Algae Issues and Testing/Solution!

[A_Blind_Reefer]

What do you do if a lot of your substrate is covered with corals?

Ha, that’s a great problem to have! That’s why I went barebottom! No more pesky sand and the bottom is all covered in living tissue, just a turkey baster or pmup blast and bam, it’s done.

edit, I don’t think she’s there yet though…..maybe soon

 

[AydenLincoln]

A little low but subtle.

Should I do 45-50?

 

[AydenLincoln]

Ha, that’s a great problem to have! That’s why I went barebottom! No more pesky sand and the bottom is all covered in living tissue, just a turkey baster or pmup blast and bam, it’s done.

edit, I don’t think she’s there yet though…..maybe soon

Nope. Frag racks definitely because I have a sand sifting goby.

 

[AydenLincoln]

Most do clean their sand beds I think. It’s the deep sand beds people leave alone as they don’t want to disturb the anaerobic bacteria. Everyone does everything different though

edit, I only mentioned the stirring as that’s the comment you made over a week ago…..I didn’t know your methods. Some people do stir things up and let the filter do the work. I wouldn’t promote that method though.

And because I have a goby who cleans the sand bed for me and does an excellent job!

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

And because I have a goby who cleans the sand bed for me and does an excellent job!

I always liked watching those go to work I couldn’t imagine grabbing mouthfuls of sand like that!

 

[AydenLincoln]

I always liked watching those go to work I couldn’t imagine grabbing mouthfuls of sand like that!

They are fascinating and I make sure to feed him when he’s out. Just to make sure he has enough food because I have a small sand bed…I hope/think he does.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Should I do 45-50?

Here is one that worked well for me with Mixed reef:
UV 50
Blue 70
violet 40
white 18
red 7
green 4

 

[AydenLincoln]

Here is one that worked well for me with Mixed reef:
UV 50
Blue 70
violet 40
white 18
red 7
green 4

Thanks!

 

[AydenLincoln]

Here is one that worked well for me with Mixed reef:
UV 50
Blue 70
violet 40
white 18
red 7
green 4

I’m sending you a DM!

 

[wculver]

So I do weekly water changes of around 5 gallons in my 20 gallon AIO tank (no skimmer maybe it would help) I also decided to change my filter sock out more and will change my lighting schedule. I got my magnesium up too but my nitrates/phosphates are still high/less than ideal. So I’ve been looking into other options one of which is running a reactor with chaeto but before I jump into that this was recommend by my LFS. And I was reading reviews it seemed like a better option than Vibrant. Thoughts? I think this is a good forum to ask this question . I also picked up Nitrate and Phosphorus Hanna Checkers!

I would be really careful with NoPox because it can quickly crash the tank, measured in hours not days. Ultimately this stuff is encouraging a bacterial bloom that your skimmer can take out. You did mention what I see as a great option and long-term better for you to keep up with which is the bio pellet reactor. That takes about 4 weeks to come online and then after that the nitrate will really start to fall. Still have to be careful with this but it will get you to a steady state place which is what you're looking for.

The Phosphate will also be controlled by the system too, though you'll read all types of stuff that it does/doesn't. Ultimately Nitrate and Phosphate are taken out by the carbon dosing/reactor solution. Just keep in mind that you have created a phosphate reservoir that you'll have to chip away at to get it to come down. To get the Phosphate down I would suggest just running some GFO in a mesh bag for a little while. You'll see it come down and then increase again. Eventually though the phosphate reservoir will reduce and you'll get to a more steady state place.

 

[IslandLifeReef]

@AydenLincoln, I think we have strayed from your original problem, which is high nutrients. In order to tackle that problem, we need to know a few things.

First, what are your tank inhabitants? Knowing this will tell if you are maxing out on your bio load.

Second, how much do you feed a day? I know you said you have changed that recently, but frequency of feeding has less to do with excess food than quantity. If you are feeding more than your fish can consume in about a minute, you are feeding too much. That excess food will get trapped in the rock and sand and add to your nutrients.

In a tank the size of yours, you can easily maintain nutrients with water changes. With proper feeding, a weekly 5 gallon water change should keep your nutrients at acceptable levels.

When it comes to the lighting subject, we should know your current light schedule and levels before we make a suggestion for a change. Simply saying that 12 hours is too long without knowing the specifics of your lights program isn't really helpful. That 12 hours cold include a 2.5 hour ramp up and ramp down with a very small 2 hour peak. Its just to hard to guess without seeing your current light schedule.

 

[Reef.]

I would first want to know why your po4 is crazy high at .5 but your nitrates are only slightly high at 36? Until I knew the answer to those questions I wouldn’t be doing anything.

 

[ScubaFish802]

In a 20gal it should be easy to manage nutrients through water changes I would think?
You could up to 50% or more (whatever is needed) to get the nutrients in line and then just walk away for a week

 

[Reef.]

In a 20gal it should be easy to manage nutrients through water changes I would think?
You could up to 50% or more (whatever is needed) to get the nutrients in line and then just walk away for a week

A 100% water change wouldn’t lower a po4 reading of 0.5 by much.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

A 100% water change wouldn’t lower a po4 reading of 0.5 by much.

So true.

Even at a 100% WC, anything bound to the sand and rocks will release and the tank will continue to do this until an equilibrium of the number you want is reached via numerous 100% water changes.

