Why are my Acros turning green?

Mitch0928 · Sep 20, 2020

Chaswood79 said:

holy crap. what’s the second acro?

Mitch0928 · Sep 20, 2020

EW_Fish said:
This isnt for every tank. I have a WB20 and No where near that % or watts with amazing color. I havent ran par but I bet I could be around 200

i can ask my lfs tomorrow what they recommend. i probably should bump up the % by a little bit but i need a par meter. i do think i can raise the acros without it being an issue

t5Nitro · Sep 20, 2020

Chas is a madman. Acro goals. Id just go with his word. My corals look better after his input. Still a work in progress.

living_tribunal · Sep 20, 2020

Chaswood79 said:

I run a very low nitrate high phosphate setup intentionally. I’m of the personal belief that many of the problems people have with their frags at times deal with phosphate deficiency. Too much GFO.

My $0.02

Mitch0928 · Sep 20, 2020

living_tribunal said:
I run a very low nitrate high phosphate setup intentionally. I’m of the personal belief that many of the problems people have with their frags at times deal with phosphate deficiency. Too much GFO.

My $0.02

and advice for keeping raising high phosphates without uncontrollable diatoms and algea?

living_tribunal · Sep 20, 2020

Mitch0928 said:
and advice for keeping raising high phosphates without uncontrollable diatoms and algea?

Get rid of those first. Also keep nitrate low. Most algae’s consume a ratio of nitrate to phosphate. Breakouts typically involve high amounts of both.

So if you must increase phosphate, try and keep nitrate around ~1. I’d be careful tweaking these if your tank is young. Small shifts in nitrate and phosphate have big consequences in the early stages.

Let the diatoms settle themselves out as they consume the silicates. For the algae, there are several ways to handle it but I’d personally get rid of algae before slowly increasing the phosphates.

Mitch0928 · Sep 20, 2020

living_tribunal said:
Get rid of those first. Also keep nitrate low. Most algae’s consume a ratio of nitrate to phosphate. Breakouts typically involve high amounts of both.

So if you must increase phosphate, try and keep nitrate around ~1. I’d be careful tweaking these if your tank is young. Small shifts in nitrate and phosphate have big consequences in the early stages.

Let the diatoms settle themselves out as they consume the silicates. For the algae, there are several ways to handle it but I’d personally get rid of algae before slowly increasing the phosphates.

tank is well over a year but recently had a hair algae outbreak and now diatoms are back. they’re slowly disappearing so it’s getting better. nitrate has always been below 1 so that should be okay

living_tribunal · Sep 20, 2020

Mitch0928 said:
tank is well over a year but recently had a hair algae outbreak and now diatoms are back. they’re slowly disappearing so it’s getting better. nitrate has always been below 1 so that should be okay

How much gha is currently in the tank?

Mitch0928 · Sep 20, 2020

living_tribunal said:
How much gha is currently in the tank?

very little to none. it was terrible but i’ve been doing weekly 15% water changes and now it’s completely controlled

Kfactor · Sep 20, 2020

Following

living_tribunal · Sep 20, 2020

Mitch0928 said:
very little to none. it was terrible but i’ve been doing weekly 15% water changes and now it’s completely controlled

If it’s an amount you can manually remove, do so. We’re talking about a 1-3 on a scale from 1-10.

Once it’s gone, and it hasn’t returned for a week then just start over feeding a little bit. To target solely nitrate for export, I dose vinegar. It’s hard to find filtration that only hits nitrate. I’ve found vinegar to be the best but many have had amazing success with zeovit or a very large chaeto ball. Chaeto alone (if the ball is big enough and you don’t have too many fish) keeps a really nice nitrate to phosphate balance.

Mitch0928 · Sep 20, 2020

living_tribunal said:
If it’s an amount you can manually remove, do so. We’re talking about a 1-3 on a scale from 1-10.

Once it’s gone, and it hasn’t returned for a week then just start over feeding a little bit. To target solely nitrate for export, I dose vinegar. It’s hard to find filtration that only hits nitrate. I’ve found vinegar to be the best but many have had amazing success with zeovit or a very large chaeto ball. Chaeto alone (if the ball is big enough and you don’t have too many fish) keeps a really nice nitrate to phosphate balance.

ok cool. i can try the vinegar. chaeto most likely won’t work in my tank because it’s an aio so i have no sump. i also only have 2 clowns and a royal gramma

living_tribunal · Sep 20, 2020

Mitch0928 said:
ok cool. i can try the vinegar. chaeto most likely won’t work in my tank because it’s an aio so i have no sump. i also only have 2 clowns and a royal gramma

Vinegar is very effective but you have to be patient with it in the beginning. It’s nice because it allows you to really fine tune your nitrate levels once you find the balance between ml of vinegar and food intake.

Mitch0928 · Sep 20, 2020

living_tribunal said:
Vinegar is very effective but you have to be patient with it in the beginning. It’s nice because it allows you to really fine tune your nitrate levels once you find the balance between ml of vinegar and food intake.

awesome thanks for the advice!

Charlie’s Frags · Sep 20, 2020

EW_Fish said:
This isnt for every tank. I have a WB20 and No where near that % or watts with amazing color. I havent ran par but I bet I could be around 200

I have a par meter and the max peaks deliver 225-300 to the rack.

t5Nitro · Sep 21, 2020

Glad to hear your GHA cleared up! Sounds like our tanks are doing similar things. I'm still on 1% daily water changes. I've got a lot of hair algae around that I partially attribute to keeping my phosphate up with dosing. I feel like it has to be feeding the algae and dosing enough to where the water column is measuring reasonable amounts on top of it. I just got myself a cool urchin. I should have taken both!