Struggling to keep nitrates UP. Is my tank "carbon-limited"?

[Jekyl]

I'd argue that the algae was on its way out on its own and the CuC only played a small part. Algae usually presents itself over various stages of the tank maturing. GHA was awful in my tank around the 1 year mark. It lasted a couple months. All I did was try to keep things stable and remove what I could by hand. I added a small addition to my CuC including a long spine urchin. Eventually it stopped growing. Coraline kicked in a lot more and I haven't seen GHA since. I recently had a cyano break out. That was due to a shift in nitrate. I let them get away from me. Through a series of large water changes and drop in nitrate, cyano started growing. Even then I didn't change anything. Within a month it was almost completely gone.

 

[Dolphins18]

I'd argue that the algae was on its way out on its own and the CuC only played a small part. Algae usually presents itself over various stages of the tank maturing. GHA was awful in my tank around the 1 year mark. It lasted a couple months. All I did was try to keep things stable and remove what I could by hand. I added a small addition to my CuC including a long spine urchin. Eventually it stopped growing. Coraline kicked in a lot more and I haven't seen GHA since. I recently had a cyano break out. That was due to a shift in nitrate. I let them get away from me. Through a series of large water changes and drop in nitrate, cyano started growing. Even then I didn't change anything. Within a month it was almost completely gone.

For example. On a 75 gallon tank, when I see GHA break out, I would order around 300-400 cleaners, including, controllable algae for a fuge/reactor.
250 of these cleaners are super small. I may be wrong, but it has worked on the last 4 tanks. The small ones are like 10 cents each.
These cleaners all consist of snails and hermits, maybe 3 or 4 emerald crabs.
GHA from the whole tank gone in a week or two at most.

 

[Jekyl]

For example. On a 75 gallon tank, when I see GHA break out, I would order around 300-400 cleaners, including, controllable algae for a fuge/reactor.
250 of these cleaners are super small. I may be wrong, but it has worked on the last 4 tanks. The small ones are like 10 cents each.
These cleaners all consist of snails and hermits, maybe 3 or 4 emerald crabs.
GHA from the whole tank gone in a week or two at most.

I've never added more than 1/2 my tank size from reefcleaners. I know the algae won't last. I don't want them to starve when it does.

 

[LegendaryCG]

The thing about CUC packages are they all ARE oversized BUT they can be the difference between giving up on your tank or keeping it going.

 

[Dolphins18]

I've never added more than 1/2 my tank size from reefcleaners. I know the algae won't last. I don't want them to starve when it does.

I move them to a predator tank when its depleted, they have plenty of food there.

 

[brandon429]

So this changed to a gha thread, haven’t seen many of those


post pics


all algae challenge threads needs the pics more than the test approximations. Let’s see the fts, it’ll have unspoken details. We now agree the nitrate is not known here, whether algae present or not. We do not know the state of the nitrate at any point so far. This started as a param thread was why asking.