Hi @Hans-Werner
Can you maybe help explain what may or may not be happening in my reef tank.
In our conversation in the Tropic Marin Amino Organic thread. When I carbon dosed previously with Elimi-NP or Bacto Balance, my PO4 levels were indeed down to below 0.1 levels. This to me would mean that PO4 have been “ingested” by bacteria. These PO4 loaded bacteria should be in the water column either being skimmed away by or be ingested by coral polyps.
I believe this is where my problem lies in my tank. My corals are somehow not effectively ingesting these bacteria to get their PO4 source and thus they are slowly “PO4 starving”. Thus when I carbon dosed, I had PO4 measurements of less than or equal to 0.1. However my LPS and SPS were never fully polyped out and slowly died.
Any insights or possible reasons why I am not seeing this happen efficiently in my tank since @Lou Ekus explains when we carbon dose--->bacteria uptakes PO4--->coral polyps ingest these bacteria to get their PO4.
My reef tank has been running well over 4 years with stable dkh and Calcium as I use All 4 reef dosed daily with my Apex DOSer.
Now that I have stopped carbon dosing, my PO4 levels are 0.4. LPS corals are fat and fleshy and SPS have polyp extensions. However, I also question if the corals are efficiently getting PO4 uptake for growth?
In the video you linked about LouEkus talking about Phos-feed. Lou mentioned that there should be no harm in dosing Phos-feed even in tanks with higher PO4 since coral polyps are inefficient in directly uptaking PO4.
Can you help clarify if I would see a difference using a particulate based PO4 such as Phos-feed vs Carbon dosed bacteria “gut loaded PO4”?
Any insight is greatly appreciated!
Thank you.
Can you maybe help explain what may or may not be happening in my reef tank.
In our conversation in the Tropic Marin Amino Organic thread. When I carbon dosed previously with Elimi-NP or Bacto Balance, my PO4 levels were indeed down to below 0.1 levels. This to me would mean that PO4 have been “ingested” by bacteria. These PO4 loaded bacteria should be in the water column either being skimmed away by or be ingested by coral polyps.
I believe this is where my problem lies in my tank. My corals are somehow not effectively ingesting these bacteria to get their PO4 source and thus they are slowly “PO4 starving”. Thus when I carbon dosed, I had PO4 measurements of less than or equal to 0.1. However my LPS and SPS were never fully polyped out and slowly died.
Any insights or possible reasons why I am not seeing this happen efficiently in my tank since @Lou Ekus explains when we carbon dose--->bacteria uptakes PO4--->coral polyps ingest these bacteria to get their PO4.
My reef tank has been running well over 4 years with stable dkh and Calcium as I use All 4 reef dosed daily with my Apex DOSer.
Now that I have stopped carbon dosing, my PO4 levels are 0.4. LPS corals are fat and fleshy and SPS have polyp extensions. However, I also question if the corals are efficiently getting PO4 uptake for growth?
In the video you linked about LouEkus talking about Phos-feed. Lou mentioned that there should be no harm in dosing Phos-feed even in tanks with higher PO4 since coral polyps are inefficient in directly uptaking PO4.
Can you help clarify if I would see a difference using a particulate based PO4 such as Phos-feed vs Carbon dosed bacteria “gut loaded PO4”?
Any insight is greatly appreciated!
Thank you.