Phosphate dosing still 0?

[charbel101]

My tank is 3 months old. And im hsving issues with 0 nitrate and 0 phosphate. I bought brightwell and im dosing nitrate which is 3 now. And phosphate still 0. Im dosing 1 capful my tank has like 37-40 water volume. Its a 54 gallons. With the sump. Im confused. Wheres my phosphate going? It says on the bottle u dose 1 capful which is 5ml for a 125 gallon to get 0.01 im literally dosing 1 capful for my 53 gallons and im not getting any results. And its already been 24 hours after each dose.

 

[Reef Alchemy]

My tank is 3 months old. And im hsving issues with 0 nitrate and 0 phosphate. I bought brightwell and im dosing nitrate which is 3 now. And phosphate still 0. Im dosing 1 capful my tank has like 37-40 water volume. Its a 54 gallons. With the sump. Im confused. Wheres my phosphate going? It says on the bottle u dose 1 capful which is 5ml for a 125 gallon to get 0.01 im literally dosing 1 capful for my 53 gallons and im not getting any results. And its already been 24 hours after each dose.

Yes... I had the exact same thing happen to me a couple of months after setting up my tank. My Hanna Ultra Low Phosphate Checker would give me a non-detect or really low reading. I was dosing liquid Brightwell Neophos well beyond the recommended dosing rate and 12 hours later there wouldn't be any phosphate in the system. I was starting to wonder if there was any phosphate in Neophos...LOL. Just keep dosing phosphate at higher amounts until you start getting a detectable level. Where the Phosphate goes?... maybe the sand and the rock adsorbs it. This went on for a month or so. Eventually, phosphate levels start increasing and you will have to start using exporting methods like GFO, water changes, or other things (be careful though, some phosphate removal products like Lanthanum Chloride can kill your fish if used improperly).

I want to size my refugium and refugium lighting (lumens/volume) to uptake most of the phosphate so that I don't have to use Phosphate removing media. I am using GFO (granular ferric oxide) in a reactor. I will just dose Neonitro instead of using Phosphate removal products to make up for the difference in the Nitrogen/phosphorus balance. Nitrate is less likely to accumulate than Phosphate in the system because there are denitrifying bacteria in the sand/rocks. All the gas bubbles you see in the sand through the glass are nitrogen bubbles that bacteria have converted from nitrate to nitrogen. I don't think that there are any bacteria that can change Phosphorus into something inert, therefore the eventual accumulation of phosphate in the tanks.

You might turn off the skimmer for 12 hours at a time too.

Good Luck

 

[SouthwestAquaculture]

Great advice above! I'll simply add that corals will uptake phophorous in addition to certain bacteria. The ability to rely on the corals as a nutrient uptake source varies based on the volume of coral relative the volume of water, as well as their health ie. growing or not. One caveat is that if the PO4 accumulates beyond export methods it becomes a limiting factor stalling growth and inherently uptake.

Cheers!