Phosphate dosing

Manleyt86 · Feb 27, 2023

Hey all! So I have a question and ill post my levels before I ask. Alk 8.7 cal 455 mag 1460 n03 22 po4 0... so my dilemma is obviously high nitrates and low phosphates.. icp came back. 02 on phosphates but I have been dosing .4 ml of phosphates to get detectable levels. It will jump to .02 for a day then fall to zero over the next 3-4 days.... I've only done this 3 times now and today noticed a chalice with tissue recession about a quarter inch in diameter. I run a full sps system and was loosing vivid color in my sps so very cautiously trying to get po4 up to detectable ranges.... im leary because I've got about 30 grand in sps in this tank and dont want to chase numbers but want the best color I can get out of my sps. I've recently made some changes to get my nitrates down by using water changes another gallon a day feeding less and dosing less aminos. I dos heavy aminos and use nopox to counteract. This is an existing system I tied into with a new build. Added alot of tangs and did pretty much at once for aggresi9n reasons so I was feeding heavy which spiked nutrients. I dont know if the po4 going up and down from .02 to zero rapidly has caused the chalice to get sick or what but in looking for some input. I apologize this post is a little jumbled rarely ask for help but sure could use it. I can provide more info if I'm missing something Tia!

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 28, 2023

The nitrate is not that high, and may fall as you boost phosphate.

What exactly are you dosing? You probably just need more.

Manleyt86 · Feb 28, 2023

I'm using reef blue print from aci aquaculture. I was just worried maybe raising from .02 then falling back ro zero and raising failing ext was causing to much imbalance... as if maybe I needed to bust up the .4ml I was dosing into smaller doses. I'm hoping eventually it will rise and stay put

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 28, 2023

Manleyt86 said:
I'm using reef blue print from aci aquaculture. I was just worried maybe raising from .02 then falling back ro zero and raising failing ext was causing to much imbalance... as if maybe I needed to bust up the .4ml I was dosing into smaller doses. I'm hoping eventually it will rise and stay put

Not if you add that same phosphate every day. I do not believe corals need to have identical levels every minute of every day. They just need it every day.

But IMO, you do want to be adding more so that there is at least 0.02 ppm after 24 h.

Manleyt86 · Feb 28, 2023

So I do have detectable phosphate levels for 3 days then it has been falling back to zero in a predictable stair step fashion its just the fact that my challice developed a tissue recession spot... could be to the lack of phosphates weakening the coral thus far... this big swap has cause some changes in how my system runs but for the most part levels have been pretty rock steady except for the imbalance I'm experiencing in the nitrate to phosphates... the chalice have lost color of the last month (as well as acros) since dosing colors are coming back with acros but it just scared me can't be loos9ng my acros lol