Beginners troubles with chemistry and outbreak

[LukasV]

Hi reefers,

I have a preowned REEFER XL425, I started it from very beginning 2 months ago. A week ago it got through cycling so I bought a pair of Nemos, 5 mixed frags, 3 shrimps a 4 snails. Everyone look great. Except the fact, that the chemistry is weird and now the massive green outbreak started.

The sand was regular and stones were "rather dead" reef rocks (preowned, quite a long from the water), I started a active carbon and silica binder in Reefmat week ago, I am running 2x ReefLed 90 (20k preset with 33% intensity for acclimation (only 23% white)). Currents are rather strong I would say (2x ReefWave 45 with 40% setting + 2x Tunze 6020 Nano). The water is RODI + Tropic Marin Pro Reef which should have those parameters: Alk 7-8, Ca 420-460, Mg 1300-1400.

But from the end of thy cycling I am getting:
TT 79.7 F (stable between 78.8 and 80.6 F)
Salinity 1.025
pH 8.0-8.2
Alk 12-12.5 dKH
Ca 350
Mg 1200

NO2. 0.065 ppm
NO3 22.9 ppm
PO4 0.09 ppm
NH4 negative

A week ago I started dosing ATI Essential 2 and 3 in quite a big amounts but so far nothing happened. I have no idea why do I have so high Alk and so low Ca/Mg and how to change it.
I am testing every value every day, the values are pretty stable over a week and the values comes from Hanna Photometer and are confirmed with Red Sea test kits multiple times. Also the pH has a rather downward tendency (was rather 8.2-8.3 at the beginning, yesterday 8.1, today 8.0) despite skyrocket high Alk. And no I do not have a problem with indoor air (I have a CO2 ppm meter near the DT in living room).

Also yesterday the green outbreak started. It is rather hairy then slimy according to me and there are no bubbles anywhere. I took some photos but I am not able to make a good one under the blue LED (if necessary I can turn the white on to get another one), but hopefully will be enough.

Can you, PLEASE, tell me, what I am doing wrong? or what to do better? Why do I have such a parameters? How to change them? Should I change the carbon and silica binder or are they still fine after 1 week? Should I be worried? Should I just wait?

Thanks for any insights of skilled reefers.

 

[LukasV]

no one knows why?

 

[littlefoxx]

Are you referring to the algae? Thats normal, its usually referred to as the ugly phase. No way to not have algae grow in the tank, its a good thing its developing

 

[littlefoxx]

Also tank seems very new to have that many fish/inverts all at once, bioload was probably thrown off and its getting used to it. Also seems very early to dose anything since it takes a while to establish a tank and get it stable enough that dosing will help keep parameters stable, dosing just will get them all out of wack until the tank stabilizes

 

[LukasV]

Are you referring to the algae? Thats normal, its usually referred to as the ugly phase. No way to not have algae grow in the tank, its a good thing its developing

yes, thanks. it looks really ugly compared to how it looked two days ago so I got little bit scared. especially with quite low phosphorus and nitrates.

 

[littlefoxx]

yes, thanks. it looks really ugly compared to how it looked two days ago so I got little bit scared. especially with quite low phosphorus and nitrates.

Yeah mine went through a horrible algae phase. Nitrites are good low, toxic to corals some inverts like shrimp but not fish. And the other stuff will be fine, I suggest just letting it be for now and not dose until your tank is more mature and you want to keep specific corals. Nitrates will raise as the system matures and gets used to your new bioload. I dont think you have anything to worry about as long as your fish, shrimp and hermits are not showing stress or illness!

 

[tjonw6981]

New tank syndrome, what you're going through is typical of a new setup and nothing out of the ordinary for most tanks. As other have pointed out I'd stop dosing until you have demand. One thing I would do is mix up a fresh bucket of salt and test that water to make sure the Alk/Ca/mag are in line with whats on the bucket. If that checks out you can perform small water changes over several days to bring those numbers back in line slowly. One piece of advice I will give ya, and you'll see it alot on here, is go slow (adding livestock) and don't chase numbers. Let the tank stabilize and once you're familiar with it you can slowly dial in those numbers.