Water parameters dont make sense....

[Amtaylor417]

Alright everyone, just did a waterchange on 3/16. Just tested my water and these are the parameters and I have orange algae. I literally can figure this out. Everything g has been good for a while and all of a sudden(with me not changing anything) water parameters are out of whack. Oh, except I did get the orphek light and love it!

Water parameters are as follows:
PH:7.6
NITRATE: 5
PHOS: .4
ALK: 9.8
CALCIUM: 470
MAG: 1840

IM NOT DOSING ANYTHING...HELPPP!!

 

[gbroadbridge]

Phosphates are high, maybe not exporting enough? Have you changed food?

Mg is high, but probably a measurement error. How are you testing?
Which test kits?

What exactly is worrying you?

 

[Reef Ready]

Alright everyone, just did a waterchange on 3/16. Just tested my water and these are the parameters and I have orange algae. I literally can figure this out. Everything g has been good for a while and all of a sudden(with me not changing anything) water parameters are out of whack. Oh, except I did get the orphek light and love it!

Water parameters are as follows:
PH:7.6
NITRATE: 5
PHOS: .4
ALK: 9.8
CALCIUM: 470
MAG: 1840

IM NOT DOSING ANYTHING...HELPPP!!

Did you do a retest with a different test kit? I always take my water to a shop for testing if my parameters seem waaay off. It's not impossible for a kit to go bad. However my golden rule was always "when in doubt do a waterchange"

 

[Amtaylor417]

Phosphates are high, maybe not exporting enough? Have you changed food?

Mg is high, but probably a measurement error. How are you testing?
Which test kits?

What exactly is worrying you?

The phosphate is too high and the magnesium is way high. I don't understand. I literally did a 60 gallon water change 2 days ago. Everything else is in normal range. Before I did a water change the phosphate was .6. And I just can't seem to get it down. And I've never had a problem with it. Also after a water change 2 days ago I come home today and there is orange algae covering half my rock. Amd i. My sand, which wasn't there yesterday. And the sand was just all stirred up again 2 days ago. I've never had algae within 2 days of a water change. Or high phosphate like that.....and my lights are only on 6-8 hrs a day.

 

[Amtaylor417]

Did you do a retest with a different test kit? I always take my water to a shop for testing if my parameters seem waaay off. It's not impossible for a kit to go bad. However my golden rule was always "when in doubt do a waterchange"

I use red sea test kit. which were all just bought in January. I use frozen mysis shrimp(which I thaw in my salt water before putting in the tank. I usually feed every other day, sometimes two days in a row then skip a day, to not build up phosphate and nitrate. Lol

 

[vetteguy53081]

Alright everyone, just did a waterchange on 3/16. Just tested my water and these are the parameters and I have orange algae. I literally can figure this out. Everything g has been good for a while and all of a sudden(with me not changing anything) water parameters are out of whack. Oh, except I did get the orphek light and love it!

Water parameters are as follows:
PH:7.6
NITRATE: 5
PHOS: .4
ALK: 9.8
CALCIUM: 470
MAG: 1840

IM NOT DOSING ANYTHING...HELPPP!!

Mag extremely high (see below) Phos also elevated which would support algae.
You stated Algae- Can you provide a pic or two under white lighting ?

Targets:
Temp 77-79
ph 8.1-8.3
salinity 1.025
nitrate < .10
phos < .04
Ammonia < .03
mG 1300
Alk 8-11
CA 400- 440

 

[gbroadbridge]

The phosphate is too high and the magnesium is way high. I don't understand. I literally did a 60 gallon water change 2 days ago. Everything else is in normal range. Before I did a water change the phosphate was .6. And I just can't seem to get it down. And I've never had a problem with it. Also after a water change 2 days ago I come home today and there is orange algae covering half my rock. Amd i. My sand, which wasn't there yesterday. And the sand was just all stirred up again 2 days ago. I've never had algae within 2 days of a water change. Or high phosphate like that.....and my lights are only on 6-8 hrs a day.

The orange stuff on the sand is likely to be cyanobacteria not algae. Try to aim more water flow at it to break it up.

You need to drop phosphates slowly and water changes are a painful way to do it. You can use GFO which will adsorb the phosphate. Either in a reactor or in a bag in a high flow area of your sump.

Alternately you could use something aluminium based like phosguard.

