Sps and po4

[Kfactor]

Hi all my tank has been running for about 6 months now and got a little bit of algae but not much . I put a tester piece of acro in my tank about 2 months and it’s been doing good so I added 2 more and they seems to be doing good . My no3 is steady at 4.7 and alk is steady at 7.2 and cal is 410 am using tm salt . My po4 is always zero so I have dosing half the recommended does as to britwells neophos calculations still zero so I did a full does to see and my acros polyps retracted. Am going to be doing my water change today and hope that will help . Should I not be dosing then and just leave it at undetectable? Just worries about getting bad algae pop up

 

[Saltyreef]

The phosphate** is being consumed so just keep on your normal routine and keep testing.
Also, if your algae gets out of hand, keep dosing and testing to achieve your desired level and work on removing the algae by hand.
Nutrient swings are hard on an ecosystem so test often as possible so you know whats going on.

 

[Staghorn]

This is a hot topic now. Before everybody one and a half no phosphate now everybody wants to have a certain number. I think the most important thing is that your corals have stability whether it is zero or a little bit higher. My phosphate is undetectable and has been for the last year. I feed heavily because my phosphate is not rising. The Fish and coral appreciate it. Instead of adding a phosphate additive why don’t you spot feed your corals a little that will benefit them and give you the side benefit of possibly raising your phosphate. Because I absolutely need a little phosphate to grow but remember the reason it may be reading zero is because they are using what little there is in the water now

 

[kagisexton]

Keep dosing neophos until phosphate is detectable. My system ate 1500mls before any po4 showed up on Hanna checker.

 

[Staghorn]

By the way I by no means have a full Grown tank. But the sps are thriving at .2 nitrate an undetectable phosphate.

 

[Kfactor]

This is a hot topic now. Before everybody one and a half no phosphate now everybody wants to have a certain number. I think the most important thing is that your corals have stability whether it is zero or a little bit higher. My phosphate is undetectable and has been for the last year. I feed heavily because my phosphate is not rising. The Fish and coral appreciate it. Instead of adding a phosphate additive why don’t you spot feed your corals a little that will benefit them and give you the side benefit of possibly raising your phosphate. Because I absolutely need a little phosphate to grow but remember the reason it may be reading zero is because they are using what little there is in the water now

i only have 3 sps in the tank and 4 fish the twv is 125g and only feed 1 to 2 times a day with frozen food . i might have to up my feeding a bit and just watch my levels and see if they hold or go up . i dont want to chase numbers but would like to see just a little po4 .

 

[Kfactor]

By the way I by no means have a full Grown tank. But the sps are thriving at .2 nitrate an undetectable phosphate.

i just want to do eveything in my power to have sps thrive and learn as much as i can i hate seeing things die

 

[Saltyreef]

Keep dosing neophos until phosphate is detectable. My system ate 1500mls before any po4 showed up on Hanna checker.

Yep...the "glass bottle ketchup effect". Nothing, nothing, nothing.... SPLAT! Ketchup all over your plate lol.

 

[kagisexton]

By the way I by no means have a full Grown tank. But the sps are thriving at .2 nitrate an undetectable phosphate.

That’s awesome. My system cannot achieve that. Any time my phosphate becomes undetectable, I experience dinos, cyano or both. Your colors look like you run the nutrients run much higher. Impressive.

 

[homer1475]

You need more fish in a 125G. Simple as that. More fish. more fish food, more fish poop, more phosphates.

Seriously though, you can reach an equilibrium between your fish load, and your nutrient levels.

 

[IslandLifeReef]

Hi all my tank has been running for about 6 months now and got a little bit of algae but not much . I put a tester piece of acro in my tank about 2 months and it’s been doing good so I added 2 more and they seems to be doing good . My no3 is steady at 4.7 and alk is steady at 7.2 and cal is 410 am using tm salt . My po4 is always zero so I have dosing half the recommended does as to britwells neophos calculations still zero so I did a full does to see and my acros polyps retracted. Am going to be doing my water change today and hope that will help . Should I not be dosing then and just leave it at undetectable? Just worries about getting bad algae pop up

The big question is what are you using to test for PO4?

 

[Kfactor]

The big question is what are you using to test for PO4?

Am using the Hanna phosphorus ulr and double check with my redsea po4 test kit and both come back at zero