Determining starting Rowaphos dosage when testing 0

[Waters]

I have used Rowaphos in past tanks as part of my normal maintenance using roughly 9 TBs in a 120 gallon system. My current build is testing at 5 nitrates and 0 phosphates, but I have GHA aggressively taking over the rockwork. How do you determine the starting amount of Rowaphos when you don't know your true starting phosphate values? I assume phosphates aren't truly 0....and even if they were, then using GFO wouldn't cause any issues anyways. It is a SPS tank so I obviously don't want to shock them and cause more issues but I need to get this algae under control.

 

[Waters]

Anybody ? Don't make me guess lol.....

 

[Aqua Man]

I have heard the same thing about false reading and alga. Even after getting the Alga out of the way, was still reading 0 for po4. Guess what happened next!?..... yup, dinos

 

[Waters]

I have heard the same thing about false reading and alga. Even after getting the Alga out of the way, was still reading 0 for po4. Guess what happened next!?..... yup, dinos

Yeah, definitely have to maintain some phosphates...kind of a balancing act. At the rate the algae is currently growing, I I most certainly have phosphates. Takes a lot to keep a healthy crop of GHA :-(

 

[Ippyroy]

Yeah, definitely have to maintain some phosphates...kind of a balancing act. At the rate the algae is currently growing, I I most certainly have phosphates. Takes a lot to keep a healthy crop of GHA :-(

I would still dose Phosphates until I got a reading. Manually removing as much GHA as I could at the same time. The PO4 you do have is tied up in the algae. Unless it dies in the tank, then you have 0 PO4 that is available for the corrals.

 

[Waters]

I would still dose Phosphates until I got a reading. Manually removing as much GHA as I could at the same time. The PO4 you do have is tied up in the algae. Unless it dies in the tank, then you have 0 PO4 that is available for the corrals.

That is kind of the problem.....there is no way for me to manually remove any. All of the hair algae is growing into the "holes" and crevices of the rock. Nothing is growing anywhere where I can get a hold of it and remove. What you are saying makes sense though......just not sure how to go about starving out the algae while feeding the coral at the same time.

 

[Ippyroy]

That is kind of the problem.....there is no way for me to manually remove any. All of the hair algae is growing into the "holes" and crevices of the rock. Nothing is growing anywhere where I can get a hold of it and remove. What you are saying makes sense though......just not sure how to go about starving out the algae while feeding the coral at the same time.

Can you remove the rocks? If not, attach a toothbrush or metal butterknife to your Python, and run the hose to a filter sock. As you scrub and/or scrape, it will suck out the GHA. Use a rubberband or zip ties. If you can remove the rocks, place them in buckets of water from your water change and scrub with a stiff brush, rinse, spray with H2O2, wait 45 seconds, rinse again, place in tank. You can also spray the algae inside of the tank. This will kill the algae which will then release the NO3 and PO4 into the tank.

 

[Waters]

Can you remove the rocks? If not, attach a toothbrush or metal butterknife to your Python, and run the hose to a filter sock. As you scrub and/or scrape, it will suck out the GHA. Use a rubberband or zip ties. If you can remove the rocks, place them in buckets of water from your water change and scrub with a stiff brush, rinse, spray with H2O2, wait 45 seconds, rinse again, place in tank. You can also spray the algae inside of the tank. This will kill the algae which will then release the NO3 and PO4 into the tank.

Unfortunately I can only remove roughly 10% of the rock...the rest are covered in SPS. I do scrub with a toothbrush almost nightly but it doesn't dislodge a whole lot...this stuff is pretty firmly attached. It is hard to even pull it off. I have been hesitant to use H2O2 in the tank but it might come to that.

 

[Ippyroy]

Unfortunately I can only remove roughly 10% of the rock...the rest are covered in SPS. I do scrub with a toothbrush almost nightly but it doesn't dislodge a whole lot...this stuff is pretty firmly attached. It is hard to even pull it off. I have been hesitant to use H2O2 in the tank but it might come to that.

Might be turf algae or bryopsis. Have you looked into dosing Flux? Some Acros don't do good in it though. GHA should come easily. Sounds like something else.
Dose H2O2 with a feeding syringe right onto the algae.

 

[Aqua Man]

Might be turf algae

If it’s turf, I was not able to starve it. Looked like moss. Very hard to get ahold of and pull. Does not grow long like GHA.

Butter knife might help get in the holes. Then go after it with the H2O2. Use a syringe or something to get it exactly were it’s needed. Lots of reefers dose the stuff. Just do a few rocks/holes on maintenance day.

What do you have for CUC? Ceriths can get into crevices and holes really well.

 

[Waters]

Might be turf algae or bryopsis. Have you looked into dosing Flux? Some Acros don't do good in it though. GHA should come easily. Sounds like something else.
Dose H2O2 with a feeding syringe right onto the algae.

