Guess the Phosphate level

I am so confused...my po4 is around .04 and everytime my gfo is wasted, Algae takes over..glass gets green, dino pops up,lha grows on the rock. Then i read this??
 
Lol I only personally know 1 person who has there phosphates at a .0something at all...but everyone I know has thriving tanks and really don't have algae problems..I think remaining a constant level is more important than chasing a number and fluctuations all the time.. If I could ever get that low I would def strive to keep it..and I do as much as I can to lower mine...but seems to stay at .6 or so..have recently installed a ats to try to use the po4..but I do not have a battle going on with algae either
 
88rxna said:
I am so confused...my po4 is around .04 and everytime my gfo is wasted, Algae takes over..glass gets green, dino pops up,lha grows on the rock. Then i read this??
Click to expand...

How old is your system and what herbivores do you have in there?
 
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Can you just come out with it so we can have a real discussion?

You know what, I think I have to be skeptical either way. I'm a true believer I. Bending the curve and more than one to do thi.gs in this hobby but with 10ppm NO3 it's going be hard to believe that PO4 is higher than 0.1ppm and your implying it's above 0.3ppm. This is so far off most people's personal experience it's I can't believe it unless I witnessed it.

Is this your tank Thale? What are the test kits used? A video of testing would make me a believer but than again how do we know the test kit isn't faulty? Sorry I'm not usually so skeptical but....
 
I'm having fun with this, and I would like to have fun at RC again, so please allow me this.
You should be skeptical - I am so happy you are!
The next Skeptical Reefkeeping article is about Testing Kits, Chasing Numbers, and Phosphate, will answer most questions and should be published this soon. In the meantime, I am interested in peoples reactions and the discussions that are starting to shake out.

And yeah, its above .3. :D
 
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Whatever the po4 is, it isn't keeping the color or growth down at all it seems. That tank is thriving.
 
Thales said:
I'm having fun with this, and I would like to have fun at RC again, so please allow me this.
You should be skeptical - I am so happy you are!
The next Skeptical Reefkeeping article is about Testing Kits, Chasing Numbers, and Phosphate, will answer most questions and should be published this soon. :D
Click to expand...

I got a couple pm's about Skeptical Reefkeeping so I thought I would share the answer - the ongoing series is available on www.Reefsmagazine.com and on my site http://packedhead.net/category/skeptical-reefkeeping/

Please let me know if these links are not ok to post on RC. Thanks!
 
Thales said:
What do people think is supposed to happen at levels over .3?
Click to expand...

Conventional thinking is that a PO4 level above 0.03ppm causes browning of SPS corals... So 0.3ppm is 10 times higher and therefore we would assume SPS to be very brown in appearance and nuisance algae growing all over the tank...
 
Since you wont disclose the actual PO4 level now, would it be possible to at least post a few TOP DOWN shots of the SPS corals to see just how colourful your SPS corals are?

Later on when you disclose the actual figure the discussion can be quite good.
 
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