Is there excess fish food in the tank from overfeeding? When was the last time you cleaned the tank? Are there dead fish or waste sitting in dead zones? These particles are what contribute to the phosphates in the water in the tank. The only caveat is that while the protein skimmer will help to remove phosphates and the waste where it comes from, it can also remove beneficial trace elements.
It might be prudent to keep additives on hand to supplement the necessary trace elements that your tank needs to thrive like magnesium and calcium on hand.
As we have covered. The level of phosphate in your tank will help to promote not just the growth of corals but also algae. Green hair algae for instance can bloom when the phosphate levels of a tank are out of control which can cause quite a few headaches. Brown algae too can see an increase and grow directly on your coral. The last thing you want is for these algae blooms to take necessary nutrients from the other organisms in your tank.
Carbon can help to reduce nitrate and phosphate levels in your aquarium, but correct dosing is crucial. Carbon can be introduced into a tank by doing your aquarium with alcohol. Most aquarists use vodka as their dosing alcohol of choice. As you might imagine, dosing vodka uses very little of the liqueur. The dosing range is between 0. However, there is another method of introducing carbon into your aquarium without dosing vodka.
Some reactors force water through a carbon filter before it goes through the rest of the plumbing in your aquarium. The difference is that this will work all the time but the problem can be that since it is working all the time, phosphate levels might be too low. It is almost too effective in reducing nitrate and phosphate levels in your tank but depending on your circumstances that might be a good thing.
If properly used, the GFO should reduce your phosphate problem within weeks of starting. Learning to maintain the optimal level of phosphate in your aquarium is crucial to ensuring safe conditions within your tank while also promoting the growth of coral in the long term.
There is a delicate balance between too much phosphate and not enough, so make sure that you are doing what you can to maintain a stable environment. The biggest thing that you can do is to implement regular care practices that ensure that you are removing excess food and waste. Performing water changes, investing in a protein skimmer, testing the quality of the water, and having emergency phosphate removal additives on hand are all great practices to implement into your aquarium care.
If you found this article helpful, I highly recommend checking out our article that covers the 8 main water parameters that you should monitor in a reef tank. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.
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Reef Tank Phosphate Levels Reef aquariums should keep phosphate levels very low but not zero. What should my phosphate level be? Do corals need phosphate? Do phosphates cause algae growth?
Will high phosphates kill fish? What causes phosphates in a saltwater tank. How to test for phosphates in aquarium water. How to lower phosphate in saltwater tanks.
Protein skimmer — If you have the appropriate protein skimmer for your reef tank, you will significantly reduce the waste that ultimately builds up and creates the high phosphate level in the first place. Just make sure that you are emptying the collection cup regularly to ensure the skimmer continues to work effectively.
They can build up from over feeding and from fish waste. Increased levels of nitrates can feed unwanted algae in your aquarium and cause slow growth in SPS corals. On the flip side, LPS corals will appreciate higher nitrate levels so when you are considering a solution to your test results you need to keep in mind what types of corals you are growing.
Nitrates are measured in part per million, and you want to keep these levels between 0 and 10ppm. You can let these level build up, and depending who you ask, anywhere below 50ppm is still considered safe for your tank.
The easiest and most effective way to remove nitrates from your aquarium is by doing regular water changes. If you are trying to lower your nitrate levels you want to do this gradually.
You want your nitrates to start falling without having a dramatic swing. Continue testing your water and doing weekly water changes until your levels are back down around 10ppm or lower. Gradually reducing these levels is easier for fish and corals. Nitrates and Phosphate go hand in hand when trying to control nuisance algae. Phosphate is often the limiting nutrient for algae growth and excessive level of phosphate can be fueling the growth of algae.
Too much phosphates can also inhibit calcification in corals, while no phosphate at all can starve corals. The ideal levels for phosphate are below 0. They were of course once live corals which contained phosphate, so by placing their dead skeletons in your tank they may degrade and release phosphate over time.
Find out if your intended decor is leaching phosphate by soaking it in pure RO water. Test the water before and after soaking to see if the phosphate level goes up. If it does, you need to continue soaking that decor, and use a phosphate removal resin to halt that leaching, before you add it to the tank. The next source of phosphate is from fish and coral food.
The juice from frozen food is often loaded with phosphate, but it can be rinsed under the tap in a net before feeding, helping to keep phosphate down. Feed sparingly as overfeeding and uneaten food will also be a source of phosphate. Dead fish, inverts, corals and algae will also be a source of phosphate, so remove them immediately if you see any.
Phosphate control is critical to setting up a new reef tank correctly, as you need to keep levels consistently low from the start. The easiest and most common way to control phosphate is with granular ferric oxide, a phosphate removal resin, and the most common one of those is Rowaphos. This could be inside a filter or in a sump. Use the right amount of Rowaphos for your tank and it will absorb phosphate until its spent, and you change this chemical media on a monthly basis, replacing with new.
But the better, more effective way to use Rowaphos and other phosphate removal resins is to place them in a reactor. A reactor is a tube containing carbon or phosphate remover that tank water is pumped through via a powerhead.
BY doing this, the media is all, always exposed to tank water and even tumbled, to ensure that every surface or every granule is available to take up the nutrient. If you have space, every reef tank should have a reactor, and some people have several. Another popular way to control nitrate and phosphate is via an algae refugium.
Usually in a sump, an area is created in the system, away from the main tank, where macro algae types of tropical seaweed, are purposefully grown.
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