Questioning my tanks health from algae

[ferro]

I have had my tank for a year now and things have been stable where they are at for the last 6 months. I have had a problem with film algae (maybe Dino's) and no Coraline growth.

My hermit shells show what grows on all my rocks and glass. Gives everything a brown/green look that I'm not fond of. My phosphates have not registered in 6 months as well as nitrates. I grow hair algae in my sump for nutrient export and have a protein skimmer.
It is an 80 gallon tank with a 20 gallon sump.
1.026 sg
8.1ph
8.5dkh
410 ppm cal
0 phosphates
0 nitrates

This is my tank without cleaning the glass for 4 days.
Any help or suggestions would be great!

 

[Musovski]

0 nitrates? what test are you using?

 

[Crustaceon]

0 nitrates? what test are you using?

An algae scrubber can do this if you have a thick enough algae mat and run the grow lights long enough. A simple fix is to scrape the screen clean but leave the little squares filled with algae. Reduce the on time for your scrubber’s lights by 50%. Take some of the removed algae, place it in a filter bag and toss it in your sump. It’ll gradually decay and start releasing stored nitrates and phosphates within a few days. When you like what you see in the nitrate and phosphate tests, remove the bag and throw away the dead algae.

 

[ferro]

Will bringing nutrients up help with the brown/green in my display tank?

 

[Reef-Tank]

Following, I have same problem like this hope to see good result.

 

[Crustaceon]

Will bringing nutrients up help with the brown/green in my display tank?

Yes, because you most likely have dinoflagellates, which thrive in low nutrient environments. Once your nutrients rise, other more beneficial and attractive tank habitants are able to out-compete the ugly stuff. This is how you start getting the nice purple and red coralline algae on your rocks, provided your alkalinity, calcium and magnesium are all within ranges to grow lps or sps corals. Shoot for an alkalinity between 8 - 8.5 (check), calcium from 400 - 450 (check) and magnesium level of 1350 -1450 (You’re probably fine there too). Nitrates seem to be the best for most tanks between 2.5ppm and 10ppm with phosphates just being detectable to .03ppm. If you begin to see tiny green or brown spots of really tough to remove algae on your glass, you may do a coralline cartwheel, courtesy of crusty.

 

[ferro]

Should I skim less as well? Currently have a skimmer for a 150 gallon skimming on my 80 gallon

 

[Crustaceon]

Should I skim less as well? Currently have a skimmer for a 150 gallon skimming on my 80 gallon

I would shut it off for now or at the most, run it for a few hours per day so it doesn’t have to “break in” again and gives your tank some aeration if needed. For perspective, you could run just the algae scrubber for months, if not longer and your tank would be perfectly fine. I actually went skimmerless for six months and used my scrubber as the only form of nutrient export aside from swapping filter socks once a week. I didn’t even do water changes during this period and nitrates never rose above 5ppm.

 

[ferro]

I adjusted the skimmer so it bubbles but does not fill the cup to keep aeration going. Put a timer on my refugium light to run on opposite of my display. We will see what happens. How long will it take to start seeing nitrates come up?

 

[ferro]

I also added Arc reef Coraline algae in a bottle pink and purple. So we will see what happens!

 

[ferro]

So after making the adjustments I am starting to register .25ppm nitrates and .1ppm phosphates. Will have to keep an eye on things to make sure I don't lose it the other way. I also fed a pinch of pellets with the normal feeding. The fish usually don't like the pellets so they make it to the cuc. Will continue with normal feeding from here.

 

[Crustaceon]

It cracks me up how different systems go through nurtients differently. My tank sits right at 5ppm nitrates no matter what because of my algae scrubber. But I have a different issue now that needs to be resolved as the growth rate in the screen stopped, throwing a red flag for me. This is today’s phosphate test:

 

[ferro]

That looks like all my tests! I hadn't seen any color on them in forever. I'm hoping improving nitrates and phosphates will help. One thing I did early on after my cycle was put "a" in one bottle and "b" in the other on accident giving me a false reading. Make sure to double check if it's abnormal for you.

 

[ferro]

Oh and I meant .01 ppm phosphates not .1 seeing your test reminded me that.

 

[Crustaceon]

That looks like all my tests! I hadn't seen any color on them in forever. I'm hoping improving nitrates and phosphates will help. One thing I did early on after my cycle was put "a" in one bottle and "b" in the other on accident giving me a false reading. Make sure to double check if it's abnormal for you.

I’ve been through this a bunch on times and now can notice the change and growth in color even before I test my nutrient levels. The coloration and growth is just so much better with good water parameter. I keep a bottle of Flourish Nitrogen on hand for times like this and dosed 2ml, bumping up my phosphates to around .02ppm. I might get some algae fuzz growing on my back wall but the algae scrubber will either prevent that or very quickly eliminate it.

 

[ferro]

.01ppm phosphates and 1ppm nitrates! I'll test alk and calcium tomorrow. Hoping to see changes next week!

 

[ferro]

8.7dkh and 370ppm calcium. I think I am going to do a water change and pick up some calcium chloride. I'll have my LFS test my water as well. 410 to 370 seems like a big drop in calcium in a week for my tank load. I did drip 1/2 gallon + 1 tsp of Kalkwasser this week. Not sure if that changed things.

 

[Crustaceon]

8.7dkh and 370ppm calcium. I think I am going to do a water change and pick up some calcium chloride. I'll have my LFS test my water as well. 410 to 370 seems like a big drop in calcium in a week for my tank load. I did drip 1/2 gallon + 1 tsp of Kalkwasser this week. Not sure if that changed things.

If your nitrates and phosphates are still low I wouldn’t bother with the water change. Once your nitrates hit > 5ppm then I could see a water change being beneficial. Right now, I would just add some calcium chloride to get that parameter up, sit back and just test the tank’s alk daily and calcium once a week. Typically with kalk, you still have to “set” the calcium where you want it with calcium chloride and use the kalk to help it stay there through dripping, ato or a reactor. I highly recommend either running a kalk reactor or a large kalk reservoir with a cheapy jebao dosing pump to meter the kalk dosage for the sake of consistency. And depending on tank demand, you might have to add more kalk to hold that calcium number, but GO SLOW because kalk added too quickly will elevate your PH to 8.6 and beyond. I honestly believe my kalk reactor accounts for maybe 25% of my alk and calcium supply and use it more as a supplement to my calcium reactor.

 

[ferro]

Funny story... I got my numbers checked at the lfs and while I was watching him do the test I instantly felt like an idiot. I put 5 drops of reagent instead of 10! Was going off memory and apparently not a good one! They got 420ppm calcium. I still picked up a magnesium test kit and a calcium additive in case I need it. I'll continue dripping kalk. That seems to be working well with the low load in my tank. Just need to fix myself

 

[Crustaceon]

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