Today, my reef turns one year old, but I can’t really feel the reason to celebrate. If anything, I’ve been really frustrated that my reef isn’t humming along nicely and showcasing beautiful corals that have been growing in over the past twelve months. At nine months, it was looking great and was vivid with color, now it feels almost like I’m starting over. Granted, I’ve been very busy over the past few months ...
The title is just a tad misleading, but I thought I'd show you what it looks like to me. Using a Salifert PO4 test kit, I measure the water from my reef tank for Phosphate. The ideal reading is 0 to .03ppm (yes, it should be super low). Over the years, I've seen numbers as high as 3ppm in my tank to as low as 0. For the past 23 months, I've been dosing vodka daily to maintain lower nitrates, and it helps keep phosphate from rising but doesn't omit them like it does for others. ...