If PO4 is actually .5, there has got to be ton bound to the rocks/sand.

 

[AydenLincoln]

@AydenLincoln, I think we have strayed from your original problem, which is high nutrients. In order to tackle that problem, we need to know a few things.

First, what are your tank inhabitants? Knowing this will tell if you are maxing out on your bio load.

Second, how much do you feed a day? I know you said you have changed that recently, but frequency of feeding has less to do with excess food than quantity. If you are feeding more than your fish can consume in about a minute, you are feeding too much. That excess food will get trapped in the rock and sand and add to your nutrients.

In a tank the size of yours, you can easily maintain nutrients with water changes. With proper feeding, a weekly 5 gallon water change should keep your nutrients at acceptable levels.

When it comes to the lighting subject, we should know your current light schedule and levels before we make a suggestion for a change. Simply saying that 12 hours is too long without knowing the specifics of your lights program isn't really helpful. That 12 hours cold include a 2.5 hour ramp up and ramp down with a very small 2 hour peak. Its just to hard to guess without seeing your current light schedule. really helpful. That 12 hours cold include a 2.5 hour ramp up and ramp down with a very small 2 hour peak. Its just to hard to guess without seeing your current light schedule.

It’s a 20 gallon with 2 clownfish, a sand sifting goby, blue damsel, and starfish. And hermit crabs. I know I’m maxed on occupants but the high nutrients are only recent in the past two weeks or so. And admittedly a hermit crab did just die a few days prior to testing and I removed the little guy but it would not surprise me if there’s more dead ones that I don’t know about they are teeny tiny and hide so well lol. I’m trying to feed frozen more than pellets now and not over feeding. But I do noticed the hermit crabs eat the excess food. In terms of lighting it’s an hour of ramp of time and up to 90% intensity which I now realize 4 months later that is meant for SPS corals none of which I have. So I lowered it to 8 hours and cut the intensity in half the new schedule starts today. This lighting schedule originally I edited it: https://www.aquaillumination.com/signature_series/karen-vazquez I typically don’t siphon my sand bed but if I do…to do it in sections but that’s why I have a goby lol. Oh and this is the salt used for when I buy my water I know not the best but at the moment I’m not willing to spend several hundred dollars on a good RODI unit. https://www.aquaticed.com/products/crystal-sea-marinemix?variant=29384562606133

 

[Karen00]

I have been running my lights 12 hours a day on my one year old 5g tank (bare bones and no skimmer) from the beginning. My ugly phase started about four or five months in.

Lighting:
I started off with the crappy stock light on all blue because there was no blending with that light so about four months later I bought a black box light but still struggled with getting a solid setting with that so I finally picked up a used Prime about a month after that. I originally ran the Prime with mostly blue and violet, about 10% white and some UV, green and red. Eventually I dropped green and red and bumped up the UV and white is now 20%. I have a 2 hour ramp up and three hour ramp down. I would say 12 hours is not an issue if you get it tweaked properly for your tank's needs. Fish don't so much care about light but corals will (spectrum, intensity, duration).

Maintenance:
I would probably be considered slightly overstocked and I feed a fair bit two times daily. My original maintenance was about 20% weekly but when the ugly phase started I panicked and started to do near 20% daily which bottomed out my nutrients and propelled the ugly phase into over drive. Film algae, hair algae and probably some cyano. I then went back to weekly water changes and manual removal of the algae. I tell you the ugly phase can break a person's will to continue. Thankfully about eight months in I could see the algae diminishing and this was directly related to getting my nutrients back up after they bottomed out and stability coming to my tank's overall parameters. Now a year in the hair algae and cyano is almost completely gone. The one thing that doesn't stay away is the film on the glass and I attribute this to not having a skimmer. The film starts to return about two days after cleaning and I can actually see the water getting heavy so now I do a 10% water change every three to four days to keep this at bay. Having said that during the ugly phase the film algae would return daily, now it's every three days. I figure this will be needed until such a time I get a skimmer going. I don't think there is a way around the buildup of organic compounds without a skimmer. I don't even know if a fuge would take care of the DOCs.

That's my two cents.

 

[IslandLifeReef]

It’s a 20 gallon with 2 clownfish, a sand sifting goby, blue damsel, and starfish. And hermit crabs. I know I’m maxed on occupants but the high nutrients are only recent in the past two weeks or so. And admittedly a hermit crab did just die a few days prior to testing and I removed the little guy but it would not surprise me if there’s more dead ones that I don’t know about they are teeny tiny and hide so well lol. I’m trying to feed frozen more than pellets now and not over feeding. But I do noticed the hermit crabs eat the excess food. In terms of lighting it’s an hour of ramp of time and up to 90% intensity which I now realize 4 months later that is meant for SPS corals none of which I have. So I lowered it to 8 hours and cut the intensity in half the new schedule starts today. This lighting schedule originally I edited it: https://www.aquaillumination.com/signature_series/karen-vazquez I typically don’t siphon my sand bed but if I do…to do it in sections but that’s why I have a goby lol. Oh and this is the salt used for when I buy my water I know not the best but at the moment I’m not willing to spend several hundred dollars on a good RODI unit. https://www.aquaticed.com/products/crystal-sea-marinemix?variant=29384562606133

When you say that the high nutrients only happened in the past two weeks or so, what were your nutrients before that?