Sky high No3 and Po4 but no algae

[Joe Batt]

My 350 reefer was restarted about 15 months ago. I am in the middle of a slow transfer to my upgraded tank a Waterbox 230.

I had my fish in the Waterbox but managed to get some itch so after a 12 day tank transfer I put the fish back into the 350 so that I could leave the Waterbox fallow for 72 days. I had already moved the cheats over to the Waterbox fudge along with the Kessil 380. The corals had yet to be moved. With running Triton I also had no socks in the 350.

The nitrates and phosphates steadily grew to where they are now at No3 20+ and Po4 at 0.33. The weird thing in that the corals (a mixture of SPS and LPS) as all fine, polyps out and looking great! There is no algae in the tank and the sand is clear.....

I was expecting the tank to be covered in algae and a total mess with this level of nutrients. I am going to move the corals over to the Waterbox now anyway, but it just seems very odd!

 

[Timfish]

Not surprised at all. In ch 5 of his book "Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas" Forest Rohwer discusses how the equilibrium of a reef may promote corals or promote algae independent of the nutrients. This is something I've seen in my tank for a couple decades and when I am called in toe remediate an algae problem I'll see algae disappear even though nutrients may increase.