Phosphate

[sangria517]

I checked my levels today

5/21
NO3-43.6
PO4-1.03

5/28
NO3-44.1
PO4-1.02

So its holding steady.

I did not get my water change done yet. I am out of salt and my LFS was supposed to get a truck in but something happened so hopefully I can get that done soon. As previously stated, I am doing 30% water changes every 2 weeks but might bump it up to every week but maybe like 20-25%.

@Randy Holmes-Farley is it possible I am getting a false high? Could something be interfering with the test? The other thing I thought of was, back in late December, I added some more rock. This was dry macro rock that I took at stab at sculpting myself. Could that be leaching phosphate? I know live rock can leach but was not sure on dry macro rock.

I am still debating the Lanthanum. I am just afraid since I have the two tangs.

 

[K9Fish]

Brightwell Phoshate E ?

@Randy Holmes-Farley I have established tank several years and Ive continued to have elevated phosphate. I’ve used gfo/carbon mix in the past to lower. Thats worked but you have to really keep an eye on it to prevent large drops. My P04 has always been on the higher side .10 ish but the coral and fish all happy even .20 and all is still good. I do weekly tests of all parameters and monthly ICP.

Here’s the question; Phospates got up to 0.44 and I decided to bring them down with Phosphate E with target being .10. System is 100g after displacement. I’m curious in your experience when dosing lanthanum. It seems that that I hit a wall when lowering that I need to keep increasing my daily dose. Here’s my results and dosing. Is the the expected response? Also, any suggestions or should I keep up my approach. Thanks.

6/21 - 0730 - 0.44ppm
6/21 - 0900 - 30gallon WC
6/21 - 1100 - 0.40ppm
6/21 - 1130 - 1st dose - 1ML
6/21 - 1330 - 0.26ppm
6/21 - 1900 - 0.28ppm

6/22 - 0630 - 0.36ppm

6/23 - 0730 - 0.30ppm
6/23 - 0800 - 2nd Dose 1ML
6/23 - 1100 - 0.28ppm

6/24 - 0630 - 0.34ppm
6/24 - 0700 - 3rd Dose 2ML

6/25 - 0800 - 0.29ppm
6/25 - 0815 - 4th dose 2ML

6/26 - 0700 - 0.30ppm
6/26 - 0715 5th dose 3ML

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

There’s no wall, but as you try to lower it you will have to strip phosphate off of rock and sand. That can be a huge amount.

 

[K9Fish]

There’s no wall, but as you try to lower it you will have to strip phosphate off of rock and sand. That can be a huge amount.

Thanks. I messed up my quote. I’m not sure if you were able to see my testing results and dosage. If not can you take a look and let me know what you think. Thanks

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I think the dose progression looks appropriate. Going slow is far better than fast. Let’s see what happens at 3 mL for a while.

 

[K9Fish]

I think the dose progression looks appropriate. Going slow is far better than fast. Let’s see what happens at 3 mL for a while.

Thank you.

 

[sangria517]

@Randy Holmes-Farley

I have been trying to get it down but with little success. After my last water change, I was still at .89. Though I will admit, I forgot to turn my skimmer back on so it was off for a couple of days but not sure if that would have that big of an impact. I went ahead and got the LC. I went with BrightWells Phosephat-E. I will be doing 25% dosage (8mls ) into a 10 micron sock, skimmer will be running. I dosed manually. One drop per secondl;1 ml every 30 mins and watch my Yellow and Hippo tang for reaction. I will then wait for 48 hours, recheck level and dose accordingly. Currently stopping my TM Elimi-NP while dosing the LC.

The only reason I decided to dose is due to corals starting to die off. My trachy, scoly button and platy are slowly dying off and this is the only reason I can think of. I did loose some favia and a chalice but I belive that was due to my black widow sitting on them. All of my softies seem to be fine-Mushrooms, toadstool, and zoas. I did not have plug of zoas die off but I will consider that one a fluke. They were in poor condition when I got them and they never really seemed to thrive . My Euphy are all ok-Hammers, Frogspawn and Torches as is my bubble coral. No SPS.

While again the tank looks great, no nuisance algae, clear water, etc. I think I am going to take a sample to my LFS when they open on Thursday to have them double check my water. Just incase my Hanna is wrong.

My other only thoughts are,

• something is giving the Hanna a false high but I do not seeing anything in my research of that being possible.
• Something else like an infection is causing the coral to die off but I have never encountered that before.
  
  

 

[rishma]

I don’t know if the 1ppm phosphate is the Cause of coral death especially because it moved there slowly over time. There are great tanks with healthy corals in that neighborhood. That said, I would also personally be slowly working it down if it were my tank.

Whichever method you choose, slow and steady is the only way. When you remove phosphate from the water, the enourmous phosphate reservoir bound in the rock and sand will replenish it, so it might feel like you are not making progress. Patience is key.

