High Alk with low nutrients = sps death???

[twilliard]

All algaes just love no3!
If you want to spot treat any algae I would use peroxide. Only if the underlying cause of growth is determined. Thanks Brandon!

 

[Russ265]

Will do

Will do.

I've begun using some coral food that I got awhile ago from reefcleaners.org

I'll also feed pellets from now on as well as the mysis until I start seeing some phosphates.

I checked my Hanna on some old water and found 0.03ppm phosphate, so I know it works at least. I've never had a problem KEEPING phosphates before. Before my reboot, I had bad hair Algea and bryopsis.

I should mention, there is some bubble Algea and some turf Algea present. Could that be consuming my nutrients before my corals can?

yeah bubble algae has to be manually removed.

presence of turf algae means you have quite a bit of phosphate. increasing nitrates will help put pressure on phosphate to balance itself.

when i dosed phosphate before nitrate i got a nice bloom of turf algae and some gha. i turned my gfo on to correct the situation and introduced nitrate. that led me to keep gfo off and phosphate barely detectable.

hth

 

[Mattrg02]

yeah bubble algae has to be manually removed.

presence of turf algae means you have quite a bit of phosphate. increasing nitrates will help put pressure on phosphate to balance itself.

when i dosed phosphate before nitrate i got a nice bloom of turf algae and some gha. i turned my gfo on to correct the situation and introduced nitrate. that led me to keep gfo off and phosphate barely detectable.

hth

I'm guessing this phosphate came back when I fed three times a day and didn't run GFO?

Since i spotted the Algea, I started GFO and fed once a day. After reading your thread, I stopped GFO.

 

[Russ265]

I'm guessing this phosphate came back when I fed three times a day and didn't run GFO?

Since i spotted the Algea, I started GFO and fed once a day. After reading your thread, I stopped GFO.

so keep an eye on the tank. if the rock is greening up like tiger wood's back yard. kick gfo back on.

your limiting nutrient could be nitrate

 

[eg8r210]

i am using a buddle magus dosing pump and i turned the alk dose off and just let it go down naturally

I don't know if this is a good idea. In my experience the alk will drop too fast if you just quit dosing. i would turn it back on and just back the alk down a little bit.

 

[Mattrg02]

so keep an eye on the tank. if the rock is greening up like tiger wood's back yard. kick gfo back on.

your limiting nutrient could be nitrate

Haha, it's looking green. It's short and thick. It's not spreading, keeping only to its rock. To be fair, it was there in a small quantity when I did this reboot on my tank. Only after going wild feeding mysis and filter feeder food did it turn green and get thicker. Bubble algae IS starting up though. It's showing itself in small areas around the tank.

Maybe I should replace the rock that has this green algae with a nice new, coralline covered, one from the LFS? It's an old old rock that is ugly. Also, I could pick out the bubble algae. That should rid me of the phosphate suckers, no?

 

[Russ265]

Haha, it's looking green. It's short and thick. It's not spreading, keeping only to its rock. To be fair, it was there in a small quantity when I did this reboot on my tank. Only after going wild feeding mysis and filter feeder food did it turn green and get thicker. Bubble algae IS starting up though. It's showing itself in small areas around the tank.

Maybe I should replace the rock that has this green algae with a nice new, coralline covered, one from the LFS? It's an old old rock that is ugly. Also, I could pick out the bubble algae. That should rid me of the phosphate suckers, no?

i think the bigger lesson here is to observe the tank.
as for your question about exchanging out the rock. i would get a handle on your tank's behavior before going a quick route.
patience could be your missing ingredient.