0 nitrate/phosphate and algae. Questions

[AndrewB]

Since the inception of my tank I've had algae issues. More than I'd like at least. Help me understand why...

First the details. The tank is a 40 gallon AIO nuvo IM. It's been running almost 3 years. I have a IM protein skimmer. A 1.5" sandbed and roughly 25lbs of rock. Also have some bio block things in the back chambers. I keep one bag of carbon, and one of phosguard in the media box. Lighting is t5 with a kessil 160 blue. I run the kessil for about 12 hours and it ramps, the t5s come on for peak for 6 hours a day. Im religious about water changes, 5 gallons on every Sunday. My parameters are:

Alk- 8.3-8.5 hanna
Cal- 400-410 red sea
Mag- 1375 red sea

Nitrate is barely detectable by salifert
Phosphate undetectable by salifert

My CUC consists of a mix of snails (turbo, cerith, nassarius) red legged hermits, and 3 peppermint shrimp.

For fish I have 2 cinnamon clowns, 2 bangaii cardinals, 1 blue damsel, and a midas blenny. I feed a pinch twice a day with pellets. 99% are eaten by fish.

I don't really understand my algae issues. I have a few varieties. Very light GHA and some brown slime that forms on the glass every other day. Sometimes I have long brown strands that irritate the coral. I've read that my nutrients can be "bound up" by the algae. I've tried any number and combinations of products to remove algae. Am I dreaming or are there tanks that don't require scraping of glass every other day and cleaning pumps and power heads every week to remove algae? On Sunday my aquarium is beautiful, lively, and I really enjoy it. By Monday night its brown glass and starting to look meh.

Withthe varieties of algae I have i presume that I have an abundance of nutrients and not "too lean". What are some ideas for export? I was using biopellets in a reactor for awhile until that pump quit but honestly didn't make a difference. Is algae always a nutrient thing? Other possible factors I'm overlooking?

I would describe my coral growth as acceptable. Softies really take off. I have fragged several. My montipora and stylophora do really well. My LPS looks good but slow growth. Acropora growth is minimal.

Any advice? I'd like to get some dialogue going as I'm sure I've left out some details. Y'all will sleuth a way to a solution. Thanks in advance

 

[fishface NJ]

long brown strands? are there bubbles on the strands? Can you post a photo of your tank with white lights only?

 

[AndrewB]

Sometimes on the strands there will be bubbles. The strands aren't in the sand. I've seen that before though. These are usually on the coral. I can do white only when I get a camera. Dumb phone camera broke a couple weeks ago.

The algae isn't running my tank or anything. I just thought at this stage algae shouldn't be an issue. I'm (still) cleaning a few times a week. Is that normal?

 

[W1ngz]

A 3 year old tank with a rigorous maintenance routine should be clear of algae. I would look elsewhere. You say you use "products" to remove algae. What products? Have you tried non-chemical removal by hand and stiff brush weekly for a while?

Brown slime and strings could be bacterial, possibly fed by an organic carbon source with something you're adding to the tank. What else are you adding/dosing?

Source water - RODI? From home or a store? Do you know definitively there are no nitrates or phosphates in a freshly mixed bucket of saltwater?
Sand bed - do you siphon it regularly?
Feeding - how much/often?

 

[ScottR]

Someone asked brown with bubbles because that could be dinos. Do they blow off easily? Have you tried a turkey baster to blow them off?

 

[AndrewB]

A 3 year old tank with a rigorous maintenance routine should be clear of algae. I would look elsewhere. You say you use "products" to remove algae. What products? Have you tried non-chemical removal by hand and stiff brush weekly for a while?

Brown slime and strings could be bacterial, possibly fed by an organic carbon source with something you're adding to the tank. What else are you adding/dosing?

Source water - RODI? From home or a store? Do you know definitively there are no nitrates or phosphates in a freshly mixed bucket of saltwater?
Sand bed - do you siphon it regularly?
Feeding - how much/often?

I have tried products such as vibrant and red sea nopox. I've had an UV sterilizer. I'v never manually removed the rocks to scrub. I made the mistake of cementing the bulk of them together. It would be a desperate day if I attempted to clean manually. Again, it's not overrun my aquarium. I feel it can get better and im lost to where to get over my plateau.

