Tank has been up for over a year and still struggling with poor coral health and extreme algae growth

[Thanos]

I'm really just not too sure what's causing this, so I'll just provide as much information as I can. It's a 65 gallon softy-dominated tank. In total I have 2 species of Xenia, a zoa colony, a toadstool polyp, 2 GSP's, a ricordea, a branching hammer, and a leptastrea. While some of the corals have shown good growth, lately they just haven't been looking too good and there's been almost no growth in the last few months. Even the xenia's no longer pulse and they're drooping over horribly. In addition, I've been having ridiculous algae problems. Flow in the tank is strong, with 2 Nero 3's on each end on a random anti-sync. 10 gallon water changes are done weekly using instant ocean and RODI water. Lighting is provided by a reefbreeder's photon v2, and while I don't have a par meter, comparing my tank to BRS's tests I'd guess par is around 200 in the top of the tank and around 100 at the bottom (Spectrum matches their recommended spectrum but with a little bit less white). For filtration, I have a sump where the water goes through a felt filter-pad that's changed monthly, bioball media, a filter sponge, and a bubble magus protein skimmer that's cleaned weekly.

As for parameters:

Temperature: 78-79, read with a digital in-tank thermometer
Salinity: 1.025, read with a standard salinometer
Alk: ~9, read with a hannah checker
Calcium: 420-450 ppm, read with a red sea test kit
Magnesium: ~1600 ppm, read with a red sea test kit
PH: 8.2, read with an API saltwater test kit
Ammonia: 0, read with an API saltwater test kit
Nitrate: <5, read with an API saltwater test kit
Phosphate: 0.00 ppm, read with the ULR hannah checker

The only additive I dose into the tank is the BRS soda ash mix to maintain alkalinity and PH. The fish are fed once daily using a mixture of flakes and mysis shrimp, and corals are target fed about once a week with reef roids.

 

[Miami Reef]

Picture of the tank?

 

[killer2001]

Since your phosphate is bottomed out I'm going to assume you are dealing with an aggressive bout of dinos. Corals need nitrates and phosphates so if you are consistently bottomed out it's going to be an issue.

Essentially you need to get rid of the dinos as best as possible and see if you are able to detect phosphates, if not, you will need to dose them in.

 

[homer1475]

Did you start with live rock, or dry rock?

And +1 picture of tank.

 

[Thanos]

Did you start with live rock, or dry rock?

And +1 picture of tank.

Dry macro rock, ~60 pounds

 

[Thanos]

Since your phosphate is bottomed out I'm going to assume you are dealing with an aggressive bout of dinos. Corals need nitrates and phosphates so if you are consistently bottomed out it's going to be an issue.

Essentially you need to get rid of the dinos as best as possible and see if you are able to detect phosphates, if not, you will need to dose them in.

About 90% of the algae in the tank is bubble algae and other forms of macro algae

 

[Thanos]

Picture of the tank?

I'll get a pic tonight, would it be better in normal lighting or would it help if I cranked the white light up?

 

[StatelineReefer]

I'll get a pic tonight, would it be better in normal lighting or would it help if I cranked the white light up?

White light and clear stable pic will help people ID your issues easier. Close up of the sandline as well if its not a bare bottom.

 

[Mschmidt]

I second that you are lacking dissolved nutrients. Most people I hear from find success with n close to 20 and p between .15 and .3.

 

[czoolander]

You can have 0 phosphates and nuissance algea in your tank as they will consuming it all and causing a 0 reading. I went through this exact situation earlier this year .

I ended up buying and running a GFO phosban reactor. ..........even though i kept reading 0.00 on phosphate I had algea so i knew there was excessive phosphate in my system. So i ran the phosban for a few months and would hand pull out my algea and run filter floss and change it o ut every 1-3 days until i noticed the tide had turned and there was no new algea growth.

Next step

I removed the phosban reactor and now dose phosphate and run at 0.02-0.05 phosphate with daily dosing . No new algea growth and my corals are taking off and doing excellent.

its not a quick fix solution it takes time and lots of pulling algea by hand. but its what worked for me

Good luck !

 

[Thanos]

You can have 0 phosphates and nuissance algea in your tank as they will consuming it all and causing a 0 reading. I went through this exact situation earlier this year .

I ended up buying and running a GFO phosban reactor. ..........even though i kept reading 0.00 on phosphate I had algea so i knew there was excessive phosphate in my system. So i ran the phosban for a few months and would hand pull out my algea and run filter floss and change it o ut every 1-3 days until i noticed the tide had turned and there was no new algea growth.

Next step

I removed the phosban reactor and now dose phosphate and run at 0.02-0.05 phosphate with daily dosing . No new algea growth and my corals are taking off and doing excellent.

its not a quick fix solution it takes time and lots of pulling algea by hand. but its what worked for me

Good luck !

This is what I'm thinking, just bc almost all of the algae is macro stuff that depends on phosphates. I have chemi-pure elite which I've heard is excellent at cutting phosphates (I don't have room for a reactor so this seems like my best bet), so ig I'll run it for a month and see what happens.

 

[Tcook]

Add some emerald crabs to eat the bubble algae. They worked great in my 120. As the algae clears follow PO4 levels carefully to avoid a true zero. As others have mentioned, you may have to dose for a period of time.

