Please help Iding this algae (brown hairy) :(

kevsqn · May 9, 2020

This is taken on 100% white light and some blue lights. its kinda brown in color. from what i can tell theres no bubbles on the hairs.
when i tested po4 on hanna it says 0. nitrate is also very at around 1-2ppm.
i do water change every month. system is 250 gallon. no refugium. only skimmer, carbon, gfo, and carbon dosing (aquaforst nitraphos+ Pro Bio S).

Webslinger · May 9, 2020

brown algae, feed less WEEKLY 10% water changes

waleedreef · May 9, 2020

increase phosphate to 0.05 - 0.1 and nitrate 10 ppm.

kevsqn · May 10, 2020

waleedreef said:
increase phosphate to 0.05 - 0.1 and nitrate 10 ppm.

surely i have phosphates and nitrates right? because of the algae. but my readings p04(hanna) is 0. and nitrate is also pretty low

Webslinger · May 10, 2020

don't go chasing numbers. I it's easier to water change.

JonoB · May 10, 2020

Don't chase numbers....but also its ok to have a goal and stick to that...and maintain it I would think?

I have the same kind of stuff, and while my nitrate and phosphate were at 0, I got Dinos. I got them back up and stable and the Dinos have gone away, but I still have the brown hairy stuff.

waleedreef · May 10, 2020

kevsqn said:
surely i have phosphates and nitrates right? because of the algae. but my readings p04(hanna) is 0. and nitrate is also pretty low

if you have phosphate higher than 0.1 or less than 0.05 ppm you will have algae or bacteria. you need to balance nutrients. you need to pump nitrate up to 10 ppm. you can dose BrightWell Nitnetro or potassium nitrate from greenleafaquarium.com which is better and faster than BrightWell.

for phosphate, you need to lower your filtering system. what you are using for phosphate remover?

Buckyfan · May 10, 2020

kevsqn said:
surely i have phosphates and nitrates right? because of the algae. but my readings p04(hanna) is 0. and nitrate is also pretty low

I was thinking the same thing. I know people recommend not having water parameters be zero because then people get dinos, but the advice of raising nitrates and phosphates to get rid of the algae and the separate advice of doing water changes are the exact opposite aren't they?
Won't doing water changes bring parameters down and doing less water changes will bring them up? So which is it? Or is the suggestion to do more water changes but dose phosphate and nitrate?I'm not challenging anybody I'm trying to understand the concept.

waleedreef · May 10, 2020

Buckyfan said:
I was thinking the same thing. I know people recommend not having water parameters be zero because then people get dinos, but the advice of raising nitrates and phosphates to get rid of the algae and the separate advice of doing water changes are the exact opposite aren't they?
Won't doing water changes bring parameters down and doing less water changes will bring them up? So which is it? Or is the suggestion to do more water changes but dose phosphate and nitrate?I'm not challenging anybody I'm trying to understand the concept.

the concept is you to need to balance nutrients. Nutrients IN = Nutrients OUT.

higher or less nutrients = algae/bacteria.

you can use GFO to balance phosphate but not to lower it to 0.

for nitrate, you need to keep it 5-10 ppm , not higher or lower. if it's lower, you can dose nitrate, or higher you can upgrade skimmer or use bio-pellet reactor or carbon dosing.

or you can follow Redfield ratio.