0 nitrate and 0 phos

[katsreef]

So most of my corals are happy and growing aside from one acan that potentially is getting too much light? I just moved it the other day but it is still closed - maybe it will take a few days to open back up in the new spot with less light? I thought it was doing well in the previous spot, even starting to grow heads but then randomly started to stay closed. I have a 20g aio tank running filter floss and chemipure elite.

Below are my numbers for my tank - I currently have 0 nitrate and phosphate BUT I have so much bubble algae and even some bryopsis, so I am assuming it is just absorbing it quicker.
temp: 78
salinity: 1.025
ph: 8
nitrate: 0
phosphate: 0
alk: 7-8
mag: 1320
calc: 410

I feel like I am not over feeding so I'm confused on how the bubble algae situation got so bad. I guess my questions are:
-are these numbers bad for my tank?
-how to manage nutrients so the bubble algae doesn't continue to take over?
-does the acan look okay?/will it take a few days in its new spot to open back up?

 

[nothing_fancy]

A lot of folks would say that 0 nitrates is starving corals. Some with ULNS systems would disagree and maybe they have alternatives. I would suggest some nitrates and some phos. You could use Brightwell NeoNitrate to raise your nitrates to a round 3ppm over the course of a few days. IMO phos should be present under .1 You could try chemi pure blue instead. I use that as my carbon element, along with Phosguard to keep my po4 under .1 and occasionally I need to use GFO when phos is high. For the bubble algae I would scrape it down to where its manageable and get some hungry emerald crabs.

 

[katsreef]

A lot of folks would say that 0 nitrates is starving corals. Some with ULNS systems would disagree and maybe they have alternatives. I would suggest some nitrates and some phos. You could use Brightwell NeoNitrate to raise your nitrates to a round 3ppm over the course of a few days. IMO phos should be present under .1 You could try chemi pure blue instead. I use that as my carbon element, along with Phosguard to keep my po4 under .1 and occasionally I need to use GFO when phos is high. For the bubble algae I would scrape it down to where its manageable and get some hungry emerald crabs.

I have reef roids that I have never used yet that I hear will raise phosphates. I'm just considered about using it because the algae is most likely absorbing all the phosphate. Does algae absorb the nitrates too? I'll give chemi blue a go. I also have emerald crabs ordered and new rocks because I am recycling all new rocks lol

 

[mjw011689]

you have no phosphates because of the chemipure more than likely. I’d pull the chemipure and see if it bounces back. If it doesn’t, you’ll probably need to does something like neophos, and also probably the neonitro like mentioned above. Although for my tank once I started dosing phosphate, my nitrates came up a bit too, so you may not need to there. Either way, zero on both us definitely not great for an Acan.

have you tried feeding it? Doesn’t look like it’s sending out feeders so I don’t think that’s the issue, but sometimes that helps.
For the algae, i agree with pulling as much as possible and then adding an emerald. Getting your nutrient levels in a better spot may help with that as well though.

 

[mjw011689]

I have reef roids that I have never used yet that I hear will raise phosphates. I'm just considered about using it because the algae is most likely absorbing all the phosphate. Does algae absorb the nitrates too? I'll give chemi blue a go. I also have emerald crabs ordered and new rocks because I am recycling all new rocks lol

Yea, nitrate affects algae too. Also, chemipure blue will also reduce phosphates (rapidly, per their claim). So again, you’re gonna be fighting in opposite directions by trying to increase phosphate while running chemipure

 

[katsreef]

you have no phosphates because of the chemipure more than likely. I’d pull the chemipure and see if it bounces back. If it doesn’t, you’ll probably need to does something like neophos, and also probably the neonitro like mentioned above. Although for my tank once I started dosing phosphate, my nitrates came up a bit too, so you may not need to there. Either way, zero on both us definitely not great for an Acan.

have you tried feeding it? Doesn’t look like it’s sending out feeders so I don’t think that’s the issue, but sometimes that helps.
For the algae, i agree with pulling as much as possible and then adding an emerald. Getting your nutrient levels in a better spot may help with that as well though.

I even kept the same bag of chemipure for 4 months and my phos was still 0. I just put a new one in a week or two ago so maybe that's it. Usually it has it's feeders out during my mysis frozen food feeding but it didn't the last time. I can try feeding it reef roids for the first time to see if that helps. I have no idea how to fix my nutrients because I feel like I am underfeeding in general. Maybe I am giving too much frozen

 

[mjw011689]

No clue how long chemipure lasts, I’ve never used it. All I can say is what they advertise the stuff as. Maybe before you swapped it out you actually had phosphate, which would explain the growth. But now that you’ve got fresh stuff in there it’s sucking up the phosphate. Hard to say without having a test prior to changing it.

