MrNYCeGuy
Community Member
Phosphates have long confounded me and I struggled to keep them from ever increasing in my tank. Skeptical of GFO and Lanthanum Chloride, I wanted to find a more suitable (natural?) way of reducing my phosphates without any unintended consequences from these products. Enter Carbon Dosing.
Now before I get into how I am effectively reducing my phosphates by carbon dosing it’s important that I point out how I run my tanks. My set ups are designed to maximize bacterial counts in the water and allow my corals to “uptake nutrients” via bacterial consumption rather than relying on skimmers to remove them. I do NOT have a skimmer as skimmers have shown to reduce the population of bacteria in the water column. I am running a small cheto refugium, have a sand-bed, live rock, and a heavier coral load and 5 fish in a 29 gallon Biocube. Added to that I feed 4x per day Avast Marine’s freeze dried Reef Jerky on an automatic timer. (Amazing product and game changer IMO)
When I started Carbon Dosing vinegar my tank was sitting around 25 Nitrates and .3 Phosphates. I began adding vinegar daily and watched my nitrates dive to around 10 and my phosphates levels fall to around .25. Not amazing, so I kept increasing vinegar until my nitrates bottomed out at 0 (not smart). My phosphates were still sitting at around .17, which seemed higher than I wanted to maintain. I read a few articles and posts that stated that nitrifying bacterial will reproduce faster than than the bacteria that reduce phosphates. At this point I began dosing nitrates back into the tank and low and behold the phosphates began to come down! What I stumbled upon is the ability to ratchet up the amount of vinegar (Carbon) and Nitrates in order to reduce the amount of phosphate in the tank. Today I maintain my nitrate (10 ppm) and more importantly phosphate (0.05) levels by dosing vinegar and nitrates via a jebao doser.
While this is in no way a scientific study it may provide enough intrigue for some of those who are more scientifically versed to take a deeper look into this method of phosphate reduction. After learning so much from this site and others, I figure it was time to share what I have found has worked for me. More than happy to answer any questions anyone may have about this method.
Now before I get into how I am effectively reducing my phosphates by carbon dosing it’s important that I point out how I run my tanks. My set ups are designed to maximize bacterial counts in the water and allow my corals to “uptake nutrients” via bacterial consumption rather than relying on skimmers to remove them. I do NOT have a skimmer as skimmers have shown to reduce the population of bacteria in the water column. I am running a small cheto refugium, have a sand-bed, live rock, and a heavier coral load and 5 fish in a 29 gallon Biocube. Added to that I feed 4x per day Avast Marine’s freeze dried Reef Jerky on an automatic timer. (Amazing product and game changer IMO)
When I started Carbon Dosing vinegar my tank was sitting around 25 Nitrates and .3 Phosphates. I began adding vinegar daily and watched my nitrates dive to around 10 and my phosphates levels fall to around .25. Not amazing, so I kept increasing vinegar until my nitrates bottomed out at 0 (not smart). My phosphates were still sitting at around .17, which seemed higher than I wanted to maintain. I read a few articles and posts that stated that nitrifying bacterial will reproduce faster than than the bacteria that reduce phosphates. At this point I began dosing nitrates back into the tank and low and behold the phosphates began to come down! What I stumbled upon is the ability to ratchet up the amount of vinegar (Carbon) and Nitrates in order to reduce the amount of phosphate in the tank. Today I maintain my nitrate (10 ppm) and more importantly phosphate (0.05) levels by dosing vinegar and nitrates via a jebao doser.
While this is in no way a scientific study it may provide enough intrigue for some of those who are more scientifically versed to take a deeper look into this method of phosphate reduction. After learning so much from this site and others, I figure it was time to share what I have found has worked for me. More than happy to answer any questions anyone may have about this method.
