Reef Moonshiner's Phosphorus element out of the Nutrients management category. Read below instructions how to apply it best.

Reef Moonshiner’s Phosphorus shall be used when the upkeeping of Phosphorus and Phosphate in the Reef Aquaria is not feasible anymore with traditional ways, I normally recommend such as Phytoplankton, frozen algae etc. or Live Phytoplankton products as daily food sources.

Ideally you should not introduce any products in your Tank, however that isn't an option in some cases and tank systems, and it's hard to predict how effective a tank system comes along concerning nutrient management and reduction after the start.

Corals and your microbiology, micro fauna and microflora need Phosphorus sources to grow and fuel their metabolic processes.

A very good and very Reef compatible Phosphorous source is used in this product to allow long term use without accumulating of undesired compound and substances and this product is what I have created and fine tuned over years and used it on tanks that do suffer from insufficient Phosphorous which help Corals to resist bleaching from interruptions in the Photosynthetic processes as well is a Nutrient source for the Coral host itself to build up resistance against diseases etc. which at the end supports coloration of many invertebrates and Corals.

Common known positive effects you will observe typically is much better Polyp extension and an improved fluorescence within a few days usually.

Many Po4 sources and products on the market do fuel your nuisance algae only and provide not effective enough Phosphorous sources to your corals symbiotic algae and the coral host itself. It is also clear in color and doesn't smell. Craving corals will take this up day and night.

Best start performance is reached when dosed in the morning.

If this doesn't do the trick for you and your Phosphorous is in a good range, your Coral may likely benefit from additional Rare earth elements as they are included in the Reef Moonshiner’s Liqui-Mud which many of those are part of a functioning Photosynthesis which at the end is what fuel the Coral with what it needs.

Remember the feeding of Corals is a complicated process, partially through the symbiotic algae and as well fat and other sources through the Corals mouth (Polyp).

I do recommend to maintain a Phosphorus level at least of 20-25ppb up to 33-35ppb. That you can deviate from that in both directions, but these are the ideal ranges so far for a home tank, somewhat practical and useful to maintain.

That translates to approx. 0.06ppm (mg/L) to 0.09ppm as minimum level.

A Reeftank system that has difficulties to keep Phosphorous/Phosphates in detectable levels, should evaluate if a Phosphorous product may the be better choice. Here is where this product come into the Reefing game.

Hanna has a very useful Phosphorus to Phosphate conversion table here:

https://www.hannainst.com/hubfs/006-finished-content/Aquarium/phosphorus-to-phosphate-conversion-table--hanna-instruments.pdf

HOW TO APPLY THE REEF MOONSHINER’S Phosphorus-N

For information, the terms P as Phosphorous and Po4 as Phosphate is used.

I recommend that you buy yourself the Hanna Phosphorous ULR Checker to maintain the P levels at home, especially when dosing it and trying to determine your daily dosing regime.

It’s also recommended that you dose P/Po4 sources ideally on a dosing pump.

Phosphate swings from excessive reduction do hurt and bleach Corals, however the same applies to increasing the P/Po4 Levels.

The daily "increase" shall not be more than 7ppb as P, or 0.02ppm as Po4, if you convert mathematically the P to Po4. See the above link to the Hanna conversion Chart.

This means you can dose more during the day on a dosing pump if your tank consumes much more, but only as long the measured level did not increase more than 7ppb P within one day.

It will take daily testing in the first days until you know what your consumption rates are going to be.

One big disadvantage of dosing Nutrients is that you can’t leave a dosing routine running without high discipline and measuring it routinely even while it may appear stable.

There are many factors that can interrupt the P/Po4 uptake and you could dose then too much with ease. If you dose too much however, you can pause or reduce the dosing until the you are below the maximum limits and continue dosing then again afterwards. However pay attention to your Nutrients is the message here.

The required amount of Solution you need for let’s say a dosage of 7ppb can be determined in the Classic Calculator Rev.8 or higher.

There is a new Reef Moonshiner’s Toolset which is a single Excel Workbook and it combines the ICP Assessment Tool on the first tab, and the Classic Calculator on the second tab.

Simple open the Toolset easily straight via Mouse click on the RM website here:

https://www.reefmoonshiners.com/handbook-tools

When the file opened, you see the ICP Assessment tool, and you can click the second tab on the bottom which opens the Classic Calculator Rev.9 or higher, so you are ready to go. Revision index is in the upper right corner.

Scroll down in the Classic Calculator until you see the Nutrients section, where the Reef Moonshiner’s calculation for Phosphorus and Phosphate can be found.

If you measure Phosphorous in PPB then you use the PPB calculation line, if you use the Phosphate ULR checker, then you can use the Phosphate calculation line in PPM. This is right below the Phosphorus calculation.

It really depends if you measure P/Po4 in PPB or PPM. These 2 formulas allow to use either one or the other way of measurement without using a conversion table.

Easy Example to follow:

First, you need to enter the tank volume at the top of the calculator!!! Let’s for example enter 100 gallons of water volume.

Let’s say you measure 15ppb P in your tank and you know you want to be 25ppb.

That means you would need to increase the P level by 10ppb, but your maximum you should do in a single dose is 7ppb.

So we leave the “current” value at 0 and as “target” we enter 7.

In this case the 7 ppb will result in 8.12ml solution to be dosed.

You can now decide if you want to dose the full 7ppb of Phosphorus in a single shot or be more gentle and dose the 8.12ml over the day.

Next day you repeat this step until your tank is close to your desired target.

Notes to bear in mind!

Every tank is different, and you have to experiment next with the tool and Phosphorous solution what will work best for you to maintain P in your particular tank.

In some case small corrections every few days will do the job where P drops slowly over the course of a few days.

Certain tanks consume a lot more than 7ppb and you will have to spread an hourly dose throughout the day.

Many people do like a mix of a daily dosage along with a weekly correction.

Even if the P/Po4 level gets over the desired levels, only dialing down the daily dosage and let the system adjust slowly will do a nice job.

In my case I had for to deal with P/Po4 around 0.25ppm and within a week it was back to in the 0.1 – 0.15 range with only a reduced daily amount.

Monitoring is key, a lot of factors can affect your P/Po4 household!

Happy Reefing,

-Andre