What's up with phosphate? by Richard Ross | MACNA 2014

[@KnarBurger]

Richard Ross is one of the best speakers you guys have had on. Always the perfect balance of funny and informative. Glad to see his fashion has upgraded in more recent videos lol.

[@dusk1947]

Thank you for still maintaining these lectures BRS. They are both fascinating and informative.

[@t.regnerus301]

Great video BRS. We know so little about what actually goes on in our little "boxes of water", yet we are so quick to jump on the next bandwagon on how one should be a reefer. Unlike most things in life, this hobby has many different ways to get to the same result.

[@cturo1975]

Wow. Great video. I was like that with my nitrates in my tanks. I was doing everything I could do to get them to zero. Then when I finally did my corals didn't do as good as I thought(especially my lps that like some nitrates) I ended up loosing a couple lps because the water was too clean and my sps were ok but I didn't get the results I thought I would. That's when I decided to keep my nitrates around 5 and focused more on my alkalinity, calcium and magnesium levels. Not that they were bad before that but I decided that was more important to worry about(for my tank anyways) and my corals have been great. They're growing too fast. Lol. Lately I've been on a phosphate mission cause one of my last readings they were between 0.03 and 0.1. This video just put me at ease and now I don't have to go crazy if they don't go right back to zero if they need to at all.

[@kritbordin1]

I have only 8 month exp with reef tank, I believe what Mr. Ross said is true with my tank. First of all I crashed my tank once on the quest of getting No3 and Phosphate down. And I gave up due to the fact that I might need to put another big investment on it. But still I have reefing after I have redbee tanks, fresh water tank (AKA Frashie) My tank now is 50+ ppm nitrate and Ca/Mg is 1400/1800 (Ca is high due to I experimentally added chemicals and it did 3 test to confirm these numbers) Cuz after I did a search on Ca effect it seems to be the more you have the faster the coral growth is. Now my tank is fine for 2 month now. I think im testing on my you saying, mr ross. Keep it up and thank for sharing this BRSTV ^_^

[@Ryan-wo4rm]

My theory is corals can adapt over time to almost anything - except maybe too low nutrients and high light. I also think Rich's tank looks so great because the corals outcompete algae in every way. There is literally no space for it to grow!

[@flyryf]

Good watch, leaving things alone can work, I had a 6x2x2ft reef tank with 3x1.5x1.5ft sump, very basic skimmer, media bag of activated carbon and obviously live in tank and thats it no doseing of anything like kalk, no media reactors with phosban or gfo, besides the ATO replacing the evaporation I did not do a single water change for about a year and that tank thrieved. Coraline was there, i had both lps and sps corals a big green bubble tip nem ect and not one thing died, did have a bit of an algae problem but my tangs were keeping that under control.

[@flyryf]

***** its been about year since I shut it down due to moving house but I would say about 12 - 15 corals, 3 tangs, 5 chromis, 1 coral beauty, 1 clarky clown hosting the nem, and 1 damsel. Fair amount of live rock and a 2-3inch sand bed. Lighting was 3 cheap ebay full spectrum led fixtures, jebo wp40 wave maker for tank flow 1/4hp chiller and about 7000l/ph of lift pump flow. Included in the corals was a tourch coral that when first introduced was 2 heads about 2inch diametre when open, in that time grew to 5 heads with id say 6-7inch diametre, green branching coral that grew from bout 3inch to about 7inch tall and a mushroom that was bout 3inch diametre and by the end was about 8-9inch diametre. The nem ended up about 10inch in diametre. Only thing I started to dose was some redsea reef builder but I'll admit was not controlled at all basically was adding about a teaspoon or so a week direct to the sump. No ammonia, very low phosphate, a small amount of nitrate but nothing worth stressing over, never actually tested anything else but the growth of everything seemed to suggest everything was in order. About to setup a 60g cube with a sump of about 50g, I'll see how i go with half the water volume as before, think I'll need to practice better husbandry with the 60g lol. Cheers

[@thepassionreef]

Great Insight. Thanks BRS for posting these videos providing immense knowledge to the reef community. I agree to some point with Richard that adding herbivores can take care of your algae problems but in your small Glass boxes of water you can only add so much herbivores...Than again thts the natural way to take care of algae issues. Videos like these suggests (maybe I am wrong) we are on the curve of reef keeping. It really maybe something else in the water coloumn than phosphates, nitrates etc...ahhhh the world of chemistry and reefing...why cant reefing be simple LOL...

[@jesusbarajas9444]

Predicted the dosing of phosphates. XD

[@trisharay-saulis7831]

It IS species specific because the zooxanthelli is not only species specific, but it is vastly different from coral to coral within the same species. That's why in a reef, one coral of one type will bleach and right next to it the same type of coral won't bleach.

