Pretty confused here

[Thewatchmangoby]

So i have algae in my tank. Its im guessing diatoms and hair algae, its 3 month old tank.

My phosphates and nitrates were undetectable. So i took my gfo and skimmer offline. I noticed my corals were doing better and colouring up. My phosphates were still undetectable so i ordered some seachem phosphorus , as soon as i started dosing i noticed immediately my lps were much happier.

But now what the heck do i do.

Cuz i aint i just feeding the algae as well?

I have vibrant and i when i dosed it it seemed to thin down the algae( i only used half dose).
So if i use more vibrant wont it defeat the purpose of adding phosphorus and more nitrate, essentially removing it?

My zoas are doing good and great colour even though surrounded by algae but its gotta go.

 

[Retro Reefer]

Get yourself a large diverse clean up crew.. depending on severity of algae outbreak you will need as many as 1-2 pieces per gallon.

 

[NS Mike D]

how are you testing for PO4? API test kits are not sensitive enough for reef tanks?

IMO, good coral husbandry is the long term solution to algae control. What are your nitrates? Nuisance algae can out compete corals in the absence of NO3 - for example cyano (which can look like dinos) can use dissolved nitrogen when no or little NO3 is present.

 

[KrisReef]

To add nutrients, I like to feed my fish and coral more. It's not as scientific as dosing and Vibrant, but it avoids the paradox you are posting. Plus my fish and corals feeding is more enjoyable to watch than dosing.
I do add nitrates now and again, but usually, I feed heavier and let the food do the nutrient inputs for the tank.

 

[Thewatchmangoby]

how are you testing for PO4? API test kits are not sensitive enough for reef tanks?

IMO, good coral husbandry is the long term solution to algae control. What are your nitrates? Nuisance algae can out compete corals in the absence of NO3 - for example cyano (which can look like dinos) can use dissolved nitrogen when no or little NO3 is present.

I have nyos test kit.
I have good water husbandry as well but aint i just removing nutrients everytime i water change subsequently starving my corals? I just noticed that when my nutrients and dosing phosphate went up my corals looked way way happier. But my algae is still here. Ive also heard of people dosing nitrate to get rid of alga3!!
You know my lfs had an algae issue with a new tank setup and they were just gonna shut it down cuz they couldnt figure it out but an employee suggested loading the tank with coral and that worked. I dont have much coral at all just zoa frags and a couple lps frags in a 25g. I dodnr want to add more lps until i could figure stuff out but maybe i should to compete with the algae?

 

[Thewatchmangoby]

Get yourself a large diverse clean up crew.. depending on severity of algae outbreak you will need as many as 1-2 pieces per gallon.

I bought a bunch of turbos but they take too many dang breaks.

 

[NS Mike D]

You know my lfs had an algae issue with a new tank setup and they were just gonna shut it down cuz they couldnt figure it out but an employee suggested loading the tank with coral and that worked. I dont have much coral at all just zoa frags and a couple lps frags in a 25g. I dodnr want to add more lps until i could figure stuff out but maybe i should to compete with the algae?

get good readings on your tank. a lot if information out their what is good NO3 and PO4 - I use Red Seas Published mixed tank target numbers

https://www.redseafish.com/reef-care-recipes/


take it from there, if your tank is within reasonable numbers for corals, then no reason to not add some more forgiving corals. Some of the "weed" corals are great - just isolate them on a rock to control their spreading.

fwiw, when I think of coral out-competing alage, not only to I think of nutrients but I also think in terms of rock space. Thats while O love zoas, gsp, favia etc anything that will cover rock and force algae out of the neighborhood.

but be advised, I have a decent amount of red turf and gha in my tank. (I'm trying to do too much in one 29 gal tank - softies, lps, sps fish and a madarin - keeping the mandarin fed in a nano with SPS is a hefty challenge) but I'm taking a long term approach and not sweating the algae. Eventually, corals will spread over the rocks, meanwhile I brush the affected rocks each week along with the water change, change the filter socks twice a week and understand that it takes time to swing the territory balance in favor of corals. On the plus side, my cyano has receded back to a faint shading the corners of the tank.

 

[Flippers4pups]

get good readings on your tank. a lot if information out their what is good NO3 and PO4 - I use Red Seas Published mixed tank target numbers

https://www.redseafish.com/reef-care-recipes/


take it from there, if your tank is within reasonable numbers for corals, then no reason to not add some more forgiving corals. Some of the "weed" corals are great - just isolate them on a rock to control their spreading.

fwiw, when I think of coral out-competing alage, not only to I think of nutrients but I also think in terms of rock space. Thats while O love zoas, gsp, favia etc anything that will cover rock and force algae out of the neighborhood

Redseas suggestion on pramameters are good. Even elevated N03 above what they recommend is fine as long as P04 is available.

Keeping N03 above P04 will help against nuisance algaes.