My po4 is still at .06 please help

[DrewBrees713]

Been running BRS GFO in a reactor for about 5 wks now but my po4 is still the same .04-.06 using RedSea kit. Some if my sps are browning out (Grren slimer, red planet, setosa retaibs its color thiugh) please advise.

Alk 8.5
Cal 440
Trates 5-10
Probably 5 kinda hard to tell on the color chart.

 

[lolgranny]

Those levels aren’t bad. Mines at 0.07 currently. I’ve been at .25 before and have a fully stocked sps tank.

Do a large water change

How long have you been running that gfo? There is a chance it’s exhausted and needs to be changed.

 

[Daniel 123]

If your positive on your water parameters, and there have been no hiccups with the nutrients, it could be too much light

 

[lapin]

Question comes to mind. Why you want to lower your P04?
5N .06P sound ok to me. Someone beat me to the light possiblility.
Have you had a alk swing lately?

 

[lolgranny]

If your positive on your water parameters, and there have been no hiccups with the nutrients, it could be too much light

Usually with too much light they would bleach out. I agree though, his parameters aren’t bad if he’s correct about them.

Have you checked for bugs?

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

0.04-0.06 is ideal. WWC keeps theirs around 0.1
I would dump the gfo and stop chasing low po4. Your corals will thank you later. What is your lighting set up?

 

[Justfebreezeit]

Like others have said + what about flow? How long have they been in the tank?

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Been running BRS GFO in a reactor for about 5 wks now but my po4 is still the same .04-.06 using RedSea kit. Some if my sps are browning out (Grren slimer, red planet, setosa retaibs its color thiugh) please advise.

Alk 8.5
Cal 440
Trates 5-10
Probably 5 kinda hard to tell on the color chart.

And shouldn’t you be focused on that pass interference no call

 

[zack801]

As others have stated PO4 at .06 is not going to brown anything out typically. Have any pics of the coral that you're having issues with?

 

[NS Mike D]

browning is usually a sign of the zooxanthellae expanding in numbers. while some think this is due to higher nutrients (logical) , I think that a better case for this expanding of the colony in low to ultra low nutrients tanks is the lack of coral particle food (zooplankton, phytoplankton, fish/coral food etc) and the corals switching to relying on the zooxanthellae to photosynthesize food for the two.

could the media reactor also be mechanically pulling out particles that the corals would have otherwise consumed, or your nutrients reducing phytoplankton populations. Over aggressive skimming or filter socks.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Been running BRS GFO in a reactor for about 5 wks now but my po4 is still the same .04-.06 using RedSea kit. Some if my sps are browning out (Grren slimer, red planet, setosa retaibs its color thiugh) please advise.

Alk 8.5
Cal 440
Trates 5-10
Probably 5 kinda hard to tell on the color chart.

Red Sea kits are nice but hard to read for sure. Po4 at .06 ppm is fine and not the reason for brown corals. Your levels look fine just keep them stable. Take the gfo off line no need for gfo, use lathium chloride aka liquid phosphate remover. Stuff removes po4 instantly and is cheaper than gfo. Im a believer that numbers dont matter much as long as you are not having algae issues no3 and po4 can be pretty high and not effect corals, 1 ppm po4 is when I would be concerned about po4 even if corals look good. Stability is more important than chasing numbers, if your tank wants to run at .06 po4 then let it.

 

[Daniel 123]

"The colour of a photosynthetic coral is dominated by the amount of zooxanthellae in the tissue. These are typically brown/gold in colour. The higher the number of zooxanthellae in the tissue, the more brown the coral is. The extreme of this is when a coral bleaches, it goes white as all of the zooxanthellae has been expelled from the tissue. As they slowly repopulate the tissue then the brown colouring returns.

I had heard that turning brown was a symptom of insufficient light, but in PGC it says cup corals only need medium light, and mine is right under a 175w halide and two NO actinics so it seems strange he doesn't have enough light. 10 watts/gallon in my tank. He is about four inches under the water surface. If anything he should have too much light. I hear a lot of people with 400's say brown corals color up under more light so it seems odd that he would turn brown if I gave him a lot of light.

There are two things that are interacting when you talk about the number or density of zooxanthellae present in the coral tissue. First off you have the amount of light available, the more light you have, the more algae cells that can be present to use that light. Second you have the coral which controls the population of zooxanthellae in its tissue so that it gets enough nutrition from them, less nutrients being produced by the algae the more it allows to live in the tissue. "

https://www.reefs.org/library/article/borneman_shimek_warren.html

Some really good information pertaining to you if you want to continue

 

[jda]

Please consider a Hannah Ultra Low Phosphorous meter if you are going to chase P below .1.

I agree that .06 is nothing to worry about.

All of this said, you have to understand what is happening in your tank if you want to lower po4. Aragonite (sand and rock) will bind a massive amount of P. It will bind it to "equilibrium" with the water... add more P and the rock binds more, take some out of the water and the aragonite will release some. It can take a lot of GFO to lower the P in your tank if you have a lot of rock and sand. Every time that you put in fresh GFO, it will lower the amount in the water column and then the rock will release more and raise the level to just slightly lower than it was. I had a friend who had a bunch of dry rock that put his water at about .75 and it took him a pair of 5 gallon buckets of GFO to get it down to about .03 where it would stay.

 

[madweazl]

As JDA mentioned, I'd consider the Hanna ULR for more accurate results. How much GFO and what size system? When you first started with the GFO, did you see a big drop (it works extremely fast)? If not, your test results/kit are suspect. With phosphates at that level to begin with and running GFO, you may not have any.

 

[DrewBrees713]

And shouldn’t you be focused on that pass interference no call

Man, the blind zebras had money in the game. Shoukdve been fired on the spot by the league.

My po4 is actually .4 to .6, sorry!
I have 3 black boxes over my 120G so i dont think its too much light. I run them about 6-7hrs/day. Got decent amount of flow with my return pump 1400gph + 8-1000 gph from my wavemaker.
The gfo in my reactor is about 5 wks old.
And some of my softies and lps colors arent as vibrant when i first put them in.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Man, the blind zebras had money in the game. Shoukdve been fired on the spot by the league.

My po4 is actually .4 to .6, sorry!
I have 3 black boxes over my 120G so i dont think its too much light. I run them about 6-7hrs/day. Got decent amount of flow with my return pump 1400gph + 8-1000 gph from my wavemaker.
The gfo in my reactor is about 5 wks old.
And some of my softies and lps colors arent as vibrant when i first put them in.

Yeah it was bs

0.4-0.6 is high but I hate gfo and carbon dosing, they made my numbers perfect but made my corals white skeletons. I prefer lanthium chloride to bring down phosphates. You might actually not have enough par and they’re brown from being stressed and starved. I’m in the 713 as well. I can bring my par meter over to rule that out.

 

[DrewBrees713]

My cousin has one imma try to borrow it this wkend. Thanks for the offer mate!
I have an unopenend bottle of lc but forgot how to implement it. Can someone shed a light ?

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

My cousin has one imma try to borrow it this wkend. Thanks for the offer mate!
I have an unopenend bottle of lc but forgot how to implement it. Can someone shed a light ?

Phosphate rx is 5 drops per 10 gallons (I think but I haven’t needed to use it in a long time) and they recommend using 10 micron filter socks.

 

[DrewBrees713]

Is that suppose to be a daily regimen? I have socks but cant tell what micron they are

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Is that suppose to be a daily regimen? I have socks but cant tell what micron they are

That’s just the protocol with phosphate rx suggestions. I’m not sure about other LC products