po4 in a sps system and brown sps

S

StarF

New member
What is the recommended level of po4 in ppm in a sps system?

curently i do my test with a hanna 713 and i always get 0,00 as a read out. But some of my sps corals are getting brown, i always though they would go pale if they were starving? i always thought browning was due to high po4/no3.

i also know that i could be having a po4 problem, becaus the 713 isent as presice as a 736, so i have considered ordering that.
 
There's probably still organic PO4 in the rock and calcium based substrate so you're probably not literally at zero. But, occasionally test the nitrates as the bacteria that breaks down NO3 must have available PO4.
 
no3 is 0,0-0,2 somewhere between those 2 numbers.

so should i continue to run po4 remover, or not? my hanna 713 says its 0,00 ppm. What i am tryint to figure out, is it i should continue to run po4 remover, or remove it..

are the corals lossing color due to to little po4 and as a result for the rowa, or becaus there are some po4 in there, and my meter isent sensetive enough?
 
alright i will keep the po4 remover out of the system, and see if i can get a little po4 back again. thank you, for clearing this up.
 
Sps won't brown out from too little po4. With higher levels of po4 you are feeding the zooxanthallae too much and these will thrive in the coral and take over. They are brown in colour and so give the coral a brown appearance.

With too little nutrients in the water the sps will pale and lose their colour, they won't brown

If you are getting zero readings on po4 and you are running anti phos media then I would suspect your sps are not receiving enough light. Get a 2nd opinion on your po4 test and move the corals up closer to the light
 
d3hree said:
Sps won't brown out from too little po4. With higher levels of po4 you are feeding the zooxanthallae too much and these will thrive in the coral and take over. They are brown in colour and so give the coral a brown appearance.

With too little nutrients in the water the sps will pale and lose their colour, they won't brown

If you are getting zero readings on po4 and you are running anti phos media then I would suspect your sps are not receiving enough light. Get a 2nd opinion on your po4 test and move the corals up closer to the light
Click to expand...

Thank you for your reply.

But then again if have found several post on this site saying their corals became brown when they reached 0.00 ppm po4 using rowa or some other kind of po4 remover. It's not the light the corals are under a ghl metris led light. My friend is reading the same result on his Hanna 713.

All my experience and what I know says that when you get to little nutrients corals go pale, but I have a feeling my corals are browning out due to the rowa / to little po4. Even though I can make sense of it. Or that I am sure of it for that matter. Maybe I should get the Hanna 736 even though it's some money I would rather had saved.
 
I would be interested in reading these other posts..have you got any links?
If you have had your test results confirmed by a friend and you can confirm the light is 200+par then by all means remove the po4 remover, it doesnt make sense though :)

I wouldnt bother with the 736. I use the 736 and although it would be slightly more accurate at low levels it wouldnt help you in your current scenario especially if you are already reading zero from a 713 kit.

IMO corals brown out for two main reasons, lack of light or excessive nutrients. I havent heard of them browning out from too little nutrients. i look forward to seeing how you get on.
 
its not the lightning, i am sure of that. after all its a brand new led lamp.

i just ordered the 736 but mabye that was just a waste of money, i wanted to be sure that the its not the 713 who is reading it wrong.

i have removed the po4 remover somedays ago, and did some heavy feeding. i think i can see better polyp extention now on the corals.

i will see if i can find the post i read the other day with other users reporting the same.. and link them here.
 
I think the only thing that is missing is?

What is your mag , calcium , alk, salianty and temp at? Hat is your lighting schedule at? And lastly do you feed your Sps at all?

Can you post a few pictures of your tank so we can better help you?

Oh one more question how long has the tank been set up?
 
alk: 9 working on bringing it down.
calc: 450
mg: 1450 a little high, working on briging it down
temp: 25/26c
ph: 8.2

lightning shedule is on at around 08.00 and off around 22.30

The system has ben running since martch this year.. i will post pictures when i get home.

the alk is stable, and is kept with a calcium reactor.
 
so my 736 hanna meter came today. It reads 11 ppb so that is around 0,033726ppm po4.

Should i run with or without gfo ? from what i understand this is under nsw ?

http://i.imgur.com/zCaItDS.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/dS45c8U.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Fkb1Zyc.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Na7WLOz.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/LID0Sn3.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/szX0XWF.jpg

pictures were just quick shots...

opinions on what to do ?

fresh parameters:
po4: 0,034 (hanna 736)
no3: 0-0,2
kh: 8,5

i can usaly remove some algea and slime from the sides, but since my po4 is so low, i find it odd that it comes. and i am afraid that if i use po4 remover it will lower po4 to much.
 
Last edited:
Does not look like a nutrient poor situation, but that is just a guess. How new is the light? Maybe the corals are acclimating? How did they look before the light switch?
 
Agree what's said above. Browning of corals is either water quality issues or lighting. Your water paramaters listed look good to me. I would try to clean up all the algae from the tank. Perhaps, they algae is consuming the phosphate too quickly giving a false reading in the Hanna meters? I use Hanna ULS Phosphorus meter and would get readings of 0, but still have algae in the tank, which means there still is phosphate in the tank but its just being consumed.

If water quality is not he issue, I would look into your LED lighting. What kind is it? What type of spectrum does it put out?
My two cents... Good luck.
 
I have removed the algea. I am sure it isn't the light it's the new ghl mitras lamp.

I am sure it's a water issue the question is with 0.034 ppm of po4 if I should run rowa or not? Also I have to clean the glass every day.
 
Give it a shot. Turn off ROWA and feed more to see if any improvements in a couple of weeks. If you see a turn for a worse at any time, turn it back on. P04 at .034 should be good though. Experiment to narrow down the possible causes of it... just don't do anything too quickly.

Have you examined for pests? Check for Red Bugs, which can cause polyp retraction and browning in my experience.
 
thank you for the advice. I removed the po4 remover a week ago, and things seem to be starting to become better. How ever even thought i am heavy feeding, i am having a hard time to keep any no3 in the system. I feed 1 frosen food cube a day, along with dry food. I have around 6 fish so its over feeding the system, and its confusing me that i can get any nutrience into the system. I have started to use some amino acids aswell.
 
I would still say your corals need more nutrients. They are stressed and have very little PE. It's very likely comes from PO4 reduction and low level of NO3. If you don't use specific systems (like zeo etc) with feeding schedule I would just let PO4 and NO3 get higher (slowly). Reading the forum you might think if PO4 is over 0.1 its the end of the tank... wrong. I've seen super bright sps tanks running constantly at PO4 levels close to 0.1 and NO2 in 20+. For my tank I found out that PO4 around 0.08 and NO3 around 5ppm work the best. I have DIY LEDs and strong current.
GL
 
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