What contribute phosphate the most?

[canadianeh]

Do you have a fuge? Chaeto in a fuge will help keep Phos down.

Yes I do have chaeto.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

You did eh? I am going to try not to feed my coral for a week and just let the eat fish poop and see how it goes and will report back

I did broadcast feed. You can also target feed to reduce waste with pumps off. A good amino acid always helps also

 

[canadianeh]

Chemipure Elite will lower phosphate and keep it in check.
Phosphates (PO4) can be created within the closed aquatic system or imported from the outside. Phosphate is a by-product of mineralization of dead matter such as plants, bacteria, feces, uneaten food, fish slime etc. are all internal contributors. Even some sea salts and water source can produce phosphates. All living organism contain phosphorus. Phosphorus is an kimportant element of life as a component for cell membranes, as an energy source, and for other bio-chemical processes.

I am running GFO 24/7

 

[canadianeh]

I did broadcast feed. You can also target feed to reduce waste with pumps off. A good amino acid always helps also

I usually target feed. I am going to try coralamino y brightwell

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

ANY uneaten food will increase phosphate.

Any food, whether eaten or not, will increase phosphate.

Most of the N and P in an eaten food is excreted back to the water.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thoroughly rinse things like frozen Mysis, frozen Bloodworms, or any other number of frozen foods into a container of water and watch the nasty crud that was 'ABOUT' to go into your tank, to needlessly overwork your filtration system!

I'm not a fan of rinsing frozen foods. It potentially washes away good things too, like potassium, and really may not accomplish much in the way of reducing the P added to the tank. IMO, that is a widely posted misconception based on faulty interpretations of "tests" that people do on the liquid rinse.

Aquarium Chemistry: Phosphate And Math: Yes You Need To Understand Both

Foods are by far the most important source of phosphate in most aquariums. In considering whether sources of phosphate other than foods are important, one must carefully look to the actual amounts involved to determine whether other sources are even worth trying to minimize.

reefs.com

Rinsing Foods and the Effect on Phosphate​

Now that we have some information on the phosphate in foods, we can critically examine the concern that many aquarists have about foods, and specifically their rinsing of frozen foods before use. A typical test you see is someone taking a cube of fish food, thawing it, and putting it into a half cup of water. They then test that water for phosphate and find it “off the charts”. Let’s assume that means 1 ppm phosphate, which would give a very dark blue color in many phosphate tests. Bear in mind this is a thought problem, not an actual measured value, but it is typical of what people think the answer is.

Is that a lot of phosphate? Well, there are two ways to think of the answer.

The first way is as a portion of the total phosphate in that food. A half cup of water at 1 ppm (1 mg/L) phosphate contains a total of 0.12 mg of phosphate. A cube of Formula 2 contains about 11.2 mg of phosphate. So the hypothetical rinsing step has removed about 1 percent of the phosphate in that food. Not really worthwhile, in my opinion, but that decision is one every aquarist can make for themselves.

The second way to look at this rinsing is with respect to how much it reduces the boost to the aquarium phosphate concentration. Using the same calculation as above of 0.12 mg of phosphate, and adding that to 100 gallons total water volume, we find that phosphate that was rinsed away would have boosted the “in tank” phosphate concentration by 0.12 mg/379 L = 0.0003 ppm. That amount washed away does not seem significant with respect to the “in tank” target level of about 50-100 times that level (say, 0.015 to 0.03 ppm), nor does it seem significant relative to the total amount of phosphate actually added each day in foods (which is perhaps 50-1000 times as much, based on input rates from Table 4. Again, the conclusion I make is that rinsing is not really worthwhile, in my opinion.

 

[JumboShrimp]

Very interesting reading.

 

[Fam5dad]

This is a good thread and I am struggling to get nutrients in my tank to. Im reading 0 nitrates and Phosphates. I feed twice a day, once flake once brine and missis shrimp. This is a lot in all my experience with other tanks. The difference with this tank is that I have a skimmer. I currently have a timer on it to run for 30 min then off for 30 min. My question is if I am feeding heavy with 7 fish in a 55 gallon that is going on its 6th month can the skimmer be too efficient?

 

[Dkmoo]

This is a good thread and I am struggling to get nutrients in my tank to. Im reading 0 nitrates and Phosphates. I feed twice a day, once flake once brine and missis shrimp. This is a lot in all my experience with other tanks. The difference with this tank is that I have a skimmer. I currently have a timer on it to run for 30 min then off for 30 min. My question is if I am feeding heavy with 7 fish in a 55 gallon that is going on its 6th month can the skimmer be too efficient?

Ur tank is too young. Its registering 0 likely bc your rocks/substrate likely have not reached saturation. Esp if you started with dry rocks. It's probably absorbing some po3 and po4 so very little is left in the water column for the tests to pick up.

No doubt the skimmer is helping but don't completely trust the test bc it may not be the full picture

Give it a few more months until your Rock And sand saturates. Then you will have a better sense of how your n and p cycle actually is.

 

[Drewbacca]

The only other possible source to consider is if your GFO is exhausted it could be releasing po4.

 

[Miami Reef]

Any food, whether eaten or not, will increase phosphate.

Most of the N and P in an eaten food is excreted back to the water.

Hello Randy,

I have a question about this. Regarding foods like frozen and pellet food, does phosphate first become excreted from fish as the organic form and then turns into the inorganic form?

Because the filtration I use (skimmer and filter socks) really only help remove the organic forms. If the fish excrete the inorganic forms, then skimming is pretty much unhelpful in that regard.

 

[Rmckoy]

You did eh? I am going to try not to feed my coral for a week and just let the eat fish poop and see how it goes and will report back

Fish poop is the best coral food .

 

[ScionFRSguy]

Pellet foods are the worst. You can actually have a semi-crash by feeding a lot of pellets at one time.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Hello Randy,

I have a question about this. Regarding foods like frozen and pellet food, does phosphate first become excreted from fish as the organic form and then turns into the inorganic form?

Because the filtration I use (skimmer and filter socks) really only help remove the organic forms. If the fish excrete the inorganic forms, then skimming is pretty much unhelpful in that regard.

Most phosphate is excreted as inorganic phosphate. The digestive process consumes the organic part and leaves bits like ammonia and phosphate. The energy from the metabolism of organics to CO2 is a main reason to eat.

Some organic P will certainly be in fish feces, however.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I’d add that foods that are broken down outside of organisms will likely release soluble organic P, and inorganic P that is taken up by skimmable organisms (live or dead) can export by skimming. Bacteria, viruses, plankton, etc.

Some soluble organic P is also likely excreted by organisms for other reasons.