Browndawg80
06/14/2014, 06:32 AM
Lately I've been starting to feel like my lack of coral growth might be linked to a phosphate issue. I have to clean my glass with a mag scraper practically every day, and if I clean it early enough each day the film algae will be visible again looking through the side panel out the front panel later on during that same day. I don't test for phosphate because I dont have a kit but from doing research it seems like most test kits are unreliable anyway. I was wondering how often people with what they would consider to be good growth have to clean their glass and if it would be better to use this as an indicator for phosphate levels.
As for some background on my tank it's a 90 gallon mixed reef with mostly softies and LPS along with 1 SPS frag that hasn't grown at all since it was added in late February of this year. In fact it doesnt seem like any of my corals have grown at all, rather staying the same size as when they were added.
The tank is only 5 months old but with stable alk, cal, and mag numbers since I dose BRS 2 part automatically. Lighting is supplied with 150 watt MH supplemented with T5 which I run for a total of 10 hours a day. ( only 6.5 for the MH) I have a 55 gallon sump/ fuge in the basement with some chaeto in in it that never seems to grow. I feed my fish once or twice a day in the evenings using thawed food without rinsing it first.
Do you guys think I have a phosphate problem or am I just not being patient enough? I see progressive growth shots on here from other peoples tanks and I feel like I should of seen something noticeable in my tank by now. I'm not currently running GFO but if I were to start how would I know if it's working? Thanks in advance.
As for some background on my tank it's a 90 gallon mixed reef with mostly softies and LPS along with 1 SPS frag that hasn't grown at all since it was added in late February of this year. In fact it doesnt seem like any of my corals have grown at all, rather staying the same size as when they were added.
The tank is only 5 months old but with stable alk, cal, and mag numbers since I dose BRS 2 part automatically. Lighting is supplied with 150 watt MH supplemented with T5 which I run for a total of 10 hours a day. ( only 6.5 for the MH) I have a 55 gallon sump/ fuge in the basement with some chaeto in in it that never seems to grow. I feed my fish once or twice a day in the evenings using thawed food without rinsing it first.
Do you guys think I have a phosphate problem or am I just not being patient enough? I see progressive growth shots on here from other peoples tanks and I feel like I should of seen something noticeable in my tank by now. I'm not currently running GFO but if I were to start how would I know if it's working? Thanks in advance.