Phosphate, where did you go!?!

[witzbold]

After setting up my T5/LED hybrid light my nitrate and phosphate bottomed out completely. Was running dual xr15s only prior to adding the t5 hybrid. Nitrates went from an average 5ppm to 1ppm and Phos went from .12 ppm to 0 on the Hanna ULR and stayed at those levels for a couple of weeks. I fed frozen mysis and brine three times a day for weeks with no raise on either level. Tried heavy feedings of oyster feast and reef roids and again no raise in either level. Skimmer set to skim very very very dry. Even left the drain plug out to let it drip back in. At one point I couldn't have a sock last more than 15-18 hours without overflowing. I started to dose NeoNitro and NeoPhos. I did that for over a week based on their calculations and saw no positive results. I doubled the dose of NeoNitro and have managed to get my nitrates up to 10ppm which I am thrilled about over the course of a couple of weeks. However, I tried double dosing NeoPhos with no results, I even tripled dosed and was surprised when I saw detectable phosphate in the system! Here lies the issue. I can triple dose and get my phos to test at .046ppm after 24 hours, triple dose again and 24 hours later, it reads 0! I am at a lost with this witch craft. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

65gal
1.026
77-78 at all times
nitrates now at 10 whooohooo
Phos scares me with it's penn and teller act
cal 450
mag 1450

kole tang
pair of mocha storm clowns
six line
royal gamma
5 torches which have done surprising well through all of this
a few zoa frags which dont want to open most of the time
sps taken out and re-homed after the drop due to alk burn.


As an update the past few days. Nitrates have been holding at 10ppm with no dosing but phosphates tested at 15ppb, i dosed, next night tested at 7ppb, i dosed and then test the next night at 0. WHAT!?

 

[reefgeezer]

How old is the tank?

 

[witzbold]

5 months

 

[mcgyvr]

Whats the problem?... Your tank may have a strong bacterial,etc..population that handles the bio/food load all on its own...
Seems like its maturing well...enjoy

 

[reefgeezer]

5 months

So the tank is very young. There is lots of surfaces for calcification to occur and coralline is growing. Phosphate gets bound in these processes. The rate at which it is bound is a equilibrium reaction. The higher the level in the water column, the more phosphate binds. This reaction will eventually work the other way. When bound phosphate levels are higher than that in the water column, it will leach back into the water.

That's probably where your phosphate is going. I would recommend that you not sweat that number right now. That's for later, when the tank is mature. Stop adding N&P additives. Let your skimmer do its thing. Feed the tank. N&P contained in the resulting dissolved organics, and inorganic N&P available before being bound in those organics will satisfy the coral's needs, but your test kits may not show elevated levels of either.

Hang on to you Nitrate & Phosphate additives. You might need them later. I'd put them away for now.

 

[witzbold]

I agree, it's still a young tank. I think it's the idea that things were so well balanced and things were looking great, then poof! that gets me worked up the most about this whole process. Coralline is growing at a pretty rapid pace.

I haven't dosed nitrates in a week and it's been holding rock solid at 10ppm. I've also stopped dosing for Phos. I'm content with maintaining my nitrate levels than I am phos at this point. Skimmer is skimming very dry and I haven't emptied the cup in two weeks and there is maybe 1/2 cup of skimmate in there. It looks very dark when looking at it but when I put a light to it it's very green in color and no longer smells of death.