Low nutrients but GHA

[Scooter21]

I thought your rocks looked pretty nice. By your description it sounded like your tank was nuknuked

Ya. I realized I was probably overreacting about the algae when I could barely get it to show up on camera. It was a lot worse over the last week or two, but I think reducing feeding and adding the skimmer both killed its growth and made the CUC go after it more.


The sandbed was pretty gross on the left side. I vacuumed the sand on the side last night, so you can't tell as much. I think that's a bigger problem than the algae. When I made this post I was thinking it was the same thing as the algae, but then I realized it's two different organisms

 

[fish farmer]

I have a 36 gallon with just a hang on the back skimmer. I've had the tank for about 3 months, but I bought it used and the previous owner had it a couple years. When I got it, I added a lot more rock and fish than he had.


I was probably overfeeding quite a bit because I have a diamond watchman goby that I wanted to make sure pellets got down to. I started having GHA develop on the rocks and the sand turning brownish/reddish in some areas. I only had an API nitrogen cycle test kit. My nitrates had always came in between the 10 and 20 color.

I decided that since I was having algae problems, I switched back to frozen foods and have been feeding much less. I also added a hang on the back protein skimmer and ordered salifert test kits of phosphate, calcium, alk and mag.

Last night I tested and I was expecting the phosphate to be sky high, but to my surprise, it came in as undetectable. The liquid didn't change color at all. I tested nitrate and it was much lower than it's always been. It looked like between the 5 and 10 color as opposed to between 10 and 20 that it's always measured.


What's my best coarse if action? The GHA isn't super long and probably not a big deal, but I don't want it getting worse. But the sand turning colors looks really gross and I've been having more film on the glass. I was thinking about draining the tank down and spraying hydrogen peroxide on the GHA. I figured that would let the nutrients rise back up to where they should be.

Do you have any snails? Base on your pictures that is a light coating of algae and should be taken care of by various snails.

 

[DannoOMG]

Ya. I realized I was probably overreacting about the algae when I could barely get it to show up on camera. It was a lot worse over the last week or two, but I think reducing feeding and adding the skimmer both killed its growth and made the CUC go after it more.


The sandbed was pretty gross on the left side. I vacuumed the sand on the side last night, so you can't tell as much. I think that's a bigger problem than the algae. When I made this post I was thinking it was the same thing as the algae, but then I realized it's two different organisms

My 13 gallons was imploding on itself last week. I agitated something and created a mess. I had 0 nitrates throughout my whole gha episode and I was using Hannah to test both PO4 and No3. My phosphates were always around .03-.04.

Luckily for me I was upgraded my tank so I just ditched the old sand and threw everything in a new tank.

I will be honest about dumb things I never did that lead to my near crash. I never cleaned the sand except maybe one and I never touched the mechanical filtration foam in the back. It was hard as a rock and when I rinsed it everything that came out was brown. I will be hopefully giving my sand a proper clean every 2 weeks this time around.

 

[Saltyreef]

My 13 gallons was imploding on itself last week. I agitated something and created a mess. I had 0 nitrates throughout my whole gha episode and I was using Hannah to test both PO4 and No3. My phosphates were always around .03-.04.

Luckily for me I was upgraded my tank so I just ditched the old sand and threw everything in a new tank.

I will be honest about dumb things I never did that lead to my near crash. I never cleaned the sand except maybe one and I never touched the mechanical filtration foam in the back. It was hard as a rock and when I rinsed it everything that came out was brown. I will be hopefully giving my sand a proper clean every 2 weeks this time around.

Fwiw my tank never ran better with undetectable nitrates and .01 phosphate tested with salifert.

As soon as i dosed nitrates and created an imbalance, the problems started for 2 years. Dinos, massive die off and random deaths for a year after.

 

[Roatan Reef]

Step 1. Get a good CUC Crew

#2. A Toothbrush and Manual removal of algae works great.

#3. Scoop as much of algae out as you can when cleaning/removing algae

#4 Water Changes

#5 Water Changes

At least 10% a week, and you'll be good!