New bacterial cultures allow us to fight microbes with microbes. Developed by Acquamarine, these Bacterblend products are an offshoot of the specialized cultures developed to eliminate oil spills. These specialized cultures are selected for their ability to utilize a specific source of nutrition, i.e., ammonia, nitrate or phosphate, and are cultured for freshwater or marine applications. Acquamarine's Nitrate Reducer is so effective, it actually starves itself, and therefore must be periodically dosed to the aquarium to keep active cultures alive. While there are the microbial phosphate removers, sometimes we need to immediately lower existing levels.
Hobbyists seem a little mystified as to the origin of phosphates.
Also, lots of municipal water supplies are now adding phosphate to the tap water, to prevent lead leaching from older pipes. While RO units will help eliminate most of the phosphate, we usually need to factor in a deionization stage to totally remove any phosphate. In the mini-reef, one of the most important elements that will need to be supplemented is calcium. We want to maintain a calcium level between 350-425 PPM, and in a densely populated reef aquarium, utilization of calcium can quickly deplete these levels if we do not supplement daily. We have several options to provide the needed calcium.