What is your phosphate management routine?

[kien]

I run GFO.
I use macroalgae (chaeto)
I test PO4 infrequently.
I have never had a PO4 reading.

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I run GFO (rowaphos) in a two little fishes phosban reactor (ever since day 1). I just change the GFO once a month. I have no idea if that is adequate (reason below).

I have had to mooch a bunch of chaeto from people (yourself included), because the first couple of balls of chaeto I got from someone never grew that well. Then got a few more balls of chaeto. Now my 'fuge is full of chaeto from like 8 different canreefers LOL!! I can not seem to get my chaeto to grow for the life of me (that might be a good sign though.. i don't know).

I used to test P04 a lot (like the first month when the tank was set up), but I never ever got a reading from my test kit. The frequency of testing started to go down and is now sitting at nil. I have not tested for a long while.

The only algae complaint I had with my tank was the film algae on the glass that would appear more frequent than I would like. I recently discovered that this was mostly due to the low southern sun blasting into my living room in the afternoon when I wasn't home and hitting the tank dead on! I've fixed that by closing the blinds (although my starfish aren't as happy with me now).

That's pretty much the sum of my P04 routine.

[JDigital]

^^ I have the same problem.

Chaeto flourished in my 75G, which in comparison to my current tank is stocked about even for bio-load I THINK, and I was running a skimmer and GFO.

Now with my current tank with no skimmer at all, I can't get Chaeto to grow at all.. I took a small ball from my 75 to start, and its pretty much disappeared.

[whatcaneyedo]

I first tested P04 a little over a year ago with an elos test kit. The reading was .75 and presently it is .01

In the past 14 months this is what I've done:
Doubled my water changes and currently do +/-27gal weekly on a 270gal system.
Started running 250ml rowaphos which I change monthly.
I grow both chaetomorphia and gracillaria in a fuge, formerly I only grew one or the other.
Strain all of my frozen food of its packing fluids.
I've increased the flow in my display to about 30x/hr turnover from 20x.
Upgraded my skimmer from a PM Bullet 2 to a 3.
Decreased the bioload on my tank by unintentionally losing my big lionfish.
Removed my remote DSB (PO4 binds to calcium carbonate).
Built a larger DIY Kalk Reactor (its suppose to precipitate PO4 from solution so that it can be skimmed out).

[lastlight]

Originally Posted by whatcaneyedo

Strain all of my frozen food of its packing fluids.

This I think was a big part of my algae problems with my past tank. I fed lots of frozen and it made a mess of the water.

[christyf5]

I run GFO, I change it out every 3 months or whenever I remember. I test (deltec) every month or so but I don't base my GFO changeout on the reading (its usually always the same or "acceptable). However lately I've had higher PO4 readings so I've been a bit quicker to change out my GFO. I also have been doing larger waterchanges lately so that may contribute to lower PO4 levels.

[wickedfrags]

I can honestly say I have never once tested for phosphate.

How would one know if they had a phosphate problem???

[whatcaneyedo]

Phosphate inhibits calcification and encourages problem algae growth. Both were problems for me which is why I began testing.

[wickedfrags]

so the visual indicator would be nuisance algae?

Originally Posted by whatcaneyedo

Phosphate inhibits calcification and encourages problem algae growth. Both were problems for me which is why I began testing.

[naesco]

When I started my new tank, I placed the live rock right out of the box into the tank as I am of the belief that by doing so you keep all of the live stuff like sponges, corals, inverts etc. on the rock and the critters that live in the rock.
The down side is an algae problem and high phosphate.
The sea hare dealt with the algae and with water changes and a Phosphate lowering product (in a small plastic bottle) that I bought from Ocean Aquatics, I was able to slowly lower the phosphate to acceptable levels.

[Delphinus]

I'll share my own experiences and the reasoning for asking what others do.

I run a tiny little ball of chaeto in an aquaclear lit by 2x9w PC's. This is for a 115g cube so it probably really has a negligible effect on NO3/PO4 pulldown.

I've never been able to get a reading higher than the lowest category on a chemical based test kit. So for some this means "zero" and while others like the D-D/Merck it means "0 to 0.008" (which may as well be zero).

Don't have a lick of GHA in the display, although sometimes I will find some growing in the overflow eggcrate.

Most SPS I have exhibit very poor growth rates (or abnormal mortality rates). I was initially convinced this was due to phosphate but never having been able to establish a significant nonzero reading on any testkit (including the $300 Hanna colorimeter), I started reaching out to other explanations, including pathogens. The story of the last year though is that I am now starting to believe it's not pathogenic in nature ... so I'm coming home to the phosphate theory.

If I could establish that there is a difference made then I would gladly revert back to using GFO. And yet, when I ran GFO in the past, it never made a difference; nor did my brief (6 month) experiment with Zeo.

But so far it sounds like that for those who have noticed a difference with and without GFO, that the difference was enough to be profound, or at least, enough to actually notice a difference. So this is still confusing to me as to whether I may truly have a phosphate buildup or not.

Anyhow thanks all for the comments and thoughts. It is all very interesting to me.