The secret to phosphates???‍♀️

[Lostreef]

Why can’t I get phosphates to stick in my tank? I dose neo phos, feed extra, no water changes and I can’t get them to register. Now I have cyano taking over. I’m scared to do a water change or chemi clean because I’m scared the Dino’s will move in. Any suggestions?? I’ve attached my weekly testing results.

 

[GlassMunky]

Why do you want them? What purpose are you trying to achieve?

personally I think targeting specific nutrient levels is a fools errand

 

[Lostreef]

My corals seem to just melt away. Mushrooms do fine but LPS struggle.

 

[GlassMunky]

And what makes you think that it’s because of not having phosphates?
That doesn’t make any sense.
Plenty of tanks run without phosphates.

 

[Lostreef]

Just trying to understand the chemistry. Whatever I’m doing isn’t working.

 

[Lostreef]

The tank has been running for 1 1/2 years too.

 

[billyocean]

The p04 is probably binding in your rocks and or algae if you have a lot of algae or refugium. No detectable phosphates isn't good and yes that's probably why you have cyano or at least a factor. You will have to saturate the rocks with p04 but stay on top testing because once the rocks saturate your dosing won't take nearly as much to stay where you want

 

[billyocean]

Why do you want them? What purpose are you trying to achieve?

personally I think targeting specific nutrient levels is a fools errand

Huh? He didn't say he wanted a specific number.....registering ZERO p04 is not what you want.

 

[Lostreef]

Any suggestions to dosing the phosphate? Does it matter to leave skimmer on/off? UV off? Dose with feeding? Time of day? Multiple dosing?

 

[Tired]

Some mature tanks run with 0 detectable phosphates because they're at a point where the phosphate supply exactly matches demand. If your phosphate supply is lower than demand, which is usually the case with 0 phosphate readings, that's a problem.

Just keep going with the dosing. Consider increasing the dosing amount- it'll work sooner or later.

Don't try to poison the cyano away. That'll just unbalance things, and won't stop it recurring. It's honestly not that big a deal- just keep it blown off your corals with a turkey baster and wait for the phosphate problem to be resolved. You can siphon out big chunks of it as needed, and should probably be doing occasional water changes- it's not as though water changes can put you into a negative range of phosphate. 0 is 0.

 

[billyocean]

Follow what's stated above. And while every tank is different, most successful tanks with low nutrients are quite mature and or carbon dosing. Zoas and lps love "dirtier" water. By that I mean definately no p04 or n03 zeros..lol

 

[exnisstech]

I've never used neo phos and increased feeding didn't really help much. I dose loudwolf trisodium phosphate to raise PO4 when I test zero and have not had it fail to raise PO4. I don't dose on a regular basis but only when I get a 0 result doing my weekly testing.

 

[billyocean]

I've never used neo phos and increased feeding didn't really help much. I dose loudwolf trisodium phosphate to raise PO4 when I test zero and have not had it fail to raise PO4. I don't dose on a regular basis but only when I get a 0 result doing my weekly testing.

I use the same but switched from neophos because of price.

 

[GlassMunky]

Huh? He didn't say he wanted a specific number.....registering ZERO p04 is not what you want.

While he’s not chasing a specific number he seems to be just chasing numbers without knowing why or what he’s doing which is a bigger problem.

He just knows he “wants phosphate” so he’s throwing everything and the kitchen sink at his tank, most likely making it more unbalanced and out of whack.

Understanding what you’re doing and why is the key thing that I think is missing here.

Just because corals die and you have zero phosphate doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the reason why.
And possibly just making the problem worse by doing stuff blindly.

Just my personal thoughts and experiences

 

[billyocean]

While he’s not chasing a specific number he seems to be just chasing numbers without knowing why or what he’s doing which is a bigger problem.

He just knows he “wants phosphate” so he’s throwing everything and the kitchen sink at his tank, most likely making it more unbalanced and out of whack.

Understanding what you’re doing and why is the key thing that I think is missing here.

Just because corals die and you have zero phosphate doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the reason why.
And possibly just making the problem worse by doing stuff blindly.

Just my personal thoughts and experiences

I hear ya. But he also stated a worry about dinos moving In and zeroed out nutrients will cause this also...so first step IMO is to AT LEAST be able to register some p04 on a regular basis

 

[danimal1211]

Dan P. Did some amazing work on behalf of us hobbyists to better understand how our sand and rocks absorb and/or leach phosphates. It’s well worth the read

Phosphate Adsorption By Aragonite. New Insights

Aragonite adsorption of phosphate is probably of interest to anyone who maintains a saltwater aquarium. There is a notion in the hobby that aragonite sand and rocks can bind huge amounts of phosphate that can later be released to the aquarium and raise the amount of phosphate in the water to an...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Any suggestions to dosing the phosphate? Does it matter to leave skimmer on/off? UV off? Dose with feeding? Time of day? Multiple dosing?

IMO, you need to dose more or feed more.
Neophos is quite dilute and you may need to add far, far more than 0.03 ppm if you want to retain 0.03 ppm.

Food grade sodium phosphate is a good choice for dosing.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Just because corals die and you have zero phosphate doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the reason why.
And possibly just making the problem worse by doing stuff blindly.

It may not be the reason, but it is a good place to start, and I wouldn't want undetectable phosphate.

 

[Salty_Northerner]

IMO, you need to dose more or feed more.
Neophos is quite dilute and you may need to add far, far more than 0.03 ppm if you want to retain 0.03 ppm.

Food grade sodium phosphate is a good choice for dosing.

And that's what I had to do for my system, I had to dose 3x the amount of Neophos daily till the system finally would show a reading. It then shot up over .1 and then I stopped dosing till it started to fall. It was quite the yo-yo game till it finally settled in.

 

[Jposch]

And what makes you think that it’s because of not having phosphates?
That doesn’t make any sense.
Plenty of tanks run without phosphates.

Those tanks are long established and have sufficient orthophosphate present. (Not the inorganic po4 shown in a test kit.) Younger, dry Cycled tanks take years to come close.