Controlling Phosphate

Deschutes541

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I'll apologize in advance as I'm sure this has been discussed a million and one times. I recently purchased a Hanna ULR Phosphate checker as I suspected my phosphate levels were high. I received the unit on Tuesday and it registered as .22. As far as I'm aware, I should be aiming for .05 or less but not absolute 0.

I suspect this could be due to two different causes:

Feeding habits. I've recently acquired two helfrichi firefish and my LFS recommended feeding brine shrimp. I began feeding 1/2 cube frozen brine shrimp, some live baby brine from a hatchery, 5-10 pellets, and BRS Reef Chili (3-4 times a week). Due to the relatively low nutritional value of the shrimp, I would soak these in roughly a cup of tank water with spirulina powder for about an hour. I was feeding this daily.​
I recently purchased additional ceramic rings to place in my sump. My main goal is to have a sufficient habitat for copepods so I can eventually have a Mandarin. I've begun to wonder if these are leaching phosphate.​
My aquarium is a 90 gallon with a 30 gallon sump. Its only been up for six months although 30-40% of the rock is from a previous tank. I have a kole tang, two clowns and two firefish. My nitrates typically run between 5-12ppm per my Nyos kit. I have a refugium that is growing chaeto at a pretty good pace.

Since taking the first reading, I've only been feeding pellets. Should I continue to feed only pellets? Should I only feed the spirulina soaked brine shrimp?

I figure GFO will probably be the way forward but I have read the horror stories so i'm hesitant. What would you do in my position? Thanks in advance for the advice.
 

Macbalacano

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I'll apologize in advance as I'm sure this has been discussed a million and one times. I recently purchased a Hanna ULR Phosphate checker as I suspected my phosphate levels were high. I received the unit on Tuesday and it registered as .22. As far as I'm aware, I should be aiming for .05 or less but not absolute 0.

I suspect this could be due to two different causes:

Feeding habits. I've recently acquired two helfrichi firefish and my LFS recommended feeding brine shrimp. I began feeding 1/2 cube frozen brine shrimp, some live baby brine from a hatchery, 5-10 pellets, and BRS Reef Chili (3-4 times a week). Due to the relatively low nutritional value of the shrimp, I would soak these in roughly a cup of tank water with spirulina powder for about an hour. I was feeding this daily.​
I recently purchased additional ceramic rings to place in my sump. My main goal is to have a sufficient habitat for copepods so I can eventually have a Mandarin. I've begun to wonder if these are leaching phosphate.​
My aquarium is a 90 gallon with a 30 gallon sump. Its only been up for six months although 30-40% of the rock is from a previous tank. I have a kole tang, two clowns and two firefish. My nitrates typically run between 5-12ppm per my Nyos kit. I have a refugium that is growing chaeto at a pretty good pace.

Since taking the first reading, I've only been feeding pellets. Should I continue to feed only pellets? Should I only feed the spirulina soaked brine shrimp?

I figure GFO will probably be the way forward but I have read the horror stories so i'm hesitant. What would you do in my position? Thanks in advance for the advice.
I was in a similar boat as you, but my nitrates were hovering around 15-25. I tried to reduce feeding but it really wasn't helping that much.

I didn't want to use GFO either because I was concerned it would be too much of a shock to the system. I instead set-up a fuge with chaeto and it has been fantastic. It has reduced my phosphates significantly from .20 - .30 to about 0.05 and now I feed double or triple the amount I used to.

I'm totally sold on feeding heavy and exporting heavy. Ive noticed the fish are healthier and nicer colour, my corals are much more fluffy and brighter, and my inverts are better behaved (less stealing of food from corals and fish).

I would recommend setting up a fuge!

PS: pictures/video of my tank are in my build thread.
 

Sam816

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do you have corals? if yes, then how many and what group(sps,lps or soft)
phosphate control is important if you have sensitive corals. your tank is young, it will reach equilibrium in some time. in case you go GFO route then you wont need a lot of it. just make sure its tumbling and give it a shake once a day. if you have room for a refugium then grow macro algae. you can adjust photo period as your phosphate level varies.
you will benefit from increasing CUC members and dosing phyto/zooplankton as they will encourage pod growth. they are great scavengers.
 
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Deschutes541

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I was in a similar boat as you, but my nitrates were hovering around 15-25. I tried to reduce feeding but it really wasn't helping that much.

I didn't want to use GFO either because I was concerned it would be too much of a shock to the system. I instead set-up a fuge with chaeto and it has been fantastic. It has reduced my phosphates significantly from .20 - .30 to about 0.05 and now I feed double or triple the amount I used to.

I'm totally sold on feeding heavy and exporting heavy. Ive noticed the fish are healthier and nicer colour, my corals are much more fluffy and brighter, and my inverts are better behaved (less stealing of food from corals and fish).

I would recommend setting up a fuge!

