keeping algae for nutrition control

timocean · Nov 4, 2022

Dear all, my 120g mixed reef is now running since may, and I am mostly quite happy. I am feeding quite a lot, but my PO4 is stable around 0.04 and my nitrate is rather low 0-1ppm. So I am dosing Fauna Marin Elements N a couple of times a week. My suspicion ist, that my nutritions are rather low, since the entire back wall has a rather thick (0.5cm) layer of algae. Apart from that I habe a Bubble Magus Curve A5 and a ReefMat 500 for nutrition export. Fish in there are: 5 Chromis, 3 Anthias, 1 dwarf angle, 1 algae Benny, 2 clowns, 1 Yellow wrasse, 1 Fridmani. Visually, I would prefer to remove the algae from the back wall, but am scarred that nutritions might skyrocket. Is there a way to calculate the algaes nutrition consumption? Or shall I just remove and watch?

thanks!

Dan_P · Nov 4, 2022

timocean said:
Dear all, my 120g mixed reef is now running since may, and I am mostly quite happy. I am feeding quite a lot, but my PO4 is stable around 0.04 and my nitrate is rather low 0-1ppm. So I am dosing Fauna Marin Elements N a couple of times a week. My suspicion ist, that my nutritions are rather low, since the entire back wall has a rather thick (0.5cm) layer of algae. Apart from that I habe a Bubble Magus Curve A5 and a ReefMat 500 for nutrition export. Fish in there are: 5 Chromis, 3 Anthias, 1 dwarf angle, 1 algae Benny, 2 clowns, 1 Yellow wrasse, 1 Fridmani. Visually, I would prefer to remove the algae from the back wall, but am scarred that nutritions might skyrocket. Is there a way to calculate the algaes nutrition consumption? Or shall I just remove and watch?

thanks!

You can remove small portions of back wall algae and track nitrate as you do. It could take a week or two to see an effect In nitrate level

timocean · Nov 5, 2022

Dan_P said:
You can remove small portions of back wall algae and track nitrate as you do. It could take a week or two to see an effect In nitrate level

Ok, I will give this a try. How about the behavior of PO4 will that be affected equally (going up after 1-2 weeks only)? Thanks!

Dan_P · Nov 5, 2022

timocean said:
Ok, I will give this a try. How about the behavior of PO4 will that be affected equally (going up after 1-2 weeks only)? Thanks!

Yes, nutrients will go up unless somewhere else in the system some other organism does not pick up the slack and keep nutrients down. Impossible to predict how your system will respond, hence, the go slow approach.