That delicate balance between coral color and growth and an explosion of algae

BAUCE

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I've been really getting my tank dialed in these last few months after not putting in as much time as I should be. I'd consider all of my SPS to have looked healthy and fairly colorful even during this period of somewhat neglect. I'm definetely chasing color and growth from just before this time.

I started dosing some aminos and feeding a little heavier about a month ago and almost imeddiately noticed better color across the board. I also started to develop more hair algae, bubble algae and bits and pieces of bryopsis. To combat this algae I started dosing nopox which I've had good success with in the past. After about a week at just under the recommended dose my SPS started to pale, melted a couple zoas and algae started to fade away. My nitrates came down close to 0 and my phosphates around .3

3 days ago I started adding NeoNitro to bring the nitrates back into the picture to hopefully bring some of that color back along with hopefully dropping the phosphate a little. I just cleaned the glass and realized that a bunch of my sps colors look way better than 3 days ago and that algae is coming back a bit. Nitrates are currently around 4ppm and phosphates around .3 still. I've also noticed a good amount of my pieces with new white growth. ( monti caps, red dragon, a few different tenius)

I feel like Im headed back in the right direction but I also feel like I've started a balancing act that Im going to have to watch meticulously if I dont want algae to get out of hand. Im thinking the easy answer is to add more snails and possibly a rabbit fish while keep the nutrients where they are at. What do you guys think?
 

bluprntguy

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Personally, I’d run some phosphate remover/GFO as you ideally want phosphate to be 0.03, not .3. The fauna Marin phosphate remover seems to work the best for me because it doesn’t strip all the phosphate out entirely.
 

MabuyaQ

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You can't stimulate one species that needs nitrates and phosphates without stimulating another species that needs nitrates and phosphates.
Add more/ the right consumers of that unwanted species and your problem is solved. Every aquarium without herbivores will not only grow algae but also show algae. An aquarium with herbivores will grow algae just not show algae.
And of your PO4 is 0.3 lowering this towards 0.1 to 0.05 would also help control certain species.
 

SeaDweller

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Heavy import and heavy export.

You’re going down that rabbit hole and will probably end up chasing numbers and adding nutrients, removing them, vice versa and creating this see saw of instability. You already see what nutrients can do, and what happens when you strip them, so you need to find that balance. And if your tank looked awesome with some algae, then who cares? Find stuff that will take care of it.

I run multiple export methods to match my 4-5x/day feeding for 35 fish in a 240, and my growth and colors for my all acro tank has never been better. I’m running fuge, gfo, sulfur denitrator, skimmer, and monthly water changes and my NO3 doesn’t reach 1.0 and po4 hovers between 0.03-0.10.

How many fish do you have and what are you running for export?
 

Lasse

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As other has pointed out - with enough of grazers your aquarium will not show algae. Some of the nutrient taking up of the growing algae will also be bound in the biomass of the grazers. IMO - you can´t eradicate algae growth with ultra low NO3 and PO4 levels - only change the dominating species. Let the problem become an advantage instead - free food for grazers. However - there can be other reasons to have lower levels of nutrients, but if your aquarium fulfill your demands - do not start to chase figures.

Sincerely Lasse
 
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BAUCE

BAUCE

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Yeah I was already pretty comitted to the idea that grazers are the best option for me at this point. It's just crazy to see what lowering my nutrients on my tank really does. I didnt realize how fast the corals could lose color and then come right back. I mainly posted this to see if anyone else was going through the same thing. Maybe it was meant to be a support group thread for people also trying to find that balance. :D

Thanks for the helpful input.
 

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