GHA stealing nutrients?

austenreefer

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So lately I have been noticing my corals look a bit sad. I have all soft corals so the usual suspects (calcium, alkalinity) wouldn't be the issue. I started doing some testing a noticed I have 0 (or very very close to 0) nitrates. I knew that I didn't truly have 0 nitrates because I have GHA in my tank. However, this made me think: is the GHA taking up all the nutrients and making my corals look the way they do? Back when they looked a lot better I had a very small amount of it, now I have a bunch. Is this the issue?
 

SlugSnorter

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So lately I have been noticing my corals look a bit sad. I have all soft corals so the usual suspects (calcium, alkalinity) wouldn't be the issue. I started doing some testing a noticed I have 0 (or very very close to 0) nitrates. I knew that I didn't truly have 0 nitrates because I have GHA in my tank. However, this made me think: is the GHA taking up all the nutrients and making my corals look the way they do? Back when they looked a lot better I had a very small amount of it, now I have a bunch. Is this the issue?
GHA sucks up phos and nitrates like crazy.
 

sixty_reefer

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So lately I have been noticing my corals look a bit sad. I have all soft corals so the usual suspects (calcium, alkalinity) wouldn't be the issue. I started doing some testing a noticed I have 0 (or very very close to 0) nitrates. I knew that I didn't truly have 0 nitrates because I have GHA in my tank. However, this made me think: is the GHA taking up all the nutrients and making my corals look the way they do? Back when they looked a lot better I had a very small amount of it, now I have a bunch. Is this the issue?
If you reading zero than you have zero nitrates, you need to start feeding your tank more or increase your nitrates by dosing chemicals. Your corals are looking sad most likely because they are starving.
 

Lavey29

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I don't really buy into algae sucking up all the nutrients either. I had a GHA jungle tank and still managed good nitrate and phosphate numbers for my corals which is probably why the GHA was not able to overwhelm my corals.
 

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