Algae to remove nutrients

[drcb84]

Hi All,

trying to fight Nitrates, my 24 inch cube with 50 litre sump has been running a good 6 months, Amonia and Nitrites are all but 0 but my nitrates are way up... Test kit (DD) indicates 40-50.

All my corals are ok, and I have a little nem who seem happy. I've recently put in an Bubble Magus E3 which is pulling good skim as the little one I had was underpowered.

I recently had a LED light strip set which annoyingly failed so installed 4 x 20 CF's and left in 1 20w LED strip.

Consist of 20k & Blue LED's and on the CF's

2 x 20000k 24 inch tubes, 1 Actnic 24inch tube and 1 6500k tube (T5 with reflectors)

Since the CF's went in I had a massive brown algae outbreak which suggested to me nutrients in the water.

I've just bought some fairly good sized algae (green and red) see pic you can see them both...

You can see the green algae to the right and the red is to the left, it's a big chunk (excuse the nem, photo was taken just having put the algae in and he was not happy with me putting my hand in the tank :s )

Do these two plants look big enough to have a good impact on the nitrates?

Also, would the CF's be high enough wattage for the cube tank?

Other specs are:

PH 8.26
1.025 on the salinity
24.5 degrees C
Calcium around 440 as of last nights test
Amonia indicated 0.001 on the Seneye (and DD test)
Nitrites all but 0 on the DD test
KH is at 9.1 from last nights test

 

[drcb84]

Here's a different angle as the red wasn't that visible in other pic...

 

[knotsmart]

Imo you need a lot of macro algae in the sump or refugium to have an effect but I think ultimately you need to do several small water changes . I say small because your tank is acclimated to high nitrates & if you do a big water change it might throw everything into shock

 

[Reefing Madness]

No, the plants aren't big enough to have any kind of impact on water quality. Try and get a look at someones fuge/sump, it would be full of macro algae, and still growing rapidly.
CFs are generall out for the use on any tank these days, as T5s are pretty cheap to get your hands on.

 

[drcb84]

Yeh, I know the t8's aren't ideal but when the LED's packed in it was a quick and available scenario than leave it in darkness for days :/

Annoyingly I don't have much room in the sump, I did have some cheats in there but it never really took off, just stayed there as a ball with no growth - I was hoping the green algae (but more the red stuff - it looks deceptively small in the photo) would help.

 

[ebushrow]

Imo you need a lot of macro algae in the sump or refugium to have an effect but I think ultimately you need to do several small water changes . I say small because your tank is acclimated to high nitrates & if you do a big water change it might throw everything into shock

+1 .