True Phosphate level

[kiwis]

I'm winning a long battle against GHA.

I think my issue is high phosphate. I've been using Phosphate RX to remove it which has turned the tide.

My question and issue is, when I test phosphates I get a near 0 reading. I believe because the GHA is using the Phosphate up.

How can I test what my Phosphate would be before algae consumes it?

 

[JCTReefer]

The only Phospahtes you can test for are SRP “soluble reactive phosphates” that dissolve in your tanks water and are used by algae. Which unfortunately only account for about 2%. So when your run a test like on the Hanna ULR, that’s the reading you’re getting. I was literally dosing every day to get my levels up when battling dinos. I was dosing .05 ppm every day initially. 24 hours later back to zero. I dosed long and hard over a period of months of both NO3 and Po4 and finally started getting some green algae Growth. Dinos were finally outcompeted after the GHA got established. Now the GHA is my problem and it keeps growing and growing. I’m thinking from dosing for so long there is enough bound up in the rock that releases and fuels the algae. Algae consume it so fast you can’t test for it. But there is no doubt in my mind that even though I tested earlier today and got a reading of 4 ppb, which is .012ppm +/- 5ppb, there is definitely phosphate in there that can’t be tested for. Another kind of phosphate “Organic phosphate” that come in many forms can’t be tested for I don’t think. I bet if I were to nuke my gha, that bound up phosphate would be released and I’d definitely get a reading when testing. I could be wrong on the info above, but seems I’ve read this somewhere from a reputable source. If you figure out a way to test, lmk!!!

 

[Timfish]

This is a problem as we can't test for all the forms of phosphorus in our systems. As pointed out by JCTReefer we can only test for one type of phosphorus genericly reffered to as PO4 or phosphate (aka SRP, Orthophosphate, Dissolved Inorganic Phosphate, DIP) and then only what's left over when everything else in the tank is done with it. Besides corals and algae using it, biofilms will be soaking it up and sponges can be sequestering phosphorus crystals in their tissue. Our systems also have particualte forms of inorganic phosphorus (PIP) and Dissolve Organic Phosphorus (DOP) and these are used also. If it helps here's a figure showing how corals use the various forms and links to research on phosporus on reefs and by corals maintained long term in aquaria as well as a blog by Rich Ross:

An experimental mesocosm for long-term studies of reef corals | Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom | Cambridge Core

An experimental mesocosm for long-term studies of reef corals - Volume 92 Issue 4

www.cambridge.org

An Experimental Mesocosm for Longterm Studies of Reef Corals

Phosphate Deficiency:
Nutrient enrichment can increase the susceptibility of reef corals to bleaching:

Nutrient enrichment can increase the susceptibility of reef corals to bleaching - Nature Climate Change

Increased dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) concentrations in sea water have been linked to a reduction of the temperature threshold at which corals bleach, however, the mechanism underlying this change is not known. This phenomenon is now explained in terms of increased phosphatase activities...

www.nature.com

Ultrastructural Biomarkers in Symbiotic Algae Reflect the Availability of Dissolved Inorganic Nutrients and Particulate Food to the Reef Coral Holobiont:

Ultrastructural Biomarkers in Symbiotic Algae Reflect the Availability of Dissolved Inorganic Nutrients and Particulate Food to the Reef Coral Holobiont

Reef building corals associated with symbiotic algae (zooxanthellae) can access environmental nutrients from different sources, most significantly via the uptake of dissolved inorganic nutrients by the algal symbiont and heterotrophic feeding of the coral host. Climate change is expected to...

www.frontiersin.org

Phosphate deficiency promotes coral bleaching and is reflected by the ultrastructure of symbiotic dinoflagellates

Phosphate deficiency promotes coral bleaching and is reflected by the ultrastructure of symbiotic dinoflagellates

Enrichment of reef environments with dissolved inorganic nutrients is considered a major threat to the survival of corals living in symbiosis with din…

www.sciencedirect.com

Effects of phosphate on growth and skeletal density in the scleractinian coral Acropora muricata: A controlled experimental approach

Effects of phosphate on growth and skeletal density in the scleractinian coral Acropora muricata: A controlled experimental approach

Phosphate contamination can negatively affect corals, modifying growth rates, skeletal density, reproduction, mortality, and zooxanthellae. We determi…

www.sciencedirect.com

High phosphate uptake requirements of the scleractinian coral Stylophora pistillata

High phosphate uptake requirements of the scleractinian coral Stylophora pistillata

SUMMARYSeveral untested aspects of the regulation of inorganic nutrient uptake were examined using nutrient depletion experiments with the symbiotic coral Stylophora pistillata. The total inhibition of phosphate uptake in artificial seawater lacking sodium indicates the involvement of a...

jeb.biologists.org

Phosphorus metabolism of reef organisms with algal symbionts

https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ecm.1217?casa_token=ziDzrEEJ8g0AAAAA%3AHnfuGTIntMdqOtx2ij-lnoTh7qVg8VBhYFz98e60zfBEvx5IcIVGhmlpUYmzIJuqUNVm0sG8_0vth6lq

Sponge symbionts and the marine P cycle

Sponge symbionts and the marine P cycle

Marine sponges are ubiquitous colonizers of shallow, clear-water environments in the oceans (1, 2). Sponges have emerged as significant mediators of biogeochemical fluxes in coastal zones by virtue of respiring organic matter and facilitating both the consumption and release of nutrients (3, 4)...

www.pnas.org

Phosphorus sequestration in the form of polyphosphate by microbial symbionts in marine sponges

Phosphorus sequestration in the form of polyphosphate by microbial symbionts in marine sponges

Coral reefs are highly productive ecosystems that raise a conundrum called “Darwin’s paradox”: How can high production flourish in low-nutrient conditions? We show here that in three abundant Caribbean sponges, the granules that have been commonly observed in sponge tissue for decades are...

www.pnas.org

2657円まるいち 博多辛子明太子(無着色) 「博多の華」 (ギフト用) 180g Z6572海産物イクラ,タラコ,魚卵 Qoo10]　「博　まるいち　博多辛子明太子(無着色) | therichross.com

2657円まるいち 博多辛子明太子(無着色) 「博多の華」 (ギフト用) 180g Z6572海産物イクラ,タラコ,魚卵 Qoo10]　「博　まるいち　博多辛子明太子(無着色) | therichross.com

therichross.com

 

[ZoWhat]

Yes. Great stuff. As a preventative measure I use 30 droplets in my 200g total water system each Sunday night. I also use 5micron filter socks fir 24hrs to catch the lanthanum phosphate chemical bond in the sock.

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[SPR1968]

It can take a while to remove phosphate from the system, especially if it’s been high for a while and is bound up into the rockwork because it will slowly leach back out

You need something to take it out so you may need to continue dosing what your using, although I prefer GFO in particular rowaphos which I use and ‘heavy’.

Eventually you should starve the GHA until it starts to recede, but you then need to keep the phosphate locked down and a good target is less than 0.03

As far as I know, you can only test what’s in the water column