how do you manage your phosphates?

[jda]

If you are going to do this, please make sure that you have a good tool like the Hannah Ultra Low. Then, go really slow so that the rock releases at about the same rate as you are using the media/LC. This stead downward descent is fine - what you do not want is to strip the water bare causing a downward spike and then have the aragonite release and spike back up to nearly where you were.

I set up some LC for a local with about .30 and he was dosing 1 mm of pure LC a day... I think down the overflow. This took a few months, but he as slow and steady and now at like .03 and nothing was hurt at all.

I would only use LC to lower. Use fuge or GFO to maintain. LC is SOOOOO strong. Also, LC does not work great once your tank level gets lower and you are trying to drip down an overflow into the bag - just not enough concentration or contact time. People who use LC in tanks with lower levels add it to the whole tank.

 

[jx.reef]

Be super careful with LC if you have tangs. I did 20 drops in a 100 gallon and my scopas started struggling. I only max out at 10 drops now

 

[ddc0715]

I got all things order seaklear and the checker these test kits are just to open to intruptation. I have done this stuff in the past (manually) with great success until I hit that .5 phos level wall. despite all my efforts, and the amounts or rates i have dosed I never can get lower than that. EVER ITS LIKE MY TANK BECOMES AMMUE TO THE STUFF once I hit .5 I use a tropic Marin test kit and I double check with a salifert test kit they are in line with each other.

I go down this road when I test and get these results I by this phos remover, that phos remover and i have had enough. I need a permit solution. i am now at .5 on the salifert and .1 on the tropic marin test scales.

now if one places a lantthum drip into the filter sock 5 or 10. Does the filter sock have to be subject to the flow of water into the sock? can the sock not just float half in and half out of the water in a sump chamber? and the lanthum drip into it

you see I moded my sump to not use socks. I use a stack of filter fabric (kinda like a trickle system) using various micron rate filter fabrics. It polyfill on top then 100m sheet - followed by a 50m sheet in the middle and then a 25m on the bottom, water flows thru those then thru my old sock port /holder that i converted to hold a media cup for things like carbon etc. this micron sandwich of filter fabric sits above the sump water level. never making contact with it. so you see this sock thing is bothering me. lol

 

[Jgill70]

I try to feed only as much as fish will eat. By not over feeding my phosphates have gone down

 

[ddc0715]

well, the problem I see in the overfeeding as a the possible problem is. to fold

1. everyone says not to overfeed. but no one ever knows if the amount they are feeding is too much. and everyone swears they don't overfeed HAHAHAHAHA INCLUDING ME. for example one teaspoon of pellets a day, for example, is good for a 200g well-stocked tank . its probably gone before it hits the sand bed ...but

one teaspoon a day for a 200-gallon tank with only 4 fish is too much or is it. or is it...... my point is that overfeeding is subjective and it's not a try answer to reducing phos. because no one knows other people's tanks of the appetites of their fish..

2. you see if I ask you "am I overfeeding" you or anyone else can not truly answer this because you don't see my feeding, you don't see my fish eat. so to say overfeeding is the problem,well i agree with you, but disagree as well. i believe its the food type? that helps grow phos levels.. I do feed low phos soaked vitamins pellets to my fish. and will be cutting that down to try and help out. cause i can not find another delivery of vit method. anyway; randy wrote up a sheet about phos levels in all types of food. that i follow when buying food.

my tank will consume a full (large shrimp) within minutes 5 usually unless my engineer goby does not snatch it and drag it away and if not then they get nothing else the rest of the day. so does one large shrimp feed daily constute as overfeeding if it's all eaten within 24hrs?

I can say with 100% confidence that I do not overfeed but the food (fresh shrimp/ mysis ) does not all get eaten within the 3-5 min rule. but does get eaten before the days over. this is all i know of my feeding habit.

 

[jda]

I feed my fish a lot. I doubt that much goes to waste, but I want some of it to slip by the fish to feed the crabs, shrimp, etc. Starved crabs and shrimp let to only eat poo likely will eat coral and so would your or I, so I don't blame them - they are not corallivores in the wild, but I guess that anything can become one.

If you are worried about residual levels of N and P building up, you can wash off your food before you feed it - especially mysis. Feed more clean food like pellets part of the time.

