Phosphate too low.....

Also is there any good way to raise the phosphate level without raising nitrate? My nitrate is about 1 ppm now so I suppose I could feed more. Other option would be dose the potassium phosphate solution. I checked the level of phosphate at the local fish store with his SPS tank and that was 1.26 ppm. Seem nuts that their SPS was looking fine at that level.
 
There are food-grade sodium phosphate products available. One of them probably would be fine to add, although there are no guarantees.
 
I too am finding that zero phosphates isn't ideal for coral health. I only dose vodka/vinegar and skim for nutrient control and I'm slowly ramping down the carbon dose and still have to dose Potassium Nitrate to get Nitrates to register. Currently about .75 ppm. My phosphate via Hannah checker is consistently 0.00 so I'm wondering if I need to dose a very low phosphate dose of some product to keep it registering a minute amount and then see how coral health and color does after this.

I've found by skimming 12 hours a day and leaving it off 12 hours a day can help, but you risk lowering the oxygen content of the water and you probably only do this during lights on period. I'd love to find a product that I could dose or make a 1ppm per solution so I can just dose it and keep levels low but still registering.
 
Any food-grade sodium phosphate variant likely is fine for dosing phosphate into the tank, if that's what you're interested in doing. Potassium nitrate or sodium nitrate should be fine for nitrate.
 
I'm trying to copy Tom's approach and get to carbon dosing only. I feel like the bacteria are useful in themselves in addition to their role in nutrient export. GFO works but it can sometimes be a "sledgehammer" solution.

At the moment, I run a small amount of GAC and dose Tom's carbon source recipe (about 8ml/day vodka/vinegar mix) into 120g system.

I supplement with GFO (BRS HC) changed about monthly at 1/4 of the recommended amount. Plan to lower that even further or just stop changing it out.

-droog
 
amcvay1979 said:
I too am finding that zero phosphates isn't ideal for coral health. I only dose vodka/vinegar and skim for nutrient control and I'm slowly ramping down the carbon dose and still have to dose Potassium Nitrate to get Nitrates to register. Currently about .75 ppm. My phosphate via Hannah checker is consistently 0.00 so I'm wondering if I need to dose a very low phosphate dose of some product to keep it registering a minute amount and then see how coral health and color does after this.

I've found by skimming 12 hours a day and leaving it off 12 hours a day can help, but you risk lowering the oxygen content of the water and you probably only do this during lights on period. I'd love to find a product that I could dose or make a 1ppm per solution so I can just dose it and keep levels low but still registering.
Click to expand...

How much vodka/vinegar are you dosing? Getting some PO4 and NO3 might be as simple as lowering the dose a bit.

I never stop my skimmers from skimming except for cleaning or maintenance or when dosing a med like interceptor and even then I just pull the air line and let the The skimmer aerates and perhaps more importantly exports organics which is particularly important when dosing organic C in terms of managing total organic carbon levels.
 
I dose a mixture of 60% vinegar 40% vodka in 5 doses of 3 to 5 ml each during the day. Right not my dose is 19ml total per day in a 150 gallon tank and 30 gal sump. I used to dose a lot more and would have to clean the white film off the glass every other day. Now I'm getting brown growth on the glass daily but my nitrate and phosphate are both nearly undetectable using Red Sea Pro Nitrate test kit and Hannah Checker Phos kit. Phosphates are running 0.00 ppm for months now and Nitrate is hovering around .00 and .75 ppm for months as well. When there's detectable nitrate in the water, my pink corals color up nicely. I'm starting to lose some LPS (small brain completely bleached, and I'm losing 1/2 my dragon tongue chalice slowly) but the SPS are exploding both in growth and polyp extension.
 
Nitrate at .25 ppm and Phos (finally) at .10 after dumping about 1/3 bottle of oyster feast in yesterday and turning off skimmer. I'm sure that phos reading will be 0.00 tomorrow.
 
I should also add, my bio load is quite large (I think) so I assumed feeding heavily daily (broken up into 3-4 feedings) combined with fish waste I'd have a nutrient export problem, but so far I'm needing to dose Nitrates and turn my skimmer off to get Phos to register.

Bio load is now;
3 tangs: Bristletooth, mimic and lavendar
2 tomato clowns
1 Long nose butterfly
1 McCoskers Wrasse
1 Melanaurus wrasse
6 chromis
2 bengai cardinals
1 clown goby
1 dragonet
1 cleaner shrimp
3 pepermint shrimp
1 clam
1 rbta
about 20 or so SPS frags/colonies
about 10 LPS colonies/frags
multiple zoas
multiple mushrooms/polyps
 
I think that works out to about half of what I dose in terms of total organic carbon content per gallon( 36 ml 80 proof vodka and 80 ml vinegar per day for 650 gallons) but each tank is different. I've had really good luck with a variety of chalices and a wide variety of lps since I stopped using gfo and let the PO4 level settle at 0.02 to 0.04ppm. NO3 often shows zero; adding a tiny amount of sodium nitrate tends to drop the PO4 a bit in my tanks; undetectable readings don't seem to effect the coral colors much but I don't dose much and don't dose it often. One concern I have with turning off skimming is a potential for organic carbon buildup ..
 
Wondering if my pulsing xenia are sucking up too much phosphate and if they need to go. I've already cut my xenia to half by trading a large bunch of it to my LFS, still a huge rock covered colony exists in the display. I'm wondering if what they say is true, that these corals are like vacuums for nitrate and phosphates.
 
Xenia will consume phosphate and nitrate from the water column. I don't know how much Xenia is growing per day in your tank, though.
 
What about using a lil but of KH2PO4,, I read here of a guy doing it, I know nothing about it,, I too am having a lil but of a problem with too low phosphates, I'm at 0.00 on my Red Sea kit,, I'd like to bump it up just a lil but to maybe 0.02 or 0.04
I read this
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f24/increasing-phosphates-88108.html

And this guy is dosing kh2po4 I'm not a chemist, this could be good or bad, this guy could also be talking about his freshwater tank,, but if someone smarter then me could give some input it'd be much be appreciated, it also might be a solution to the OP's prob of low phosphates ??? Maybe I is jus dumb too [emoji12]
 
I don't know exactly what is being used or how pure it is . The extra K( potassium) might be a a problem over time if a significant amount is dosed. The algae growth noted is what I'd expect if I bumped phosphates up much. I don't dose phosphats , personally,; some extra food and/or less PO4 remover or organc carbon dosing is usually results in more than enough.
 
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