Phosphate dosing

[Valco213]

I have a 100 litre nano reef aquarium with 2 clownfish a damsel and a goby pistol shrimp combo. The tank has been running for 10 months and the parameters are stable.

My problem is that my phosphates are zero to 0.01. I have a handful of corals mainly LPS but want now to increase the number and include some SPS 

I think in order to do this I would need to raise my phosphate level to 0.05 to make sure they thrive.

Can anybody let me know the best way to do this and what product to use.

Thank you

 

 

 

 

[Jaren45]

Both brightwell and tropic marin sell their own bottled phosphate additive. Probably more brands that I don't know of too.

 

You could also just try feeding a little more every day, or introduce aminos into the mix

[Clown79]

Try dosing phyto. Not only will yourcorals and pods enjoy it, use it, but it will increase phos

[East1]

5 hours ago, Jaren45 said:

Both brightwell and tropic marin sell their own bottled phosphate additive. Probably more brands that I don't know of too.

 

You could also just try feeding a little more every day, or introduce aminos into the mix

introducing aminos will actually lower phosphate, because there is an implicit balance between N:P

 

I use NeoPhos and also Easylife Fosfo interchangably, and have an autodoser running most days with this, I find the more coral you have the more phosophate dosing is needed but as above increasing feeding can help too. You are right that low phosphate will be detrimental to corals 

[mcarroll]

15 hours ago, Valco213 said:

The tank has been running for 10 months and the parameters are stable.

My problem is that my phosphates are zero to 0.01.

You have (hopefully) 1,000,000 different life forms trying to take over your tank and make a reef out of it....that takes a lot of fundamental building blocks like N and P.....hence you're ZERO readings.

 

Food that you'd add to the tank under most circumstances contains large amounts of P and even larger amounts of N....usually more than all the organisms combined can use.

 

So how are you feeding the tank?

 

Also how are you cleaning it and filtering the water, and what is the nitrate level?

 

It could be time for more/better feeding and/or less cleaning/filtering....or all of the above!!  😵‍💫😆 

[Murphs_Reef]

2 hours ago, mcarroll said:

 how are you feeding the tank?

 

Also how are you cleaning it and filtering the water, and what is the nitrate level?

 

It could be time for more/better feeding and/or less cleaning/filtering....or all of the above!!  😵‍💫😆 

 Literally just started doing this via @mcarroll advice. Sounds too simple but we often forget the simple stuff.. I up'ed my feeding by x2 and guess what? I stopped phosphate dosing in a week. Be careful to test though as you don't want it to go the other way and overfeed the N and P into the "to high" range. 

 

[rough eye]

19 hours ago, East1 said:

introducing aminos will actually lower phosphate, because there is an implicit balance between N:P

 

how does this happen? does dosing aminos increase phosphate uptake by corals?

[East1]

38 minutes ago, rough eye said:

how does this happen? does dosing aminos increase phosphate uptake by corals?

In corals particualrly Acropora it's a little different - elevated nitrogen for example causes similar symptoms as depressed phosphate - so balance is key (if you check my tank thread page one at the bottom I have an indepth breakdown of this mechanism)

 

In the water column, it's because in that specific instance OP would be adding amino acids which are nitrogen, throwing off the balance of N:P, this would eventually drive down what phosphate was present in the water column by a constantly increasing level of N relative to P, eventually P would deplete and bottom out.

 

In this scenario you can expect Acropora to strip / lose flesh from the base, and cyano to be present. The reason for this is simply that by adding N in both food and amino acids while P is being added only by food, you're persistently pushing the balance of the two toward elevated N, which means in terms of nutrient processing, eventually P will limit the whole biology (and then the animal / lifeform that can thrive with limited P will rise - most often cyanobacteria, but it'll depend on tank biology) 

[blasterman]

Feeding more as a cliche' is fine for raising nitrate. Pretty much any meaty food will increase nitrate.

 

The problem is that feeding to raise phosphate almost inevitably raises nitrate. That's fine if you want to raise both .....but often you don't. Again, nitrate is easy to raise. Phosphate is often too high or too low.

 

I use Seachem Phosphate. One cupful  raises phosphate about .03 in a 20gal. 

[mcarroll]

On 10/25/2021 at 11:43 AM, rough eye said:

how does this happen? does dosing aminos increase phosphate uptake by corals?

Amino's can be taken up by some corals (maybe all) as food.  

 

But it's not a preferred source of nitrogen and you're already adding PLENTY of proteins (which are made of aminos) to the tank in the form of the foods you feed.

 

Mostly amino's added to the water are just going to be broken down into their constituent parts, which as far as we're concerned mostly means nitrogen and carbon.

 

So in most tanks, amino acid dosing is more akin to carbon dosing, with a nitrogen chaser to make it "go faster".  Not good!

 

Carbon dosing is not what a new tank (or your tank) needs.