 

[minus9]

PNS Probio and move on. I never liked the idea of using LC (too many risks), but that's just me. I think it's a matter of choosing the right foods and keeping the fish healthy, reducing feedings are short term and the lack of nitrogen input has other ramifications. Honestly, I haven't found anything wrong with using PNS Probio to manage PO4, as it will never deplete NO3. I like algae reactors or beds for general reduction, as you can dial in a good level based on it's lighting schedule. Keeping your skimmer working properly goes a long way as well. Water changes do nothing for nutrient control without changing a massive amount and that usually creates other issues. There are lots of choices when it comes to bacteria, but I haven't found anything better than PNS Probio.

 

[ddc0715]

exactly..... but if you read the food to phos level ratio that randy did here somewhere.. you will see that pellts are the worst thing to feed (speaking about phos levels only) because they contain a large amount of phos. i will research this pns stuff today

 

[jda]

They also contain large amounts of protein, fiber, have no dirty stuff that does not get eaten and don't go to waste. No moisture and fewer go further. I could not keep my po4 to where I like it if I fed frozen only - pellets go a long way. The good pellets that you can get now are also loaded with vitamins and fatty acids and I credit them with having such healthy and disease free fish. Only downside for me is that not all fish will eat them and some can take many months to get on board.

How does a bacterial supplement like Probio lower po4? I am very excited to learn. I could see in a situation where no3 is so low that it is growth limiting, but this is rarely the case with anybody unless they are using media or chemicals for no3.

 

[Lavey29]

PNS Probio and move on. I never liked the idea of using LC (too many risks), but that's just me. I think it's a matter of choosing the right foods and keeping the fish healthy, reducing feedings are short term and the lack of nitrogen input has other ramifications. Honestly, I haven't found anything wrong with using PNS Probio to manage PO4, as it will never deplete NO3. I like algae reactors or beds for general reduction, as you can dial in a good level based on it's lighting schedule. Keeping your skimmer working properly goes a long way as well. Water changes do nothing for nutrient control without changing a massive amount and that usually creates other issues. There are lots of choices when it comes to bacteria, but I haven't found anything better than PNS Probio.

I recently started using PNS pro bio also. What is your dosing schedule? I am doing 2x per week. I have also noticed that my filter socks stay clean for a week now too.

 

[ddc0715]

yeah, I'm not really looking for a no3 reduction. my tank looks happy at 40 so not sure if this PNS Probio aids a phos issue. but when i go down the maintaining my no3 road after this i may revisit this product

 

[FiddlersReef]

When I was forced to let my tank go fallow for a few months, my phosphates dropped to .03 and sat there rock solid. After adding fish back, the numbers increased about .03 per week until it hit .18 and then has stayed there.

I have almost zero algae growth except on the overflow wall, which I leave for the snails, and I've noticed that several types of zoas have finally started opening up as the phosphate level increased. So I guess they wanted more. I also spent a lot of time carefully tuning my protein skimmer, and that definitely increase the amount of sludge it removes.

Edit: I also ran a fuge for awhile, but took it out because it made such an unholy mess of my sump. I'm hoping to avoid putting that back in.

 

[LeftyReefer]

The nitrate and phosphate level in my tank has dropped recently.... didn't know why.

I started dosing PNS ProBio twice a week around the middle of December.

Before that, my nitrates were usually around 5 ppm. I tested the other night and my nitrates were 0.4 ppm.
phosphates were 0.04 ppm. is it due to PNS or am I just skimming too much? yesterday I dosed a few ML's of NeoNitro so I don't bottom out and I adjusted my skimmer to not skim as wet as it has been...

 

[Tidal Gardens]

Try rinsing your food before you feed it. If you're using dry foods as well cut that way back. We lower ours by using small amounts of GFO and weekly water changes.

 

[muzikalmatt]

A chaeto refugium, skimmer and water changes are my main nutrient export methods. I do typically run Chemi-Pure Blue in my filter caddy which probably helps as well. If I notice my phosphates creeping up, I'll typically put in a small bag of ROWAphos and dial back my feeding until it's back under control.

 

[ddc0715]

heres a video of my tank and my first approach to finding the cause and my approach to tackle this phos issue as it may relate to food only sorry, I'm, not an expert media person I'm just a humble hobbyist. HAHAHAHA welcome to my 3.5-year-old reef.
i have a fuge but it does not grow cheato never has. my cheato just lives. so i pulled it all and switched to a different macro algea about one week ago. as well. but my starting phos levels are shown in a pic midway up on page 2 of this tread. and now im sitting at .07 phos dosing LC BUT THA is just a short-term fix not anywhere close to being stable.

