Acro Colors and Phosphates

[Brian Prestwood]

Does this match your experience?

For the last couple of weeks the phosphates in my tank have been oscillating between 0.05 and 0.15 ppm. Prior to that cycle I'd probably been around 0.15 for a least a month (bad test kit).

0.075 ppm is the brown out point for me. Above it my corals start to brown out.

The interesting thing is how quickly my acros seem to color up when I get below the turning point. Some start to color up within a day. Most within a couple days.

 

[Bamm Bamm]

I have a few that have started to brown recently.. I just got a Elos kit today and found out my p04 is at .25 according to my red sea kit(GARBAGE) it was 0..

 

[iriejp1]

I've seen my stuff start to brown out and stop growing whenever my Alk gets low as well. Unarce pointed that out to me a few weeks back. Up to that point I couldn't figure out why things we're browning. Karl immediately suspected Alk. I went home and checked and sure enough my Cal was at 500, my Mag at 1350 and my Alk was at 6. Slowly added some baked baking soda and now all of my colors are returning and my growth is taking off again.

Thank you Karl!

 

[Bamm Bamm]

I was thinking i had low alk myself and bought a elos and alk is fine at 10..kinda weird stuff all this chemistry=) Im to lazy to test the rest of my parameters tongiht

 

[reedrodz]

Man, my alk goes up and down. Im still dialing my water chemistry. It's not as stable as I want it to be. My nitrate is kinda high too.

 

[Bamm Bamm]

according to my cheapie kit Im at zero nitrate.. Im planning on replacing all my test kits as money permits./.

 

[mpoletti]

Brian- My tank runs at a range of .05-.08 per my hanna. I have ran my tank above .10 for periods of time. Last year, when you can by, my tank was over .15 and most likely closer to .20.

Saying that, my best colors are around .05. Anything lower and I do not like the vibrance of the corals.

 

[Bamm Bamm]

mark- What do you use to help keep your phospates in check?

 

[mpoletti]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14996467#post14996467 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Bamm Bamm
mark- What do you use to help keep your phospates in check?

Water change, skimming, GFO....just the basics.

 

[Bamm Bamm]

Thanks Mark I think I need to add some GFO in the mix..

 

[Brian Prestwood]

Hey Dan

The Elos phosphate kit I have shows almost zero phosphates for anything below 0.2. I'm not sure if it is just my kit, which is new, or others do this too.

When your phosphates drop below 0.2 bring some water to the meeting and test your phosphates with the club's DD (Deltec) kit.

 

[Brian Prestwood]

Hey Joel

I'm with Karl, the first thing I check is alkalinity.

I've been testing alk twice daily the last couple of weeks.

I'm bringing my newly refilled calcium reactor back and battling phosphates so my alkalinity has been a bit jumpy.

Of course the calcium reactor raises alkalinity. High phosphates slows coral calcification. Meanwhile, my calcium reactor is pumping it out like nothing is wrong. Up goes the alkaliity which slows the coral calcification even more.

That trend can get out of control FAST!

 

[Brian Prestwood]

Mark

I find if I pump enough light into my tank I can get my acros to color up pretty well even when the phosphates are above 0.075. They are brighter below 0.075.

My Paletta blue tip appears to be a pretty good phosphate consistency meter. It doesn't change color much with short duration increases but if the phosphates stay above my brown out point for more than about a week it browns out and it won't color up again until the phoshates have been low for at least a couple weeks.

You said...

"my best colors are around .05. Anything lower and I do not like the vibrance of the corals."

What do they do below 0.05?

What is the tollerance on that Hanna phosphate colormetric tester? The club has a colormetric phosphate tester, not a Hanna, with a tollerance of plus or minus 0.05 ppm. It uses the SeaTest phosphate reagents. I ran it five times in a row and got numbers between 0.03 and 0.1.

 

[mpoletti]

The tolerance is .01 per Hanna and I have double checked mine versus two other hanna and also AWT.

When my levels get to lower than .05, not all of my colors pop. Some look good while others do not look as good.

Having canary corals are a great key for any system. I have a couple canary corals for alk and a couple more for po4.

 

[dots]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14995934#post14995934 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mpoletti
Brian- My tank runs at a range of .05-.08 per my hanna. I have ran my tank above .10 for periods of time. Last year, when you can by, my tank was over .15 and most likely closer to .20.

Saying that, my best colors are around .05. Anything lower and I do not like the vibrance of the corals.

I am finding this true as well Mark.

"colorwise" lately I have had the best results with weekly WC, and good feeding