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BrokeFishAddict 
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 Topic: effects of high phosphates
Posted: March 03 2006 at 10:39pm |
New at salt water, and have a few questions. What is the effect of high phosphates on corals? Such as Hammer corals. I know that it is not good to have high phosphates, but have never read what it does to fish and corals. I have a Sailfert Phosphate test kit on its way in the mail. So i can finally test for Phosphtes  . I am asking this because I bought a hammer frag about a month ago and it was fine the day I placed it in the tank, and it was fine the next day, but on the third...not so fine. It closed up to where you cold just see the polyps. and was like that for two days, and the receeded completely in the skeleton  . My tests showed amonia=0 nitrites=0 nitrates=0 ph=8.4 calcium=380 and that is all i had tests for. I now have Sailfert Calcium,Alk, PH, and Phosphate test kits coming in the mail next week. So i can test better.
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dkle
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Posted: March 04 2006 at 10:08pm |
I read somewhere that it interferes with corals' ability to assimilate calcium, thus impairs coral growth.
It also promotes nuisance algae growth in the tank, which can be REALLY annoying.
Edited by dkle
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If you can't bedazzle them with your brilliance, baffle them with your bs!
Dinhkim Le - Procrastinator extra-ordinare
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: March 04 2006 at 10:47pm |
High PO4 also creates a cascade effect of bad algae growth:
> buy snails to eat the algae
> snails die within days because of high PO4
> dieing snails decompose fill the tank with N (Nitrogen) compounds
> bad algae growth increases because N compounds are algae food.
 The good news is that high PO4 levels are not that common and are controllable by harvesting algae from a refugium or main tank and with the use of Activated Alumina or Iron Oxide (phosphate removal chemicals).
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Mike Savage
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Posted: March 04 2006 at 11:41pm |
Welcome to WMAS!
The numbers you posted all look OK. Maybe you didn't acclimate the hammer well?
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: March 05 2006 at 10:29am |
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Let us know the Alkalinity ASAP. Many things contribute to coral and fish health. Alk is one of the main ones. How long has the tank been set up? Normally, Euphyllia sp. like the Hammer Coral do lousy in tanks less than 3 months old, unless it has had a good innoculation of very LS and very LR from another established reef aquarium.
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ryanj
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Posted: March 05 2006 at 11:36pm |
Dinhkim's right about the decrease in calcification, so corals grow slower. Also, it attributes to more algae like everyone has already said. Ideally you want phosphates to be untestable, anything above .3ppm is considered bad in the aquarium and long term exposure to this high I would think is where algae and decalcification happen. In a book I just read, by Eric Borneman, he says to use Kalkwasser to lower phosphates, but I don't know anything about Kalkwasser, as I have never tried it, anyone else? Also, he says to never use phosphate-removing chemicals, because these contain aluminum-oxide that can have negative effects on soft corals and some stonies. So now I have another quesiton, for those of you who use phosphate removers... anything bad ever happen? Or is there a certain type to get and a type to not get?
I'm with Mark though, I don't think the hammer is doing bad just because of phosphates. I have had frogspawn and hammers that looked good in the store, then when I put them in they kind of go bad and may even lose a polyp or two, but then they come back around. So is you hammer totally dead now? or is it doing worse?
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Suzy
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Posted: March 06 2006 at 6:47am |
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I think the number one negative of high PO4( I mean after slowing SPS
growth,so I guess that would be number 2 negative?) is encouraging
cyanobacteria growth.
Cyano can use free nitrogen so it can thrive in nutrient levels where algae
can't grow...
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