Pale corals and algae with low nutrients

[ReefSlice]

Having a hard time turning around my 4 month old 40g breeder. Started with dry rock, stocked with 2 clowns and pajama cardinal, 7 trochus, 10 ceriths and 5 nassarius snails. Added a few zoa frags on month 2, which seemed to do well for about a month until I had some GHA start growing. Po4 bottomed out, I'm assuming due to the algae, and all of my corals turned very pale and haven't been growing at all. For the last 2 months the GHA continues to grow everywhere and cyano is slowly showing up in a few areas of the tank. I have tried dosing phosphorous to bring up my available nutrients and they just consistently read 0 week after week. Nitrate hovers in the 5-10 range. I have tried amino acids as well, and neither that or the phosphorous has helped the corals at all and I feel may be adding to my algae problems. I also have been dosing 20 ml of live phyto every day. Filtration consists of filter socks changed 2x a week and a properly sized BM skimmer, intermittent carbon use, and biweekly addition of Prodibio biodigest since the start of the tank. Coralline which was spreading from the original frags also died off and stopped growing with the algae bloom. I feed the fish once a day with LRS reef frenzy and do weekly to biweekly water changes of 15-20%. Lighting is an aquaticlife hybrid on for 9 hours (only 7 hours both sets of bulbs, the other 2 just one actinic and one blue+) supplemented by 2 Kessil a350w's for 6 hours mid day.
My question is how do I get my corals and coralline the nutrients they need to color up and grow while eliminating all of the algae growth? What would you guys do in this situation?
Parameters : NO3: 5-10
PO4: 0.00 with daily .02 ppm dosage
Alk : 8.2
Cal: 425
Mg: 1400
Temp: 78

 

[Miami Reef]

The Misconception of Algae & Nutrients + a Solution - Article

Algae needs more than just phosphate to grow. In fact, they need: Light, phosphate, nitrate, trace elements, room (no competition from coralline/bacteria/corals, and a lack of herbivores to grow. If even one of these is not there, algae will become limited by it. This is basic...

www.reef2reef.com

Increase herbivores in the tank. Dose more phosphates to allow availability to corals. Initially the phosphates will get absorbed into the calcium carbonate (rocks) but over time you will get readings.

 

[ReefSlice]

The Misconception of Algae & Nutrients + a Solution - Article

Algae needs more than just phosphate to grow. In fact, they need: Light, phosphate, nitrate, trace elements, room (no competition from coralline/bacteria/corals, and a lack of herbivores to grow. If even one of these is not there, algae will become limited by it. This is basic...

www.reef2reef.com

Increase herbivores in the tank. Dose more phosphates to allow availability to corals. Initially the phosphates will get absorbed into the calcium carbonate (rocks) but over time you will get readings.

That's what I'm figuring but what confuses me is before the algae bloom my phosphates were reading consistently .02-.06 and my corals looked great without any phosphate dosing. So it seems like the algae is what's uptaking the phosphorous. And what herbivores would you recommend for a 40g tank? My options seem limited with tangs and foxfaces out of the question.

 

[Miami Reef]

That's what I'm figuring but what confuses me is before the algae bloom my phosphates were reading consistently .02-.06 and my corals looked great without any phosphate dosing. So it seems like the algae is what's uptaking the phosphorous. And what herbivores would you recommend for a 40g tank? My options seem limited with tangs and foxfaces out of the question.

Tuxedo urchins and Mexican turbo snails are the best IMO.

Yes, there is still phosphates in your tank, but the algae is taking it up too quickly. Feed more for the corals.

 

[ReefSlice]

Tuxedo urchins and Mexican turbo snails are the best IMO.

Yes, there is still phosphates in your tank, but the algae is taking it up too quickly. Feed more for the corals.

How do I feed more to get the corals the nutrients they need while limiting the algae though? The answer to this has always eluded me.
Bump for any other thoughts!

 

[Miami Reef]

How do I feed more to get the corals the nutrients they need while limiting the algae though? The answer to this has always eluded me.
Bump for any other thoughts!

The Misconception of Algae & Nutrients + a Solution - Article

Algae needs more than just phosphate to grow. In fact, they need: Light, phosphate, nitrate, trace elements, room (no competition from coralline/bacteria/corals, and a lack of herbivores to grow. If even one of these is not there, algae will become limited by it. This is basic...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Lavey29]

The others gave you good advice for your cleaner crew and GHA. Bump your magnesium up to 1500 will help kill it off too. Dose reef roids once or twice a week and your phosphate will come up quick.