SPS are pale, zero nitrates and still have algae.

[kindafun]

So bringing up nutrients is correct answer and just deal with the resulting algae? Does that mean I should also eliminate the refugium for the time being to stop it from consuming nutrients?

My phosphate and nitrate are much higher and I don't have an algae problem. In a 100 gal display I do have a Foxface, a tang, and a bunch of trochus snails, but no algae. Likewise in a frag tank I have a foxface, but no algae, and nutrients are elevated. Nitrate about 30, phosphate at 0.2. I've read in Shane Backer's High End Tennis Hoarder thread that he has run as high at 30 nitrate and 0.2 phosphate. Not saying it's ideal, but running at 0, or sketchy close to it can be a problem. Bottoming out is harmful for the corals and it can bring out the dinos.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

Lower light length in refugium, remove what you can and increase cleanup crew.

Lowering the light length will have less photo period for the algae to collect energy.

Removing manually what you can will help reduce nitrate intake as there will be less algae to consume.

Increasing cleanup crew that focuses on algae eating and turning the sand will help keep the tank clean by eating breaking down the algae and turning it into nutrients in tank as well as sand sifters turning bed over constantly to smother and release so it will break loose and hopefully flow down into sump filter.

 

[KatoJoe]

One error I made was not using the Hanna checker correctly for Nitrate and Phosphorus. Just to check: When you add the vial with reagent at step C2, do you hold down the button on the reader to start the countdown timer? I went for half a year not doing that step right!

Yes, it goes through a 7 minute countdown for nitrates and 3 minutes for phosphate.

 

[KatoJoe]

How much do you guys typically feed? How many times per day and how much per serving? I’m feeding once a day in the evening and it’s usually four or five pinches of PE pellets. I supplement with frozen mysis a few times a week and nori sheets twice a week for the tangs. There’s a powder blue tang, white tail bristletooth tang, coral beauty angel, two clownfish and two small purple basslets I believe.

 

[KatoJoe]

And if it’s of any importance to this discussion, this tank was started with all dry rock. I added a few bio balls from one of my lfs established systems but nothing with any microfauna. I’ve added pods in the past and I still see them here and there. This tank is void of any bristle worms, brittle starfish or anything else you’d get on good old live rock.

 

[ryanjohn1]

And if it’s of any importance to this discussion, this tank was started with all dry rock. I added a few bio balls from one of my lfs established systems but nothing with any microfauna. I’ve added pods in the past and I still see them here and there. This tank is void of any bristle worms, brittle starfish or anything else you’d get on good old live rock.

Personally I feed 3 times a day. 2 times of pellets via auto feeder and frozen mysis in evening. I had problems with low nutrients as well. Backed off skimming to 6 hours a week. Dosed nitrate till I was sustaining

 

[KatoJoe]

Personally I feed 3 times a day. 2 times of pellets via auto feeder and frozen mysis in evening. I had problems with low nutrients as well. Backed off skimming to 6 hours a week. Dosed nitrate till I was sustaining

Thanks, gives me a reference to gauge what I’m doing.

How often did you test nitrate when dosing? Did you have/maintain a water change schedule? How long did you have to dose until you started sustaining nitrates? I assume once you sustained nitrates you were able to stop dosing? Did you have an increase in nuisance algae during this time? lol, sorry for the run of questions, just want to set my expectations. Thanks!

 

[Saltees]

A month or 2 earlier, I started my SPS tank (RSR500P), with Bleached Tonga branches with Caribsea Ocean Direct Live Sand and 2kg of SIPORAX from my fish holding tank. The only filter I have is the Chaeto ball, pretty much same size as yours. I was pleasantly surprised that the tank was cycled in a week, and I added fishes and SPS thereafter. My SPS were all brown initially, but they’re showing colors of late. I’m dosing a 6ml AFR, 3ml BW ChaetoGr, 20ml AB+ and 2 drops TM Iodine daily. I do feed my fishes very heavy with TDO ChromaBoost Pellets 9 x daily with AFS and 2 HIKARI Mysis Cubes. There’s no algae issue in my display, thanks to my 4 Tangs, 20 Trochus, 10 Nassarius and 2 Tuxedo.

I hope it helps.

 

[billyocean]

The low nutrients are a problem as previously stated but there could be more afoot. I've seen where people feeding an outside line to a skimmer has caused problems before. I think I saw you run it 6 or so hours at night. Remove the airline from outside for a while a see if that helps also....one less source. So raise nutrients, icp, remove airline would be my starting point.

 

[ryanjohn1]

Thanks, gives me a reference to gauge what I’m doing.

How often did you test nitrate when dosing? Did you have/maintain a water change schedule? How long did you have to dose until you started sustaining nitrates? I assume once you sustained nitrates you were able to stop dosing? Did you have an increase in nuisance algae during this time? lol, sorry for the run of questions, just want to set my expectations. Thanks!

