Po4 swings and salinity swings

[Gogo007]

Hello guys ,
I am asking about the limits of po4 swings for sps reef tank i am using lacl3to control my po4 but i do see that its always swings after a couple of days feeding my fish , like it was 0.04 and goes to 0.1 or 0.2 up and i have to get it down back to low levels using lacl3 .. is that swings is normal or should i use gfo to keep it always down ..


Second i tested my salinity and it was 1.023 and did water change and get it up to 1.026 .. is that also normal to change the salinity in two days range from1.023. To 1.026

Is that could cause stn ?

 

[Bleigh]

I replace my goo when it hits .1 for phosphates. It depends on the coral.

I've had different ones randomly stn for no reason that Could tell while ones right next to them were perfectly happy.

 

[Reef.]

Your salinity shouldn’t really change at all.

what size tank?

Do you have an ato?

 

[Bleigh]

Oh yeah... do you have a skimmer? If you are pulling out a lot of skim, that could be affecting your salinity too. Or if you have a small leak somewhere, you could be losing salt. Do you see a lot of salt creep?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Hello guys ,
I am asking about the limits of po4 swings for sps reef tank i am using lacl3to control my po4 but i do see that its always swings after a couple of days feeding my fish , like it was 0.04 and goes to 0.1 or 0.2 up and i have to get it down back to low levels using lacl3 .. is that swings is normal or should i use gfo to keep it always down ..


Second i tested my salinity and it was 1.023 and did water change and get it up to 1.026 .. is that also normal to change the salinity in two days range from1.023. To 1.026

Is that could cause stn ?

Following up on Reef.'s comment, how large of a change and what salinity?

It would need to either use hypersaline water, or a really massive % water change, to boost salinity like that.

 

[Bleigh]

Hello guys ,
I am asking about the limits of po4 swings for sps reef tank i am using lacl3to control my po4 but i do see that its always swings after a couple of days feeding my fish , like it was 0.04 and goes to 0.1 or 0.2 up and i have to get it down back to low levels using lacl3 .. is that swings is normal or should i use gfo to keep it always down ..


Second i tested my salinity and it was 1.023 and did water change and get it up to 1.026 .. is that also normal to change the salinity in two days range from1.023. To 1.026

Is that could cause stn ?

Are you concerned that it dropped or that it increased? I assumed you were more concerned about the drop, so wanted to clarify.

 

[Uncle99]

Hello guys ,
I am asking about the limits of po4 swings for sps reef tank i am using lacl3to control my po4 but i do see that its always swings after a couple of days feeding my fish , like it was 0.04 and goes to 0.1 or 0.2 up and i have to get it down back to low levels using lacl3 .. is that swings is normal or should i use gfo to keep it always down ..


Second i tested my salinity and it was 1.023 and did water change and get it up to 1.026 .. is that also normal to change the salinity in two days range from1.023. To 1.026

Is that could cause stn ?

It’s not normal at all for your salinity to change, it should be at and remain consistently at 1.025-1.026, this parameter has effects on other parameters, hopefully you have ATO.

Maintain GFO, increase water change frequency, feed less, or same amount in smaller doses will help stabilize P.
.1 - .2ppm phosphate isn’t necessarily a bad number, maybe your feeding habits result in this .1 - .2ppm and maybe you should target this range if your having no problems.

 

[Gogo007]

Are you concerned that it dropped or that it increased? I assumed you were more concerned about the drop, so wanted to clarify.

I am concerned in swings its going down by bacteria and my lanthanum chloride dosing i think

 

[Gogo007]

It’s not normal at all for your salinity to change, it should be at and remain consistently at 1.025-1.026, this parameter has effects on other parameters, hopefully you have ATO.

Maintain GFO, increase water change frequency, feed less, or same amount in smaller doses will help stabilize P.
.1 - .2ppm phosphate isn’t necessarily a bad number, maybe your feeding habits result in this .1 - .2ppm and maybe you should target this range if your having no problems.

Okay thank you

 

[litenyaup]

you shouldn’t have salinity swings like that, first question, do u have an ato in line or are you doing a big dump of fresh water for top off? If u have an ato how much are you evaporating a day and using from your container? Another possible issue could be a leak or water being taken from the tank ie for frags being sold.

mad far as the po4 swing what are you feeding and are you testing immediately after feeding? Test once a day at same time every day. In order to have accurate results your testing has to be done the same every time. Second question regarding po4 what are you feeding? Reduce anything that would raise po4 ie phyto etc. maybe add a fuge inline to help.

how new is the tank and did you seed it with bacteria? Maybe add microbactor to help boost you bacteria population.

