Algae build up and corals not happy

[ChiefReef57]

Need some help been a bit confused and can’t wrap my head around this. I have a 30L innovative marine 30g AIO it’s been up and running for about 6 months. Recently I’ve had a bit of an algae break out and my corals don’t seem to be thriving (zoas not fully open.. etc) as they were before. my nitrates are at 0I added another fish and started feeding more and still 0. Last week my phosphates read .18 I added phosogaurd then yesterday my po4 was 0 and today now all the way up to .51 while No3 staying at 0.

all other parameters are

Salinity- 1.026
Ph- 8.0
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate-0
Ammonia- 0
Alk- 7.1
Mag-1480
Calc-449

suggestions?

 

[ChiefReef57]

All test kits hanna except nitrate is nyos

 

[Gup]

I have a 55-gallon high and it's been set up for 10 months. And I have an ongoing bit of trouble with algae forming in spots. My test results are the same as yours, zero across the board. And I could not figure it out. Last week I finally tested for GH, as I have well water. My reading was 1200. So I have equipment coming to take care of that for water changes. Until then, there's nothing I can do about the water in the tank that I'm aware of....

Have you ever checked your GH reading?

 

[Gup]

Just thought, how do you control the lighting in your tank. The only time I run a white light is at feeding time, the rest of the day is blue light and no lights overnight

 

[ChiefReef57]

Just thought, how do you control the lighting in your tank. The only time I run a white light is at feeding time, the rest of the day is blue light and no lights overnight

2 AI primes this is my schedule. I get my water from my LFS RODI didn’t test for GH but TDS is usually 0-3

 

[Duffer]

what are your phosphates?

most likely they are high,

if they are reading low, means the alga is consuming them...

 

[Rmckoy]

Nutrients are required for corals to feed amd essentially . The corals are starved

while one is sitting at zero your nutrients are limited .
You will have to dose the lower to bring it up to balance .

id be worried if both nitrates and phosphates sat at zero would start a Dino outbreak .

 

[Uzidaisies]

Photoperiod seems kind of long to me but I don’t know all that much. I have mine running a peak plateau for eight hours two hour ramps on each end, and an extra two hours at the end of the night of just uv and Violet with a touch of royal blue. Not saying I got it right, but maybe shortening your schedule a bit could help. A longer photoperiod means more time for algae to perform photosynthesis. Idk. Looks like it could be dinos. With phosphates and nitrates getting so low, it wouldn’t be surprising. Does it look different at night? Do you have a full tank shot? Here’s my ai schedule just for reference.

 

[Uzidaisies]

This one actually shows peek percentages.

 

[Dkmoo]

Ur no3 is at 0 bc the algae is sucking it up.

Your po4 is raising because your no3 is 0 so further po4 absorption by algae and bacteria is inhibited by the lack of no3. Both need to be present bc the absorption occurs somewhat in tandem.

Your tank is young so these kind of instability is very common.

Need to just roll up your sleeves and clean/manually remove the algae as often as possible, feed more or dose nitrates to bring it up (you should see po4 drop before seeing no3 raising)

Add some clean up crew to keep algae regrowth down. Over time, biodiversity of the microfauna will increase and naturally check and balance each other so you won't have any one species, ie, nuisance algae, from exploding from the excess nutrients.

 

[ChiefReef57]

what are your phosphates?

most likely they are high,

if they are reading low, means the alga is consuming them...

Phosphates where high .51

 

[ChiefReef57]

Ur no3 is at 0 bc the algae is sucking it up.

Your po4 is raising because your no3 is 0 so further po4 absorption by algae and bacteria is inhibited by the lack of no3. Both need to be present bc the absorption occurs somewhat in tandem.

Your tank is young so these kind of instability is very common.

Need to just roll up your sleeves and clean/manually remove the algae as often as possible, feed more or dose nitrates to bring it up (you should see po4 drop before seeing no3 raising)

Add some clean up crew to keep algae regrowth down. Over time, biodiversity of the microfauna will increase and naturally check and balance each other so you won't have any one species, ie, nuisance algae, from exploding from the excess nutrients.

Started feeding more. Now doing reef roids target feeding to add nitrates and also give direct nutrition to the corals. Like you said Gonna roll em up and fight it off! Thank you for the detailed explanation!

 

[ChiefReef57]

Started feeding more. Now doing reef roids target feeding to add nitrates and also give direct nutrition to the corals. Like you said Gonna roll em up and fight it off! Thank you for the detailed explanation!

Do you think my light schedule is to much or okay?

 

[ChiefReef57]

Photoperiod seems kind of long to me but I don’t know all that much. I have mine running a peak plateau for eight hours two hour ramps on each end, and an extra two hours at the end of the night of just uv and Violet with a touch of royal blue. Not saying I got it right, but maybe shortening your schedule a bit could help. A longer photoperiod means more time for algae to perform photosynthesis. Idk. Looks like it could be dinos. With phosphates and nitrates getting so low, it wouldn’t be surprising. Does it look different at night? Do you have a full tank shot? Here’s my ai schedule just for reference.

So are you suggesting maybe put a 2 hr ramp down to the end of mine to shorten it up?

 

[ChiefReef57]

Photoperiod seems kind of long to me but I don’t know all that much. I have mine running a peak plateau for eight hours two hour ramps on each end, and an extra two hours at the end of the night of just uv and Violet with a touch of royal blue. Not saying I got it right, but maybe shortening your schedule a bit could help. A longer photoperiod means more time for algae to perform photosynthesis. Idk. Looks like it could be dinos. With phosphates and nitrates getting so low, it wouldn’t be surprising. Does it look different at night? Do you have a full tank shot? Here’s my ai schedule just for reference.

Closest I have to full tank that’s not all blue

 

[Uzidaisies]

So are you suggesting maybe put a 2 hr ramp down to the end of mine to shorten it up?

I honestly can’t make a suggestion. Hell, I’ve got plenty of algae, just not any kinds I’m particularly worried about.

 

[Uzidaisies]

How would you describe the physical characteristics of the algae?

 

[ChiefReef57]

Couple longer hair type looking hanging around in some spots but to be honest nothing really crazy my biggest concern is the lack of nutrients for the corals.

 

[Uzidaisies]

It looks like dinos to me.

 

[billyocean]

Urchin, scarlet hermits, trochus snails. Problem solved