Hey Triton, what's going on with my macro algae?

[d2mini]

Which test kit are you using to test nitrate?

Red Sea Pro and NYOS.

Nitrates dropped to around 2-3 so I added another 10ml last night.

 

[d2mini]

Nitrates are around 5 ppm. Working on figuring out a daily dose requirement.
The cheato still isn't looking good but the reds might be doing ok.

Meanwhile, i finally got a couple pics of what the stuff in the display looks like.

 

[Catchemall]

You and one other person along with myself in this thread are using the mars hydro light for chaeto and I am having the same issues with it grew like crazy at first then fell off to nothing. It's growing nasty algae in my sump though but the display looks better than it has in awhile. If it's growing other unwanted algae then it shouldn't be the light causing the issue though. Maybe just coincidence

 

[bubbaque]

I use the light and still grows great

 

[Psymon]

You and one other person along with myself in this thread are using the mars hydro light for chaeto and I am having the same issues with it grew like crazy at first then fell off to nothing. It's growing nasty algae in my sump though but the display looks better than it has in awhile. If it's growing other unwanted algae then it shouldn't be the light causing the issue though. Maybe just coincidence

Here are some pics of what I have...
Here you can see like the layers of chaeto, the part that had gone white, and at the back and bottom are nice rich green chaeto looking. Corner right is like this weird stuff growing... but seen some amazing life in there tbh...

The weird stuff...

Chaeto just under the mars is white! Lol. Have reduced the photo period on it a little..

But despite the refuge looking weird af, I think it's working. I haven't touched it since I got it.
My tank looks so wonderful, never had such a nice looking tank. And up to this point so very enjoyable.

 

[d2mini]

^^^ That's basically where i was... no longer.

 

[Psymon]

^^^ That's basically where i was... no longer.

Let me try again. Pic wasn't working.


...But despite the refuge looking weird af, I think it's working. I haven't touched it since I got it.
My tank looks so wonderful, never had such a nice looking tank. And up to this point so very enjoyable...

 

[Catchemall]

How's the nitrate dosing going? I picked up some stump remover but chickened out and laid it back down. My nitrates read zero and phosphates are .02. My alk runs 10ish so it's making my colors look pale. After reading that you use it I kinda get my confidence back and may go back and get it. Haha.

 

[d2mini]

How's the nitrate dosing going? I picked up some stump remover but chickened out and laid it back down. My nitrates read zero and phosphates are .02. My alk runs 10ish so it's making my colors look pale. After reading that you use it I kinda get my confidence back and may go back and get it. Haha.

They are sitting at about 5 ppm. It's looking like 2mm per day of the solution i mixed up may hold me relatively steady.

 

[Diesel]

Hey Bro, you know I'm not a Triton guru but it's simple.
Bring Co2 level up a notch.
I had chaeto dying too with enough nutrients in the frag room.
Hooked up a CaRx and kaboom, chaeto is like your alien ball in fullshear two years ago.
Only explanation I am give is the Co2 as algae needs some kind of Co2 to grow.

 

[d2mini]

Hey Bro, you know I'm not a Triton guru but it's simple.
Bring Co2 level up a notch.
I had chaeto dying too with enough nutrients in the frag room.
Hooked up a CaRx and kaboom, chaeto is like your alien ball in fullshear two years ago.
Only explanation I am give is the Co2 as algae needs some kind of Co2 to grow.

How would you raise it?
I still think the low nutrients plays apart since they were pretty dang high in the beginning. But I'm definitely not opposed to trying other things as well.

 

[Diesel]

You have your skimmer airline to the outside of your house or traditional?

 

[d2mini]

You have your skimmer airline to the outside of your house or traditional?

No line to the outside.
I've done that before and ph moved like .1

 

[Catchemall]

I was actually debating on doing this today because the house is all closed up and I've noticed ph dropping. Just wasn't sure how much effect it would have in the ph by running a line

 

[TylerS]

I'd like to better understand the problem. Your neutrients are in check, but your getting algae in the display and it's not growing in the fuge? Seems odd. What if you transplant some of the algae from the display to the fuge to try a different species? I don't understand the need to dose nitrate just to get algae to grow. Are the other problems beside the algae in the display?

