High phos- take it out or let it ride?

[LesPoissons]

Hi all,
conflicting information about phosphates. After a dino battle, black out, die off, and water change etc- my phos is now around .3 on a hanna checker (nitrates 25ppm). Do i use an agent to bring it down to around 0.03-0.05 or just leave it at .3? Trying to avoid dinos coming right back but also dont want to affect corals and fish etc. Thank you!

 

[Auquanut]

I would use GFO to bring it down closer to your goal and remove it once it's close. A reactor would work best if you have one.

 

[fish farmer]

Hi all,
conflicting information about phosphates. After a dino battle, black out, die off, and water change etc- my phos is now around .3 on a hanna checker (nitrates 25ppm). Do i use an agent to bring it down to around 0.03-0.05 or just leave it at .3? Trying to avoid dinos coming right back but also dont want to affect corals and fish etc. Thank you!

Here are the questions to ask yourself? Are you just chasing a number? Do you have excessive algae growth that is unsightly and growing over corals? Are your corals doing poorly because you think the phosphate and nitrates are the issue?

 

[LesPoissons]

My xenia is closed up and my nems havent come out in a few weeks and my mushroom corals have disappeared. I dont know if its related to the high phos or not? No algae. I guess I was thinking it would be prudent to get the levels closer to the range I would expect to keep them long term- which is usually significantly lower phos?

 

[fish farmer]

My xenia is closed up and my nems havent come out in a few weeks and my mushroom corals have disappeared. I dont know if its related to the high phos or not? No algae. I guess I was thinking it would be prudent to get the levels closer to the range I would expect to keep them long term- which is usually significantly lower phos?

I'd would try and lower the phosphate. There are many ways, quickly would be using stuff like GFO in a reactor, slower would be growing algae in a sump or fug.

 

[jeffchapok]

My xenia is closed up and my nems havent come out in a few weeks and my mushroom corals have disappeared. I dont know if its related to the high phos or not? No algae. I guess I was thinking it would be prudent to get the levels closer to the range I would expect to keep them long term- which is usually significantly lower phos?

I doubt your PO4 levels alone are responsible for all of that, unless they rose rapidly. My PO4 always runs .5 and my xenia, mushrooms and nems are thriving.

There's no harm in bringing it down, but I'm doubtful that's going to solve your issue. I would look for other possible causes as well. You could begin lowering PO4 at the same time, but if you change multiple things at once you'll never be certain what the resolution really was. I prefer to only change one thing at a time. And your PO4 isn't high enough to be a problem, IMHO. In fact, soft corals such as yours usually do better with higher PO4 and NO3, up to a point. I don't worry much about PO4 below 1.

 

[LesPoissons]

They did rise very rapidly from 0 (on a hanna checker) for months to 0.4 in 4 days after a black out and die off from fighting a dino battle. Thank you all for helping me process this out.
I think i will bring it down to a more moderate range. Im not looking to win the war just with messing with the phos- im just striving to get the tank back to a more balanced/maintainable state. The phos was at 0 for far too long and the nitrates at 0- 2.5. Basically starved the tank into a dino outbreak. Then blasted it with nutrients. Now Im afraid if I keep the nutrients high im going to swing the other way into an algae bloom. Im striving for that middle ground without chasing numbers too much where the tank can settle down and I can leave it be other than basic maintenance!
Thank you all, Its all very helpful information!