Consequences of Phosphate Removal

[elpezgrande]

Right now many of us are on an anti phosphate kick, which is probably a good thing. However, about a month and a half ago I decided to try chemi-pure which is essentially a special blend of filtration media designed soak up all kinds of excess nutrients, including PO4, and allegedly stabilizes your PH at the perfect level. It was doing it's job for the most part because after a day or so I had all kinds of algae dying, nuisance algae, macro algae, and unfortunately green coraline that I had growing on the back of the tank. My PH had also dropped below 8. Because my PH was low and I was afraid the coraline on my LR was going to die next, I stopped using the chemi-pure after about a day and a half.
So, if I only add a phosphate reactor, am I headed for the same situation, low PH and dying algae? If I am what do I do? I don't mind the coraline on the glass dying, but I actually like the pink, purple and red action I have on my LR. And how would I fix the low PH? I assume this has to do with CO2 that the dying algae was no longer taking in. Is there a CO2 filter out there? I think getting rid of my phosphates is a good thing, but do I need to add something else in addition to a phosphate reactor to make sure I don't have these problems?

 

[fishkiller]

Why don't you try a refugium? Or do you have one already? If so, it aint doing its job. Invest in some calaerpa (spelling), or most any type of see plants. Saragasm (spelling again) is another good one. This will simplify things a good bit. Screw the chemicals dude, do things more naturally.

 

[elpezgrande]

While I appreciate your response fishkiller, I would like to keep this thread on topic, not turn it into a natural methods vs. evil chemicals debate. I've already done plenty of research and determined that a PO4 reactor will be an effective way for me to remove P04 from my system, I'm just trying to see if there are any other issues that I need to be aware of. So please keep responses in this thread on topic. Thanks.

 

[beaslbob]

Originally posted by elpezgrande
While I appreciate your response fishkiller, I would like to keep this thread on topic, not turn it into a natural methods vs. evil chemicals debate. I've already done plenty of research and determined that a PO4 reactor will be an effective way for me to remove P04 from my system, I'm just trying to see if there are any other issues that I need to be aware of. So please keep responses in this thread on topic. Thanks.
I think you are already aware of the other issues. Your dieing algae and dropping ph was a big hint.
Again not to turn it into a debate, but a lot of the reactors work with anaerobic bacteria. Therefore the lack of oxygen and build up of carbon dioxide resulted in the ph drop above.
Perhaps others can provide more specifics.

 

[007]

What kind of circulation/turnover does your tank have?
Do you run a skimmer?

 

[tulip89]

I agree with the rest I use chemi pure and my algae is thriving.. I think your change in chemistry is due to something else... :thinking:

 

[steveweast]

As the creatures (corals, plants,algae,etc) photosynthesize in our tanks, they release O2 (and uptake CO2) and thus...the pH rises as the day goes on. The process revereses itself at night. If your alkalinity is high enough (above 8dkh), the pH drop at night should not be a problem... a low of 8.0 is not bad. Another way to raise pH is to eliminate CO2 build up ...skimmers are good at this, as are refugiums on reverse daylight time... or by not adding CO2 at night (for those folks with Calcium reactors).
For a reactor to have anerobic (without O2) zones in it...the water would have to be going very slowly through it. Any normal water flow would have way too much O2 in it to allow anerobic conditions to occur. The only reactor that tries to acheive an anerobic state are nitrate reactors.... and the water flow through those are drop by drop.... although, they are disappearing from the scene since liverock seems to do a better job of processing nitrate. If you use a refugium for nutrient export, you might want to avoid the caulerpas and stay with Chaetemorpha (spelling?)....this stuff grows fast and never goes sexual...it grows kinda like the way a brillo pad looks.

 

[elpezgrande]

Thanks for the replies. I have about a 20x turnover rate in my 30G tank and I also run a Red Sea Prism protein skimmer. I don't have the room for a refugium (one of the reasons I'm interested in phosphate reactors). I suppose there could have been other factors that dropped my PH below 8, who knows, maybe I got a bad batch of chemi pure. All I know is my water levels were stable and good for months before chemi-pure, and as soon as I added it to my tank, there was a large algae die off (which was the reason for adding chemi pure) and unfortunately a drop in PH. I figured if I experienced a similar algae die off with a phosphate reactor (which again is the plan), I might run into some of the same problems, which I would like to avoid.

 

[neoreef]

Hi,
How's your dkH? Are you doing anything to help buffer your water acidity? Adding carbonate or B-ionic or kalkwassar? If you have sufficient buffering capacity in your tank, your pH should not drop too low. CO2 makes it acid, but a good alkalinity =buffer will absorb the CO2, and will dampen the pH swings.
HTH
Kathy