My tank is changing

[Pennywise the Clown]

My Reefer 250 has been up and running for roughly 16 weeks. Up until recently I have been struggling to get any readings for phosphate and nitrate so initially I started to feed more. This had very little effect so I added 3 small blue/green chromis to up the bioload. This brings the total up to 9 fish, the biggest a 2" coral beauty. I have also just started adding Seachem Reef Plus to the tank.
I am still struggling getting any readings on my Salifert test kits but my tank is definitely changing.
I am getting coraline algae starting to appear, many white spots on the back wall which I think are spirorbis worms but I am also getting a lot of algae growing on the front glass. Normally I would clean the glass every 3 days. The glass felt rough when using my magnet cleaner and the algae was more of a brown colour. Now I am having to clean the front glass (not the side panels) every day but the glass feels smooth and the algae is more of a greenish colour. It only takes a couple of minutes and the algae comes off very easily compared to before.
Is this normal and just part of the tank cycling and settling down?

Ph : 8.1
Salinity : 1.025
Nitrate <1
Phosphate 0
Dkh 8.3
Calcium 420

 

[mta_morrow]

You have nutrients in the tank, otherwise you wouldn't have green algae growing on the glass.

It is doubtful you have <1 nitrate and 0 phosphate, but possible.

Can you tell us which test kits you are using and are the expiration dates good?

Also, what and how often do you feed, and are you running a skimmer, filter socks, or a refugium.

 

[Pennywise the Clown]

You have nutrients in the tank, otherwise you wouldn't have green algae growing on the glass.

It is doubtful you have <1 nitrate and 0 phosphate, but possible.

Can you tell us which test kits you are using and are the expiration dates good?

Also, what and how often do you feed, and are you running a skimmer, filter socks, or a refugium.

Thanks for the reply. I'm using Salifert test kits, all years within date.
I'm using a Bubble Magus Curve 5 which produces a very dark skimate, filter cups, one with carbon and the other with GFO and topped with filter floss. I've got 2 ltrs of syphorax in the sump but no refugium.
As I wrote the original post it occurred to me that the algae has increased since I started dosing Reef Plus. A Google search revealed that a few people have experienced the exact same thing when dosing it.
My corals are really loving it and have never looked better. Is there another alternative, maybe a Red Sea product?

 

[mta_morrow]

I personally think everything is normal and what is to be expected.

You are running your nutrients very low. That opens you up to dino’s, which you do not want.

I would recommend keeping a reasonable level of nitrates and phosphates, especially with how young this tank is.

I would target 10-20 nitrates and .03-.1 phosphates.

Read up a lot on nutrients and how they truly affect our reefs. There are many ways to do it, but it’s best to understand it and chose tour path, and each path is very different.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Measuring phosphates (and even nitrates) can be a tricky business. Algae in your tank or refugium, as well as the zooxanthellae inside your coral, will pull the phosphates out of the water very quickly and you won't have any to measure with your test kit. This is true of nitrates as well, but they are slower to be removed from the water. That's why so many reefers now run refugiums. Algae wants to grow in your tank, so make a special place for it and give it the conditions it wants... in a refugium. Then you are much less likely to have issues in the DT. If you do, then you really need to get a handle on where the phosphates and nitrates are coming from, but in 9 out of 10 cases it's over feeding.

I have a massive amount of zoas growing in a 50g cube and I run a refugium. I quit measuring phosphates years ago. The only times I have nuisance algae issues is when I run a system without a refugium.

 

[lapin]

.........Is this normal and just part of the tank cycling and settling down?

Its all perfectly normal. Until your tank is 6 months to a year old its going to have all kinds of algae and stuff grow.
Just follow the advice of mta_morrow