SPS been going downhill lately….

[Dburr1014]

Not going to matter if the salinity is 1.020 and @Sabellafella was right as the reason why calcium and magnesium were so low. This is more paramount than anythjing else, IMO.

I would not keep carbonate at 12 for any reason, but you have to get well below .01 for burnt tips to happen. There are more sources of phosphorus in a reef tank than just phosphate. Phosphate is just what is left over after organically bound phosphate, metaphosphate, etc. have broken down. Since it appears that stony corals don't prefer to use po4 at all, having some just means that you had some left over.

P is used by the bacteria in the system. The bacteria uptake P and then the coral uptake the bacteria.
Coral do use P by the uptake of bacteria and ammonium.
Lou Ekus says the coral need phosphate at 0.02 to start showing a net phosphate uptake.

I do agree he should check and calibrate all his devices but to say po4 at 0.01 is fine is walking a very fine line. 0.01, on a reef yes, they have Infinite resources. In the reef tank, minimum 0.03, IMO.

From Lou Ekus seminar:

 

[jda]

I respect Lou, but he is trying to sell stuff, too. There are more sources of phosphorous in a reef tank than just phosphate. Phosphate is a measure of what is left over. There are some other things in those slides that appear wholesale inaccurate, but that is another discussion for another day.

My tank is at .005 to .01. Zeo runs this way. I keep PLENTY of phosphorous in the water. po4 is no measure of the amount of available phosphorous.

There is another phosphate discussion in the SPS forum if you want to jump in.

 

[Dburr1014]

I respect Lou, but he is trying to sell stuff, too. There are more sources of phosphorous in a reef tank than just phosphate. Phosphate is a measure of what is left over. There are some other things in those slides that appear wholesale inaccurate, but that is another discussion for another day.

My tank is at .005 to .01. Zeo runs this way. I keep PLENTY of phosphorous in the water. po4 is no measure of the amount of available phosphorous.

There is another phosphate discussion in the SPS forum if you want to jump in.

I read it during lunch and following. I'll jump in at some point.