Phosphates
 

How high is too high before it becomes detrimental to sps?


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If you are going for growth, anecdotal evidence is that it's much higher than if you are going for color. How high are your phospates?

Phosphates
 

Not sure as Hanna ulr only goes up to .619

They were down around .4 until I used reef roids and it gumed up the filter on my return pump.

The tank is 5 months old as well. I don’t like to use gfo, but looks like I may have to, in order to get them lower.


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Also have absolutely no algae in the dt either, my cuc and fish don’t allow it to take hold luckily.




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Or just stop overfeeding/reduce feedings..
Either that or your rock is leaching it.. Pukani?

But I wouldn't suggest anyone feed corals at all with such a new tank..
Most new tanks simply cannot handle the load..

Phosphates
 

Ya, been feeding heavier due to a moorish Idol and newer powder brown, but they are eating heartily now and fattening up, so I can cut back.

Not sure on the rock it’s a mix of brs dry rock from 2 years ago to rock I bought for my first tank in 2007 and a few pieces I’ve picked up along the way.

I did do a bleach bath on the rock when I set this tank up in July however.


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well.. sounds like you know what to do.

I agree that some GFO might be a reasonable idea to try. That's a rather high phosphate level. We get conflicting reports on the effect of phosphate on stony corals, but I'd definitely work on lowering the level if I had stony corals in the system. If GFO gets pricey, there are ways to regenerate it, or switching to lanthanum chloride might be appropriate.

Phosphates
 

That is certainly an issue as there is no concrete evidence of po4 levels on sps. Stability has proven to be more of a factor than anything. Obviously there has to be a cap at which too much is just too much.

But there is so much conflicting info out there it’s difficult at times to determine what’s “best.”

I do however prefer natural methods over chemicals


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Carbon dosing might be able to reduce the level, as well, although some nitrate dosing might be required.

I thought about that as my nitrates are very very low


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Phosphates
 

My 20 month old reef runs high phosphates, averaging .60 using Hanna 713 checker. My sps growth has been good (I think) but I assume my colors aren’t as good as if I ran low phosphates. Here are pictures of 3 sps growth from 5/28/17, 11/5/17 and 12/12/17. Not sure if this is good growth or not since I’ve never had sps before.
Attachment 384569Attachment 384570Attachment 384571


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Yet...

If you just put 1.5-2 pounds of live rock per gallon in your tank you can never have too much phosphate no mater how much you feed.

I have a lot of rock!

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Obviously you don't have enough live rock because with 1.5 to 2 lb of live rock per gallon you can feed all you want and you won't have problems with nitrates or phosphates

It was all bleached so started as dry rock and dry sand as well. The only “live” anything I used was a couple cups of sand in the sump from the beach which I took from under the water not the actual dry sand.
It would most likely be just not established enough to handle the feeding load?


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??????

That looks like a new tank, i would run some GFO to keep it down until the live bacteria starts to grow. Average time for critical bacteria is 22 days. I would give it 60 days until its stable

Also just an FYI, id keep an eye out for that right side of the tank. Direct sunlight is killer on new tanks. Perfect spot for algea to take over.

What?
Are you suggesting that live rock exports nutrients?

Here is with lights on. Weird, but absolutely not s strand of algae. I went through 2 bouts of gha, at about the 1.5 month mark and 3 month mark. I ran gfo after the cycle and got all the gha out plus the idol loves eating the stuff!

Today light feeding of frozen for the smaller fish and s little piece of nori for the tang and idol. I have to keep nori in the tank as the pbt is not eating frozen or pelleted yet, and there isn’t enough gha in my rock to sustain it either.

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Back in the day that is what was thought, so that’s partially where the 2lbs of rock per gallon came from.

It was thought that the bacteria and such in the rock would “eat” po4 and nitrates I believe, hence the need for good established live rock.


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Under certain conditions the organisms in and on mature live rock will process nitrate and phosphate. In a properly balanced mature system it will control nutrients.

Live rock seems to support denitrification, which can export nitrogen without net consumption of phosphorus. It possibly can export phosphate as the skimmable byproducts of bacterial growth.