Nitrate and phosphate 0

[FRANK48]

My nitrates and and phosphates are zero and I think it’s because of hair algae but whenever I read phosphate before it was always zero. My corals are doing fine though. How do I get my phosphate and nitrate back up?

 

[T-J]

Clear out the algae first. If you try raising your N and P with algae in the tank, you're only going to continue to feed it.

 

[FRANK48]

Clear out the algae first. If you try raising your N and P with algae in the tank, you're only going to continue to feed it.

Yes, green hair algae. How do I rid of it

 

[Rubberfrog]

Big crew of snails and hermits

 

[T-J]

Yes, green hair algae. How do I rid of it

Turbo snails can clear it out, as long as it's not too long. You can pull as much by hand and let the snails take care of the rest. Depending on what's in your tank, there are other things you can do as well, such as turning off lights and doing a blackout for several days, or peroxide treatment.
Pic of the tank?

 

[T-J]

Also, how old is the tank?

 

[FRANK48]

Also, how old is the tank?

5 months old

 

[FRANK48]

Turbo snails can clear it out, as long as it's not too long. You can pull as much by hand and let the snails take care of the rest. Depending on what's in your tank, there are other things you can do as well, such as turning off lights and doing a blackout for several days, or peroxide treatment.
Pic of the tank?

Might get some turbo snails but is there anything I could dose to get rid of it?

 

[FRANK48]

Also, how old is the tank?

Sorry it’s actually 6 months

 

[QuarantinedCorals]

Hey man, you can try fluxrx. I used it on a jbj45 and it cleared the hair algae, took 2 doses but it worked well. I had bryopsis in my frag tank, flux rx also cleared that out too, its reef safe too I think itll work well for you. Just remove carbon and turn off your skimmer. As far as 0 nutrients, I have 0 nitrate and very low phosphate (0.02-0.04) and I feed really heavily, I dose potassium nitrate now for nitrates, works really well. Good luck!

 

[attiland]

Sorry it’s actually 6 months

5 or 6 make no difference. It is young. You had excellent advice. Get some snails and remove by hand. Don’t dose anything just yet.

 

[Just John]

If it is too long the snails will not eat it. If you can't pull it short enough, you can turn off the pump, cut it short with scissors and scoop out what you cut off. If they still don't touch it because it's too thick, you can use a stiff brush, such as a firm toothbrush or nail brush, to scrub it a bit. Reef flux should work, but be patient. You probably won't see any change for at least a couple of days.

 

[Sdot]

A bit of advice....try natural solutions before you add chemicals to your tank. Hair algae are one of the few nuisance that are relatively easy to rid your tank of, as many mentioned snails are a great choice....for the real bad outbreaks Sea Hares are MVP's.

 

[Just John]

A bit of advice....try natural solutions before you add chemicals to your tank. Hair algae are one of the few nuisance that are relatively easy to rid your tank of, as many mentioned snails are a great choice....for the real bad outbreaks Sea Hares are MVP's.

...but must be returned to the store when the job is done or they will starve to death

 

[Sebastiancrab]

I agree with sdot. I got rid of it by scrubbing the rocks and vacuuming two or three times a week. You can also turn your lights down for three days. Turn off the red, green and white entirely during this time. I had zero nitrate and low phosphate which set me up for the next problem - dinos! So, don't use chemicals yet. Turn your skimmer off periodically and add some more fish food.

 

[t5Nitro]

How do you guys go about finding a good supply of snails that don't die off in 2 weeks? Maybe something in my water is hurting them. Have 2 tuxedo urchins over a year and doing well. Can't keep snails alive long at all, so my CUC is always missing.

 

[QuarantinedCorals]

I qt everything that goes in my tank so there's always a wait time before something can go into my tank, all the sites that qt fish are great but often times don't have the fish i want or need in stock. Feeding more wasn't doing anything for my tank so i decided to add potassium nitrate to raise nitrates, however, i do agree with everyone saying its best to add nitrates naturally, more fish, more food is always better. As for green hair algae, try the many solutions offered, but remember it gets better don't be discouraged your tank is still on the newer side!

 

[Reef.]

Do you have any corals?

to be honest you need to work out why you have the algae with such a young tank, yes young tanks go through an ugly stage but yours sounds more than that.

You can fix it in many different ways but if you don’t fix the cause it will just happen again and will be much harder to fix with a tank full of fish and corals.

 

[FRANK48]

Do you have any corals?

to be honest you need to work out why you have the algae with such a young tank, yes young tanks go through an ugly stage but yours sounds more than that.

You can fix it in many different ways but if you don’t fix the cause it will just happen again and will be much harder to fix with a tank full of fish and corals.

Yes I have about 6 corals

 

[Reef.]

Yes I have about 6 corals

Probably best not dosing anything yet then, see how you go with manual removal, and a good cuc, it will take time though.

Really important to remove as much as possible as any that is left in the tank and dies will just release all the nutrients back into the water.

Use a small sand siphon, in the same hand pull the algae off and straight into the siphon. If possible better to remove the rock and scrub it off, your corals should be ok for a good few minutes out of water


Remember that your tests will be incorrect whilst the algae is there as it will be using the PO4 and the nitrates.

As said you really do need to work out how it got out of control to stop it happening again.

Hard to give exact advice as no picture or details on the tank for more individual advice.