unusually high phosphate levels?

[wayne g]

when i got home last night i have found some evidence of SPS bleaching in my system......montis,mili's and two seperate green slimers at opposite sides of the tank seem to be the only things affected?
why now???
:confused:
i am maticulous with checking my tank manually as well as by the way of test kits.
recently i have been even more careful due to the build up and eventual addition of an RBTA

PH rock solid 8-8.2 morning and nightime via electronic meter
nitrite/amonia....zero
nitrate...slight trace
calcium/alk/mag....410 7.2 (iirc) and 1375
temp...not moved in 24hours or any time since the last hot spell in the summer where a 0.5+/- move happens before the chiller and fan sort it.

PHOSPHATE...0.03........my phos NEVER GETS BEYOND A TINGE OF BLUE USING SALIFERT KITS(IT IS THEM IMMEDIATLEY CHANGED) SO WHY NOW???? AND MORE IMPORTANTLY WHY SUCH A RAPID RISE????
NO NEW ADDITIONS FOR A FORTNIGHT AND THAT WAS NOT A HARD CORAL/SPS
the only thing that has changed in my husbandry recently has been adding Coral Vibrance 3 times a week at LESS than the reccomended dosage?
after running phosphate removers in my current tank from day one fluidised i have seen a definite increase in phosphate since i have started to add the coral vibrance....

I DO NOT OVERDOSE AS PREVIOUSLY STATED I USE A LEVEL 2.5 ML SPOON OF THE STUFF FROM A PRECRIPTION MEDICINE SPOON THREE TIMES A WEEK IN 200 GALLONS......THAT IS CERTAINLY UNDERDOSING AND NOT OVERDOSING.

the only other addition is the RBTA that is totally unaffected and not moved since i added her a fortnight ago?

i concider my tank to be solid these days and i have had zero phosphates for well over a year...i can almost predict how long it is before i need to change it.
in order to get these kind of results i have been running a very efficient oversized beckett downdraft skimmer that can cope with tanks much larger than mine...water changes.....running phos' remover from day 1.
put simply the levels i have currently experienced are alien to my tank?
:mad: :confused:

the last time i changed the (ultiphos) phosphate remover i was getting a zero rating from the exit of my reactor,,,,,,,i only went ahead and changed the media as i was paranoid that it had been in there to long????

the answer i want to know is WHY has my phoshate levels increased at such a rapid rate recently after being solid for so long....????
i have 18 years experience and think that i know what i am doing with regards to a simple task like keeping phosphate elliminated.....obviously not careful enough and i will change my schedule accordingly and go back to my tried and tested way....ie...let the fish poo and light feed the corals.
i dont do lotions and potions these days after the flatworm nightmare i brought on myself a good while back but heard such good reviews about this stuff that i decided to give it a go.
during the last couple of months the coral vibrance has (i believe) noticeably added more colour to my SPS and i have feed cyclopeze in the past with no ill effects?
your thoughts and imput would be very helpfull guys as this is my worst nightmare as i do not want this to be the beginning of the end for my corals that i have given so much time over previous years.
:(

[ricordea]

I was thinking of starting to add coral vibrance to my corals...I guess I will lay off until there is some feed back on this thread.

Best Regards


Nigel

[steve@ cambridge coral tech]

what salt have you been using mate, i know a few people that have had issues recently:( have you checked your new mix for p04 before its been added to the tank.

[GOTAREEFTOKEEP]

Do you dose kalk ?

[Clarkii]

Is it a new test kit Wayne ?

Contamination to the test kit... are you sure there is definately Phosphate increase as the poss coral bleaching could be the cause of something else ?

What reading are you getting at the reactor now ? When did you change the ultiphos ?

Have you stopped adding the CV now and when did you do so ? Have you now noticed the phosphate level decrease, if not then there is something else causing / adding it ?

Any other changes at all no matter how insignificant they may seem ?

What else are you dosing if anything, as said above, Kalk or others ?

What other food have you been using ? I know you started using a different food recently, I wont mention it incase it is not related, I dont want to give a false impression of the food if in fact it is not the cause or contributing to it. What I will say is when I started using it I noticed increased algae growth over time and the amount of phosphate I could measure did increase... however, I was doing a lot of changes at the time and can not completely point the cause as being the food although I dont use it any more :).

[Social D]

As you know i use cv and have bin using it for 3 months now and my phos levels have never showed up on test results and i dont dose sparingly either.
I sincerly hope it's not cv thats causing it, and im more than interested in your findings wayne there is no way i will use it anymore if you can prove it's causing high phos, as ive stated i use it and have 0 phos, there is no way i would risk a grands worth of corals if i thought cv was of any harm, which i doubt it is.
Keep this updated

[treeboa]

i have been using cv for a month now,not seen anything untowards other than my skimmer goes mad if i dont turn it off for an hour

[simon garratt]

To be fair Wayne.

0.03ppm isnt high, certainly not high enough to cause bleaching. i would be looking at two unrelated problems to be honest and go down the following route.

1. If Po4 has increased and you have changed your feeding routines then simply adapt your water change routines and media change periods/quantity. or halve the dosage of CV and check for the following month to see what happens.

2. As far as the bleaching goes. do a search for iodine dosing in the SPS forum. its been coverd well on some threads as this type of occurance is becomming more and more common at this time of year. Possibly linked to iodine depletion, loss or inability to produce protective pigments, and bacterial blooms. Its worked wonders on alot of sytems.


I wouldnt go changing too many things at once otherwise you wont know what was causing it.

Just out of curiosity. Have you had 'any' pH issues over the last month or so. where tank pH may have dropped below 7.8 for any length of time.


Regards

Si.

[wayne g]

hmmmmm?
lots to think about there guys....thanks for the input also!

iodine......something i have tried to get my head around once before but ended up with inconclusive thoughts....will have a read of that si!

ph.....the only time i saw levels drop was about a month ago.....turned out that the probe's cable had got intertwined with all the others in the sump and the second that i unravelled it all the PH meter immediatly read what it should have done....somewhere between 8 + 8.2 iirc?

food......hmmmmm....i think we (clarki especially) may have found something here as i have actually been trying another brand which i have now used up...no names guys sorry!

phos levels aren't paticularly high as simon rightly says but when i normally get clear water in the test vial i thought the worst......shouldn't jump to conclusions i suppose?
:confused: :p

i think the change little and keep monitoring issue is the call of the day but i wish i knew why only the slimers and mili's were affected?
i will also be getting my head into those iodine threads....the one's i have sidestepped recently.
:D

thanks again guys....this hobby/lifestyle is a love hate relationship sometimes.....probably why i am so passionate about it...and why it's so rewarding!
:)