 

[minus9]

I recently started using PNS pro bio also. What is your dosing schedule? I am doing 2x per week. I have also noticed that my filter socks stay clean for a week now too.

I usually do every other week to maintain PO4 and use Biodigest Prodibio on the off weeks. I dose exactly what is recommended on the bottle. Initially to bring down PO4, I did biweekly for a couple weeks, but honestly, go slow no matter what, especially if you're keeping sps. Slow transitions are best here. I'm with @jda with pellets, but you need to choose the good stuff, NLS or TDO Chromaboost. I don't use mysis (too dirty for me), but use LRS as my main frozen food. I also use Cool Green & Cool Mysis flakes, which are probably the best flake foods that I've ever used.
If you're going to use PNS Probio, I would recommend to buy PNS Yello Sno as well. This is a companion product that is a coral food (I usually dose the day after Probio) that I under-dose a little. It contains the vitamin B that the bacteria need to multiply. Reducing feeding your fish doesn't help here and in fact, I think it causes more problems, as you are limiting the nitrogen input, which corals and other animals need. The key is to up your export game. If you need a boost in NO3, the feed quality flakes and clean frozen food, but make sure food is being eaten or removed. Multiple small feedings throughout the day are best if your schedule allows. Auto feeders with quality pellets and flakes can do the job as well. To me mysis is the McDonalds of fish food, not something I want to give my fish all the time. I don't fault anyone for using it, it's just a personal preference of mine.
I've also read about a few hobbyist who use eco balance, but split the dose up over the course of a week, instead of one day. I think @telegraham uses this method?

 

[GARRIGA]

In my experimental tank I'm using a large biological filter to process all waste. Section of it has Reborn which is supposedly high in phosphates yet my readings are below 0.25 ppm. Lowest that kit goes and often looks almost undetectable. I feed 2-4 times per day flake and pellets just to raise phosphates. Stopped carbon dosing as my decaying detritus will supply that and my only issue is my nitrates went from under 5 ppm to suddenly 40 ppm and only thing i added was alon8.3 trying to elevate PH as well as increasing flow through my filter. I'm thinking the flow is what caused the higher nitrates as possibly my anoxic zone has been depleted by having more DO not get processed by nitrification. To combat that I added phosphates and that elevated those elements which resulted in a GHA outbreak but that has almost completely disappeared and what's left is small and hard to locate. Nitrates have dropped to under 20 ppm last I checked and phosphates again almost undetectable.

No sump. No socks. No nutrient export. No water changes. Just fish because this is experimental and testing how long I can go without water changes and how the tank matures. CUC has handled some of the algae but don't recall seeing any touch the GHA. BTW, have to Sailfin mollies which allegedly eat GHA but mine didn't read their own manual.

Been keeping fish since the early 70s. What I've noticed is a practice to throw band-aids after band-aides at issues and the side affects resulting from those issues vs trying to let nature do it's thing. KISS often works.

 

[telegraham]

I usually do every other week to maintain PO4 and use Biodigest Prodibio on the off weeks. I dose exactly what is recommended on the bottle. Initially to bring down PO4, I did biweekly for a couple weeks, but honestly, go slow no matter what, especially if you're keeping sps. Slow transitions are best here. I'm with @jda with pellets, but you need to choose the good stuff, NLS or TDO Chromaboost. I don't use mysis (too dirty for me), but use LRS as my main frozen food. I also use Cool Green & Cool Mysis flakes, which are probably the best flake foods that I've ever used.
If you're going to use PNS Probio, I would recommend to buy PNS Yello Sno as well. This is a companion product that is a coral food (I usually dose the day after Probio) that I under-dose a little. It contains the vitamin B that the bacteria need to multiply. Reducing feeding your fish doesn't help here and in fact, I think it causes more problems, as you are limiting the nitrogen input, which corals and other animals need. The key is to up your export game. If you need a boost in NO3, the feed quality flakes and clean frozen food, but make sure food is being eaten or removed. Multiple small feedings throughout the day are best if your schedule allows. Auto feeders with quality pellets and flakes can do the job as well. To me mysis is the McDonalds of fish food, not something I want to give my fish all the time. I don't fault anyone for using it, it's just a personal preference of mine.
I've also read about a few hobbyist who use eco balance, but split the dose up over the course of a week, instead of one day. I think @telegraham uses this method?

Yep. I dose daily.

 

[chipchipbro]

What to do when you struggle with 0.00 po4?