Tank question about po4

[Andreaitaly]

Hi guys...i cant Understand if in my tank there are po4 ...my test (tropic Marin)Say no....also no3 ...but i have algae and color look like pale...and no calcium decrease only kh...my parameter are Ca 500 mg 1380 kh 8
Tank ora around 400 liter
Flow 2 jebao rw8 and One aqamai kpm
Salinity 1025 34 % and temp 25degree .
4 fish.
But not grow any sps
I begin to feed heavy fish and also use easyreef sps...Every day ...
Plus Coral grow from Coral essential....but......i dont know to read my tank..

 

[Andreaitaly]

I want to Say i use 8*39 T5 4 Blue plus One actinic geismann One Power crome and two Coral plus

 

[Andreaitaly]

Up

 

[boxed_reef]

How old is the tank? I’m guessing under a year and started with dry rock? Your algae is likely not due to nutrients, it’s due to a weak biofilter, allowing trace amounts of ammonia that feeds the algae with no other competition. I’d recommend continued dosing of bacterial supplements like microbacter7. Low nutrients and new tanks make sps especially hard. Just let the tank mature a bit more

 

[Andreaitaly]

Is true 8 months...but tell me....what i must to do?? Continue with sps food??put off carbon?make more light hours?

How old is the tank? I’m guessing under a year and started with dry rock? Your algae is likely not due to nutrients, it’s due to a weak biofilter, allowing trace amounts of ammonia that feeds the algae with no other competition. I’d recommend continued dosing of bacterial supplements like microbacter7. Low nutrients and new tanks make sps especially hard. Just let the tank mature a bit more

 

[StlSalt]

Also the algea is probably taking the PO4 and NO3 out of the water so it won't show up on any test.

 

[Andreaitaly]

Also the algea is probably taking the PO4 and NO3 out of the water so it won't show up on any test.

Is ok ...but the Question Is...what to do??

 

[HuduVudu]

You need to out compete the algae with other things. Live rock will help immensely with this.

It doesn't seem that you are in the U.S. so I am not sure how you would go about creating the biodiversity in your tank to limit the dominance of particular algaes.

 

[CoralClasher]

Pictures with just white lights on will help us see.

 

[Andreaitaly]

Im in Italy....and yes i start my tank wiy dead rock

 

[HuduVudu]

You need to try to find good live rock where you live. Italy has a very good salt water community, so I am confident that you can find people there that will point you in the right direction.

You can look at my build thread to see the rock that I got from Florida and what you should be looking for. I am not sure about the fish stores there, but beware of rock from stores. In the U.S. the stores don't really sell live rock they sell dead rock with bacteria. This is NOT what you want.

 

[S.Pepper]

Is true 8 months...but tell me....what i must to do?? Continue with sps food??put off carbon?make more light hours?

I'm basically in your position. My tank is about 1 year old and moderate amounts of algae--but still an issue. I've never received any positive test for any po4. I'm sure the algae is eating it up. I have seen coraline algae growth, but it ends up being taken over by GHA. I started up an ATS last week and i'll see how this works. GL

 

[boxed_reef]

Dose bacteria supplements weekly. Clean any detritus buildup, especially in sump. Stop the coral foods (aminos may be ok). Cut back on mechanical filtration, remove filter socks and skim drier etc... Keep it simple and just allow the tank to mature

 

[92Miata]

Ammonia really isn't the issue - and neither is biofilter. This has nothing to do with biodiversity - its a localized problem specific to dry rock.

Aragonite binds and buffers phosphate. In a mature reef tank, with mature live rock - much of the aragonite is sealed off behind coraline algae, coral tissue, and other surface organisms.

In a relatively new dry rock tank, its not. There's just bare aragonite sitting there absorbing phosphate. Hair algae starts to grow on the rock - and has free access to that phosphate. As the hair algae grows longer, it starts catching detritus from the water column and makes things worse.


