Im running into a contradiction with my new tank. It's been up since June. I'm using a skimmer, a fuge, and filter socks. My filtration has done a great job of exporting nutrients, too good in fact. Both phosphate and nitrate are 0. They are definitely not truly 0 as I do have some algae, but I have a whole lot more in my fuge and the display looks pretty good considering its only been up for about 4 months.
I run the DT lights for 8 hours, and the fuge light for the remainder of the day. My skimmer was only on during the DT light cycle.
The problem:
I added Zoas after my tank cycled and they did great for a few months till about 3 weeks ago when they began to only partially open. I found a thread on here that suggested to turn off the skimmer to increase nutrients. I did that yesterday and also switched from 200 micron felt socks to 300 micron mesh socks. The Zoas are not fully opened yet, but they opened further and look much better than they have in the past few weeks. I expect they will be fully opened in the next 2-3 days.
I also assume this is why chaeto hasn't been growing. Nuisance algae is growing just fine in the fuge, but the chaeto doesn't do much. I assume increasing the nutrients helps the zoas, but will also fuel a bunch of algae growth. How do you control aglae growth while supplying enough nutrients for the corals? Perhaps the increased nutrient levels will kick start the chaeto and out compete the bad stuff. I'm just not sure.
I run the DT lights for 8 hours, and the fuge light for the remainder of the day. My skimmer was only on during the DT light cycle.
The problem:
I added Zoas after my tank cycled and they did great for a few months till about 3 weeks ago when they began to only partially open. I found a thread on here that suggested to turn off the skimmer to increase nutrients. I did that yesterday and also switched from 200 micron felt socks to 300 micron mesh socks. The Zoas are not fully opened yet, but they opened further and look much better than they have in the past few weeks. I expect they will be fully opened in the next 2-3 days.
I also assume this is why chaeto hasn't been growing. Nuisance algae is growing just fine in the fuge, but the chaeto doesn't do much. I assume increasing the nutrients helps the zoas, but will also fuel a bunch of algae growth. How do you control aglae growth while supplying enough nutrients for the corals? Perhaps the increased nutrient levels will kick start the chaeto and out compete the bad stuff. I'm just not sure.