Tested and dosed once a week. Used the nyos brand as it seems to be the cleanest. Not a noticeable increase of nuisance algae. I’ve basically got zero of it. 3-4 week wc schedule. Bout 100 gallons total in system. 5-10 gallon change. I would say about 6 weeks of dosing. Here’s a tank pic so I’m not just talking sht

 

[ryanjohn1]

A month or 2 earlier, I started my SPS tank (RSR500P), with Bleached Tonga branches with Caribsea Ocean Direct Live Sand and 2kg of SIPORAX from my fish holding tank. The only filter I have is the Chaeto ball, pretty much same size as yours. I was pleasantly surprised that the tank was cycled in a week, and I added fishes and SPS thereafter. My SPS were all brown initially, but they’re showing colors of late. I’m dosing a 6ml AFR, 3ml BW ChaetoGr, 20ml AB+ and 2 drops TM Iodine daily. I do feed my fishes heavy with TDO ChromaBoost Pellets and HIKARI Mysis Cubes. There’s no algae issue in my display, thanks to my 4 Tangs, 20 Trochus, 10 Nassarius and 2 Tuxedo.

I hope it helps.

That’s gonna look dope when those get big. Nice tank

 

[Reeferbadness]

I had a similar problem with acros and 0 nitrate. I found the issue was with my refugium - too much chaeto sucking all nitrate out of the tank. I would advise taking down the chaeto to a 1/4 of the size and you could consider using something like NeoNitrate. I did this and my acros immediately responded and started coloring up. My nitrates continue to be low but much more managable and easy to slowly raise with NeoNitrate (.5 per day if you follow the directions).

 

[KatoJoe]

A month or 2 earlier, I started my SPS tank (RSR500P), with Bleached Tonga branches with Caribsea Ocean Direct Live Sand and 2kg of SIPORAX from my fish holding tank. The only filter I have is the Chaeto ball, pretty much same size as yours. I was pleasantly surprised that the tank was cycled in a week, and I added fishes and SPS thereafter. My SPS were all brown initially, but they’re showing colors of late. I’m dosing a 6ml AFR, 3ml BW ChaetoGr, 20ml AB+ and 2 drops TM Iodine daily. I do feed my fishes very heavy with TDO ChromaBoost Pellets 9 x daily with AFS and 2 HIKARI Mysis Cubes. There’s no algae issue in my display, thanks to my 4 Tangs, 20 Trochus, 10 Nassarius and 2 Tuxedo.

I hope it helps.

Thanks for the reply. Lots of info there to dissect. By the way, nice looking tank!

 

[KatoJoe]

I had a similar problem with acros and 0 nitrate. I found the issue was with my refugium - too much chaeto sucking all nitrate out of the tank. I would advise taking down the chaeto to a 1/4 of the size and you could consider using something like NeoNitrate. I did this and my acros immediately responded and started coloring up. My nitrates continue to be low but much more managable and easy to slowly raise with NeoNitrate (.5 per day if you follow the directions).

Yeah the consensus seems to be to get the nutrients up. I’ve known this, just struggled with the concept of adding more nutrients when I’m not having a problem growing algae. Lol! Thought that if I just removed the algae the nutrients would come up without me having to add more. I already have NeoNitro and NeoPhos. Gonna put pellets on an auto feeder during day and feed mysis at night. Lower fuge lighting schedule also. Probably will only adjust one of these at a time to make sure I’m not changing too much too fast.

 

[kindafun]

I've had to dose nitrate and phosphate in the past as things got established, it seems to be a common practice starting with dry rock. This was an issue particularly in the frag system that had ceramic media only instead of live, or dry rock.

 

[KatoJoe]

The low nutrients are a problem as previously stated but there could be more afoot. I've seen where people feeding an outside line to a skimmer has caused problems before. I think I saw you run it 6 or so hours at night. Remove the airline from outside for a while a see if that helps also....one less source. So raise nutrients, icp, remove airline would be my starting point.

thanks, I’ll keep that in mind. I have carbon inline for the intake so I shouldn’t be pulling anything unwanted. I had to do this as my ph was consistently 7.5-7.8. By bringing in outside air for skimmer and running at night as well as dosing alk at night I’ve gotten ph pretty stable around 8.2

 

[billyocean]

thanks, I’ll keep that in mind. I have carbon inline for the intake so I shouldn’t be pulling anything unwanted. I had to do this as my ph was consistently 7.5-7.8. By bringing in outside air for skimmer and running at night as well as dosing alk at night I’ve gotten ph pretty stable around 8.2

How heavy are you dosing alk at night and what kind? Does this give you much alk swing? I ask because acros don't consume much alk at night. Also, did you try adding the alk without the outside line or did you do both at the same time when starting?

 

[KatoJoe]

How heavy are you dosing alk at night and what kind? Does this give you much alk swing? I ask because acros don't consume much alk at night. Also, did you try adding the alk without the outside line or did you do both at the same time when starting?

The tank is consuming around 32ml per day so that’s what I’m dosing. I just do it at night to help stabilize ph. I have not tried without the outside air feed.

 

[billyocean]

The tank is consuming around 32ml per day so that’s what I’m dosing. I just do it at night to help stabilize ph. I have not tried without the outside air feed.

Have you tested the alk swing it causes? 32ml isn't much but if it's causing huge swings it may be a problem also. You doing bi carbonate, carbonate or kalk?

 

[KatoJoe]

Have you tested the alk swing it causes? 32ml isn't much but if it's causing huge swings it may be a problem also. You doing bi carbonate, carbonate or kalk?

Um, just the BRS soda ash. Not sure what it is exactly