Definitely not bryopsis.....I had that prior to the hair algae lol. That disappeared and the hair algae took its' place. Might be a combination of turf and hair algae but it is growing longer in the spots I cannot get to so I assume it is primarily GHA. I do have Flux but am hesitant to dose it due to the Acros. I have not had good luck dosing anything without causing SPS problems in this tank. The algae does come off pretty easy I guess if I can get a hold of it but since it is growing from rock holes, I can only grab the ends which doesn't do much. I have never had this much algae issues in a tank before....this is also the first time I used dry rock. I will look into dosing the H2O2......the acros are the only thing stopping me at the moment. Did you spot dose in a SPS tank without any issues? This is the only pic (sorry....terrible picture) I have with me on my phone that shows some of the algae and the "holes" I am dealing with.....it all looks short here only because I pull it as soon as I can get a hold of anything.

 

[Waters]

If it’s turf, I was not able to starve it. Looked like moss. Very hard to get ahold of and pull. Does not grow long like GHA.

Butter knife might help get in the holes. Then go after it with the H2O2. Use a syringe or something to get it exactly were it’s needed. Lots of reefers dose the stuff. Just do a few rocks/holes on maintenance day.

What do you have for CUC? Ceriths can get into crevices and holes really well.

Butter knife might help.....I will give that a try. I have a pretty good mixture of CUC including a Foxface, two urchins, numerous snails of different species, and some hermits. Nobody seems to touch the hair algae lol.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I would not start GFO. I would try to get creatures that eat algae. A foxface is a good choice. What is he eating?

 

[Reefs and Geeks]

After many years of not having a cuc and trying to maintain pristine water only to still always have some level of algae issues I decided to try adding a strong CUC of snails to my frag tanks. I was amazed, within a week my tanks were spotless or all visible algae including GHA and bryopsis. I personally belive the trick to getting CUC to eat that type of algae is to have so much CUC that they MUST eat it, and all other algae. Otherwise, they will just eat whatever is their favorite and the rest will over grow the tank. My go-to CUC is astrea snails due to their availability and price.

I sell a fair amount of frags out of my basment, and I used to feel like I needed to spend hours before I'd have anyone over to see the tanks cleaning all algae off of any frags and all equipment. I was considering quiting on frags but one friend who bought some frags off of me messaged me after leaving and said he saw some algae on the frags he bought, but his snails took care of it by the next day so no worries...I was kind of stunned to see that with no effort on his part he could clean and keep clean the same frags I had been spending so much time trying to keep clean myself. So I went a bit crazy and decided to buy 500 snails for my 120 gallons of frag tanks. It's been the best investment in my frag tanks I've ever made! I never have to clean the frag tanks, and I can sell/trade some snails to help other hobbyists keep their tanks clean as well. I've since sold enough snails that I have noticed algae in my tanks again, so ordered another few hundred to replace them. They are happily munching away at the algae that accumulated during the recent ice storms and will soon have my tanks spotless again.

The point I'm making is that while I used to be all about maintaining water to maintain algae, I have since changed my mind to it being mroe of a balance between that, and an appropriate sized CUC to keep up with the pace of the remaining algae that will grow in your tank so you never notice it's there. It takes good water, and a strong CUC to fix an issue, as well as some effort on your end early on to manually remove what you can. Once you get enough of the algae out, and the water itself is good than a strong enough CUC will be able to finish the job.

 

[Aqua Man]

two urchins,

Urchin was only thing that helped get the turf under control. Still had to help in the hard to reach areas where he could not fit. Pencil urchin

 

[Waters]

I would not start GFO. I would try to get creatures that eat algae. A foxface is a good choice. What is he eating?

He is eating everything but algae unfortunately. Mainly frozen mysis. I am not sure what else to try that doesn't involve dosing some chemical? In my mind (which might be totally incorrect lol), I have lots of excess phosphates which the algae is just feeding off of....how do I stop the algae from growing without removing nutrients? I am testing 0 phosphates, but I assume I will not get a correct phosphate reading as long as the tank is filled with hair algae? I do have a pretty substantial CUC but nothing can get into the areas where it is growing except for the smallest of snails, which don't seem interested in the GHA :-(

 

[Waters]

Urchin was only thing that helped get the turf under control. Still had to help in the hard to reach areas where he could not fit. Pencil urchin

That is kind of my problem.....the urchins do keep all the flat areas clean....most of my rock is not accessible by urchins though.

 

[Aqua Man]

how do I stop the algae from growing without removing nutrients? I am testing 0 phosphates, but I assume I will not get a correct phosphate reading as long as the tank is filled with hair algae?

That’s the conundrum!! Both alga and coral need the same nutrients to live.

Our water test show what is in the water at a certain time. I’m starting to think of this as leftovers. Alga and other organisms get to eat first. Coral get the leftovers. If my test is 0, then no leftovers for corals.

I came to this conclusion after I stopped dosing po4 and saw decrease in coral health. Dino went away so I wanted to see if my tank “needed “ po4. I have resumed dosing for couple weeks now and so far alga has been kept in check by CUC. Corals look better now that they get some leftovers.

Just my thoughts, I could be way off.

 

[Waters]

Thanks for all the responses.....I think I will take everyone's advice and ditch the thought of going back to GFO and somehow deal with the algae.....whether it be with a combination of additional CUC, H202, more manual scraping, etc. I have been dosing Microbactor7 to help with the lack of biological diversity that comes with dry rock so hopefully at some point that helps lol.

 

[justy]

As the above comments have said, CUC every time pile them in until they tip the balance, and algae starts to retreat. Then the CUC waist can be used by the corals, this is what happens in the wild, kind of