Trying to find balance

Kfactor · Mar 23, 2022

Hi all I just have a few questions and hope to get some help with . My tank has been running for around a year now and trying to find balance with parameters . My alk/cal/mag stay stable and test alk and cal 3 times a week and mag once a month . My po4 and no3 is what make me frustrated my po4 I can hold pretty stable but po4 is always bottomed out and never get a reading on it . I also have this algae that I can’t get rid of and am doing weekly wc to suck it out and to keep on top of it so it doesn’t get out of hand . My tank is around 125g total water volume.
My lighting is 2 250w reefbrite hydrides with one kessil a360x in the middle . I only run the mh for 2 1/2 hours a day and kessil and reefbrite strips for 8’hours
Alk holds steady at 7.5
Cal 430
Mag 1280
No3 1 to 0.9
Po4 0
Ph at night stays at 8 and during the day a high of 8.13
I only have 3 small fish in the main display that’s a 90g
I have a refugium that’s around 4 gallons and lite by a kessil h80 and run it for 8 hours but that is full of gross algae that I have been cleaning out every month but seems to Come back fast . I will take some pics tomorrow if the algae I have if I missed anything please let me know

blaxsun · Mar 24, 2022

Nitrates are what ppm - 0.9-1? With only 3 fish you're probably not getting a lot of nutrients into the system - especially with a refugium.

Lavey29 · Mar 24, 2022

I agree, with only a light stock of fish you are not able to get nutrients into your tank to give you measurable numbers of nitrates and phosphate especially with a refugium export. Having those numbers bottomed out causes your algae problems. Get more fish or take your refugium offline and do less water changes. I had to double dose neophos and neonitro in my tank for multiple weeks before I got any measurable numbers.

Kfactor · Mar 24, 2022

This is the algae I have sorry for the bad pics I will also try turning off the fug and see what the algae does .

Kfactor · Mar 24, 2022

I also have 7 sps frags in there as am trying to go all sps

Lavey29 · Mar 24, 2022

You need to get your parameters in check or your problems will continue. Siphon out what you can. Add good bacteria like PNS probio. Cut lights back to 6 hours with blue and UV only no whites. Get a diverse cleaner crew in the tank.

costaricareef · Mar 24, 2022

Feed more. Get a couple of more fish. I was in the same place. Now PO4 is at 0.12 and NO3 at 16. Everybody's happy, mostly SPS. No algae issues except for stubborn diatoms in the sandbed because the tank is next to a window. At the August mark, I had only four fish in my 80gal. In August after QT, I added a Powder Blue Tang, a Yellow Damsel and a Coral Beauty. 7 fish total. Now the refugium works great and the nutrients are steady. If you don't want to add more fish, you can always dose, but seems to me like more work.

Kfactor · Mar 24, 2022

I want to add more fish for sure I had a fox face for over 6 months in there and one day he was hugging bottom and died on me. That been over a few months now so all be setting up my qt tank and will be getting more fish for the tank soon . I just want to get rid of that algae and get the tank looking good as I want to start adding more sps to the tank

Kfactor · Mar 26, 2022

I turn of my refugium light for 2 days and this is what I got what would be a safe range for the ppb on the Hanna for my sps I don’t want it to get to high