Po4 balance between AWC container and tank

[ReefHunter006]

I have a 40 gallon brute in my basement below one of my displays.

The brute acts as a remote refugium of sorts and as my water change container.

Each week I drain the container and refill with new saltwater, and the dosers replace the water in the container. They fill the tank from the container and the container is refilled with old tank water.

The brute gets ~60 gallons pushed through it daily and the display is 250ish.

When I measure this display the PO4 is typically around .4 meanwhile the water change system is at .06. Meanwhile no3 stays pretty consistent between the two. Tank at 31.4 and container at 29.8

I assume the algae is soaking up a bunch of po4 before it goes back into the tank.

No4 seems to be really slow on the uptake while po4 appears to be consumed very well.

1. Would you increase the daily water change to 90gpd?

2. Is there a risk of Dino’s if the po4 bottoms out in this remote fuge then making its way back to the tank?

3. Is there something else soaking up the po4 I may not be aware of that is causing such a large difference between the tank and container?

 

[Dan_P]

I have a 40 gallon brute in my basement below one of my displays.

The brute acts as a remote refugium of sorts and as my water change container.

Each week I drain the container and refill with new saltwater, and the dosers replace the water in the container. They fill the tank from the container and the container is refilled with old tank water.

The brute gets ~60 gallons pushed through it daily and the display is 250ish.

When I measure this display the PO4 is typically around .4 meanwhile the water change system is at .06. Meanwhile no3 stays pretty consistent between the two. Tank at 31.4 and container at 29.8

I assume the algae is soaking up a bunch of po4 before it goes back into the tank.

No4 seems to be really slow on the uptake while po4 appears to be consumed very well.

1. Would you increase the daily water change to 90gpd?

2. Is there a risk of Dino’s if the po4 bottoms out in this remote fuge then making its way back to the tank?

3. Is there something else soaking up the po4 I may not be aware of that is causing such a large difference between the tank and container?

Besides saltwater, what is in the brute refugium?

 

[ReefHunter006]

Besides saltwater, what is in the brute refugium?

Green hair algae.

 

[Dan_P]

I have a 40 gallon brute in my basement below one of my displays.

The brute acts as a remote refugium of sorts and as my water change container.

Each week I drain the container and refill with new saltwater, and the dosers replace the water in the container. They fill the tank from the container and the container is refilled with old tank water.

The brute gets ~60 gallons pushed through it daily and the display is 250ish.

When I measure this display the PO4 is typically around .4 meanwhile the water change system is at .06. Meanwhile no3 stays pretty consistent between the two. Tank at 31.4 and container at 29.8

I assume the algae is soaking up a bunch of po4 before it goes back into the tank.

No4 seems to be really slow on the uptake while po4 appears to be consumed very well.

1. Would you increase the daily water change to 90gpd?

2. Is there a risk of Dino’s if the po4 bottoms out in this remote fuge then making its way back to the tank?

3. Is there something else soaking up the po4 I may not be aware of that is causing such a large difference between the tank and container?

Given that the nitrate is the same in both containers, I assume the water in the system is equilibrated and the difference in PO4 readings might be caused by suspended PO4 containing matter in the display tank. To eliminate this possibility would require using a syringe filter
on both samples before testing.