Phosphate and Corals Growth (1 Viewer)

[tdmiata]

Need you guys opinion and expertise. I spoke with cstewart a few months back and he said that his corals were growing nicely with an elevated phosphate level. well I took my phosban offline for the past 2 months and, I'm beginning to notice my corals are growing faster than the previous two months..I kept my parameters the same except for my phosphate, previously undetected and now .25-.5 ..My tank was previously fwlr and started mixed reef bout 6 months ago. I don't know whether my tank is finally maturing or the elevated phosphate level is the reason behing the growth..What do you guys think? TIA for your opnion..

 

[tdmiata]

Forgot to mention that most of my corals are sps. noticeably faster are borealis, joe the coral, fire and ice digital, monticaps, cali tort, red planet, rose and blue milis, tri color valida(sp), stylo, and bali and florida slimers . not much growth are oregon tort and pearlberry. all these are frags..

 

[FISHSTICK]

I heard, if your P04 is too low that can be just as bad as too high? I notice the same thing too!

 

[tas5tas]

It could just be from elevated water temps if your tank has been getting warmer over the past two months with this 100 degree heat outside. SPS supposedly like their water temps in the 79-82 degree range for faster growth. My po4 has been the same....unmeasurable, but since adjusting my tank temps to stay between 79-80 my sps have started to grow.

 

[tdmiata]

Thanks guys for the input.

tastas
you could be right, I'm going to hook up my chiller and set a constant temp to see the effect of temps on my corals.

 

[tas5tas]

S tablility
P romotes
S uccess

 

[crvz]

I don't necessarily agree, I know a lot of folks who allow temps to fluctuate anywhere from 76 to 84 throughout the year (with diurnal swings of 5 degrees or so) without any issue. If this is the norm, the theory goes that corals will adjust and actually be more robust as a result, able to handle changes during contingencies with better success (cutting frags, shipping, power outages, etc.).

Also, I appreciate what's being said about stability, but that's really the wrong term. Stability implies that nothing changes; really what you're aiming for is consistency. Fluctuation is tolerable (especially for things like temp and pH), but one-off anomalies are usually an issue.

 

[AquaNerd]

higher levels of phosphate inhibit calcification. high phosphate retards coral growth.

something else is probably the cause of the increase in coral growth. i would closely monitor calcium, alkalinity, magnesium, potassium, and pH.

 

[Raymond]

yea fast growth but how about the color?

 

[AquaNerd]

phosphates don't affect color so much. nitrates will though.

 

[R-BallJunkie]

phosphates don't affect color so much. nitrates will though.

have to differ. hi phosphates will cause brownouts of corals..

c

 

[tdmiata]

yea fast growth but how about the color?

Nothing like you guys tanks but, I don't think it's that bad. noting is browning out or bleaching.