Algae/Phosphate issues

[BonelessEvil]

My nitrates never go over 5, but my phosphate is around 0.26. I'm having a lot of issues with algae growing around the tank, despite having a Refugium and Chaeto. The chaeto itself looks fine, but is not growing. Perhaps that's because of all the algae that is in the tank itself. I do continuous water changes throughout the week of 10%. Would dosing vodka help with the phosphates or just the nitrates? Would NO3PO4X be a better idea? Any other solutions?

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

Carbon dosing in general doesn't remove much PO4. It removes some, but it's much better at removing NO3. You will probably bottom out your NO3 and be left with most of the PO4.

I would get some herbivores instead of trying to starve out the algae. I went the carbon dosing route and now I'm battling dinos for the second time. Urchins are often overlooked, but they're very effective at removing algae. They also eat vermitid snails in my tank, which is a plus. If your tank is large enough, tangs do wonders as well.

Do you run a skimmer?

 

[BonelessEvil]

I did have 2 sea urchins for a while, but "Spike" had to be given away. Nobody would stick their hands in the tank. He did clean algae well, though. I do have plenty of cleanup crew as well, but they don't seem to like the algae on the rocks. I also have a yellow tang and a fox face. They don't touch that stuff, unless it flakes up into the water column. Lazy *****!

I do run a skimmer.