 

[d2mini]

I'd like to better understand the problem. Your neutrients are in check, but your getting algae in the display and it's not growing in the fuge? Seems odd. What if you transplant some of the algae from the display to the fuge to try a different species? I don't understand the need to dose nitrate just to get algae to grow. Are the other problems beside the algae in the display?

No other problems.

There definitely seems to be a distinction in growth between "nuisance" algae and macros.
When the fuge was kicking butt, there was no nuisance algae in it but the macros were growing like crazy.
Now the macros aren't growing but there is fuzzy brown stuff all over the walls of the fuge (along with whats in the display).
Seems like the balance is off. If we can get the macro growth started, i'm thinking they out compete the more delicate nuisance stuff?

And fuge/algae aside, I don't want my nitrates at zero anyway. I didn't realize they had dropped that low. So at least I'm fixing that in the process. lol

 

[BlueCursor]

If a tank uses bacteria to control NO3 and PO4, then macro algae will suffer. It is generally best to focus on either the bacteria approach or the macro algae approach. They compete for the same thing.

I noticed that Vibrant negatively impacted my macro algae too. I was on the Vibrant band wagon only as a way to keep bacteria diversity in my tank. When I found out the bacteria strains don't reproduce, then I abandoned Vibrant and just use Prodibio as a booster. If you want to beat an algae outbreak with bacteria, Vibrant has lots of benefits. If you using macro algae as a way to remove nutrients, Vibrant is going to be counter productive to the macro algae.

For me, caulerpa removed NO3 and PO4 faster than Vibrant and skimming. Your results may vary.

 

[d2mini]

If a tank uses bacteria to control NO3 and PO4, then macro algae will suffer. It is generally best to focus on either the bacteria approach or the macro algae approach. They compete for the same thing.

I noticed that Vibrant negatively impacted my macro algae too. I was on the Vibrant band wagon only as a way to keep bacteria diversity in my tank. When I found out the bacteria strains don't reproduce, then I abandoned Vibrant and just use Prodibio as a booster. If you want to beat an algae outbreak with bacteria, Vibrant has lots of benefits. If you using macro algae as a way to remove nutrients, Vibrant is going to be counter productive to the macro algae.

For me, caulerpa removed NO3 and PO4 faster than Vibrant and skimming. Your results may vary.

Not dosing bacteria.

 

[DHill6]

I also had the same problem. Tank was full of GHA,Dino's,bryopsis since trying the Triton 7. I was using a Pax Bellum for chaeto, definitely enough light. The algaes outbreak was interfering with the SPS. This was the fourth batch of chaeto, instead of losing it I removed the Pax from the tank and had it running with a bucket. Dosed the tank with Vibrant, after the sixth dose everything was clean, algaes were gone. During the dosing stage of Vibrant I dosed the bucket of water feeding the Pax with their supplements of iron and nitrate mixes. The chaeto completely filled the Pax, very healthy, keeping in mind it was a bucket holding 3 g of water and dosed pretty heavily. Dosing the iron/magnese at 3 drops a day or everyday as suggested fed the algae problem in the tank. After the Vibrant dosing and waiting two weeks before using the Pax, I reinstalled it and within 5 days it was completely melted and gone. In my case I've come to the conclusion the tank isn't dirty enough to run the algae. I've since removed the Pax, hardly run the skimmer, dosing Refine nitrate since it's 0, p04 is .03 which was 0, and I'm trying the Triton7 used for other means. It's been almost a month, so far it's good, no algae outbreaks. Using TM Pro salt.

 

[d2mini]

FWIW, I ran out of the original Base Elements last night and just switched to Core7 this morning.
I still have to see if I can get my dosing lines to the fuge since this sump was built for Base Elements dosing into the return section.