Phosphates are zeroing out every day, a few specific questions

living_tribunal

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 14, 2019
Messages
4,198
Reaction score
12,164
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I have another thread that started to become focused on this. Thought I’d make a specific thead however to hone in on what’s going.

The situation:
Phosphates are zeroing out every day in both my display and frag tanks. I’m currently running skimmerless, no GFO, no carbon, no photoperiod at all on fuge, removed 95% of my macro fauna, feeding corals aminos every day, feeding fish 3 times a day, and dosing .02ppm of phosphate every day.

My goal:
Have some measurable level of phosphate and to determine the baseline daily phosphate addition required to keep something in there.

My concerns:
I’ve had Dino once and it was by far the worst thing I’ve experienced in this hobby. I really want there to be some phosphates in the tank for my biodiversity to stay on top of the food chain to prevent another Dino bloom. I refuse to allow my tank to go extended periods of time without phosphates and won’t “let it ride out”.

However, since going skimmerless, the water has started to look disgusting in my display. It is starting to become murky and has a brown tint to it.

My questions:
1.) My predominant theory is that the rock and sand are soaking up the phosphates. There was a study where rock and sand could bind up to 52ppm of phosphates per lb. Has anyone experienced this specific situation? How did you handle it?

2.) If #1 is true, is that phosphate accessible by the dioversity in my tank? Whatever is sucking up my phosphates, it’s doing so very fast, to the tune of ~.005ppm every two hours.

3.) How would you approach this situation with everything I’ve outlined and also keeping in mind my current regiment? Should I continue to dose phosphates and running skimmerless?

4.) What are some other things that could soak up the phosphates to this degree other than my rock?

I would really appreciate ANY help, this whole situation is pretty frustrating. I’m just really scared of getting Dino again and crashing the diversity in my tank.
 
Last edited:

Reefahholic

Acropora Farmer
View Badges
Joined
Sep 5, 2014
Messages
7,425
Reaction score
6,221
Location
Houston, TX
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Is this pure phosphate instead of phosphorous?

It’s a food additive that contains sodium and inorganic phosphate. How different are they? That I don’t know. Randy can tell you the specificities of that.

I do know it works quite well when I need PO4 readings in a hurry...which is rare, but has happened a few times because my tanks tend to run clean.
 
OP
OP
living_tribunal

living_tribunal

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 14, 2019
Messages
4,198
Reaction score
12,164
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
It’s a food additive that contains sodium and inorganic phosphate. How different are they? That I don’t know. Randy can tell you the specificities of that.

I do know it works quite well when I need PO4 readings in a hurry...which is rare, but has happened a few times because my tanks tend to run clean.

Do you know if it is processed any differently by corals, biodiversity, and potentially binding to rock when compared to phosphorous?

Also, how many ppm do you add at a time?
 

Reefahholic

Acropora Farmer
View Badges
Joined
Sep 5, 2014
Messages
7,425
Reaction score
6,221
Location
Houston, TX
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Do you know if it is processed any differently by corals, biodiversity, and potentially binding to rock when compared to phosphorous?

This I don’t know.

Also, how many ppm do you add at a time?

Depends on the strength of your DIY solution.
 

Reefahholic

Acropora Farmer
View Badges
Joined
Sep 5, 2014
Messages
7,425
Reaction score
6,221
Location
Houston, TX
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I’ll look into this for sure. I’m also considering oyster feast as it apparently has phosphorous in it.

You can walk into any Petco and buy a product called Flourish. It will achieve about the same result. I prefer more pure products myself.

 

Grigs

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 3, 2018
Messages
494
Reaction score
544
Location
NE KS
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I have been dosing NeoPhos from Brightwell. I got it Amazon Prime, so it was both fast and cheap. Highly recommend it. I also picked up NeoNitro and their CoralAminos at the same time. Highly recommend all of them
 

Magellan

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 13, 2019
Messages
2,965
Reaction score
12,474
Location
Charlotte
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I’ll look into this for sure. I’m also considering oyster feast as it apparently has phosphorous in it.

I would recommend dosing oyster feast no matter what! That stuff makes my tank go absolutely bonkers, I broadcast feed a small amount every day. I attached a video, I started recording right after feeding and you can see the immediate response.
 

Grigs

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 3, 2018
Messages
494
Reaction score
544
Location
NE KS
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I would recommend dosing oyster feast no matter what! That stuff makes my tank go absolutely bonkers, I broadcast feed a small amount every day. I attached a video, I started recording right after feeding and you can see the immediate response.
I don't know if it's just me, but I only get audio...
 
OP
OP
living_tribunal

living_tribunal

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 14, 2019
Messages
4,198
Reaction score
12,164
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I have been dosing NeoPhos from Brightwell. I got it Amazon Prime, so it was both fast and cheap. Highly recommend it. I also picked up NeoNitro and their CoralAminos at the same time. Highly recommend all of them

I do prefer brightwell for nutrients for sure. Much easier over all.

I think my aim with this thread though is to really figure out what in the world is going on.

I’ve been dosing phosphate like crazy and it’s had no impact other than feeding whatever is sucking my nutrients.

I’ve really been stressing on how I should approach this situation. I can’t seem to find anything similar online either.
 

Magellan

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 13, 2019
Messages
2,965
Reaction score
12,474
Location
Charlotte
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Here’s a screen grab from the beginning (you can see the Palys already starting to feed) and then a screen grab 50 seconds later.
8DD55224-040E-48F6-8152-6EDA94292FE6.png
2C0631ED-AEBD-45F6-8CF1-42B319B49DB8.png
 

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

  • Ball valves.

    Votes: 66 51.6%
  • Gate valves.

    Votes: 67 52.3%
  • Check valves.

    Votes: 32 25.0%
  • None.

    Votes: 29 22.7%
  • Other.

    Votes: 9 7.0%
Back
Top