Dry rock tanks aren't like live rock tanks because of this - you can't really just wait it out like you would in a live rock tank - hair algae will win because it'll keep catching more food. Get in there with a toothbrush/siphon and keep removing as much as you can - and do everything you can to help coraline and corals grow. This will keep being a problem until there are things growing on the rock that can crowd out the algae.

 

[HuduVudu]

This has nothing to do with biodiversity - its a localized problem specific to dry rock.

This is a bold statement and one that I disagree with completely. I can count less stars than people with dead rock starts with algae problems. Funny though I never see people using legit live rock complain about algae.

In a mature reef tank, with mature live rock - much of the aragonite is sealed off behind coraline algae, coral tissue, and other surface organisms.

And here you contradict what you just said. Biodiversity is what seals off the rock, though I do not agree that is the reason for lack of algae.

I fought this problem for many years. Here is a tank 25 years ago that I was dealing with this problem. It was in every tank that I built until I figured out what was going on. Even then I had a tank were I took it for granted and got the same result.

 

[HuduVudu]

This what I have today. This live rock is 3 weeks old. You can see the mix of dead and live.

25ppm Nitrate ... Dosing 10ml phyto per day.

 

[92Miata]

This is a bold statement and one that I disagree with completely. I can count less stars than people with dead rock starts with algae problems. Funny though I never see people using legit live rock complain about algae.



And here you contradict what you just said. Biodiversity is what seals off the rock, though I do not agree that is the reason for lack of algae.

I fought this problem for many years. Here is a tank 25 years ago that I was dealing with this problem. It was in every tank that I built until I figured out what was going on. Even then I had a tank were I took it for granted and got the same result.

I'm not contradicting myself at all.

Biodiversity doesn't seal rock, coraline does. There's no special sauce in live rock that prevents algae - you don't need to get all sorts of special bacteria specie and critters - its coraline and corals. Its a handful of specific organisms that consume nitrates and phosphates, and actively kill algae when growing well that do it.


Live rock works well not because it has 'biodiversity' - it works well because it has competitors/consumers on the surface. IE, coraline.



I've got a tank that has half live rock and half dry - anything in there that's the slightest bit motile is on both types of rock at this point - including bacteria. The tank has plenty of 'biodiversity' because I added a whole bunch of fresh-from-the-ocean aquacultured rock.


But algae still grows like a weed - but ONLY on the dry rock. Its not a biodiversity problem - its a bare-surface issue. There's an open, localized, high-phosphate niche that algae can take advantage of.

You can add all the bacteria species in the world and it won't fix that. Time and corraline will. Its not about biodiversity - its about consumer bioMASS.

 

[Andreaitaly]

And Will be good idea ti dose carbon ..nopox of Red Sea?

 

[boxed_reef]

do not carbon dose!!

 

[boxed_reef]

I'm not contradicting myself at all.

Biodiversity doesn't seal rock, coraline does. There's no special sauce in live rock that prevents algae - you don't need to get all sorts of special bacteria specie and critters - its coraline and corals. Its a handful of specific organisms that consume nitrates and phosphates, and actively kill algae when growing well that do it.


Live rock works well not because it has 'biodiversity' - it works well because it has competitors/consumers on the surface. IE, coraline.



I've got a tank that has half live rock and half dry - anything in there that's the slightest bit motile is on both types of rock at this point - including bacteria. The tank has plenty of 'biodiversity' because I added a whole bunch of fresh-from-the-ocean aquacultured rock.


But algae still grows like a weed - but ONLY on the dry rock. Its not a biodiversity problem - its a bare-surface issue. There's an open, localized, high-phosphate niche that algae can take advantage of.

You can add all the bacteria species in the world and it won't fix that. Time and corraline will. Its not about biodiversity - its about consumer bioMASS.

the secret sauce of live rock absolutely is the bacteria and microfauna. They are consumers that fill a void, outcompeting algae