Phosphate suddenly dropped

[Lavey29]

Hi everyone, I have a new tank that has been running for 3 months. Only 4 fish and 5 corals in a Red Sea XL300. I was using RedSea AB food every other day in a small dose and also dose phytoplankton at night. My phosphates went very high at .52 on my Hanna checker. I stopped the coral food and phytoplankton for a week and did my normal 15% water change. My phosphate is now 0. I ran the test several times. I siphoned the substrate pretty good but why the rapid drop? I know it's not good for my inverts. I had a very mild stage of diatoms when the level was elevated.

 

[christianscorals]

Hi everyone, I have a new tank that has been running for 3 months. Only 4 fish and 5 corals in a Red Sea XL300. I was using RedSea AB food every other day in a small dose and also dose phytoplankton at night. My phosphates went very high at .52 on my Hanna checker. I stopped the coral food and phytoplankton for a week and did my normal 15% water change. My phosphate is now 0. I ran the test several times. I siphoned the substrate pretty good but why the rapid drop? I know it's not good for my inverts. I had a very mild stage of diatoms when the level was elevated.

depending on what coral food you use, it tends to be real heavy in phosphates so that could’ve been your biggest contributor to such high phosphates. if you aren’t dosing live phyto that is also going to affect your phosphates. cutting this routine makes sense in such a decrease of phosphates over the period of time and i’d recommend you find a middleground to your routine where phosphates are not bottomed out at 0 but also not crazy over board

 

[Timfish]

There's all kinds of stuff in your tank that use phosphorus. Corals, sponges, biofilms and all kinds of microbial stuff, inverts, fish, fungii. Reitterating the above post, experiment to find a middle ground that keeps your corals happy. This pic may help understand phosphorus cycling in photosynthetic animals (keep in mind we can only test for inorganic phosphorus).



Maybe you've already seen some of this material but here's some videos you may find informative:

Forest Rohwer "Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas"


Changing Seas - Mysterious Microbes


Nitrogen cycling in hte coral holobiont


BActeria and Sponges


Richard Ross What's up with phosphate"

 

[Lavey29]

depending on what coral food you use, it tends to be real heavy in phosphates so that could’ve been your biggest contributor to such high phosphates. if you aren’t dosing live phyto that is also going to affect your phosphates. cutting this routine makes sense in such a decrease of phosphates over the period of time and i’d recommend you find a middleground to your routine where phosphates are not bottomed out at 0 but also not crazy over board

Thanks for the reply which I agree with. I tested at .52 then did my water change the next day. The following day I dosed REd Sea AB food and tested later at 0. Does that seem like a normal drop over 2 days? I am now dosing only twice a week to find common ground.

 

[Lavey29]

There's all kinds of stuff in your tank that use phosphorus. Corals, sponges, biofilms and all kinds of microbial stuff, inverts, fish, fungii. Reitterating the above post, experiment to find a middle ground that keeps your corals happy. This pic may help understand phosphorus cycling in photosynthetic animals (keep in mind we can only test for inorganic phosphorus).



Maybe you've already seen some of this material but here's some videos you may find informative:

Forest Rohwer "Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas"


Changing Seas - Mysterious Microbes


Nitrogen cycling in hte coral holobiont


BActeria and Sponges


Richard Ross What's up with phosphate"

Great info,thank you