Nutrients and Algae

[bowen1022]

Hey all I have a few questions. I just tested my water parameters and I have undetectable nitrates and phosphates but I have a bit of algae growing and glass dusting everyday. I know that algae absorbs nutrients. I run GFO and Carbon (would love to stop) as well as Aquaforest probiotic method minus the carbon.

My questions
1. How can I stop algae from growing? My nutrients are undetectable so what are the next steps?

2. I want to raise my nutrient levels eventually (for coral health) but I don't know how to do this without causing more algae breakouts.

Thanks in advance to anyone that wants to help out!

 

[twilliard]

Hey all I have a few questions. I just tested my water parameters and I have undetectable nitrates and phosphates but I have a bit of algae growing and glass dusting everyday. I know that algae absorbs nutrients. I run GFO and Carbon (would love to stop) as well as Aquaforest probiotic method minus the carbon.

My questions
1. How can I stop algae from growing? My nutrients are undetectable so what are the next steps?

2. I want to raise my nutrient levels eventually (for coral health) but I don't know how to do this without causing more algae breakouts.

Thanks in advance to anyone that wants to help out!

I would suspect you have some 6500-10k spectrum goin on.
Don't get caught up in the No3-Po4 vrs algae as most tend to focus and blame in this scenario
What algae are you dealing with?

 

[bowen1022]

I would suspect you have some 6500-10k spectrum goin on.
Don't get caught up in the No3-Po4 vrs algae as most tend to focus and blame in this scenario
What algae are you dealing with?

Dealing with hair algae of different types.

My lighting is ATI 4x24w with 2 KZ Super Blue, 1 KZ New Generation, 1 ATI Actinic if I remember right
Bulbs are less than 6 months old

 

[twilliard]

Have you done any H2O2 rock treatment?
When dealing with algae it is best to take it one step at a time. The rock is a huge source of possibilities for algae reproduction.

 

[bowen1022]

Have you done any H2O2 rock treatment?
When dealing with algae it is best to take it one step at a time. The rock is a huge source of possibilities for algae reproduction.

I did a while ago but only to half of my rock. Algae is starting to grow on those ones again. I guess I can try to do all of them. How will it effect bio filtration

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Nutrients can be low BECAUSE there is so much algae taking them up.

 

[twilliard]

When spotting rock treatment there is minimal impact. The goal is to treat areas until all areas have been treated.
Eventually you will overcome the spread of the algae.
In my tank once I reached this point I treated the water for any remaining free algae

 

[bowen1022]

When spotting rock treatment there is minimal impact. The goal is to treat areas until all areas have been treated.
Eventually you will overcome the spread of the algae.
In my tank once I reached this point I treated the water for any remaining free algae

I know about algae soaking up nutrients but does it make the nutrients actually that low or does it create a "fake" low nutrient.

When I do this h2o2 treatment will nutrients rise or stay low? And how can I prevent this from happening again? By the way thanks for the help!

 

[twilliard]

Algae will uptake the No3 or Po4 depending on its needs as it differs between algae types. Yes when you start to kill off the algae you may see a rise in either No3 and/or Po4
The trick to preventing it is to not introduce it.
All algae can be killed off, I have been algae free for several years using my methods.

 

[bowen1022]

Algae will uptake the No3 or Po4 depending on its needs as it differs between algae types. Yes when you start to kill off the algae you may see a rise in either No3 and/or Po4
The trick to preventing it is to not introduce it.
All algae can be killed off, I have been algae free for several years using my methods.

Wonderful. Thanks again twillard. I will scrub rocks with h2o2 tonight and will hopefully can get things back to normal

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I know about algae soaking up nutrients but does it make the nutrients actually that low or does it create a "fake" low nutrient.

When I do this h2o2 treatment will nutrients rise or stay low? And how can I prevent this from happening again? By the way thanks for the help!

It makes them low. That is why people use macroalgae and algal turf scrubbers.

Killing algae will make nutrients rise.

 

[bowen1022]

It makes them low. That is why people use macroalgae and algal turf scrubbers.

Killing algae will make nutrients rise.

Do you think scrubbing rocks is a good solution or do you have another idea?

 

[twilliard]

Do you think scrubbing rocks is a good solution or do you have another idea?

scrubbing the rock may spread it. Spot treat and don't scrub it

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I stripped the nutrients this year from the tank with my refugium and tank alge. Yes. The bad algae and yes It kept growing. But. Once I scrubbed the heck out of it it didn't come back and yea I did have to scrup it a few times. BUT. What I did was to use a cheap canister filter with floss only and run it while I scrubbed. Amazing. Took an hour or so to clear the water. Takes about two gallons to run it and the rest I did a water change with. I did spot treat some of the rock or dip and scrub out side the tank in a light peroxide rinse but it worked great.
I kept the can on for a couple days on the week end and kept stirring scrubbing and blowing stuff off. Be a bit more cautious w bubble algaes. That stuff is nasty.
My new motto is get it on the ropes and kill it while it's down. Seemed to work ok for me.

Bryopsis on the other hand. That's a tough one and a whole other thread.

I did keep the same basic feeding regimen the whole time as I have hungry fish and coral. Once I was done the nutrients slowly rose to normal levels. I saw no detectable spikes just happier zoas.