PS: pictures/video of my tank are in my build thread.
I have a refugium and the chaeto has been doing well. I currently run it at 7 hours nightly with a cheap Amazon grow light. I'll consider bumping it up 8 hours though. Thanks.
 
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Deschutes541

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do you have corals? if yes, then how many and what group(sps,lps or soft)
phosphate control is important if you have sensitive corals. your tank is young, it will reach equilibrium in some time. in case you go GFO route then you wont need a lot of it. just make sure its tumbling and give it a shake once a day. if you have room for a refugium then grow macro algae. you can adjust photo period as your phosphate level varies.
you will benefit from increasing CUC members and dosing phyto/zooplankton as they will encourage pod growth. they are great scavengers.
Mixture of LPS and softies. The softies have done well but the LPS haven't. They aren't dying but they aren't very colorful and have grown slowly. The softies are two leathers and GSP. LPS include a favia, 4 acans, one hammer and a torch. I considered dosing phyto as I want my pod population to increase. However, I've held off as I was concerned my nitrates and phosphate would increase. Algae isnt a huge concern though. I do have brown hair algae that needs to cleaned off the glass 2-3 times a week. The rock stays pretty clean though.
 

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I hate GFO personally, much prefer using Lanthanum Chloride dripped into a 5 micron filter sock.
 

Sam816

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Mixture of LPS and softies. The softies have done well but the LPS haven't. They aren't dying but they aren't very colorful and have grown slowly. The softies are two leathers and GSP. LPS include a favia, 4 acans, one hammer and a torch. I considered dosing phyto as I want my pod population to increase. However, I've held off as I was concerned my nitrates and phosphate would increase. Algae isnt a huge concern though. I do have brown hair algae that needs to cleaned off the glass 2-3 times a week. The rock stays pretty clean though.
You need to dose additives( /w amino acids) for coral colors. I dose seachem reef plus and have seen a sea(pun intended) change. my phosphates are higher than yours at .25. nitrates bw 20-10ppm.
 
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Deschutes541

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You need to dose additives( /w amino acids) for coral colors. I dose seachem reef plus and have seen a sea(pun intended) change. my phosphates are higher than yours at .25. nitrates bw 20-10ppm.
Thanks, I'll check it out.
 

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I have a refugium and the chaeto has been doing well. I currently run it at 7 hours nightly with a cheap Amazon grow light. I'll consider bumping it up 8 hours though. Thanks.
I noticed a huge difference between running 8 hrs and 12 hrs in terms of phosphate reduction. Personally, I’d recommend trying 12 for a few days and see what happens.
 

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I use PhosphateRX, dripped into overflow. Do not use the recommended dose amount, I did and phos dropped to zero. I dose about 2-4 drops a day in a 75 gallon, lowers from .09 to .06 and keeps it in that range.
 
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Deschutes541

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I noticed a huge difference between running 8 hrs and 12 hrs in terms of phosphate reduction. Personally, I’d recommend trying 12 for a few days and see what happens.
Interesting - I'll try it out. I'm going to bump it up to nine tonight and tomorrow. I'll go to 12 starting on Saturday night.
 
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Deschutes541

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I use PhosphateRX, dripped into overflow. Do not use the recommended dose amount, I did and phos dropped to zero. I dose about 2-4 drops a day in a 75 gallon, lowers from .09 to .06 and keeps it in that range.
Interesting - thanks for the suggestion.
 

anthonygf

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Interesting - thanks for the suggestion.
Dose at night, can cause cloudiness. When my phosphates were around .23 I used the recommended dosage like stated in directions and phosphate dropped to zero the next day. Was supposed to only drop around .13 maybe. You need to lower gradually/slowly over the course of a week. Use half recommended dose, see where you are at the next day.
 

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I'm in the weird position of having to dose phosphate, but I have smaller tanks with small bioloads and a lot of fast growing montipira that eat PO4 like breakfast cereal. I aim for. 03 to .1 phosphate. Any lower and SPS start showing problems - very quickly. Bigger tanks have more nutrient capacity so lower phosphate values often can be tolerated.

Dry foods like reef roids and their cousins can really contribute to phosphate. I would start with that first.

I prefer frozen brine over mysis. Mysis are mostly water. Neither are big sources of phosphate in my experience.
 
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Deschutes541

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I'm in the weird position of having to dose phosphate, but I have smaller tanks with small bioloads and a lot of fast growing montipira that eat PO4 like breakfast cereal. I aim for. 03 to .1 phosphate. Any lower and SPS start showing problems - very quickly. Bigger tanks have more nutrient capacity so lower phosphate values often can be tolerated.

Dry foods like reef roids and their cousins can really contribute to phosphate. I would start with that first.

I prefer frozen brine over mysis. Mysis are mostly water. Neither are big sources of phosphate in my experience.

Yeah, I'll avoid the Reef Chili for now. Maybe do it once a week instead of 3-4 times.
 

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