Phosphate 2.0 in my reef tank is this bad for the livestock?

Jeremy Lain · Jun 1, 2019

Hello,

I tested my water parameters and the test said my phosphate is 2.0, is this bad? My protien skimmer was off and now it is back on, will my protien skimmer pull the phosphates out of the reef tank?

Robert_ellis · Jun 1, 2019

2.0 or .2?

Jeremy Lain · Jun 1, 2019

Robert_ellis said:
2.0 or .2?

2.0

Scotty Buttons · Jun 1, 2019

Phosphate that high can harm LPS SPS, your skimmer will help reduce the phosphates I would also do a good size water change with RO/Di.

Robert_ellis · Jun 1, 2019

Jeremy Lain said:
2.0

Skimmer helps and water changes. Use those methods before trying to use phos removers I'd say

Jeremy Lain · Jun 1, 2019

Robert_ellis said:
Skimmer helps and water changes. Use those methods before trying to use phos removers I'd say

Alright. Thank you for your help.

o2manyfish · Jun 1, 2019

Phosphates will not 'Harm' your corals - Phosphates in an aquarium are just excess nutrients. Depending on the filtration you have, and the bio mass the higher the phosphates the more nutrients there are to feed your corals. The balance is having enough filtration so that the phosphates are available to feed your corals and not feed nuisance algae. For the past 5 years my phosphates have never been below 1.4 and for awhile they were over 2.0 - and no nuisance algae or algae issues. I have been to many public aquariums that also have long established tanks with high phosphates.

Take a look at my web cam later to see what phosphates over 1.6 look like --- www.o2manyfish.com/webcam --- or check the videos on youtube under o2manyfish.

Jeremy Lain · Jun 7, 2019

o2manyfish said:
Phosphates will not 'Harm' your corals - Phosphates in an aquarium are just excess nutrients. Depending on the filtration you have, and the bio mass the higher the phosphates the more nutrients there are to feed your corals. The balance is having enough filtration so that the phosphates are available to feed your corals and not feed nuisance algae. For the past 5 years my phosphates have never been below 1.4 and for awhile they were over 2.0 - and no nuisance algae or algae issues. I have been to many public aquariums that also have long established tanks with high phosphates.

Take a look at my web cam later to see what phosphates over 1.6 look like --- www.o2manyfish.com/webcam --- or check the videos on youtube under o2manyfish.

I did some water changes and I got it to go down to 1.0 for a couple of weeks and I kept it at 1.0 and all my livestock survived. Today I added new livestock, and I tested to see if everything was going good and it is back up to 2.0 I was hoping to not have to do as many water changes and let my protein skimmer do the cleaning work, so I guess I will experiment with it for a couple of weeks and hopefully my livestock stays alive, I will try to not let phosphates get over 2.0, if so, I will do a water change, but as of right now all the livestock in my reef tank seems to be doing alright.

Jeremy Lain · Jun 7, 2019

o2manyfish said:
Phosphates will not 'Harm' your corals - Phosphates in an aquarium are just excess nutrients. Depending on the filtration you have, and the bio mass the higher the phosphates the more nutrients there are to feed your corals. The balance is having enough filtration so that the phosphates are available to feed your corals and not feed nuisance algae. For the past 5 years my phosphates have never been below 1.4 and for awhile they were over 2.0 - and no nuisance algae or algae issues. I have been to many public aquariums that also have long established tanks with high phosphates.

Take a look at my web cam later to see what phosphates over 1.6 look like --- www.o2manyfish.com/webcam --- or check the videos on youtube under o2manyfish.

Thank you for your reply to my question.

Jeremy Lain · Jun 7, 2019

Everything in my reef tank has survived with a phosphate level of 2.0 overnight.

fish farmer · Jun 8, 2019

What do you have for corals? My softies and a hammer coral were growing in my tank with Phosphates registering around 2ppm when I finally started testing again. I currently have dropped my phos to .5ppm, softies and zoas don't seem to mind, but some of my recent LPS additions aren't fairing as well.

Jeremy Lain · Jun 8, 2019

fish farmer said:
What do you have for corals? My softies and a hammer coral were growing in my tank with Phosphates registering around 2ppm when I finally started testing again. I currently have dropped my phos to .5ppm, softies and zoas don't seem to mind, but some of my recent LPS additions aren't fairing as well.

As of right now, I have 4 anemones. I will post a picture below.

What happened was I test weekly my water parameters, and before I got to my next weekly tests I added some new fish and then I tested to make sure everything was going good but after I added them (soon after I added them, I tested) and the results where phosphate 2.0 then I waited 24 hours because everything seemed to be doing fine, and tested again and my phosphates were down to 1.0, I think my protein skimmer pulled some of them out of the water. So the livestock might not have been in the water with phosphates at 2.0 the whole time, but they where at those levels for some of the time. I watched a video on phosphates that talks about how phosphates can be alright I think at these levels, but you should see if your corals are growing alright and if it is causing nuisance algae, if it is causing nuisance algae try to lower your phosphate parameters and if there is no more nuisance algae and your corals are growing you can leave them there. Test this if you choose at your own risk. All that said I am going to try to keep mine at 1.0 because that is what my filtration and protein skimmer are doing with the feedings and amount of livestock I have, and I am trying to not do water changes so I can save money on salt.

Jeremy Lain · Jun 8, 2019

Robert_ellis said:
Skimmer helps and water changes. Use those methods before trying to use phos removers I'd say

My protein skimmer seems to be working for now. I learned about some pretty cool phoshate removers yesterday; phosphate reacters, macro algaes, and algae scrubbers. If I ever add more livestock to my reef tank and need to add one of the other things I think I would like to try the algae scrubber, that seems really cool to me; I like the idea that you can choose to have the algae grow outside of your main display tank in a area where a light can grow it.

fish farmer · Jun 8, 2019

Jeremy Lain said:
My protein skimmer seems to be working for now. I learned about some pretty cool phoshate removers yesterday; phosphate reacters, macro algaes, and algae scrubbers. If I ever add more livestock to my reef tank and need to add one of the other things I think I would like to try the algae scrubber, that seems really cool to me; I like the idea that you can choose to have the algae grow outside of your main display tank in a area where a light can grow it.

I used chaeto and dilligent WC to get my phos from 2 down to 0.5 ppm and pretty much dropped my nitrates down from 30 to 10 ppm over the course of several months. I did have algae in the tank. Whatever you do, do it slow. I delayed a WC this past month and today noticed I had moved my fuge light while cleaning so it wasn't directly over the algae and just tested my phos and it crept up to 1 ppm and one LPS hasn't been looking good this past week.

Jeremy Lain · Jun 11, 2019

Today my phosphates are at 3.5 and I just added a new fish. Should I do a water change?

Jeremy Lain · Jun 11, 2019

Phosphate parameters at 3.5 ppm, I have 8 fish now in a 20 gallon, and they survived overnight. The levels have lowered from my protein skimmer but I am going to try to not let them get this high again.