[@blockislandsounder]

Those people that have no algae or cyano outbreaks in their tanks can give talks at these conferences. It really doesn't matter what the parameters are. The rest of us will try to bring our levels down to fight our pests.

[@richardross1483]

blockislandsounder I am more and more convinced that controlling nutrients in the water column isn't the solution. Herbivores are. Not so much for cyano (cyano can really suck), but algae for sure. Seen too many tanks with low nutrients and algae problems. My tank, the one in the talk, had an algae bloom after MACNA...not so much a bloom, but growth all over. I had neglected to replace herbivores and reached a tipping point. Added herbivores and three weeks later, no algae.

[@twinturbo111]

which herbivores do you recommend specifically? and what do you mean "replacing" herbivores - is it because they died or became lazy? thx

[@1mightymre]

my only concern im regards to phosphate is the damn cyano that just decides to pop up every 5 to 10 days at random times. i am just looking for anything to keep it form popping up. gonna try gfo maybe its just in regards to a possible spike that causes random blooms just like everything stability is key

[@martinwelters370]

Very interesting to see this idea catching up in marine tanks as in the planted tank world we already know that Phosphates and/or Nitrates won't give you algae, we even adding it to the tank to get better growth, which 10 years ago was considered a capital crime. Tom Barr is the "inventor" of this new way of looking at planted tanks and even got many of us using, what called EI fertilisation.....planted tank guys and girls look at their tank (plants) to "tell" the if something is wrong or not. I do think that with a marine/reef tank we should care more about what our tank is telling us than make our self crazy about numbers which often aren't even accurate. Just my 10cents

[@72Gallon]

I agree completely. I also use EI on my planted tank and dose both phosphate and nitrate daily. It's going to take some time to get used to but I believe with increased growth rates you should not see algae present or very small amounts.

[@jamescochran5216]

Martin Welters I have a need to dose Nitrogen and Phosphate daily. Focus to 5:1 should be given

[@sunnygoold9449]

Phosphates and Nitrates may be a positive with plants but that is the case with most plants - because they use it to grow - that's why farmers use fertilizers. Still I think that beyond that the 'conventional wisdom may not be correct' point you are making is very true. I loved this video and I think his theory that there are 10 parameters and you need to only have a few right (or in balance) is probably going to be closer to the truth than 'phosphates are bad'. I think we are going to get a lot more insight into this now ICP testing is common and Triton's new carbon testing. In a new reef tank those parameters are more sensitive and will be more more easily pushed out of balance.

[@teymurayyubov9457]

An excellent video. thank you

[@masacardenas]

I think he is right in saying that we chase phosphate numbers, because we can do something about it. However, I think most of us who chase it, chase it because we have had terrible experiences with nuisance algae that fed on our levels of phosphate.

[@Nvizn1]

Great info!! He did a great job!

[@pat7777100]

I don't know what to think all I know is every time I test phosphates and nitrates I never see any so I don't even test anymore I just look at the coral and growth some corals grow thick and hard and some are brittle every time someone sees my aquarium they go holy crap it looks fake the colors are amazing what kind of Lights do you use cheap Chinese LEDs how do you do that nature baby

[@insanity4224]

Makes sense to me. If you took away algae eating fish from the ocean then algae would take over.

[@samiam9059]

To be fair, very subjective topics and tough to separate fact from fiction from some of this. Agree if the tank shows healthy life then probably not the end of the world if you have elevated readings in one area. Have started a few emotions on my view that ORP is important to a degree and rely on it for many years now. That always gets a few going. The science behind it is not pursued by many from my experience in discussions.

[@SPL-6]

I think if we could get growth like he gets with the levels he has, then objectively it would make sense for so many people to stop worrying about numbers and stop wasting money on GFO and test kits etc...

[@samiam9059]

actually had a bigger problem when gfo leaked out over time into the sump and aquarium. not the norm but took time to clean up.

[@samiam9059]

That is a great idea never thought of that. But had to take out the return pump and glad I did. Had a bunch in it all over deep inside. Sure it was saved after that. I use polybio media pads every few months. They last a long time and remove all forms of phosphate and everything else. A lot easier to use for me.

[@SPL-6]

***** then we just have to figure out why he doesn't get out of control algae! I wonder what his light schedule is!

[@richardross1483]

Blue LEDs; 12-1130pm 2x250 Raidums;4-1030 2x250 Ushio 14K MH; 3-8

[@pat7777100]

High alkalinity high calcium and make sure you keep that magnesium up the ocean protein skimmer all kinds of algae in your refugium you have plenty of Miracle mud or mineral will color those corals right up all those little critters nobody likes I love look there's all kinds of ways you can do aquariums be successful you can do a lot of maintenance or you can let the aquarium to itself with just a little maintenance another words nature baby

[@rydock]

Does this guy photograph with a potato?

[@pat7777100]

oh yeah feed feed feed