Nitrate Phosphate Pop

sen5241b

Reef enthusiast
If Nitrates and Phosphates pop up briefly for whatever reason, how long would most corals last? Is this scenario instant death or do you have some limited time to get it under control?
 
Depends on what kind of corals your talking about.
Some softies actually do better if theres a low ammount of phosphates and nitrates.
But with SPS,you'll usually start seeing signs of stress before regular test kits can even pick up on the lowest levels of phos and trates.
 
With nitrates, even SPS corals could gradually adjust to high levels. Of course, once it gets too high, they'd die. But with phosphates, even a little bit could harm your SPS pretty quickly.
 
i was just looking through Drs Foster and Smith and they have that PhosBan stuff... im sure ill eventually get a reactor, but for now, can you float a bag of that stuff in the sump? Would that work to keep them down?
 
Free-floating the media in the sump won't do much good. Water has to be forced through it, and forced to make contact with the media. If you have an HOB or canister filter, you can use phosphate media inside of it.
 
i was just looking through Drs Foster and Smith and they have that PhosBan stuff... im sure ill eventually get a reactor, but for now, can you float a bag of that stuff in the sump? Would that work to keep them down?
You can, but it's not very efficient doing it like that. Also, save some $ and get their "house brand". It's the same as PhosBan but considerably cheaper. I used it before I started getting my GFO from BulkReefSupply.
Aquarium Filter Media & Phosphate Remover: Drs. Foster & Smith PhosPure®
 
Depends on what kind of corals your talking about.
Some softies actually do better if theres a low ammount of phosphates and nitrates.
But with SPS,you'll usually start seeing signs of stress before regular test kits can even pick up on the lowest levels of phos and trates.

Scary, so my corals will be half dead before the test shows anything?
 
If you've SPS corals,then can very well happen.
Thats why I always say to actually spend time studying the tank everyday,not just watching and tinkering.
Corals and inverts will alert you to problems before a test kit will if you know what to look for.
 
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