Low Nutrient System and Algae Problem

[Soilbreaker]

Hello everyone,

I'm currently battling and algae outbreak since roughly 3 months. I just started a new nano tank at the beginning of the year - everything seemed great after cycling. However, currently there is an algae outbreak I can't seem to fix. First of some parameters of my tank:

Density: 1.024 (SG 32)
Temperature: 25 °C
Light: RedSea ReefLED 90 (65% blue, 55% white)

Alkalinity: 7.5 dkH
Calcium: 450 ppm
PH: 7.5 ... 8
PO4: 0 ppm
NO3: 1 ppm
Silicate: 0 ppm

I have brown/greenish film and some algae like gha on my rocks, which I currently remove mechanically and filter subsequently every three days. But it grows back fast. At first I was thinking it is some kind of dino problem, due to my low nutrients in the tank. However, an UV cleaner and Vibrant and the stop of water changes (no more trace elements) didn't help much. I also have some kind of white/brown film on my glass which is growing back every ~15min after removing it. While removing it seems to be very fine like dust. Also, I have very low nutrients - I tried to raise them with feeding more and also du supplement PO4 and NO3 in liquid form. This didn't help much strangely as PO4 and NO3 stayed at 0 ppm and 1 ppm. For PO4 I used different brands of tests.

The algae seem to irritate the corals as well. They are sometimes not openining up fully.

For my salt water, I used different brands of salt and RO/DI water. So this shouldn't be any problem.

Some pictures are attached. Does anyone has an idea on how to fix this problem? I'm currently running out of ideas.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Big G]

Bump

 

[reefdude101]

Did you ever solve this problem ?
I have what seems the same thing on a 2 year plus established tank seems to thrive in low nutrient water no matter what you throw at it ?

 

[Kfactor]

I dose brightwells po4 and no3 I find it really helps . I find I can never get me po4 up but dosing it seems to really help me out . You can also try running skimmer 12 on 12 off

 

[Soilbreaker]

That's actually what did help my situation as well. Dose manually NO3 and PO4 according to the Redfield ratio. Yet I have to keep track on PO4 as I have to dose this plenty of times.

Also manually cleaning/brushing the stones and having a good mechanical filtration helps.

 

[snowhite]

Less skimmer and less refugium light time often solves problems like this without having to dose.
People are conditioned to think "healthy" and "successfull" tank have a tightly packed sump full of technogadgets, and by imitating that they often manage to do more harm to their tanks than what is really needed for their bioload or setup.
IMHO

 

[Soilbreaker]

You are absolutely right. However, in my case I run a nano tank w/o skimmer and refugium. Just the plain tank with a hob filter.

 

[Cory]

It looks like dying hair algae turning white. But it could be chrysophytes too. Get a diadema sea urchin.