phosphates

[anthonys51]

what should phosphates be in a reef tank. my sailfer test kit either reads .03 or .1 is this too high.

 

[Jerett83]

.03 is ideal

 

[anthonys51]

honestly i cant tell if its .03 or .1 the test is hard to read

just stuff has been dying in my tank after 18 months all of a sudden. my alk did drop to 7.8 from 9.8 over time. my doser wasnt working . just wondering if it was that or phosphates being too high

 

[Reef Frog]

What's dead, what's dying? High phosphate at .1ppm might inhibit hard coral growth & serve as algae fuel, but it's unlikely to be the cause of your problem.

Alk swings can harm some hard corals, acropia being the poster child.

Some detail & contest would be helpful.

 

[anthonys51]

i had a spike in calcium like 4 months ago. my open brain died and my acans arent doing well. i lost a clam and an acro. . my other 2 acros are doing ok. and one is doing great. after a lot of water changes finally got my calium back to 470. it was over 1000.

then last month my alk dropped to 7.4 from 9. my doser tube had come out of the jar. plus i used to manually add 30ml or brs 2 part and i lowered it to 15 min on brs doser.

my monticap and my octospawn died. my duncan is dying. monti had grown from a 2 inch frag to 9 inches. octo was new to the tank. i have a shelving acro that the tips died but still mostly ok.

i have no algae growth in tank and have to clean the glass every 3 days.

 

[anthonys51]

also on a side note, i used to have 3 emerald crabs. one i bought and 2 hitchhikers.. the one i bought was huge, and now all 3 are gone. havent seen them in 2 months, but my 3 cleaner shrimps, harlequin and sally crab are still alive.
also added a clam and its been 6 weeks. only thing is damn clam has bubble algae on it, thinking i need another emerald for that , but i only see a few bubbles isnt growing out of control

 

[JohnnyHildo]

What's dead, what's dying? High phosphate at .1ppm might inhibit hard coral growth & serve as algae fuel, but it's unlikely to be the cause of your problem.

Alk swings can harm some hard corals, acropia being the poster child.

Some detail & contest would be helpful.

agreed.
phosphates in my experience has made its presence known with increased algae growth and would probably take a long time to start affecting the tanks inhabitants.

also added a clam and its been 6 weeks. only thing is damn clam has bubble algae on it, thinking i need another emerald for that , but i only see a few bubbles isnt growing out of control

you have to be careful with leaving bubble algae alone because it doesn't take long before a few bubbles become a nightmare.
i just cut the pumps and scrape them with my siphon hose to get the whole bubble and the spores should it rupture.

 

[anthonys51]

How do I do it without hurting the Clam


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