Phosphate low

[Pricey95]

I have now got my phosphates down to 0.028PPM (ULR HANNA)

Always kept my phosphates around (0.1 PPM)

Most of my SPS seems not too happy? Everything else is fine all the euphillia is spot on. Just the sps seems to not be fully extending its polyps.. Is this from going too fast dropping the PO4? We're they used to a higher phosphate? Kept phosphate for a goof 6 months at 0.1 now dropped it to 0.028.
Nothings changed with lighting or other trace elements/dosing/feeding/nitrates.
Nitrates have always been kept at 15

 

[apb03]

Hard to speculate but since it's the only thing that changed, It's about as good of a guess as anything else. I don't like how my SPS looks when my phosphates drop that low, and I try to keep my tank around 0.1-0.12.

 

[Pricey95]

Hard to speculate but since it's the only thing that changed, It's about as good of a guess as anything else. I don't like how my SPS looks when my phosphates drop that low, and I try to keep my tank around 0.1-0.12.

Yes I agree. I can't think of anything else except PO4. Think I should put the reactor on maybe 12 hour intervals..

 

[apb03]

Yes I agree. I can't think of anything else except PO4. Think I should put the reactor on maybe 12 hour intervals..

Yeah, that's a good idea. What I do when my Phos drops to around .05 or so is a reef roids bomb. Usually that solves it for a good while. :)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

0.028 ppm phosphate is not particularly low.

 

[Pod_01]

I have now got my phosphates down to 0.028PPM (ULR HANNA)

Just curious, how do you get 0.028 PPM on ULR Hanna?
I think it is this device:

Mine doesn’t have such a precision… the best I could get on mine is 0.03… assuming it rounds up…
Maybe different model?

 

[Pricey95]

Just curious, how do you get 0.028 PPM on ULR Hanna?
I think it is this device:

Mine doesn’t have such a precision… the best I could get on mine is 0.03… assuming it rounds up…
Maybe different model?

Yes we have a different model

 

[Pod_01]

Yes we have a different model

You have the Phosphorus ULR , HI736. The accuracy of that device is:

You could be down to 4ppb or 0.012ppm.

That is getting low and I don’t really trust these devices below 0.05 ppm. Due to other errors you might have zero.

Regardless I always find that when I have sinking PO4 from 0.05 to 0.02 ppm SPS always suffers. Usually Montipora shows it first but they all suffer and some stn/rtn. Keeping the value higher at 0.1 helps.
Also fish poop seems to help with low PO4 values. So well stocked and well fed fish can help.

Good luck,