How fast may I safely raise phosphate?

[1000_smiles]

Nitrate currently at 25 ppm(Salifert)
Phosphate at 0.05 ppm (Hanna)
I have been dosing a DIY sodium phosphate solution to raise phosphate 0.01 ppm a day for a week and didn't see a consistent gain. Phosphate has been 0.04 - 0.06 ppm (Hanna) since before I started dosing phosphate. Two days ago I raised the dosage to add 0.02 ppm per day. How much may I safely add per day?

My goal is to get phosphate to 0.10 ppm and nitrate to 10 ppm to start ammonia dosing.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

You may be able to raise it instantly by that amount, since a lot may be consumed or bound each day. If 0.02 ppm per day is not doing the trick, I'd double that for a bit.

 

[commod0re]

last week my phosphate bottomed out and I dosed 5ml of neophos 3 days in a row (enough to get from 0 to 0.05 each day) and everything was fine. My canary coral, a green and purple hairy mushroom that is a total diva, was completely happy with it. After that I haven’t needed to dose phosphate again yet.

I dunno how much change per day is too much but that amount seemed visibly to be completely fine. I’d say the faster you go, the more frequently you should probably test phosphates to help avoid overshooting

 

[1000_smiles]

Thank you very much

 

[rishma]

In recently had lower than desired phosphate and I added enough to raise it by 0.15 in 2 days. I overshot my target a little but my corals actually seemed happy about it. It’s drifting back down now so all good.

 

[LiquidSpace]

In recently had lower than desired phosphate and I added enough to raise it by 0.15 in 2 days. I overshot my target a little but my corals actually seemed happy about it. It’s drifting back down now so all good.

Heck, I’m raising mine by .15 per day because my tank is sucking it all up so fast.

 

[Featherweight]

Yeah, new clean sand bed and I can't keep mine over 0.02. good to see others being liberal w dosing.

 

[weemanno1]

Do you guys do it in 1 shot or dose 1ppm over 2-3 times a day?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Do you guys do it in 1 shot or dose 1ppm over 2-3 times a day?

I dosed 0.1 ppm at once. Dosing 1 ppm seems very high.

 

[rishma]

Do you guys do it in 1 shot or dose 1ppm over 2-3 times a day?

I accidentally dosed 0.85 in one shot. Corals got mad that day but no lasting issues. I have dosed 0.15 all at once a number of times, no negatives.

 

[BriDroid]

When my tank was new, it was sucking up the PO4 so fast, I was dosing 0.2ppm two or three times a day and still reading 0ppm on the Hanna ULR. Then one day things just "clicked" and now I'm running around 0.2ppm all the time with no dosing. Just keep an eye on it and dose away!

Another thing that worked for me, use at your own risk, is Phytofeast and Oysterfeast. The recommended dose on the bottle would drive my PO4 up around 0.1ppm. Trisodium/monosodium phosphate is probably safer, but it is an observation that I noticed.

 

[weemanno1]

I dosed 0.1 ppm at once. Dosing 1 ppm seems very high.

APPOLOGIES I meant 0.1. I’m currently dosing 7.5 ml of phosphate plus a day which is 0.075. Over 3 2.5 ml shots. I get phosphate present for a few hours in a morning 0.04 ( on a hananh checker) but then by dinner it’s back to zero.. I only noticed because my Gsp that’s normally out all day only comes out for a few hours and goes in(this happend before) I have had dinos for the last 3 weeks so haven’t done water changes but it’s subsiding and tiny patches of cyano and algae are appearing. I sit. Know weather to do a 10% water change to put back in some trace elements ? I feel happier knowing that adding 0.02ppm at a time is ok and there’s scope for more. Maybe I’m not dosing enough?

 

[weemanno1]

I accidentally dosed 0.85 in one shot. Corals got mad that day but no lasting issues. I have dosed 0.15 all at once a number of times, no negatives.

How did you manage that.. that’s a lot

 

[rishma]

I accidentally dosed 0.85 in one shot. Corals got mad that day but no lasting issues. I have dosed 0.15 all at once a number of times, no negatives.

How did you manage that.. that’s a lot

Was priming dosing pump and forgot about it

 

[weemanno1]

Was priming dosing pump and forgot about it

Least I know it’s not deadly.. my tanks only 3 months old and after a bacterial bloom dinos and a little cyano I need to over feed the cyano phosphate and wait for the substrate and rocks to not hold more until the phos levels stay readable! Dosing 40ml a day is wild I thought 7.5 ml was bad in a 125 ltr volume tank lol I’ll just keep dosing 2.5 ml shots throughout the day

 

[BriDroid]

Least I know it’s not deadly.. my tanks only 3 months old and after a bacterial bloom dinos and a little cyano I need to over feed the cyano phosphate and wait for the substrate and rocks to not hold more until the phos levels stay readable! Dosing 40ml a day is wild I thought 7.5 ml was bad in a 125 ltr volume tank lol I’ll just keep dosing 2.5 ml shots throughout the day

It took me probably 6 months before phosphate finally stabilized and is now readable. Don’t give up! Keep dosing and testing!

 

[weemanno1]

My gsp is my phosphate gauge currently as when it was stable it was out all day every day when my phos is low it comes out for a few hours in a morning then goes back in .. after fighting dinos and cyano I really want to do a water change as it’s been 3 weeks and my nitrate is stable at 10 but phos is just being consumed or bonded up so quick !

It took me probably 6 months before phosphate finally stabilized and is now readable. Don’t give up! Keep dosing and testing!