how do you manage your phosphates?

[ddc0715]

i have always had a problem with high phos. around 1-2 . i have also used many different foods based on their phos levels I now feed Mysis and fresh mostly and have been for a while. but my phos has still remained between 1-3 ppm.

I also practice reduced feeding habits. That's hard . they all look hungry.lol

I have used phos rx rapid phos, the pads, nopox, gfo, chem clean and so on. they do the job but a few months later im right back to 1-3. it's odd because I really put an effort into reducing them and trying to keep them low. my tank is happy and fine but i do believe that it affects coral growth.

i have also read here that people dose items for several months to a year in an effort to remove phos that leaches from our rocks.

so my question is how do you maintain your phos levels? do you auto dose something? what do you use and how often? does anyone auto dose anything? I'm kinda getting feed up with this roller coaster of .5 then back to 1-3 ppm for example.


i want to auto dose something like seaklear. i have read a lot of success stories here about people doing this.

 

[Jekyl]

I see a ton of different dosing and bottles of miracles listed but never just water changes? This is the way.

 

[ddc0715]

water change is implied im mean thats 101 right

 

[Spare time]

i have always had a problem with high phos. around 1-2 . i have also used many different foods based on their phos levels I now feed Mysis and fresh mostly and have been for a while. but my phos has still remained between 1-3 ppm.

I also practice reduced feeding habits. That's hard . they all look hungry.lol

I have used phos rx rapid phos, the pads, nopox, gfo, chem clean and so on. they do the job but a few months later im right back to 1-3. it's odd because I really put an effort into reducing them and trying to keep them low. my tank is happy and fine but i do believe that it affects coral growth.

i have also read here that people dose items for several months to a year in an effort to remove phos that leaches from our rocks.

so my question is how do you maintain your phos levels? do you auto dose something? what do you use and how often? does anyone auto dose anything? I'm kinda getting feed up with this roller coaster of .5 then back to 1-3 ppm for example.


i want to auto dose something like seaklear. i have read a lot of success stories here about people doing this.

I only use my refugium and a pinch of gfo in a bag if I overdose phosphate. I don't do water changes.

 

[Jekyl]

water change is implied im mean thats 101 right

Well with enough water changed phosphate is no longer an issue. 30% twice a week until desired levels.

 

[C_AWOL]

Could be that theres a lot of phosphate bound to your rock and/or sand.

It would take a while to get most of it leached out if thats the case so continued use of regularly changed gfo/+ a refugium/+ carbon dosing (provided no nitrate limitation) might be the best answer to that.

Water changes in a leeching situation is a poor method of managing phosphates as far as I know.

Lastly, whats the likelihood of your phosphate kit being expired?

 

[Rmckoy]

I was always to the understanding water changes have little effect on phosphates as they are bound to rocks and sand .

when for example a 30% water change is done .
what’s removed in the water is replaced from leaching ( let’s call it a reserve )


I use rowaphos , cheato which seams to be doing ok …
Keep a close eye on phosphates and nitrates not to bottom out .

 

[jassermd]

Well with enough water changed phosphate is no longer an issue. 30% twice a week until desired levels.

According to @Randy Holmes-Farley water changes won't move phosphate much as a majority of the available phosphate is an equilibrium with the rock surface and the water column.

 

[Uroplatus]

refugium

 

[Jekyl]

Article on reducing phosphates

Reef Tank Phosphate: Easy Ways to Reduce it! | The Beginners Reef

Phosphate is an important but often overlooked parameter in a saltwater aquarium. High levels of phosphate can prevent the skeletal growth of coral and fuel…

www.thebeginnersreef.com

 

[ddc0715]

thanks, yall I may start a drip dose using lantium. seen a lot of goo DIY dosing methods using feeding/iv bags because as many of you stated this may be a leeching problem and may require to be run for a long time. since my phos goes away after short-term treating then returns. also when dosing items in the past I can never seem to get any lower than .5 (tropic Marin test, not expired results confirmed with a red sea test) as well. no matter how long I dose. again i believe its leeching as well.


I agree that water changes do not do much at all for long-term phos management. this is what I am after. not a quick reduction in levels.

what i don't understand is the 5-micron filter sock for dosing lanthium? a lot of people say to use a sock but don't explain """why""" the preferred choice is 5 microns other than to catch the bonded phos. i m wondering is this because the bonded phos is larger than 5 microns? but smaller than 10 or 25 microns. I forecast catching more detris than bonded phos with a 5-micron sock. at present, I run a polyfill & 50 & 25-micron filter fabric stack instead of a sock. I have a fuge that I just recently took out (throw away all) the cheato because it just lives and has JUST LIVED FOR THREE YEARS. i have never harest it. thats a post for a different time. I have switched to new macroalgae now so my fuge wont help right away. cheato sucks. lol

 

[jda]

I use multiple skimmers and run a fuge where I remove 5 gallon bucker of chaeto every few weeks. I change water too, but it is hard to remove too much P with this alone. This is better to just maintain low levels.

