduce feeding a little, do a few extra water changes, forget about the soda ash. if your numbers are a little lower don't worry about it. FYI, I love reefing, but one little mistake can result in a lot of problems. I wish all individuals that don't believe in climate change owned a coral reef tank. The world would be a better place. lol

thatmanMIKEson · Oct 12, 2023

Braveheart! said:
My tank is doing great. I'm over feeding a little and may have a few too many fish/invertebrates (maybe). (I'm reducing my feeding) The result is my phosphates are a little high (.08/.09). So I run GFO which brings my phosphates to .06. But my alkalinity drops to 7.7 from 8.2. I dosed my tank with bulk reef supply soda ash to bring it to 8.1. The problem is my favorite Duncan Coral just disappeared and died. This is my game plan (please help). Reduce feeding a little, do a few extra water changes, forget about the soda ash. if your numbers are a little lower don't worry about it. FYI, I love reefing, but one little mistake can result in a lot of problems. I wish all individuals that don't believe in climate change owned a coral reef tank. The world would be a better place. lol

a little more information on the system could lead to more indepth advice, but honestly I wouldn't use gfo with those phosphate numbers, I wouldn't say .08 is high or low, its probably a good place to be depending... phosphate tests can range in accuracy that much and more so it's possible your numbers are off from where your testing, and gfo binds more than just phosphates out of the water depending on how your running it, and with dosing soda ash, is that just adding a little here and there or is that with a daily dosing schedule, alkalinity falls and rises daily depending on when your testing and how accurate your test is, you need to test the same time every day in order to get a good picture of your tanks alkalinity.

Braveheart! · Oct 13, 2023

thatmanMIKEson said:
a little more information on the system could lead to more indepth advice, but honestly I wouldn't use gfo with those phosphate numbers, I wouldn't say .08 is high or low, its probably a good place to be depending... phosphate tests can range in accuracy that much and more so it's possible your numbers are off from where your testing, and gfo binds more than just phosphates out of the water depending on how your running it, and with dosing soda ash, is that just adding a little here and there or is that with a daily dosing schedule, alkalinity falls and rises daily depending on when your testing and how accurate your test is, you need to test the same time every day in order to get a good picture of your tanks alkalinity.

THANKS

Timfish · Oct 13, 2023

I agree, your PO4 is fine. FWIW, look at Thales' thread, he's challenged people to guess his current PO4 number.

Rich Ross - Home Tank - guess the phosphate

This tank was built before r2r, here is a link to some links about the build. http://packedhead.net/home-reef/ Current test results: 03-17-2017 Ammonia (NH3-4) Good 0 0.000 - 0.050 mg/L 03-17-2017 Nitrite (NO2) Good 0.006 0.000 - 0.100 mg/L 03-17-2017 Phosphate...

www.reef2reef.com

KrisReef · Oct 13, 2023

Braveheart! said:
My tank is doing great. I'm over feeding a little and may have a few too many fish/invertebrates (maybe). (I'm reducing my feeding) The result is my phosphates are a little high (.08/.09). So I run GFO which brings my phosphates to .06. But my alkalinity drops to 7.7 from 8.2. I dosed my tank with bulk reef supply soda ash to bring it to 8.1. The problem is my favorite Duncan Coral just disappeared and died. This is my game plan (please help). Reduce feeding a little, do a few extra water changes, forget about the soda ash. if your numbers are a little lower don't worry about it. FYI, I love reefing, but one little mistake can result in a lot of problems. I wish all individuals that don't believe in climate change owned a coral reef tank. The world would be a better place. lol

Me too!
I wish that all the people who believe in climate change would get a reef tank, read Thales Thread, and then stop chasing numbers.