Coral reefer
Past President
Phosphate is not the boogie man
Lowering phosphate
- Thread starter Ayman
- Start date
Coral reefer
Past President
Might be weird to have it “very” high and nitrate “very” low like you do tho @L/B Block
At the moment nitrates not so low!
Shot up like a rocket to 22!
But yes for a bit my nitrates had bottomed out and my PO4 was coasting around .6 -I think the byproduct of my sump acting as a faux algae scrubber.
It’s not..but as a professional @Coral reefer who takes care of a lot of tanks -do you see any impact of higher PO4 (maybe above .5) vs. “mid range” (.15 to .49) to “low” at .1-1.49 and ultra low (under .1)
The ranges are arbitrary-correct as necessary.
Would all for reef lower nitrate like that. This is one of the things i have seen and mentioned in the past. What do you think? Or it has nothing to do with that!
I use AFR-does not impact nitrates in the least.
What I have see impact nitrate reduction is use of carbon dosing products such as nopox or bacto balance. Also microalgae such as ulva that really reduced nitrates and not phosphate much at all.
In greater explanation of what knocked nitrates down to zero was that over the summer I was gone a lot and didn’t have time to deal with a low PH problem (like 7.5-7.7) so I essentially kept the refugium light going 24/7 and my sump was entirely covered in algae. So it sucked up all the nitrates but kept the PH up at least until I got a kalk set up going.
Algae completely gone in sump and nitrates back to its regularly scheduled numbers..
AFR carbo-calcium is metabolized by bacteria to produce the Alk and Ca components, acting as a carbon source. So there is a mild carbon dosing component. Of course if you are continuously dosing it you may not notice, just like if you were continuously dosing a trickle of other carbon dosing products.
Alexander1312
Supporting Member
Is the ‘natural way’, which was the actual question, to lower phosphate, not to add more corals? Or add less that contains phosphate?
Coral reefer
Past President
Honestly I don’t often test. It takes too much time. I change water and often use some gfo that I try to keep on a similar amount and change out schedule and stick to it.
When I had a tank I liked to keep it between .1-.2 if I could. I was using a lot of rowaphos to accomplish that.
Thales
Past President
Morning!
It looks like my phosphate is currently .3, the lanth I dose ran out a few weeks ago and I missed it. The phosphate was running between .15 and .2.
For like the past 6 years I have been dosing lanth at low levels into the skimmer, as well as doing AWC, to see what that does to the numbers. Cheap and easy, great. But really, the only reason I care much about the numbers was to test some auto testers. If everything looks fine, I would leave it,but that is me.
If you want to come down from .8, gfo isn't great, and a long term lower does of lanth seems to work better to keep it stable over time. GFO or 'sometimes' dosing lanth, can make phosphate bounce.
My thinking is the same - most of our animals do fine at 'elelvated' phosphate (heck I spawned and settled and grew coral at .9) and that chasing the numbers can make you crazy - and for waht practical gain? I like to keep them below .5 now a days because it is relatively cheap and easy.
I have upped my lanth dose, and that seems to be good at keeping it between .15 and .2 without me having to do much with no ill effecte