New article of mine on phosphate

Randy Holmes-Farley

Reef Chemist
Premium Member
Phosphate And Math: Yes You Need To Understand Both
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/3/chemistry

The conclusion:
Conclusion
Foods are by far the most important source of phosphate in most aquariums. While there are big variations between foods, it does not appear in this analysis that dry foods are the nasties they are often made out to be, relative to frozen foods. There are better and poorer choices (with respect to phosphate) to be made within each food type. Avoiding foods with bones, however, might be worthwhile if delivering less phosphate is a goal. Additionally, fresh grocery store shrimp seems to be one of the best foods from this standpoint.

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. It can be scary to learn that your purified fresh water has phosphate in it, or that your salt mix has detectable phosphate, or that your supplements or whatever have some phosphate. But just because you detect something, and maybe you even detect a concentration far higher than in your aquarium, that does not by any means imply that those sources are significant enough to warrant some sort of corrective action. Our analytical tools have become fairly sensitive, allowing us to detect things which might sound like trouble, but really aren't. We need to understand the various dilution issues involved as well as the overall phosphate balance in a reef aquarium to evaluate the importance of different measurements.

Just use some math and put it all into perspective, before using some dollars or time to chase a trivial "problem"
 
Really good article.

"the hypothetical rinsing step has removed about 1 percent of the phosphate in that food."

You just saved me a lot of time!!!

How does the pellet / flake version of the frozen compare?

Forumula one flakes/pellet label:


Crude Protein
41.1% Min
Crude Fat
9.0% Min
Crude Fiber
2.4% Max
Moisture
14.5% Max
Ash
10.5% Max
 
Excellent article, as always, Randy.

Thanks very much... I too have been wasting a lot of time rinsing foods, a practice I will likely discontinue.

It seems then that keeping a reasonable focus on export is very important, unless one wants to risk a malnourished tank.
 
Randy., I was going to go to bed was going to log off the computer for the night but saw this thread and had to read the article. Really like it. Very clear ; easy to follow and inforamtive . Thankyou
 
Thank you Randy for taking your time writing the article. As always, your articles are a great read and very informative! :beer:
 
Just feed my tank dry food, then read this article. GREAT.... Thanks for the education. Time to switch foods.

Are you having a struggle with algae control in your tank? If not I think you'll be fine continuing what your current routine is and what you are feeding.
 
Great write up. I've been hoping for someone to put the food rinsing stuff to the math test. I had a feeling it was much ado about nothing.

I do see the chemistry for what it is. But I wish I could even start to approach your ability to explain it to the lay reader. Kudos Randy!!!!
 
I think this sentence has a typo?
Shrimp seem to be a standout in terms of a low protein to phosphorus ratio for grocery store foods.
Also:
In short, this high daily addition rate is why phosphate control is often very difficult or reef aquaria.

Nice article!
 
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Wow great information thank you! So what I learned here is don't feed your fish or corals if you want a clean tank! (just kidding)

I have always rinsed my frozen foods in RO/DI water but mostly so I can suck it up into a syringe for feeding... Good to know I don't really have to..

Interesting information about dried foods also... I would have thought they were really dirty to the tank...

Great info

Thanks again!
 
Great write up. I've been hoping for someone to put the food rinsing stuff to the math test. I had a feeling it was much ado about nothing.

I do see the chemistry for what it is. But I wish I could even start to approach your ability to explain it to the lay reader. Kudos Randy!!!!

Totally agree, this was a really well written article that I could actually understand just reading through it once. Some of the chemistry stuff linked to in the stickes I have had to read a few hundred times and still feel like :headwallblue:
 
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