I believe the high Mg is a measurement error, try a different test kit, or take a sample an LFS which does not use API test kits,

 

[gbroadbridge]

I use red sea test kit. which were all just bought in January. I use frozen mysis shrimp(which I thaw in my salt water before putting in the tank. I usually feed every other day, sometimes two days in a row then skip a day, to not build up phosphate and nitrate. Lol

Are you certain you're using the RS Mag kit correctly?

One drop of reagent A at a time and shaking for 15 sec's after each drop = Total 5 drops A
Then 5 drops Reagent B in one go, shake for 60 secs - before the titration step.

 

[Amtaylor417]

For some reason my phone won't let me upload a pic right now

 

[Amtaylor417]

finally it worked
..lol

 

[Rmckoy]

finally it worked
..lol

This looks like a ugly stage of a very new setup .
the problem with phosphates , water changes alone have little effect of permanent removing them . Could be the frozen shrimp adding causing the elevated phosphates.
Phosphate removing media such as rowaphos works amazing .

 

[Amtaylor417]

This looks like a ugly stage of a very new setup .
the problem with phosphates , water changes alone have little effect of permanent removing them . Could be the frozen shrimp adding causing the elevated phosphates.
Phosphate removing media such as rowaphos works amazing .

The tank has been set up since September. Lol far from New. I went through that stage a while ago. . Why are the mysis not good? What should I feed them? I don't like the flakes or anything like that. Plus I also like feeding my duncans the mysis. They enjoy them

 

[Amtaylor417]

I did take a tooth brush and get most of the orange gunk off. I'm going to get some postcard I believe.

 

[gbroadbridge]

I did take a tooth brush and get most of the orange gunk off. I'm going to get some postcard I believe.

I don't see any orange stuff

From the photo, the tank is not mature and this is just part of the normal settling process which can take over a year.

 

[damsels are not mean]

Phosphate can actually come from the rocks, it take time to leach out but it does sometimes. Anyways the tank looks fine. Corals are growing. No need to do anything drastic at this point. This looks like diatoms which boom and bust in new tanks (your tank is still new tbh september is not that old).

Other than the rock it could just be overfeeding. How much do you feed the fish/corals?

 

[Karen00]

The tank has been set up since September. Lol far from New. I went through that stage a while ago. . Why are the mysis not good? What should I feed them? I don't like the flakes or anything like that. Plus I also like feeding my duncans the mysis. They enjoy them

September of 2021? That's still extremely new. I didn't start getting uglies until 7 months. My tank is 8 months old now and I'm just starting to get a grip on it with near daily tending to for awhile. I agree that looks like cyano. If you can basically blow it off with a turkey baster then it's cyano.

 

[fastest302]

I'm thinking since you got a new light for your setup the tank isn't used to your lights yet I noticed that with my setup if I was to bump up my lighting

 

[Rmckoy]

September of 2021? That's still extremely new. I didn't start getting uglies until 7 months. My tank is 8 months old now and I'm just starting to get a grip on it with near daily tending to for awhile. I agree that looks like cyano. If you can basically blow it off with a turkey baster then it's cyano.

This current tank I’m running is 2 years and I still get uglies .
good thing is I am using rocks I have had for close to 20+ years .

 

[Karen00]

This current tank I’m running is 2 years and I still get uglies .
good thing is I am using rocks I have had for close to 20+ years .

Exactly. I think most seasoned folks such as yourself would consider a 2 year old tank still relatively new/young. I can't believe my tank is only 8 months old. It seems like I have been working on it for 10 yrs already. Haha.

 

[Rmckoy]

The tank has been set up since September. Lol far from New. I went through that stage a while ago. . Why are the mysis not good? What should I feed them? I don't like the flakes or anything like that. Plus I also like feeding my duncans the mysis. They enjoy them

Depends what you’re feeding …
Some Pellets or flakes can have all the nutrients needed .
I have always read references comparing mysis and brine shrimp to a strict McDonald’s diet .

@vetteguy53081 has posted nutrient requirements in many other posts .

are you rinsing the frozen cubes and dumping the thaw water and shrimp in the tank ?
If
You’re open to a experiment …
Feed mysis only 1x per week assuring its entire amount is consumed by fish and corals

perhaps over feeding is only adding fuel
For algae or Cyanobacteria to grow