I have not tried a test of nitrate/phosphate on fresh bucket. I have a RODI 5 stage filter from BRS. I use neo marine salt. I test with a TDS meter and get 0 reading from the tap. I siphon the areas I can and purposely disturb the bed before a water change. I feed twice a day. MostlyPE pellets and NYOs pellets. Maybe once a week a cube of pe mysis. Other than 2 part brightwell, I dose red sea mag. I dose brightwell koralle-vm with each water change. Also on water change, while pumps are off, I'll target the corals with a light dose of roids.

 

[AndrewB]

I have several varieties, I'm sure. I've been there, done that with the dinos. Blowing them off with a baster and such. These arent on the sandbed. The stuff on the glass is a film. I definitely have some hair algae as well.

 

[AndrewB]

Would a Triton test be a good idea?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Would a Triton test be a good idea?

don’t think so. What result would tell how to deal with algae?

 

[AndrewB]

One of these?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I don’t think such a test will be helpful beyond your current tests.

Driving down nutrients is not, IMO, the best way to deal with algae. I’d personally feed or dose N and P to be sure to not get dinos, it in case you already have them.

I’d do manual removal, and for green algae, I’d look for organisms who eat it. If it is dinos, that’s a much bigger issue and I’d read up on Dino threads to assess.

 

[DirtMcGurt]

This is going to sound counterintuitive but I think you may be stripping your water of nutrients. I battled several different types of algae in my tank and was always told "keep N03 and P04 down to stop algae growth". Eventually I pulled all the rocks and scrubbed them. Then I got my phosphates up above .03 and nitrates up to at least 2.5. They sit higher then that now and there is almost zero algae in my display. My corals survived when my N03 and P04 were super low but have really opened up since I got my nutrients up.

 

[DirtMcGurt]

And Randy just backed me up while I was typing all that lol. It works!

 

[leepink23]

I would recommend getting a microscope to diagnose it, helped me realize I have dinos, now with the correct treatment my tank is clean from algae with 0.1 phosphate and 10 nitrates.

 

[jlts21]

We need pictures. "light gha" has different meanings for everybody. And to reiterate what has already been said, you need N & P. It sounds counter-productive, but you keep them at or near zero and you're going to get dinos and have even more issues. Things will not happen overnight. Regardless of what you've been doing, the tank has been the same for 3 years. It is going to take time to correct the issue. Try one minor thing, wait and see how your tank responds and then repeat.

 

[AndrewB]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'm reading up on dosing N and P. Salifert tests are considered acceptable to test for N and P?

 

[fishface NJ]

Yes they are good test kits

 

[IslandLifeReef]

This might seem a little out there, but have you added pods and phyto to your tank. If not, you might want to give it a try. The phyto will feed the pods and compete with the algae. Eventually, the pods won’t need to be fed phyto and will eat some of the detritus that could be feeding the algae. Worked well for me.

 

[Justin Cook]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'm reading up on dosing N and P. Salifert tests are considered acceptable to test for N and P?

I would argue that you want to get the Hanna ULN Phosphate checker if you're going to dose P. When I started doing the same, I broke down and finally got one. The Salifert test is a good one but it's just not that easy to tell the difference between 0.1 and 0.5. Of course this is with my old eyes and lighting but I really wanted to be accurate with the P dosing so I bought the checker. I feel the Salifert Nitrate test is adequate for when I'm trying to do because I really can tell the difference between 2.5 and 7.5.

 

[AndrewB]

This might seem a little out there, but have you added pods and phyto to your tank. If not, you might want to give it a try. The phyto will feed the pods and compete with the algae. Eventually, the pods won’t need to be fed phyto and will eat some of the detritus that could be feeding the algae. Worked well for me.

I actually did that! ordered from algae barn. I had my lettuce in a breeder box type thing. Ijust melted away within a week. I have tons of pods. At night my rocks look like a disturbed ant hill.

All in all I'd consider my reef adventure success so far. I'm just really trying to fine tune this thing.