Hi All,
I currently have a 6 month old tank that is going through an algae outbreak. I know this is to be expected in a newer tank, but need advice on what I should be doing to mitigate. I know 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates is not good, but I don't know if feeding the tank more will make the algae problem worse. I've seen many different opinions about whether or not the tests are reading false zeros since the algae is consuming the nutrients.
-20 gallon IM Nuvo
-Caribsea Life-Rock
-Hygger Mini Wave Maker
-Filter floss & Red Sea Reef-Spec Carbon
-IO Reef Crystals salt
-2 clowns
-1 Tailspot Blenny
-3 Trochus Snails
-2 Nassarius Snails
-2 Cerith Snails
-1 Tiger Conch
-1 Porcelain Anemone Crab
-1 Duncan coral (staying mostly closed the past month)
-1 Toadstool (seems to be doing fine)
Parameters (Salifert tests):
Nitrates: 0
Phos: 0
Calc: 425
Alk: 7.5
Mag: 1290
In the past I was doing 20% bi-weekly water changes, but have been doing 15% weekly for the past 2 weeks since the algae got worse. Below is a pic of the tank before I manually removed most of the algae, which I do when I do water changes. I never run white lights, but I turned them on for the photos. I guess the other question is how people manually remove this type of algae without changing the water, if the WCs hurt the tank by taking nutrients out. It's always easier for me to just remove while I'm doing my WC. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
I currently have a 6 month old tank that is going through an algae outbreak. I know this is to be expected in a newer tank, but need advice on what I should be doing to mitigate. I know 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates is not good, but I don't know if feeding the tank more will make the algae problem worse. I've seen many different opinions about whether or not the tests are reading false zeros since the algae is consuming the nutrients.
-20 gallon IM Nuvo
-Caribsea Life-Rock
-Hygger Mini Wave Maker
-Filter floss & Red Sea Reef-Spec Carbon
-IO Reef Crystals salt
-2 clowns
-1 Tailspot Blenny
-3 Trochus Snails
-2 Nassarius Snails
-2 Cerith Snails
-1 Tiger Conch
-1 Porcelain Anemone Crab
-1 Duncan coral (staying mostly closed the past month)
-1 Toadstool (seems to be doing fine)
Parameters (Salifert tests):
Nitrates: 0
Phos: 0
Calc: 425
Alk: 7.5
Mag: 1290
In the past I was doing 20% bi-weekly water changes, but have been doing 15% weekly for the past 2 weeks since the algae got worse. Below is a pic of the tank before I manually removed most of the algae, which I do when I do water changes. I never run white lights, but I turned them on for the photos. I guess the other question is how people manually remove this type of algae without changing the water, if the WCs hurt the tank by taking nutrients out. It's always easier for me to just remove while I'm doing my WC. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
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