I was recently surprised with a trachy decline and death. I had not lost a coral in recent memory. Being a reef chemistry junkie I did all manner of test and an ICP. Nothing could explain it. I finally discovered I had a flatworm infestation. My point is that it might not be water chemistry but some other causes.

 

[sangria517]

I don’t know if the 1ppm phosphate is the Cause of coral death especially because it moved there slowly over time. There are great tanks with healthy corals in that neighborhood. That said, I would also personally be slowly working it down if it were my tank.

Whichever method you choose, slow and steady is the only way. When you remove phosphate from the water, the enourmous phosphate reservoir bound in the rock and sand will replenish it, so it might feel like you are not making progress. Patience is key.

I was recently surprised with a trachy decline and death. I had not lost a coral in recent memory. Being a reef chemistry junkie I did all manner of test and an ICP. Nothing could explain it. I finally discovered I had a flatworm infestation. My point is that it might not be water chemistry but some other causes.

How did you discover the flatworm?

 

[rishma]

How did you discover the flatworm?

I saw one crawling on the glass, I took a picture and sought some advice on the forum. The consensus was, bad news. I pulled one easily removable LPS and dipped in coral RX. There were thousands! It was stunning.

repeatedly dipping every coral over several weeks seems to have eliminated them.

I’m not suggesting you have flatworms. There’s no evidence of that. It was just an example of coral issues not being due to water chemistry and not immediately apparent. Bacteria, parasites, etc are all things we deal with.

 

[sangria517]

How did you discover the flatworm?

I saw one crawling on the glass, I took a picture and sought some advice on the forum. The consensus was, bad news. I pulled one easily removable LPS and dipped in coral RX. There were thousands! It was stunning.

repeatedly dipping every coral over several weeks seems to have eliminated them.

I’m not suggesting you have flatworms. There’s no evidence of that. It was just an example of coral issues not being due to water chemistry and not immediately apparent. Bacteria, parasites, etc are all things we deal with.

I am open to all suggestions. I have never encountered anything other than Bristleworms so I just do not know what to look for.

 

[rishma]

How did you discover the flatworm?

I saw one crawling on the glass, I took a picture and sought some advice on the forum. The consensus was, bad news. I pulled one easily removable LPS and dipped in coral RX. There were thousands! It was stunning.

repeatedly dipping every coral over several weeks seems to have eliminated them.

I’m not suggesting you have flatworms. There’s no evidence of that. It was just an example of coral issues not being due to water chemistry and not immediately apparent. Bacteria, parasites, etc are all things we deal with.

I am open to all suggestions. I have never encountered anything other than Bristleworms so I just do not know what to look for.

Pictures of the corals posted in the coral forums can generate some good ideas and things to look for.

Let us know how lowering phosphate slowly goes.

 

[sangria517]

Current pictures of the tank

 

[sangria517]

Pictures of the corals posted in the coral forums can generate some good ideas and things to look for.

Let us know how lowering phosphate slowly goes.

We are currently at .64 this morning.

I did up using LC. I did 25% dosages. I would test on Monday. Check the LC calculator and do a 25% recommended dose. Slowly dripped (1 drop per second into a 10 micron sock). No more than 3ml in a 30 minute time span. I would then test again on Thursday and repeat. Sometimes my PO4 would go up which I attributed to phosphate being released from the rock. By week 3, I was comfortable enough to start 50% dosages. My PO4 bounced between .7-1.0 during this time. I did take sample this past weekend to my LFS just to confirm my Hannas were ok; they are. I did get phosphate pad. It is actually working pretty good. It drops it about .1 per day. I suspect it will slow down here as the pad will be used up. However, the pad is less tedious than the LC. I did not have any negative reactions with my Tangs while doing the LC.

7/8
NO3-38.7
PO4-.89

7/10
NO3-18.4
PO4-.72

7/14
NO3-46.6
PO4-1.14

7/18
NO3-40.3
PO4-1.05
(starting 50% dosages here)

7/22
NO3 20.1
PO4-.91

7/25
NO3-52.2
PO4-.86
Also gave a little reef roids this days. It was suggested in my Coral threat that maybe the coral were hungry and that is why some were dying off

7/26
Aquaspin at LFS
NO3-66
PO4-1.0

7/28
Added Phosphate and Nitrate pad

7/29
NO3-48.4
PO4-.74

7/31
30% water change (50g-ish)

8/1
NO3 11.9
PO4-.63
Nitrate pad removed.

While talking to my LFS about it, they do not feel it is the phosphate but maybe my new lights. I had installed new Meridan lights back in Feb 2025. I had on there ReefLED 90 and a Kessil-hand me downs that came with the tank. I started noticing the shrinkage and and die off back in Aprilish. They feel like it was probably just a delayed reaction. So I readjusted the lights to match a little closer the spectrum the ReefLEDs. They brought up the point that if 90% of my corals are ok, do you really risk losing them for just these 3, or do you take the hit on these 3 and just buy more that can adjust to the new lights.