How old is the tank, and did you start the tank with dry rock and sand? A lot of tanks that were started with dry rock and sand have issues with low phosphates for a while. Once I figured that out, it took a couple weeks of dosing neophos to actually get a reading for my tank.

 

[nothing_fancy]

This is true you can try pulling the carbon bags entirely for now, the only reason I mention chemi pure blue over ELITE is because in my experience the blue version doesn't pull as much phosphate out. I personally have to supplement phosguard with chemi pure blue in order to maintain my levels

 

[katsreef]

No clue how long chemipure lasts, I’ve never used it. All I can say is what they advertise the stuff as. Maybe before you swapped it out you actually had phosphate, which would explain the growth. But now that you’ve got fresh stuff in there it’s sucking up the phosphate. Hard to say without having a test prior to changing it.

How old is the tank, and did you start the tank with dry rock and sand? A lot of tanks that were started with dry rock and sand have issues with low phosphates for a while. Once I figured that out, it took a couple weeks of dosing neophos to actually get a reading for my tank.

Dry rock and expired live sand (so probably dry sand too lol). My tank is 6 months old so that makes sense. I'm going to be replacing all the rock with new rock after it cycles too so I'll probably have this problem for a while. Looks like I need some neophos or just hope the reef roids increase phos

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Yea, nitrate affects algae too. Also, chemipure blue will also reduce phosphates (rapidly, per their claim

But not in reality. lol

I don't think the chemipure is a significant part of the issue. It will not directly bind phosphate from seawater. Only the Elite version with GFO does that. The ion exchange resin won't bind phosphate in seawater. Perhaps they do not know that, or prefer to not tell you something that might make you not buy it.

 

[mjw011689]

6 months was about when the issue started showing itself on my tank as well. I hadn’t tested for phosphate before then, but once i did, i was finding it wouldn’t come up from zero till I dosed for a couple weeks. I only even looked into it because i had a horrible outbreak of dinos, which to me is one of the bigger reasons to bring your nutrients up from zero

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Since nitrate is low too, I'd feed more rather than dose phosphate, but dosing phosphate is also OK.

 

[mjw011689]

But not in reality. lol

I don't think the chemipure is a significant part of the issue. It will not directly bind phosphate from seawater. Only the Elite version with GFO does that. The ion exchange resin won't bind phosphate in seawater. Perhaps they do not know that, or prefer to not tell you something that might make you not buy it.

Gotcha. Never used it, only know what they say on their website

 

[katsreef]

Since nitrate is low too, I'd feed more rather than dose phosphate, but dosing phosphate is also OK.

Wouldn't this make my bubble algae issue worse though? It is already pretty bad lol

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Wouldn't this make my bubble algae issue worse though? It is already pretty bad lol

Bubble algae (valonia) and bryopsis have traditionally been known as pests that are unusually hard to kill by reducing nutrients. They may already be getting all they want at whatever your current levels are.

I'd look for other control methods than N and P, while maintaining enough N and P for corals and other organisms that you want to keep.

 

[katsreef]

Bubble algae (valonia) and bryopsis have traditionally been known as pests that are unusually hard to kill by reducing nutrients. They may already be getting all they want at whatever your current levels are.

I'd look for other control methods than N and P, while maintaining enough N and P for corals and other organisms that you want to keep.

Okay, so even if the bubble algae and bryopsis is taking the phosphate and nitrate, I should still try to add more for my corals? I don't have much other algae at all, my tank is pretty clean aside from the copious amount of bubble algae

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Okay, so even if the bubble algae and bryopsis is taking the phosphate and nitrate, I should still try to add more for my corals? I don't have much other algae at all, my tank is pretty clean aside from the copious amount of bubble algae

That's what I would do, along with other methods to remove it. There are many options, all with drawbacks, except perhaps manual removal.

 

[katsreef]

That's what I would do, along with other methods to remove it. There are many options, all with drawbacks, except perhaps manual removal.

I’ve been manually removing with every water change. It just never seems to make a dent haha. I have an emerald crab on the way. I’m also cycling all new dry rock to swap out when it’s ready. A big job but it will eliminate 90% of the bubble algae. And the remainder I can take care of lol. It’s a big job though

 

[formallydehyde]

Okay, so even if the bubble algae and bryopsis is taking the phosphate and nitrate, I should still try to add more for my corals? I don't have much other algae at all, my tank is pretty clean aside from the copious amount of bubble algae

Don't know about bubble algae, but from my observations I don't think bryopsis is able to do well in circumstances where it has to heavily compete with other algae. I've deliberately introduced it to my tank and in there it only seems to colonize live rock that's been heavily disturbed by herbivore grazing or on the glass where it only has to deal with small spotty growths of film algae.