P04's and sps coloration

Ventralis321

In Memoriam
My Acros and sps were looking awesome at one time but my P04 was off the scale. So I bought some RowaPhos and ran that. After i used it my P04 was near to 0 but my colors in my sps were looking kinda drab now. And it also caused pm to explode again killing a few of my clams. The colors in my sps have never really regained there saturation but it's slowly coming back and i tested my water and my P04's are climbing back up. Weird yeah? Does anyone know why this might be happening?
 
Im guessing its because of nitrogen limation not a lack of phosphates. I cant imagine that higher phoshates are going to give better color in any situation... perhaps Im wrong.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9290834#post9290834 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Horace
Im guessing its because of nitrogen limation not a lack of phosphates. I cant imagine that higher phoshates are going to give better color in any situation... perhaps Im wrong.

nitrogen limation ?

this is a new one for me, could you explain.
 
If you have too little nitrogen the corals will lose color. That is why some folks that have little or no fish, dont feed much and skim heavy, dose vodka etc etc have light colored corals. Corals need a certain amount of nitrogen to be healthy. Nitrogen can come in many forms...No3 is only one of them, so it doesnt mean you need nitrates. Generally feeding more, adding fish will help with low nitrogen problems.
 
^^^. When you don't have an adequate food source that would normally supply nitrogen, it is easy for the corals to become N depleted, like in some BB, probiotic, reefs.
 
I'm not sure but i think i have good nitrogen levels as i get alot of those bubbles in my sand bed which i think is free nitrogen from the denitrifying bacteria. not 100% sure though. I have a good number of fish too that i feed pretty good. I don't think it's nitrogen limitation but i could be wrong. Do you think i should lower my phosphates then? I was using salifert test kit and it tested .5ppm or something like that i can't remember what the scale was. Do you think if removed the crap out of my sandbed that it will help lower phosphates as well? Oh and PM is pinched mantle in clams. Iron leaches out of phosphate removal media and i believe causes the PM to trigger. Not sure if i still have whatever causes PM but i don't want to trigger it again if i do. So i'm kinda in a pickle here.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9291980#post9291980 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Ventralis321
I was using salifert test kit and it tested .5ppm or something like that i can't remember what the scale was.

Well there is your problem. IME experience salifert phosphate test kits are not accurate. I like salifert for everything but phosphate. If you are showing any reading for phosphate, you can bet it is higher than that.


<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9292000#post9292000 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Ventralis321
hey meschaefer do you have pics of your tank? I was thinking about changing my lighting to halides.

Not any good ones. At least not any that show off the MH very well, and I love MHs
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9294683#post9294683 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by meschaefer
Well there is your problem. IME experience salifert phosphate test kits are not accurate.

How do you know that ?

Did you compare salifert with another test that you know that is very accurate ???
 
Quite a few of the members from my local club have tested salifert test kits against Hanna Meters, and found the salifert test kits where routinely under measuring the amount of phosphates present in the system.

After a number of disc ussions with a number of people who have tried a number of different tests for phosphates, it was routinely held that the most accurate method was with the Hanna Meter, the next best method was with a Hatch test kit.

If you do a search on this forum you will find a lot of RC members have also come to the same conclusion.
 
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