Phosphate

I know Phosphate comes from feeding, however are there foods out there that have less P then others. Mojo, you mentioned that frozen foods can be rinsed off w/ ro. Can I put Krill or Mysis in a strainer and poor a little ro over it?

 

My feeding method is not perfect but may help. I first have a shot glass that I thaw all my food in. I use tank water for this. When it is thawed I simply dump it into a net. If it is mysis I will rinse it with RO/DI but if it is a cube or Emerald Entree I will skip the rinse.

Algae also eats Nitrates remember so if you have a bad bloom of algae and your nitrates are very low do not discount them, If Algae is eating nitrates the levels will be low. But the Algae wont.

 

Thanks Jason, I'll start rinsing my Mysis and Krill and go easier on the flake.

 

Thier is a little more effective way to try Jason and Pipe. If you soak (dethaw) your frozen food in straight RO/DI water you will remove far more Inorganic P from the food itself. The ro water is basically stripped out water and is very reactive with the available P. if you soak the food and dethaw it in thier and pour the contents through a net, getting rid of all the tiny particles and soup. then go ahead and feed as you would normally. let the food sit in the ro water and thaw the food, then stir it around and leave it in thier for a bit longer. then go for it.


The one thing to keep in mind very well is that P is truely limiting, Nitrates are not, they are made in your system, ther are also organisms that fix thier own nitrates (make them out of thin air kinda). When I am saying limiting, I am meaning that only you can bring them in to the tank, so the best method is to monitor your input as much as possible. You cant completely control them (you wouldnt want to because they are needed to a point) but you can control excess. P is probibly one of the worst offender for a reef tank and can screw up all sorts of things, from stopping calcification (no Growth) to algae blooms, to percipatating calcium to bacterial blooms. P is one of those things that most folks do not know enough about.


Mike

 

Very cool info Mike, I will start rinsing with RO water

J

 

Thanks too...where did you learn so much about P? Can I still use flake?