Phosphates, good or bad?

[Jakepen]

I run chateo in my refugium, and my phosphates and nitrates stay at 0.00. I do only have two fish in my 30 gallon, so I don't feed that heavily, and usually when feeding frozen food I will catch whatever doesn't get eaten. Is my water "to clean" to have certain corals thrive? All lps in my tank, I have a jack o lantern coming today, and read they do better with phosphates. So am I doing the right thing running a refugium? Opinions please!!

 

[Desmond]

from my understanding corals need some nitrates and phosphates especially LPS. I keep mine low but not zero and my LPS are doing great. You can always not clean the food as you do 1 or 2 times a week it will help raise a bit. I feed allot in my tank and also have a fuge.

 

[Jakepen]

I'm on the fence about my refugium myself. I get a lot of debris in my back chambers for some reason since adding chateo. So I put my chateo in a mesh bag to try and contain any debris. Sill getting it, so I'm not convinced it's from my chateo. Getting a ton of hair algae in my back chambers though. I don't know

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Yes you need No and PO for everything in the tank. The up side of having a refugium doing it is it regulates its self. Less food less growth. And likely wont strip the water of nutrients, if you suspect it may be, you trim the chato and spot feed the coral. GFO just strips until its saturates.
zero also means its undetectable at the level of your test. If you have detritus collecting in the back and hair alge growing, you have enough Po and No in the system. Its not zero.
If you have an AIO yes the back chambers collect detritus. in my JBJ, I started doing all the WC from the back by stirring it up with a baster then siphoning it out.
The detritus in the chato is normal as its acting as a mechanical filter like floss and collecting junk. I always ran foam or floss right at the return to cut that down(like a sock). Personally I would rather have it in the chato, floss and chambers than back in the tank, because thats where it will go instead and then you dont see it and cant get it out. Its one of the things that led to my JBJ decline.

Its a crazy thought but if your getting better growth from the hair algae than chato you can fashion a mini turf scrubber instead, just by putting some "plasitc canvas" in and letting the hair grow there.
IMO you want the hair in the back or sum or fuge, thats what keeps it out of the tank.

FWIW I have seen a few threads from new sump owners who are surprised at how gross their awesome expensive sump gets not always realizing that's its job.

 

[Jakepen]

Yes you need No and PO for everything in the tank. The up side of having a refugium doing it is it regulates its self. Less food less growth. And likely wont strip the water of nutrients, if you suspect it may be, you trim the chato and spot feed the coral. GFO just strips until its saturates.
zero also means its undetectable at the level of your test. If you have detritus collecting in the back and hair alge growing, you have enough Po and No in the system. Its not zero.
If you have an AIO yes the back chambers collect detritus. in my JBJ, I started doing all the WC from the back by stirring it up with a baster then siphoning it out.
The detritus in the chato is normal as its acting as a mechanical filter like floss and collecting junk. I always ran foam or floss right at the return to cut that down(like a sock). Personally I would rather have it in the chato, floss and chambers than back in the tank, because thats where it will go instead and then you dont see it and cant get it out. Its one of the things that led to my JBJ decline.

Its a crazy thought but if your getting better growth from the hair algae than chato you can fashion a mini turf scrubber instead, just by putting some "plasitc canvas" in and letting the hair grow there.
IMO you want the hair in the back or sum or fuge, thats what keeps it out of the tank.

FWIW I have seen a few threads from new sump owners who are surprised at how gross their awesome expensive sump gets not always realizing that's its job.

Awesome write up, thank you. And actually yesterday that's how I did my wc, stirred up the back and siphoned out the water ha. If I were to go with the plastic canvas, would I just place that in the chamber my chateo is currently in? Along the back glass I have Innovative marine's fuge light. So would I just suspend the canvas in there somehow?

 

[Wilsoni]

Since we're on the topic of AIO tanks and their rear chambers... I clean my left and center chambers quite well. My right chamber which contains my heater and Apex probes has so much sponge mass and tunicates that I don't dare disturb it. I do see a trace of detritus at the bottom. How would you suggest cleaning this out without disrupting the filter feeders that reside there?

 

[Wilsoni]

Yes you need No and PO for everything in the tank. The up side of having a refugium doing it is it regulates its self. Less food less growth. And likely wont strip the water of nutrients, if you suspect it may be, you trim the chato and spot feed the coral. GFO just strips until its saturates.
zero also means its undetectable at the level of your test. If you have detritus collecting in the back and hair alge growing, you have enough Po and No in the system. Its not zero.
If you have an AIO yes the back chambers collect detritus. in my JBJ, I started doing all the WC from the back by stirring it up with a baster then siphoning it out.
The detritus in the chato is normal as its acting as a mechanical filter like floss and collecting junk. I always ran foam or floss right at the return to cut that down(like a sock). Personally I would rather have it in the chato, floss and chambers than back in the tank, because thats where it will go instead and then you dont see it and cant get it out. Its one of the things that led to my JBJ decline.

Its a crazy thought but if your getting better growth from the hair algae than chato you can fashion a mini turf scrubber instead, just by putting some "plasitc canvas" in and letting the hair grow there.
IMO you want the hair in the back or sum or fuge, thats what keeps it out of the tank.

FWIW I have seen a few threads from new sump owners who are surprised at how gross their awesome expensive sump gets not always realizing that's its job.

Also do you know if pineapple sponge are similar to other sponge species which shouldn't be exposed to air?

 

[Wilsoni]

Haha I may have just answered my own question... I will put filter socks on my flow outlets then use a baster to stir it up so the socks can collect the detritus once it passes through my return. ;)

 

[Jakepen]

Haha I may have just answered my own question... I will put filter socks on my flow outlets then use a baster to stir it up so the socks can collect the detritus once it passes through my return. ;)

Just took a little brainstorming, typing out your own question ha.

 

[Wilsoni]

Haha I do this all the time. ADD can be a beautiful curse. :p

 

[Wilsoni]

"Few beers and I'll frag anything..." reading that just made my day. Lol

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Since we're on the topic of AIO tanks and their rear chambers... I clean my left and center chambers quite well. My right chamber which contains my heater and Apex probes has so much sponge mass and tunicates that I don't dare disturb it. I do see a trace of detritus at the bottom. How would you suggest cleaning this out without disrupting the filter feeders that reside there?

scrape them out and sent them to me!

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Awesome write up, thank you. And actually yesterday that's how I did my wc, stirred up the back and siphoned out the water ha. If I were to go with the plastic canvas, would I just place that in the chamber my chateo is currently in? Along the back glass I have Innovative marine's fuge light. So would I just suspend the canvas in there somehow?

probably. But if the hair algae is all over the glass you already have a turf scrubber. it just needs a surface to cling to. a piece of rock, acrylic rod, beer can, as long as it doesnt rob you of too moch flow and constrict or clog the chambers once the algae grows in. you wouldn't want to build a dam.