 

[Gogo007]

Following up on Reef.'s comment, how large of a change and what salinity?

It would need to either use hypersaline water, or a really massive % water change, to boost salinity like that.

I used hypresaline water in the ATO but for my bad luck i think snail makes the ATO sensor fails to stop so i got maybe 15 liter of hyper saline water in my reef makes it 1.027 then at that point i cleaned my ATO bucket put ro/di water and i started to siphon some water out the tank replace it with the ATO anf now its steady at 1.026

you should have salinity swings like that, first question, do u have an ato in line or are you doing a big dump of fresh water for top off? If u have an ato how much are you evaporating a day and using from your container? Another possible issue could be a leak or water being taken from the tank ie for frags being sold.

mad far as the po4 swing what are you feeding and are you testing immediately after feeding? Test once a day at same time every day. In order to have accurate results your testing has to be done the same every time. Second question regarding po4 what are you feeding? Reduce anything that would raise po4 ie phyto etc. maybe add a fuge inline to help.

how new is the tank and did you seed it with bacteria? Maybe add microbactor to help boost you bacteria population.

First i am using ATO yes .. and evaporation rate about 15L every 3 days my tank size is about 200 liter

Second for the feeding i used to use 1 tea spoon of reef roids mixed with AB+ 10ML RED SEA amino every week target them to the corals and this which always looks to have the high impact in my po4 levels i use lanthanum chloride to be in range regarding my nitrates its always measures 0 using red sea pro never seen nitrates since i started the tank 7 month ago ..

Now i set up automatic feeder to feed the tank one time a day and i will monitor the levels ...


normally i always measures at 5:30pm there for kh every day and po4 maybe every 2 days ..

i think this unstable po4 is due to leak of nitrate or the input ratio of nitrate and po4 is not the same as out put i think ready packed fish foods contains more po4 than nitrates .. i am think of boost up my nitrates using chemicals or change to frozen home made food which is hard for me to do that option

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

There is nothing wrong with a sg of 1.027. Many natural reefs are at that salinity.

 

[Bleigh]

I am concerned in swings its going down by bacteria and my lanthanum chloride dosing i think

Bacteria won’t drop your salinity.

I used hypresaline water in the ATO but for my bad luck i think snail makes the ATO sensor fails to stop so i got maybe 15 liter of hyper saline water in my reef makes it 1.027 then at that point i cleaned my ATO bucket put ro/di water and i started to siphon some water out the tank replace it with the ATO anf now its steady at 1.026

First i am using ATO yes .. and evaporation rate about 15L every 3 days my tank size is about 200 liter

Second for the feeding i used to use 1 tea spoon of reef roids mixed with AB+ 10ML RED SEA amino every week target them to the corals and this which always looks to have the high impact in my po4 levels i use lanthanum chloride to be in range regarding my nitrates its always measures 0 using red sea pro never seen nitrates since i started the tank 7 month ago ..

Now i set up automatic feeder to feed the tank one time a day and i will monitor the levels ...


normally i always measures at 5:30pm there for kh every day and po4 maybe every 2 days ..

i think this unstable po4 is due to leak of nitrate or the input ratio of nitrate and po4 is not the same as out put i think ready packed fish foods contains more po4 than nitrates .. i am think of boost up my nitrates using chemicals or change to frozen home made food which is hard for me to do that option

Are your corals looking good? That’s the biggest indicator. Don’t chase numbers of what you’re doing is working. If things don’t look good, then you may need to change something.

I do find it interesting that you have so much PO4 that you have to use chemicals to control it but your nitrates are undetectable. Can you have someone, like an lfs, double check your levels?

 

[Gogo007]

Bacteria won’t drop your salinity.

Are your corals looking good? That’s the biggest indicator. Don’t chase numbers of what you’re doing is working. If things don’t look good, then you may need to change something.

I do find it interesting that you have so much PO4 that you have to use chemicals to control it but your nitrates are undetectable. Can you have someone, like an lfs, double check your levels?

Swings i mean if po4 not in salinity

Regarding tank looking is okay but i got stn in one colony and some feel of peel colors for some polyps
I attached some photos for my corals

 

[Gogo007]

Another pics