EMERGENCY…. HELP!

[radar_17]

Just used Phosphat-E for the first time. My phosphates had been OK (.03-.05) but then added an auto feeder (Plank). Fish love the auto feeder, but phosphates started creeping up. At 0.09 I decided to add a little Phosphat-E to lower it. Unfortunately, I misread the directions and what I though was a dose to lower it by .01 to .02 was actually a dose to lower it by 100 times that! I dosed 40 ml into a 125 gallon tank. Tested a day later and found a reading of 0.00 (of course). I figured maybe my rockwork would have some phosphate in reserve leaching out that would counteract, so I waited a couple days and re-tested… still 0.00. Corals (especially Montipora and acropora) are starting to bleach out now. I’ve ordered some Neo-phos, but it won’t get here for another 2-3 days. I the mean-time, I’ve shut off the lights (to minimize algae uptake of phosphate and hopefully minimize the corals need for phosphate), started adding a double dose of reef-roads to the tank twice a day (LPS are loving it), and ceased carbon dosing. After doing this for a couple of days, I’m still testing 0.00. Am I on the right track? Any more suggestions to keep the corals alive until the neo-phos gets here? Help!

 

[Pistondog]

Just used Phosphat-E for the first time. My phosphates had been OK (.03-.05) but then added an auto feeder (Plank). Fish love the auto feeder, but phosphates started creeping up. At 0.09 I decided to add a little Phosphat-E to lower it. Unfortunately, I misread the directions and what I though was a dose to lower it by .01 to .02 was actually a dose to lower it by 100 times that! I dosed 40 ml into a 125 gallon tank. Tested a day later and found a reading of 0.00 (of course). I figured maybe my rockwork would have some phosphate in reserve leaching out that would counteract, so I waited a couple days and re-tested… still 0.00. Corals (especially Montipora and acropora) are starting to bleach out now. I’ve ordered some Neo-phos, but it won’t get here for another 2-3 days. I the mean-time, I’ve shut off the lights (to minimize algae uptake of phosphate and hopefully minimize the corals need for phosphate), started adding a double dose of reef-roads to the tank twice a day (LPS are loving it), and ceased carbon dosing. After doing this for a couple of days, I’m still testing 0.00. Am I on the right track? Any more suggestions to keep the corals alive until the neo-phos gets here? Help!

Keep up/ increase with the reef roids, maybe do a large water change if that is an option make sure your skimmer is working well.

 

[Pistondog]

Use gfo if po4 is below 0.3, lc above that.
Anything below 0.1 steady is ok.

 

[Apotack]

try to avoid a panic fix. Causing your phosphate to swing too far the other way will only cause more problems. When I screw up a parameter I try to get it stable first then adjust it back slowly over several days or weeks.

 

[BrotatoSalad]

Keep up/ increase with the reef roids, maybe do a large water change if that is an option make sure your skimmer is working well.

I'm with Pistondog. If you have coral aminos, shutting the flow off and target feeding that alongside the reef roids should help get some level of nutrition through the tissue too. When I was doing tank maintenance years back I've seen aminos really spruce up some colonies lacking tissue, and I believe that's what WWC uses for their corals that need a boost.

 

[radar_17]

Thanks for the suggestions. I thought about a water change but I didn’t think fresh saltwater contained phosphates. I plan on slowly (over several days) raising the phosphates again once the neo-phos gets here. I feel dumb for making such a rookie mistake. Looking back I should have just left it alone at 0.09 and waited a week or two to see if natural methods (I have an ATS that is just starting to grow in) started compensating before trying a quick fix. Even with the quick fix… CAREFULLY reading the dosing instructions would have saved all this trouble. Hopefully corals can hang in there a few more days.

In the meantime I’ll keep raising the amount of reefroids and test every night to make sure I’m not overdoing it. I already have Seachem’s Reef Plus (contains aminos) dosing hourly. I also turned up the Plank feeder by 25% just to help add some more nutrients.

Thanks.