Dosing nutrients while undergoing GHA outbreak?

[Ironic_Water]

I'm struggling with a massive hair algae outbreak in my tank. Unfortunately before I left for vacation I accidentally overdosed phosphate while battling dinos (my tank has chronically low nutrients that's been an issue so I've been manually dosing nitrate and phosphate).

Now the GHA is absorbing all my free nutrients in the water, and I can see cyano creeping up.

I like my nutrients above zero, but it also feels like a catch 22... With zero nutrients my tank suffers, but by keeping it above zero through dosing, I might be fuelling the GHA outbreak...

 

[Sawacoral]

I would ask yourself why you want to dose (and what exactly). Personally I hold off on providing any additional nutrients and food additives with high parameters or algae outbreaks.

 

[Sawacoral]

I would ask yourself why you want to dose (and what exactly). Personally I hold off on providing any additional nutrients and food additives with high parameters or algae outbreaks.

To follow up: if your nutrients are bottoming out, I would personally remove as much GHA as I can- if by “nutrients” you mean No3 and phos, you may be able to dose these in small intervals until they come up. By nutrients I assumed you meant amino acids or coral foods.

 

[Ironic_Water]

To follow up: if your nutrients are bottoming out, I would personally remove as much GHA as I can- if by “nutrients” you mean No3 and phos, you may be able to dose these in small intervals until they come up. By nutrients I assumed you meant amino acids or coral foods.

Nutrients as in nitrate/phosphate.

Just measured, 17.6ppm nitrate, 0.02ppm phosphate.

I'm going to hold off dosing nitrate now that I got it up, and I'm not going to dose phosphate for now even though I'd like it more around 0.05ppm.

Hopefully that will starve the GHA coupled with manual removal, but I'm seeing some cyano growth which I don't like.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Nutrients as in nitrate/phosphate.

Just measured, 17.6ppm nitrate, 0.02ppm phosphate.

I'm going to hold off dosing nitrate now that I got it up, and I'm not going to dose phosphate for now even though I'd like it more around 0.05ppm.

Hopefully that will starve the GHA coupled with manual removal, but I'm seeing some cyano growth which I don't like.

You will never win the fight against GHA by trying to starve it for Phosphate

 

[NanoSteam]

It is a bit of a catch 22....GHA is taking up what you're adding in so dosing No3 and Po4 is likely fueling the flame. Starving it is just going to kill it off and something worse is going to take it's place like Dino's.

What's worked for me is manual removal plus large CUC at the same time. Especially hermits and an urchin. Cyano may appear but don't over react to it with any chemicals. For me it eventually worked it's way on its own so long as Cyano.

 

[Sawacoral]

To follow up: if your nutrients are bottoming out, I would personally remove as much GHA as I can- if by “nutrients” you mean No3 and phos, you may be able to dose these in small intervals until they come up. By nutrients I assumed you meant amino acids or coral foods.

My numbers in my main display are several magnitudes higher than yours and I don’t have many algae issues. In my nano, my params are lower but GHA is insane right now. Sometimes the numbers don’t make much sense.