 

[RichReef]

Without seeing a pic my first question other than water changes is what are you doing for nutrient export? You have to have something. That would be my first move. The filter pad also needs changed way more than once a month. In a perfect world it should be cleaned every 3-4 days. Weekly minimum.

Those would be my first go to.

 

[Crustaceon]

#1 Mechanically remove the algae. Grab as many clumps as you can and if you can't, scrub it with an old toothbrush. #2 swap out that filter media a few hours after scrubbing algae off of rocks, pumps, etc. After that, change the filter media weekly (3-4 days is better, but you know..). I'd also have another set of media on hand, so you can rinse the dirty stuff out, dry it and return it back to the tank at the next swapping interval. #3 A ten gallon water change is probably too much. Try a 5 gallon change instead for a while. You want to keep some phosphates in your tank and continually hammering it with large water changes is working against that.

 

[czoolander]

This is what I'm thinking, just bc almost all of the algae is macro stuff that depends on phosphates. I have chemi-pure elite which I've heard is excellent at cutting phosphates (I don't have room for a reactor so this seems like my best bet), so ig I'll run it for a month and see what happens.

How big is your sump ? GFO reactors dont take up that much space

But yeah what @Crustaceon said you will want to manually pull as much as you can too

 

[vetteguy53081]

I'm really just not too sure what's causing this, so I'll just provide as much information as I can. It's a 65 gallon softy-dominated tank. In total I have 2 species of Xenia, a zoa colony, a toadstool polyp, 2 GSP's, a ricordea, a branching hammer, and a leptastrea. While some of the corals have shown good growth, lately they just haven't been looking too good and there's been almost no growth in the last few months. Even the xenia's no longer pulse and they're drooping over horribly. In addition, I've been having ridiculous algae problems. Flow in the tank is strong, with 2 Nero 3's on each end on a random anti-sync. 10 gallon water changes are done weekly using instant ocean and RODI water. Lighting is provided by a reefbreeder's photon v2, and while I don't have a par meter, comparing my tank to BRS's tests I'd guess par is around 200 in the top of the tank and around 100 at the bottom (Spectrum matches their recommended spectrum but with a little bit less white). For filtration, I have a sump where the water goes through a felt filter-pad that's changed monthly, bioball media, a filter sponge, and a bubble magus protein skimmer that's cleaned weekly.

As for parameters:

Temperature: 78-79, read with a digital in-tank thermometer
Salinity: 1.025, read with a standard salinometer
Alk: ~9, read with a hannah checker
Calcium: 420-450 ppm, read with a red sea test kit
Magnesium: ~1600 ppm, read with a red sea test kit
PH: 8.2, read with an API saltwater test kit
Ammonia: 0, read with an API saltwater test kit
Nitrate: <5, read with an API saltwater test kit
Phosphate: 0.00 ppm, read with the ULR hannah checker

The only additive I dose into the tank is the BRS soda ash mix to maintain alkalinity and PH. The fish are fed once daily using a mixture of flakes and mysis shrimp, and corals are target fed about once a week with reef roids.

Hard to believe your test show zero phos yet a bunch of algae as it is high hos that promote it. High nitrate may also be an issue and seeing thay youare using API kits, I would highly suggest taking a water sample to a trusted LFS that does Not use Api kits and see what ammonia and nitrate readings they come up with and to compare with yours.

Is your tank at or near a window?
Are you using RODI water and if so are your cartridges used up or close to ?

 

[Crustaceon]

Hard to believe your test show zero phos yet a bunch of algae as it is high hos that promote it. High nitrate may also be an issue and seeing thay youare using API kits, I would highly suggest taking a water sample to a trusted LFS that does Not use Api kits and see what ammonia and nitrate readings they come up with and to compare with yours.

Is your tank at or near a window?
Are you using RODI water and if so are your cartridges used up or close to ?

That's the funny thing about having nuisance algae (or chaeto/an ats). It rapidly takes up phosphate to grow, so you'll get a zero reading on a hanna checker, yet there the algae is, growing like crazy. Now if you stopped feeding the tank, that algae will eventually start to die and release the phosphate back into the water and you'll get a reading. I found that all the time back when I was professionally maintaining customer tanks.

 

[Thanos]

Hard to believe your test show zero phos yet a bunch of algae as it is high hos that promote it. High nitrate may also be an issue and seeing thay youare using API kits, I would highly suggest taking a water sample to a trusted LFS that does Not use Api kits and see what ammonia and nitrate readings they come up with and to compare with yours.

Is your tank at or near a window?
Are you using RODI water and if so are your cartridges used up or close to ?

Tank is not near a window and receives minimal indirect sunlight, and no direct sunlight. I use RODI water, and I change the cartridges once TDS is no longer undetectable.

 

[xWascallyWabbit]

I would suspect Nitrate and Phosphate issue. Softies and LPS need higher nutrients. Reading low levels with high amounts of algae indicate that the algae may be using up the available nutrients and starving out the corals.
Beef up the cleanup crew manually remove as much as you can. Until the algae is under control I'd not change anything

 

[Dav2996]

Tank is not near a window and receives minimal indirect sunlight, and no direct sunlight. I use RODI water, and I change the cartridges once TDS is no longer undetectable.

Use phosphate remover by brightwell. I cleared a ton of algae issues by getting an over size skimmer. I got a skimmer rated high bio load for 40gallons my 20 gallon tank and it cleared all my issues. Over sizing makes it more effective if you over feed, lots of fish, and algae.