multiple questions bare with me.

[mandi29221]

So i have hair algae still been battling it for 1.5 months tank has been fish ready march 6th. I have it under control, using a toothbrush every night, lights are 20% blues then 80% for 4 hours. big cuc (seem to be useless imo) i have tested my RO/DI unit its at 0 phosphates, im also dosing Vodka. My tank reads .25ppm. so my question is WHERE IS THE PHOSPHATES COMING FROM? 2nd Im receiving my shipment of fire pink zoas, red hornets zoas, n pink colonies zoas this Tuesday coming. Will the phosphates hurt them?

parameters-
pH-8.2
ammonia-0ppm
Nitrates-0ppm
Nitrites-0ppm
Magnesium-1400ppm
Kh-10.9
Calcium-450ppm
phosphates-.25ppm
Salinity- 1.024

 

[Alfrareef]

Hi mandi.
Probably the rock it’s leaching the Phosphates.
I’ve had Zoas with those kind of values and they have been ok. Some people say that they like “like” dirt water.
IMO you should be concerned with the 0 NO3. Why are you dosing vodka?
Also the KH might be a tad high...

 

[taxiem]

My zoas seem to prefer slightly dirty water - they love a bit of nitrate in the water. Phos I agree is probably leaching from rock xx

 

[NY_Caveman]

So i have hair algae still been battling it for 1.5 months tank has been fish ready march 6th. I have it under control, using a toothbrush every night, lights are 20% blues then 80% for 4 hours. big cuc (seem to be useless imo) i have tested my RO/DI unit its at 0 phosphates, im also dosing Vodka. My tank reads .25ppm. so my question is WHERE IS THE PHOSPHATES COMING FROM? 2nd Im receiving my shipment of fire pink zoas, red hornets zoas, n pink colonies zoas this Tuesday coming. Will the phosphates hurt them?

parameters-
pH-8.2
ammonia-0ppm
Nitrates-0ppm
Nitrites-0ppm
Magnesium-1400ppm
Kh-10.9
Calcium-450ppm
phosphates-.25ppm
Salinity- 1.024

What rock did you start with (live, dry, cured, etc.)?

That Phosphate level is not so high in and of itself, but with 0 Nitrates could be problematic. I have never Vodka dosed, so not sure how that fits in. The Zoas will like a little Phosphate and Nitrate probably.

 

[Waters]

So i have hair algae still been battling it for 1.5 months tank has been fish ready march 6th. I have it under control, using a toothbrush every night, lights are 20% blues then 80% for 4 hours. big cuc (seem to be useless imo) i have tested my RO/DI unit its at 0 phosphates, im also dosing Vodka. My tank reads .25ppm. so my question is WHERE IS THE PHOSPHATES COMING FROM? 2nd Im receiving my shipment of fire pink zoas, red hornets zoas, n pink colonies zoas this Tuesday coming. Will the phosphates hurt them?

parameters-
pH-8.2
ammonia-0ppm
Nitrates-0ppm
Nitrites-0ppm
Magnesium-1400ppm
Kh-10.9
Calcium-450ppm
phosphates-.25ppm
Salinity- 1.024

Your tank is still very young.....it will go through various stages of algae growth before it stabilizes. Hair algae requires very little nutrients to grow. I assume you are using API test kits to measure phosphates? You might want to pick up a low range Hanna checker to get a more accurate reading.....will help in the long run. As others stated, Zoas will appreciate some nitrates and phosphates in the water though.

 

[Maggie321]

If you can get your phos down to like .05 and get your nitrates up to 5ish. Around those #s you'll see that hair algae disappear. Also higher mg (I've heard) helps. I'm not sure how high, but mine was above 1600 and I still had it a while back, and high mg also is hard on inverts so I so not recommend that personally.

 

[Maggie321]

If you can't get the phos down, just bring the nitrates up to 10ish and bring them both down slowly.

Likely, the hair algae is eating up the nitrates you have in the tank. It just takes time, it will level out. Mine did with out chemicals. Keep up on 10-15% water changes. It will all come together eventually.

 

[mandi29221]

So i retested my rodi water with a redsea test kit its my rodi water. My rocks are dry rocks. i dose vodka because i was told n did research saying it will kill hair alga. So now im trying to figure out what of the 6 stage i need to replace

 

[Daniel92481]

Before you do that, if you have an extra pump lying around, try putting it in the RO/DI container with a bag of Phosgard to see if that helps.

 

[Alfrareef]

So i retested my rodi water with a redsea test kit its my rodi water. My rocks are dry rocks. i dose vodka because i was told n did research saying it will kill hair alga. So now im trying to figure out what of the 6 stage i need to replace

Could be the container?
About the algae, when starting a tank I use all the help I can but mainly hermits, Mexican turbos ( lots of them), tuxedo urchins, sea stars (1-2 Astrea), emerald crab, 1 Salaria ramosa and 1 surgeon.

 

[Susan Edwards]

a bag of phosguard in your sump also helps. I use for a couple days, retest to see if it is under .1 and then remove, let it recharge. I used every po4 test kit out there and never got good results. Went to the hanna and it gives me accurate numbers. Cost more but worth it. If it hits zero, you 'll need to dose it. Sometimes mine hits zero and I dose to get some back in. For me po4 is a constant up and down. Def. need some nitrates. My zoas love dirty water, and so does most of the rest of my corals. I'd stop dosing for now and only start dosing if your nitrates climb high and stay high. I've always had crazy high, 40-160 range and all my corals are thriving. Just starting vinegar dosing to bring nitrates down to more reasonable.