If I had to lower, I would use LC.

Fuges can be hard with higher P levels since they can growth limit macroalgae... one of nature's cruel jokes.

 

[ddc0715]

the short version is------------high phos with no algae issue(odd) ------treatment, ----- phos lowered------change a phos contributing habit----- but high phos again month or two later

 

[ReefGeezer]

Fuges can be hard with higher P levels since they can growth limit macroalgae... one of nature's cruel jokes.

Interesting. What levels reduce macro algae growth?

 

[jda]

Hard to have algae with high phosphates - macro is growth limited as they get higher and then poisoned as they get too high. The rock and sand unbinds which is what makes the water column phosphates higher later on - aragonite unbinds as water levels get lower and can be quite a reservoir if allowed to accumulate for long periods of time. This can happen in a few hours, few days or weeks depending on if the P is on the surface, deeper, etc.

 

[Fishingandreefing]

Well with enough water changed phosphate is no longer an issue. 30% twice a week until desired levels.

If you have a high level like .50 or more, doing 30% will not reduce it. Unless you’re doing it daily almost.

 

[Biddence]

I use multiple skimmers and run a fuge where I remove 5 gallon bucker of chaeto every few weeks. I change water too, but it is hard to remove too much P with this alone. This is better to just maintain low levels.

If I had to lower, I would use LC.

Fuges can be hard with higher P levels since they can growth limit macroalgae... one of nature's cruel jokes.

This would explain why my fuge has not taken off in my system… my phosphate levels are at .22. Should i consider gfo or is LC still the way to go?

 

[ddc0715]

im going with an LC DRIP. seen several threads and videos about this using an iv bag. I'm going to set it up like a dosing pump and run it 24 (7) and monitor my levels for the next few months to see if I can either dial in a daily maintenance dose of LC to achieve a stable PHOS level.

then the plan is to stop doseing it for say a month, continue my feeding habits frozen food only and see if the phos levels rise or return. this will tell me two things for sure.

1. if they (phos levels) rise after I stop dosing LC -it's maybe my feeding habits ( i swear im starving my fish already) this will not rule out leeching

OR

2. it was leeching from my rocks. Because if they (phos levels) do not rise once I stop dosing LC and I resume normal feeding it has to have been leeching. This is what im hoping the results will produce.

but im stuck. not sure why everyone uses a 5-micron sock. i know why. to catch the bonded phos, but why a 5 micron? what's wrong with a 10 (some use ten) or 20, etc. not a lot out there on this subtopic of lanthanum dosing.

 

[Pistondog]

thanks, yall I may start a drip dose using lantium. seen a lot of goo DIY dosing methods using feeding/iv bags because as many of you stated this may be a leeching problem and may require to be run for a long time. since my phos goes away after short-term treating then returns. also when dosing items in the past I can never seem to get any lower than .5 (tropic Marin test, not expired results confirmed with a red sea test) as well. no matter how long I dose. again i believe its leeching as well.


I agree that water changes do not do much at all for long-term phos management. this is what I am after. not a quick reduction in levels.

what i don't understand is the 5-micron filter sock for dosing lanthium? a lot of people say to use a sock but don't explain """why""" the preferred choice is 5 microns other than to catch the bonded phos. i m wondering is this because the bonded phos is larger than 5 microns? but smaller than 10 or 25 microns. I forecast catching more detris than bonded phos with a 5-micron sock. at present, I run a polyfill & 50 & 25-micron filter fabric stack instead of a sock. I have a fuge that I just recently took out (throw away all) the cheato because it just lives and has JUST LIVED FOR THREE YEARS. i have never harest it. thats a post for a different time. I have switched to new macroalgae now so my fuge wont help right away. cheato sucks. lol

5 micron is my choice for catching the flocculant when using lc.
As you said for particulate size makes sense. Also run a skimmer.
Lc is the way if po4 > 0.2. Below 0.2 use gfo.

 

[zheka757]

but my phos has still remained between 1-3 ppm.

I'm assuming you mean .1to .3 ppm!?
anyway ill share my experience with this as i also had similar problem (.2 to.4 ppm) for the pas 2 years. i had sps frags in my tank that was just that frags and no growth, bunch of lps that where growing crazy, things changed when i start using GFO. I used GFO for like 4 month and i have kept my phosphate at 0 to .09 range. sps start to grow but almost all lps got wiped out. had like 10 different acans all shrinked and die one by one. but i was happy to see my sps was happy and growing. after i stopped gfo I added bucket of seachem metrix biomedia to my sump and occasionally i have to add nitrates to my tank because they are just being depleted, and i also over feed my fish I think i overdosed on biomedia. anyway long story short im slowly getting lps comeback to life, and im actually fighting to keep nutrients in my tank now.