Rapid PO4 Consumption

[WAfrican]

Obviously every tank differs but is there a standard range to expect a tank to consume NO3/PO4 daily? Tested PO4 at .13 yesterday and corals were looking happy as ever, retested today and at .01(retested to confirm). I did skimp a bit on feeding yesterday but is this within the range of normal? Dosed NeoPhos at 3ml for 11 gallons of water and just retested a few hours later and got .04. Will add some reef roids and AB+ tonight as well. No sign of Dinos/algae etc etc but my acros were a little ticked after dosing NeoPhos so I'm hoping this is just from underfeeding.

 

[tbrown]

Is your tank new? Rock and sand will absorb phosphates for a while until the water and rock/sand reach equilibrium. In the meantime, corals and algae will also uptake phosphates throughout the day.

3 mL NeoPhos sounds like a lot. I was dosing 25 mL in a 125 twice a day to keep at 0.14 until I hit equilibrium and then was able to reduce to 10 mL daily after that point.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Obviously every tank differs but is there a standard range to expect a tank to consume NO3/PO4 daily? Tested PO4 at .13 yesterday and corals were looking happy as ever, retested today and at .01(retested to confirm). I did skimp a bit on feeding yesterday but is this within the range of normal?

Foods add a lot of phosphate every day. More than the 0.1 ppm change you see here (typically). Folks should think of the level in the water as the result of a fairly high input against a fairly high consumption, and the difference between those two can vary on a daily basis if you change one or the other.

 

[WAfrican]

Is your tank new? Rock and sand will absorb phosphates for a while until the water and rock/sand reach equilibrium. In the meantime, corals and algae will also uptake phosphates throughout the day.

3 mL NeoPhos sounds like a lot. I was dosing 25 mL in a 125 twice a day to keep at 0.14 until I hit equilibrium and then was able to reduce to 10 mL daily after that point.

Tank is not new. Have had running for almost 2 years now but just recently started adding corals again over the last 4 months after my crash a year ago that took out all corals. At 11 gallons of water 3ml would put me at .068ppm of added PO4 according to the bottle.

 

[WAfrican]

Foods add a lot of phosphate every day. More than the 0.1 ppm change you see here (typically). Folks should think of the level in the water as the result of a fairly high input against a fairly high consumption, and the difference between those two can vary on a daily basis if you change one or the other.

Thanks Randy, I was not aware that it had that much of an impact and that my tank was really taking in that much daily.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks Randy, I was not aware that it had that much of an impact and that my tank was really taking in that much daily.

I discuss the inputs from foods here:

https://reefs.com/magazine/aquarium-chemistry-phosphate-and-math-yes-you-need-to-understand-both/

 

[WAfrican]

I discuss the inputs from foods here:

https://reefs.com/magazine/aquarium-chemistry-phosphate-and-math-yes-you-need-to-understand-both/

Was able to read some but will finish later tonight! I did also remove my bag of Rox.8 last night and replaced with fresh this morning after testing. Unsure if this would've made any difference at all too.