Question about nitrates and algae

[Rctreece]

So I got my n03 up to 5 and my Po4 up to .02. Everything looked great but I went on vacation and came back to a large hair algae issue. I was able to tame it but my nitrate went to zero and po4 to .01. I left my skimmer off for the last three days trying to increase my nitrate and only got to 1 but now the algae is coming back. Do I run the skimmer or what? I want alittle algae but I want nitrates around 5. Thanks everyone

 

[mcarroll]

Not sure what's going on with the tank. Why are you manipulating nutrient levels to begin with? How old is this tank? Can you give a summary on the tank's history?

 

[jsker]

How long has the system been setup?

 

[Rctreece]

3 months
history https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/red-sea-max-s-500-build.395446/

I want some nitrates cause my corals do better with alittle

 

[lapin]

I read your tank build and this thread. Not to be a jerk, but I feel you are adding way to much to a tank that is 2 months old. You dont need to dose anything. What you do want to do is "regular water changes" for a few months until your tank starts to mature. By mature I mean stabilize. You can start dosing and all that fancy stuff when your tank needs it. Most tanks that will be 6 month to a year. You had temp issues, dosing issues, algae, coral and fish treatment issues. Some of this is normal for a new tank. Some of it is caused by us trying to hard to make things perfect.
If fish are in QT the TTM will get rid of ich and you dont have to add chemicals. Prazi will help with worms or flukes, if you have them. It can make a fish not want to eat. Copper is very harsh on fish and unless your fish is sick there is not reason to use this. I would stop dosing everything. Manual removal of algae and the use of some snails, over time will help get rid of your hair issue. Unless you have something else to take up nutrients, it or some other stuff will grow. Coral will take up some nutrients but algae is a lot better at it. 90% of corals we have in our tanks will be just fine with regular water changes and proper lighting.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Slow down! Unless you have a lot of previous reefing experience, and I mean A LOT, then you are moving too fast. A new tank can be cycled in days, but that's far from meaning it's ready for anything you want to throw at it. New tanks have algae blooms and bacteria blooms to deal with over the first 6 months. I don't consider a tank 'mature' until it's 6 months old at the very bare minimum and probably more like a year or more. That doesn't mean you can do anything with it, it just means do everything very slowly and be prepared for ths likelihood of algae.

 

[Rctreece]

I read your tank build and this thread. Not to be a jerk, but I feel you are adding way to much to a tank that is 2 months old. You dont need to dose anything. What you do want to do is "regular water changes" for a few months until your tank starts to mature. By mature I mean stabilize. You can start dosing and all that fancy stuff when your tank needs it. Most tanks that will be 6 month to a year. You had temp issues, dosing issues, algae, coral and fish treatment issues. Some of this is normal for a new tank. Some of it is caused by us trying to hard to make things perfect.
If fish are in QT the TTM will get rid of ich and you dont have to add chemicals. Prazi will help with worms or flukes, if you have them. It can make a fish not want to eat. Copper is very harsh on fish and unless your fish is sick there is not reason to use this. I would stop dosing everything. Manual removal of algae and the use of some snails, over time will help get rid of your hair issue. Unless you have something else to take up nutrients, it or some other stuff will grow. Coral will take up some nutrients but algae is a lot better at it. 90% of corals we have in our tanks will be just fine with regular water changes and proper lighting.

Slow down! Unless you have a lot of previous reefing experience, and I mean A LOT, then you are moving too fast. A new tank can be cycled in days, but that's far from meaning it's ready for anything you want to throw at it. New tanks have algae blooms and bacteria blooms to deal with over the first 6 months. I don't consider a tank 'mature' until it's 6 months old at the very bare minimum and probably more like a year or more. That doesn't mean you can do anything with it, it just means do everything very slowly and be prepared for ths likelihood of algae.

Thanks for the info guys. I appreciate any advise. I am kind of rushing and I know that nothing good ever happens fast with a reef tank but I think I do have it going pretty good now. I wanted corals and fish and understood that I would have to deal with new tank issues. For the most part all of them have worked out. The tank looks great, my corals are starting to show some growth and my fish are alive and appear to be happy. This post was to simply raise my NO3 and PO4 slightly to improve the corals which did happen when I was away from the tank on vacation but I ended up with a lot of hair algae. I do want some for my fish but it was looking rough. I was able to remove most manually and I added some vibrant which had taken care of the rest but my levels went to almost zero which I understand why. I have stopped dosing anything now to get my alk and cal daily uptake and will dose Kalk to handle those. I also have changed my skimmer from running 24/7 to 12/7 to try and regulate my NO3 and PO4. As for the water changes, they happen every Friday night and I have my temp stable at 79 since I added a fan to my sump and keep my house HVAC at 75 deg.

As for QT, I still follow the directions I found on Advanced Aquarist and a podcast where I QT for 4 weeks using Prazi and Cuplimine (not sure of the spelling). This has worked for me in the past and for many others that follow the author. I have five fish in the tank now along with CUC and five more in QT that will be added late Aug early Sep.

 

[Katrina71]

Embrace the uglies! Buy Coral to compliment it!

 

[lzrlvr]

Maybe you should not start a system and go on vacation.

 

[Rctreece]

Maybe you should not start a system and go on vacation.

Maybe I should and I did. Everything worked out fine

 

[lzrlvr]

Cool

 

[biophilia]

Your nutrient levels probably matter a lot less than the density of herbivores you have in the system. My 10 gallon tank has no visible hair algae at all, but would be completely covered in a weeks time if I got rid of all of my hermits and other grazers. I keep my NO3 around 15ppm and PO4 around 0.02-0.05ppm, but specific numbers don't matter all that much within reason -- as long as there is some available in the water column and things are kept relatively stable.