charles matthews
New member
Charles Matthews here.
I had a discussion with Chuck Stottlemire recently in which I reviewed his experience with phosphate levels. Although phosphate has gone as high as 2ppm in his system, as he recalled without reviewing his notes, it appears sthat this level was only sustained for a week. Usually his phosphates run 0.2ppm. This is a bit of a mystery of me as he does not aggressively skim his tank and never uses binding agents of any sort.
With my previous husbandry techniques, I was feeding heavily and would notice sudden declines after peak administration of food. Phosphate was running well above 3ppm. I was rpredictably seeing declines, first in Pseudoplexaura, then in Scleronephthya, then finally in Dendronephthya. Perhaps the negative reaction after really heavy feeding had to do with release of soluble phosphate; it seemed to occur with oyster eggs and powdered food like Golden Pearls especially.
I have had some trouble with iron binding agents. There was considerable clumping with high food inputs.
The vodka method seemed limited by a flocculation effect that has been little discussed. After pushing vodka dosing and following nutrients, the water would become extremely clear, and at that time there was a negative reaction (whether to vodka toxicity or lack of food or whatever, I am not sure). I still dose vodka. However, because nitrate to some extent is turned to gas in anaerobic areas, one would expect phosphate accumulation anyway over time, since vodka exports nitrate and phosphate in rations similar to food inputs.
I recently started dosing lanthanum chloride in my system, but otherwise following the Stottlemire method. The reason I did this was because my Dendros were doing well, but the Scleronephthya and Pseudoplexaura were failing, and the Tubastrea aurea and micrantha were not growing much. Over two weeks I have brought the phosphate down from 2ppm to 0.2ppm. Nitrate declined at the same time (interesting) from 15ppm to 5ppm.
Everything is doing well- flame scallop, Dendros. The Scleronephthya are opening again (they're about halfway doing well, as opposed to obviously failing). I've done some testing on excess lanthanum (more than needed to remove orthophosphate) in small quantities of water. There was no effect on brine shrimp at 1/2 ml added to a half cup of brine shrimp. No effect on any organism (copepods, snails) with 2ml added to a 29 gallon on line in the system.
Lanthanum phosphate precipitate doesn't seem to be skimmed out to any extent, by my unofficial observations. I dose mine into a 120 gallon settling tank where it appears to go into the substrate; the water then flows to the NPS system.
There is a strong flocculation effect, which might interfere with feeding; I am looking into this. The water certainly can get very clear, and out of concern I dose something to keep a slight haze (RotiRich or activated yeast). Not sure whether this matters.
I am planning to write the second article on husbandry (I am planning a series). Most recently I was thinking of doing the article on lanthanum in controlling phosphate in NPS systems. I know that long term exsperience here is limited; another controversy is whether higher phosphate levels are problematic for NPS at all (I think it is).
The thoughts of the NPS community are very much appreciated.
I had a discussion with Chuck Stottlemire recently in which I reviewed his experience with phosphate levels. Although phosphate has gone as high as 2ppm in his system, as he recalled without reviewing his notes, it appears sthat this level was only sustained for a week. Usually his phosphates run 0.2ppm. This is a bit of a mystery of me as he does not aggressively skim his tank and never uses binding agents of any sort.
With my previous husbandry techniques, I was feeding heavily and would notice sudden declines after peak administration of food. Phosphate was running well above 3ppm. I was rpredictably seeing declines, first in Pseudoplexaura, then in Scleronephthya, then finally in Dendronephthya. Perhaps the negative reaction after really heavy feeding had to do with release of soluble phosphate; it seemed to occur with oyster eggs and powdered food like Golden Pearls especially.
I have had some trouble with iron binding agents. There was considerable clumping with high food inputs.
The vodka method seemed limited by a flocculation effect that has been little discussed. After pushing vodka dosing and following nutrients, the water would become extremely clear, and at that time there was a negative reaction (whether to vodka toxicity or lack of food or whatever, I am not sure). I still dose vodka. However, because nitrate to some extent is turned to gas in anaerobic areas, one would expect phosphate accumulation anyway over time, since vodka exports nitrate and phosphate in rations similar to food inputs.
I recently started dosing lanthanum chloride in my system, but otherwise following the Stottlemire method. The reason I did this was because my Dendros were doing well, but the Scleronephthya and Pseudoplexaura were failing, and the Tubastrea aurea and micrantha were not growing much. Over two weeks I have brought the phosphate down from 2ppm to 0.2ppm. Nitrate declined at the same time (interesting) from 15ppm to 5ppm.
Everything is doing well- flame scallop, Dendros. The Scleronephthya are opening again (they're about halfway doing well, as opposed to obviously failing). I've done some testing on excess lanthanum (more than needed to remove orthophosphate) in small quantities of water. There was no effect on brine shrimp at 1/2 ml added to a half cup of brine shrimp. No effect on any organism (copepods, snails) with 2ml added to a 29 gallon on line in the system.
Lanthanum phosphate precipitate doesn't seem to be skimmed out to any extent, by my unofficial observations. I dose mine into a 120 gallon settling tank where it appears to go into the substrate; the water then flows to the NPS system.
There is a strong flocculation effect, which might interfere with feeding; I am looking into this. The water certainly can get very clear, and out of concern I dose something to keep a slight haze (RotiRich or activated yeast). Not sure whether this matters.
I am planning to write the second article on husbandry (I am planning a series). Most recently I was thinking of doing the article on lanthanum in controlling phosphate in NPS systems. I know that long term exsperience here is limited; another controversy is whether higher phosphate levels are problematic for NPS at all (I think it is).
The thoughts of the NPS community are very much appreciated.