Reducing Phosphates in Tank

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

That’s why I didn’t recommend vibrant. I recommended using something like microbacter 7, But I said I’ve only heard this helps, as when I had an issue I used vibrant. I agree, vibrant is not for beginners. I’ve heard too many conflicting stories on the use of vibrant to be recommending it and maybe I should have added that to my post. I just didn’t want to recommend Microbacter without giving the information that I have not personally used it for algae control, so the OP should do some research before trying it because if it does work like vibrant (again, I’m not sure), you’d need to watch out for a nutrient spike, hence the increase water chance advice.

I just want to clarify whether you have heard the story on vibrant being a simple algaecide (same as ALgaefix) and not bacteria at all? Not sure that impacts your comments, but you seem to be associating it with dosing bacteria, which it is not.

 

[kierstin1993]

Let me propose my theory (competition), which I think is supported by all known ways of getting and getting rid of dinos.

Any bare surfaces in a reef aquarium are going to be colonized by something.

When nutrients are in great supply, a larger number of species can colonize these surfaces, including algae and bacteria (and dinos).

When nutrients are in very short supply, the list of organisms that can thrive is much shorter, and problem dinos appear to be one that can colonize such surfaces, becoming a pest as they out compete other organisms.

You can, to a great extent, prevent pest dinos by using natural, live rock and sand, and making sure nutrients are adequate to support these benign colonizers.

Once you already have dinos, then ensuring these other colonizers have adequate N and P appears to be a useful step.

Trace elements also likely play a role in determining which organisms thrive, and dinos can seem to run out of at least one critical element (don't know which one), which is likely why water changes seem to sometimes make dinos thrive even better, and rarely seems to be a useful treatment.

Good point, thank you!
For me, when I had dinos the water changes helped but I was also using the Siphon to suck up any sand that had patches of dinos and it was helping. Thinking back now, I was also running a UV sterilizer, so for the OP, a UV sterilizer might be helpful! However, my 75g sprung a leak during this battle and I bought a 125g and moved everything, after this I didn’t have anymore issues with dinos. So I could be misinformed that water changes helped. Could have been my tank move.

 

[kierstin1993]

I just want to clarify whether you have heard the story on vibrant being a simple algaecide (same as ALgaefix) and not bacteria at all? Not sure that impacts your comments, but you seem to be associating it with dosing bacteria, which it is not.

Sorry I wasn’t clearer, yes, I am aware that vibrant is not a beneficial bacteria. I’m recommending microbacter 7 or something similar but I wanted to clarify for the OP that I have not used this for algae control personally, I took a different route and used vibrant. I should have clarified that I wasn’t recommending Vibrant in this case as it can be tricky. I did summarize at the bottom they should use a form of beneficial bacteria such as microbacter 7. I can see now how my wording was confusing.

 

[GARRIGA]

Carbon dosing with NoPox eliminates my GHA. Bottoms out my nitrates and brings phosphates under 0.25 ppm. Do feed heavy. No dinos. Went through one cycle of cyano but that's all but gone now.

I'm adding between 2 to 4 ml of NoPox daily to my test tank which I assume has more than 16 gallons but less than 20. Only reason to dose twice the amount is because I'm testing the affects of overdosing and I don't run a skimmer or any form of mechanical filtration other than occasionally removing detritus for aesthetic reasons. KISS my approach and try avoiding any and all chemicals other than that needed to balance the requirements to maintain life.

Did use lanthanum Chloride a few times and that bottomed my phosphates out but was just to see how it worked for future reference. Consider it a better option if needing to hit a very narrow range as I can dose what is needed.

Going to stick with carbon dosing. Do have a very large biological filter relative to volume which might assist with overdosing and not needing a skimmer. Every system is different and I constantly adjust accordingly. Plus I honestly believe that overfeeding part of why I don't worry about bottoming out my nutrients since I'm constantly introducing N and P as well as ammonium which I think is what really matters. Purely theory based on anecdotal experience but then what else isn't.

BTW, no WCs. Will be getting an ICP to evaluate my results and what trace has been depleted along with a theory that much might be replaced with feeding.