Happy coral and happy algae

Travis Stewart · Aug 6, 2018

New system but corals have great color and growth, but so does my hair algae. I have upped my CUC and my water changes. I have an adequate skimmer and nice size fuge. I also remove as much HA as possible when doing my water changes. Tank is 5 months old.

richiero · Aug 6, 2018

Do you over feed , how is your PO4 and NO3?

Travis Stewart · Aug 6, 2018

I feed every other day and only enough for fish to eat. Pumps are off during feeding also. Nutrients are consumed by algae so getting very low readings via Hanna

Robert_ellis · Aug 6, 2018

I had the same issues except coral were poor colored since all tests showed 0 nutrients. Couldn't solve the algae issue. I gave up and dosed vibrant and been great ever since.

ZachH455 · Aug 6, 2018

do you feed nori? Do you rinse your frozen food?

Travis Stewart · Aug 6, 2018

Robert_ellis said:
I had the same issues except coral were poor colored since all tests showed 0 nutrients. Couldn't solve the algae issue. I gave up and dosed vibrant and been great ever since.

Just recommended amount

Travis Stewart · Aug 6, 2018

ZachH455 said:
do you feed nori? Do you rinse your frozen food?

I read @Randy Holmes-Farley article about how rinsing food really has no affect on nutrient increases as it is such a small value compared to the overall volume of your aquarium, so no I don’t.

Travis Stewart · Aug 6, 2018

ZachH455 said:
do you feed nori? Do you rinse your frozen food?

I do feed some nori

Travis Stewart · Aug 6, 2018

ZachH455 said:
do you feed nori? Do you rinse your frozen food?

Thoughts on this?

richiero · Aug 7, 2018

I feed nori don’t rinse it and I have no algae , but I also run any algae scrubber

ZachH455 · Aug 7, 2018

If you feed nori and any goes uneaten, that is a plausible cause. Rinsing nori would be pointless, don't rinse nori. Rinsing frozen food helps reduce the amount of phosphates/oils that go uneaten in the tank. As to the impact this has, there is debate. Apart from this, look at your system for any place detritus buildup could be occurring and eliminate it. Sometimes this means more flow or getting rid of a nitrate factory somewhere in your filtration line.