0 Phosphates But Signs Of It.

[Reeftang]

some pics of the rock

 

[Palyzoa]

What do you have for a clean up crew? I'd like to see a better pic of the "green" algae under white lights no blues, if possible

 

[Palyzoa]

Looks like coraline

 

[Sycoticrealm]

That part of the bacteria cycling of the rock.
After green is coralline later on. Calcium, Magnesium and KH stability help grow it.
My first tanks i used t5's and i used live rocks and established seeded rocks with coralline and my coralline grew like crazy any new rock i added would go from yellow, bright green, dark green then spots or red, purple or pink coralline.

 

[Reeftang]

What do you have for a clean up crew? I'd like to see a better pic of the "green" algae under white lights no blues, if possible

these pices are with the lights off. Ill try to take some later with just the whites.

 

[Reeftang]

That part of the bacteria cycling of the rock.
After green is coralline later on. Calcium, Magnesium and KH stability help grow it.
My first tanks i used t5's and i used live rocks and established seeded rocks with coralline and my coralline grew like crazy any new rock i added would go from yellow, bright green, dark green then spots or red, purple or pink coralline.

interesting because u had some spots and even the snails i put in has some corline on their shell but it never seemed to take over i wish it would so i can get rid of this green.

 

[Sycoticrealm]

They would cover fast once you get a few rocks to cover.

I had to take a break from the hobby a few years back.
"Spinal Stenosis" diagnoses.
Learned to manage it so I'm back.
This tank i have now my break in tank and I'm doing things differently this time no live rock i have cured my own and coralline is growing slower then last time just be patient. And I'm 8 months in so far battle brown hair algae for months.
My fault though i didnt cured the dry rock all the way so my 40b became my cured rock tank lol

I've also moved to led's so this time it completely different for myself.
I also had some blue coralline start to grow then fade out never had blue before it was weird.
Led's for me seem to have killed off the coralline on my snails i may decide on my next build to add some t5's supplement lighting. 60g cube rimless waiting to be used on my back porch lol I'll get to it some day Iol.

 

[Sycoticrealm]

If you want to risk a pest buy a fully covered coralline rock from someone or from a local fish store.

 

[Cory]

some pics of the rock

That green is not corraline. Its the start of hair algae. I' reccomed a skimmer and carbon source like vinegar or vodka. In a few months it will be thick.

 

[NakiFantaki]

That green is not corraline. Its the start of hair algae. I' reccomed a skimmer and carbon source like vinegar or vodka. In a few months it will be thick.

How can you be sure? Sorry - I’m just jumping in here. I have seen lots of dry rock turn green like that and never seen the hair algae, at least not a lot of it. Maybe just a few light patches here and there. Would running a carbon source now prevent thick hair algae in the future? I thought GFO is what is used for phosphates?

 

[Reeftang]

That green is not corraline. Its the start of hair algae. I' reccomed a skimmer and carbon source like vinegar or vodka. In a few months it will be thick.

It has been like this for months, also if its the start of hair algae then their must be something feeding it then why cant i detect the phosphates?

 

[Cory]

It has been like this for months, also if its the start of hair algae then their must be something feeding it then why cant i detect the phosphates?

Because it removed those phosphates as it grew. Id cover the rock with coral so there isnt any surface for it to grow on.

 

[Reeftang]

Because it removed those phosphates as it grew. Id cover the rock with coral so there isnt any surface for it to grow on.

How do I know for sure that this is the situation???

 

[cracker]

Good to see Your acting now. I have HA issues with no detectable levels of N03, Po4 . I have been skimming aggressively running carbon . feeding less etc. Now I see the brown stuff ! which I understand means low nutrients?
I'm following to see what I can learn ! Thanks RT !

 

[Rakie]

Hi All,

This still baffles my mind, so for the last 2 months i have undetectable phosphates testing with hannah ULR and RED SEA test kits, however i do have the typical sings of phosphates, my rocks are green in color and i do get a brown or green film on my glass every other day or so.

My question is, how do i know if i need to be treating my tank for phosphates, and if yes how will i monitor it?

What baffles my mind is that people are STILL lead to believe that phosphates are bad.

Phosphates are good. They are necessary for life to happen. You WANT phosphates. Numerous people have even said dosing phosphates strengthens the system overall, and allows other things to outcompete algae (That's right, in my experience, dosing phosphates stops algae growth).

Algae doesn't need phosphate to grow -- Lack of phosphate allows algae to take over.

It's really time for us to get away from the dark ages of reefing....

 

[Cory]

Algae need phosphate. But so do corals. Im actually dosing phosphate now because my tank doesn't read any po4. I hope this will help the coral grow. I don't have any algae because po4 is zero because of vodka dosing and having a sandless tank.

 

[cracker]

I'm leary of dosing nutrients because I have too much HA ! I'm going to do it anyway just to see what happens It's enough to drive Ya wacky ! ;Wideyed LOL

 

[AzReefn]

I have something similar going on that might help, my tank is just over 3mos old though. I had green "felt" like algae on my rock. Now in some areas it looks to be hair algae but the other areas it's going away. The pic of the mostly white rock was covered like the other one and now glows in the moonlight for some reason?
I'm a newbie so I'm not sure what all this means, just trying to offer up some info that might help the experienced folks help you out. [emoji5]

~Jason

My params 11/16
Sg: 1.024
Ph: 8.3
Amm: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
PO4: .00
KH: 8.4dkh
CA: 430
Mg: 1500

Edit: mine looked exactly like yours for almost 2 weeks before mine started getting hair and the other disappearing.

 

[Montiguy1287]

You don’t truly have 0 phosphates. The algae consumes the phosphates you do have and grows but your test reads 0 since it’s consumed. Happened in both of my prior tanks too and my current one.

 

[Reeftang]

You don’t truly have 0 phosphates. The algae consumes the phosphates you do have and grows but your test reads 0 since it’s consumed. Happened in both of my prior tanks too and my current one.

Looks like a form of dino.