Dosing phosphates while running GFO....

[bozo]

I know this is probably a dumb question.

I've ran GFO since the birth of this tank. 11 months so far

My PO4 is usually ranges between 0.00 - 0.1 ppm while running GFO.

Currently PO4 is sitting at 0.01 PPM based on todays testing.

I just dosed trisodium phosphates to get it up to 0.05 PPM and then I lowered the flow through the GFO reactor.

Questions:

Should I lower the flow through the GFO reactor while dosing PO4? Or should I take it offline?

Should just stop everything and dose PO4 to 0.1 PPM and see how much the coral use daily. Then dose that amount accordingly?

How do we consider the phosphates from flakes, pellets, and rock?

Sorry for all the questions.

Thanks!

 

[bozo]

ok

I think I'm just gonna take out the GFO reactor.

I just have PTSD from green hair algae lol...

 

[Pod_01]

What I would do:

Should I lower the flow through the GFO reactor while dosing PO4? Or should I take it offline?

I would remove the GFO and let the tank settle to a new steady state.

Should just stop everything and dose PO4 to 0.1 PPM and see how much the coral use daily. Then dose that amount accordingly?

Dose good quality coral food if you want to bring up the PO4. Better yet feed fish more and maybe get more fish so they produce the right PO4 that corals like.

How do we consider the phosphates from flakes, pellets, and rock?

I don’t follow the question, but flakes and pellets and any type of food has PO4. Feed good quality fish food that has minimal fillers like flour etc… Once you provide good fish food they will produce food for corals. If there is too much junk in the fish food the byproducts will pollute the water.

Rock acts like a phosphate buffer, it absorbs if there is more in the water or releases phosphate if there is less. It tries to be in equilibrium. Problem with too much PO4 bound in the rock is that it can lead to unwanted algae. Corals cannot use PO4 when it is in rock but algae like GHA can. Hence the 0.1 is good target.

Lights and flow is also important.

Hope that helps,
Good luck,

 

[wculver]

I know this is probably a dumb question.

I've ran GFO since the birth of this tank. 11 months so far

My PO4 is usually ranges between 0.00 - 0.1 ppm while running GFO.

Currently PO4 is sitting at 0.01 PPM based on todays testing.

I just dosed trisodium phosphates to get it up to 0.05 PPM and then I lowered the flow through the GFO reactor.

Questions:

Should I lower the flow through the GFO reactor while dosing PO4? Or should I take it offline?

Should just stop everything and dose PO4 to 0.1 PPM and see how much the coral use daily. Then dose that amount accordingly?

How do we consider the phosphates from flakes, pellets, and rock?

Sorry for all the questions.

Thanks!

I would take out the GFO and dry it. You can reuse it if you air dry it and won't make toxic sludge like leaving it in a reactor.

So long as you're feeding the fish and perhaps something for coral the phosphate will naturally increase.

The increase will be slow at first as the rocks and substrate sequester some of it. Once they are at capacity it'll increase faster.

Just gauge with testing when you need the reactor back online. I'd recommend somewhere around the 0.1 mark.

I would now however dose for phosphate unless you are truly running zero. Certainly making two changes increases your chances of a mistake.

 

[jda]

The hair algae can grow better than corals with undetecable no3 and po4. It can get nitrogen and phosphorous from many other places.

If you have the hair algae under control, then something else is working on it.

FWIW - your corals can get phosphorous from other places besides po4 too. If you have a good amount of fish and are feeding them well, there is likely no reason to raise your po4 to .1 for the corals.