Gha and testing

[GerberGirth]

Hey all,

Tank is about is 8 months old now. Have some GHA but have been doing an ok job with maintaining it. Got a emerald crab, turbo snails and a few other snails in there eating some of it. I upped my water change to 20% weekly but here is my issue. Using api for nitrates and no matter what I do it stays at about 10 to 20 but phosphate with salifert is always zero. I cut back feeding but clearly I'm missing something. I know phosphate is zero due to algae. How bad are these api tests for nitrate. I think they must be off and my northern is way higher then what i an reading. Any advice feedback is appreciated.

 

[Dan_P]

Hey all,

Tank is about is 8 months old now. Have some GHA but have been doing an ok job with maintaining it. Got a emerald crab, turbo snails and a few other snails in there eating some of it. I upped my water change to 20% weekly but here is my issue. Using api for nitrates and no matter what I do it stays at about 10 to 20 but phosphate with salifert is always zero. I cut back feeding but clearly I'm missing something. I know phosphate is zero due to algae. How bad are these api tests for nitrate. I think they must be off and my northern is way higher then what i an reading. Any advice feedback is appreciated.

Just to make sure the API test is working properly in your hands, mix aquarium water with new saltwater in equal portions. If the API reading is not roughly halved, then we know something.

If phosphate is zero, it will be difficult for nitrate to come down because anything that consumes nitrate needs phosphate.

 

[GerberGirth]

Just to make sure the API test is working properly in your hands, mix aquarium water with new saltwater in equal portions. If the API reading is not roughly halved, then we know something.

If phosphate is zero, it will be difficult for nitrate to come down because anything that consumes nitrate needs phosphate.

Makes sense on the testing part. I'll give that a try. Much appreciated.

 

[sixty_reefer]

You need to raise your phosphates as soon as possible.

 

[GerberGirth]

You need to raise your phosphates as soon as possible.

Wouldnt adding phosphates be like adding fertilizer for the GHA? I can look to dose it if that will make an impact just afraid of an explosion of you will.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Wouldnt adding phosphates be like adding fertilizer for the GHA? I can look to dose it if that will make an impact just afraid of an explosion of you will.

No, that’s normally the confusion. All organisms in our systems need phosphates to grow including the bacteria that is the central point in a saltwater aquarium filtration meaning that without phosphates nitrifying bacteria and heterotrophic bacteria can’t multiply and by effect they can’t reduce ammonia and other nutrients that the algae needs to grow. Some of these nutrients are fairly complex and difficult to explain as we can’t test at home for a big part of them.

to eradicate nuisance algaes you want your nutrients to be detectable at all times 0.5 ppm phosphates and 10 nitrates is a common range that most reefers agree on, what you need to do after sorting your nutrients is working on your bacteria and outcompete methods, carbon dosing can encourage the growth of bacteria and reduce some of the nutrients I spoke earlier and adding a refugium with a more controllable algae like chaetomorpha or caleurpa will aid in reducing carbon dioxide and nutrients responsible for the algae growth. In addition you will need to manual remove any of the larger strands from the nuisance algae or rent a sea slug that will eat large strands of algae.

if you wish to learn more about the subject you could google a few different subjects

how bacteria utilises phosphates

heterotrophic bacteria limitations

Carbon dioxide and photosynthesis

Algae and ammonia

Difference between organic and inorganic nutrients

this are just some starters you may find the subject fairly interesting, if you got any more questions feel free to ask.

once you understand some of the subjects above you will see that depleting a system from phosphates will actually have more detrimental consequences than good and in a way fuelling the algae more as there isn’t any phosphates for beneficial biome to outcompete the algae.

 

[GerberGirth]

No, that’s normally the confusion. All organisms in our systems need phosphates to grow including the bacteria that is the central point in a saltwater aquarium filtration meaning that without phosphates nitrifying bacteria and heterotrophic bacteria can’t multiply and by effect they can’t reduce ammonia and other nutrients that the algae needs to grow. Some of these nutrients are fairly complex and difficult to explain as we can’t test at home for a big part of them.

to eradicate nuisance algaes you want your nutrients to be detectable at all times 0.5 ppm phosphates and 10 nitrates is a common range that most reefers agree on, what you need to do after sorting your nutrients is working on your bacteria and outcompete methods, carbon dosing can encourage the growth of bacteria and reduce some of the nutrients I spoke earlier and adding a refugium with a more controllable algae like chaetomorpha or caleurpa will aid in reducing carbon dioxide and nutrients responsible for the algae growth. In addition you will need to manual remove any of the larger strands from the nuisance algae or rent a sea slug that will eat large strands of algae.

if you wish to learn more about the subject you could google a few different subjects

how bacteria utilises phosphates

heterotrophic bacteria limitations

Carbon dioxide and photosynthesis

Algae and ammonia

Difference between organic and inorganic nutrients

this are just some starters you may find the subject fairly interesting, if you got any more questions feel free to ask.

once you understand some of the subjects above you will see that depleting a system from phosphates will actually have more detrimental consequences than good and in a way fuelling the algae more as there isn’t any phosphates for beneficial biome to outcompete the algae.

Thanks for the great advice.