Time for Nopox?

[Adequate]

I'm starting to see more and more hair algae turn up throughout my 100L tank, on the rocks and even on exposed coral skeleton. The tank is about six or seven months old, and feeding is light on the single fish in the tank. Nutrient export is ~25% water changes once a week, and I try to manually remove some algae while I'm at it.

I don't know what my parameters are exactly, but solely using the amount of algae as a visual indicator, would you say it's time for Nopox or another carbon source? I do have a spare skimmer I can bust out if I do dose Nopox.

 

[WVNed]

No
Dont use an additive like NoPox blindly. NoPox reduces nitrate and phosephate. It is quite possible to have algae and not have them too high.
If you dont do testing you have no idea what is going on in your tank.

 

[HB AL]

I dose nopox but I have a heavy bioload .

 

[WVNed]

I dose nopox but I have a heavy bioload .

Me too. I buy 5 liters at a time and have had it on a dosing pump for a year.

 

[WVNed]

Having a reef tank means you have to make decisions all the time.

Without testing how do you decide anything. Sometimes having too much of somethings looks almost the same as having too little.

 

[Adequate]

No
Dont use an additive like NoPox blindly. NoPox reduces nitrate and phosephate. It is quite possible to have algae and not have them too high.
If you dont do testing you have no idea what is going on in your tank.

Having a reef tank means you have to make decisions all the time.

Without testing how do you decide anything. Sometimes having too much of somethings looks almost the same as having too little.

That's a good point. My original plan was to dose small amounts of NoPox and very slowly increase the dosage, all the while watching the corals' reactions very closely, and then once the algae went away, I'd improve biological filtration to keep nutrients down. But now I think I'll get my water tested at my LFS first and maybe grab a test kit.

Regardless of my nutrient levels, I'm also going to beef up my biological filtration with Seachem Matrix in an HOB, I've heard good things about that stuff, plus the tank is relatively light on LR.

 

[Holst]

You just got a refugium in your display tank
So tou might not be able to measure anything. I don’t think it is from feeding that one fish, it could be the rocks that is leaking PO4 etc. This Will take time before that is depleeted..
remove by hand is my suggestion at first.. if you cannot keep up then nopox might help you, but still remove manualy..
Good luck

 

[Adequate]

I'd rather have a refugium in a refugium

I'll try to keep up with manual removal during my weekly water changes. I first set up this tank because my last tank was overrun with hair algae and nothing I did would get rid of it. I don't want that to happen again.

 

[WVNed]

There are lots of things you cab do. Reef flux or Vibrant may work for you. Now that the algae is there even getting nitrates/phosphates down probably wont make it go away completely. How is your clean up crew.

Everything you can do has risks and rewards.
Read read read

 

[homer1475]

You want to defeat the algae.....

Start dosing live phytoplankton. Basic building blocks of life in a reef tank and will out compete algae for nutrients. Not much scientific evidence out there for live phyto dosing, but ask anyone that dose it on a daily basis, and they will tell you there numbers say they should have a ton of algae growing, yet there is none.

I have nearly 0 algae in my tank(0 algae is bad as every healthy reef tank needs some algae), yet my nitrates are in the upper teens(19.5 to be exact), and my phosphates are between 0.18, and 0.21.

I have very happy, healthy, and colorful coral with those numbers, yet have nearly 0 algae.

 

[WVNed]

You want to defeat the algae.....

Start dosing live phytoplankton. Basic building blocks of life in a reef tank and will out compete algae for nutrients. Not much scientific evidence out there for live phyto dosing, but ask anyone that dose it on a daily basis, and they will tell you there numbers say they should have a ton of algae growing, yet there is none.

I have nearly 0 algae in my tank(0 algae is bad as every healthy reef tank needs some algae), yet my nitrates are in the upper teens(19.5 to be exact), and my phosphates are between 0.18, and 0.21.

I have very happy, healthy, and colorful coral with those numbers, yet have nearly 0 algae.

I really really don't want to start growing phytoplankton.

sigh

 

[homer1475]

I really really don't want to start growing phytoplankton.

sigh

I don't grow it either... I buy it from a a guy on here thats actually relatively cheap(32oz for $27 shipped, and I get it in 2 days).

 

[WVNed]

I don't grow it either... I buy it from a a guy on here thats actually relatively cheap(32oz for $27 shipped, and I get it in 2 days).

I suspect 32oz wont go far into 400 gallons

 

[Adequate]

There are lots of things you cab do. Reef flux or Vibrant may work for you. Now that the algae is there even getting nitrates/phosphates down probably wont make it go away completely. How is your clean up crew.

Everything you can do has risks and rewards.
Read read read

CUC consists of some snails, a couple of hermit crabs and some rock-pool shrimp. I had some starfish before but they died and must've bumped up the nutrient levels in the tank.

You want to defeat the algae.....

Start dosing live phytoplankton. Basic building blocks of life in a reef tank and will out compete algae for nutrients. Not much scientific evidence out there for live phyto dosing, but ask anyone that dose it on a daily basis, and they will tell you there numbers say they should have a ton of algae growing, yet there is none.

I have nearly 0 algae in my tank(0 algae is bad as every healthy reef tank needs some algae), yet my nitrates are in the upper teens(19.5 to be exact), and my phosphates are between 0.18, and 0.21.

I have very happy, healthy, and colorful coral with those numbers, yet have nearly 0 algae.

Very interesting, I've never heard of dosing live phyto, but it's good that I happen to be growing green water in a bucket for my fish fry. Is that the stuff I should be looking at?

 

[homer1475]

Ooh he ships in bigger bags if need be, and even gives a 10% discount if you sign up for his auto ship service.

A gallon of 8 species phyto(yes theres actually 8 as I have personally put it under a microscope to ensure it's quality) is $58.

I dose 1ml per gallon in my reef, seems to be about right for my situation. Small cost for a pristine, chemical free reef. NoPox isn't cheap either, but there are cheaper alternatives.

 

[homer1475]

I prefer to find natural solutions as opposed to chemicals, but am not opposed to chemicals if natural means are not working.

I have never had a more pristine looking reef since I started dosing live phyto a few months back. Everything, and I mean everything in the reef uses phyto as food.

 

[WVNed]

LOL Ain't scarred of chemicals.
I use whatever works.

 

[Adequate]

I'm not quite sure how many species are swimming around in my green water, all I know is that the water turned green when I spilt plant fertiliser into it, and my fish fry seem to like the stuff.

I'll definitely look more into it, green water is a lot cheaper and easier to come by than chemical additives. I don't have a problem with chemicals either but natural is nice.

 

[homer1475]

Not afraid of chems either, if they work, they work.

With that said, a more natural approach since we are trying to replicate the ocean has done wonders for my tank.

 

[homer1475]

I'm not quite sure how many species are swimming around in my green water, all I know is that the water turned green when I spilt plant fertiliser into it, and my fish fry seem to like the stuff.

I'll definitely look more into it, green water is a lot cheaper and easier to come by than chemical additives. I don't have a problem with chemicals either but natural is nice.

I have found that phyto dosing does take a bit longer to see the effects then say NoPox, but in the long run it's cheaper, and more healthier for my tank.