Phosphate in reef tanks leads to algae problems

Is your reef tank overrun with algae? Are you suddenly finding your Acropora and other SPS corals choked out by an algae bloom? You could have excess Phosphates in your water - and that's pure fuel for algae of all sorts.

There are several ways to combat excess phosphorus in your water - media like GFO, chemicals like Lanthanum chloride, but one of the easiest and cheapest solutions is to use an algae reactor like the PaxBellum ARID (or any other kind, or even just a refugium with a ball of chateomorpha) to grow algae in a place where you can easily remove it. Removing algae from your tank directly reduces the amount of phosphate that's left.

Don't forget to like and subscribe if you enjoyed this video!

I upload at least one video each week, so check out my channel for more!

[Reefgrrl]

Two minutes in I had already learned stuff! Phosphate is one of “those” things that confuse and confound many reefkeepers. Your explanation and info was concise and clear and interesting. Thank you! 👍🏻👍🏻

[vascojardim]

Great video as always! Just as a side note, Hanna Phosphate and Phosphorus checkers are not the same thing. I use the ULR Phosphorus and in order to convert to PO4 the result needs to be multiplied by 3.06666 and than divided by 1000 (to convert back to ppm). They also have the PO4 checker that measures phosphate in ppm.

[rashidmahmood]

good information. keep the content coming.
this is the best place to find all the really geeky stuff about reef tanks. 👍

[ReefMan]

The first step towards fixing an algae problem is getting a test kit for Phosphate (or Phosphorus). One of the best, and the one I use, is the Hanna Marine Phosphorus ULR Checker. It's super easy to use! Also, don't worry too much about getting to zero phosphate in your water. As you can see, my tank is at 19 parts per billion right now - and I think my coral and everything is doing pretty well!

[billcarlson]

Have you ever looked into the effects of salinity, pH, or temp on nuisance algae?

[joshua_w]

ReefMan always enjoy your vids. Thanks for making them. In a reef tank with our test kits not measuring all the N the red field ratio translates to 10.5N to 1 part P...this ratio helps to understand how our macroalgae absorbs nutrients and is the theory behind dosing N to reduce P and so on...worth checking into, would like to see you share some studies on it 🤞

[reeferexplained]

Great information. What happens if you have zero phosphate readings, but you have some algae in the reef tank. How can you make sure you're reading something and not zero?

[Moondoggy]

I have a 7 gallon mixed reef nano, I am using the Hanna ULR phosphate checker and I keep getting the error code 0.90, what should I do, I do not see any algae in my tank, nor on the glass.

[chamoyuan]

on my display i don't have any type of algae, beside the brown algae on the glass. i do have a little be o algae on the sump green hair algae. but my phosphate is high 0.3 ? i m planning on using the two little fishies reactor with rowa?