A lot of people here are saying though that the issue is partially that there's no enough phosphate to support the corals, would reducing it further not make the issue worse? I'm just getting a lot of conflicting advice from this thread
Tank has been up for over a year and still struggling with poor coral health and extreme algae growth
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So basically you starved out both the algae and the coral while manually removing algae, and then once the algae was well under control you allowed phosphates to creep back up to a regular amount?
That's what some are saying. But to me that sounds like "starve the whole tank and hope the bad dies first. Then feed everyone and hope the good grows first."
What I'd do, if you have bubble algae, get an emerald crab or two and plop them in. Pull any hair algae you can get to and keep at the manual removal as needed. Keep the whole tank fed and test consistently.
They were still receiving phosphate I believe just nothing was registering on my testing. But yeah my plan was to starve out the algae to the point of no new growth.
once i had the scales tipped back in my favour i shut down the GFO phosban reactor . I stilled pulled manually and switched floss 1-3 days
Its a tricky and dangerous game to play with phosphates. Too much you get algea , too little you get dinos. The sweet spot is somewhere in between and its not necessarily a paticular set of numbers because it will vary for everyone
Your plan is to get an emerald crab and pull algea and keep feeding as per normal which is what caused the issue to begin with ?
Ummmmmmmm let me know how that game plan works out for you haha
I had issues in my tank and it’s a 20 gallon tank for 1 year I oversized my skimmer it reduced nitrates a lot more effectively. Before and after photos. Algae went away I also do 0 water changes. I rather buy less crap every month and buy one solution and forget it and save money. I had algae all over rock sand and back wall it’s clean as hell now.
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The skimmer I got was Aquamax 1.5 hobb. It is rated for 60 gallons low bio load. 40 gallons high bio load. I also got 5 nitrates so corals are happy
I'm just confused what keeps the algae from coming back like normal once you stop running phosphate media. Wouldn't emerald crabs and manual removal work since you're directly reducing algae while freeing up more phosphate for the corals?
The skimmer I got was Aquamax 1.5 hobb. It is rated for 60 gallons low bio load. 40 gallons high bio load. I also got
they are telling you to buy more absorbing media for phosphate and nitrate. Skimmate is made of both. I see skimmer as large cleaning facility. I rather keep my hands out of the water and buying new media every month.
Adding more stuff will increase your nitrates and phosphates more fish more live stock more of it. If you hand remove it will grow back in 2-3 days. It’s a constant battle.
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Thanos, you have the "Dry Rock Blues". I have been there. I sympathize. I was never able to kick it and then had a catastrophic tank failure (bottom glass cracked). I don't know how to fix it. People will tell you all kinds of stuff to try. All I can do is sympathize. Best of luck.
Never had great luck with phosphate remover, since it’s exhausted so quickly. Minimize direct sunlight if near window.
BRS has a small reactor suited for your tank. Run some Gfo, and manually pull excess algae.
A year is the rule of thumb for maturing tank. Some more some less. Add some more CUC. Keep checking levels. This with tank husbandry and water changes will work it out.
Yeah I don't have any hair algae in my tank, I use to get small patches but I just scrubbed it away and I haven't seen any for months. Bubble algae on the other hand covers ~80% of my rockwork and has completely taken over the tank.
My tank literally looked like this. Time, patience, and routine work cleared it up. It’s an ugly stage, just have to find out why
Never had great luck with phosphate remover, since it’s exhausted so quickly. Minimize direct sunlight if near window.
BRS has a small reactor suited for your tank. Run some Gfo, and manually pull excess algae.
A year is the rule of thumb for maturing tank. Some more some less. Add some more CUC. Keep checking levels. This with tank husbandry and water changes will work it
that’s a lot of green hair algae. You can beat it! I did.
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I had a FAT lawnmower blenny until the clownfish pair killed it.
You could put your tank on chemotherapy (strip away every bit of phosphate) if you hate algae more than you love corals.
Or you can get a properly sized cleaning crew (temporarily) that eats the algae as fast as it can grow, keeping excess nutrients in the water.
15+ Hermit crabs, 2 emerald, an army of snails, algae eating fish
And use your hands to manually remove algae too
Or you can get a properly sized cleaning crew (temporarily) that eats the algae as fast as it can grow, keeping excess nutrients in the water.
15+ Hermit crabs, 2 emerald, an army of snails, algae eating fish
And use your hands to manually remove algae too
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Hair, bubble, it is just what got the foothold first. I see a lot of dry rock tanks in this state. I am an ocean live rock believer now. Bring on the hitchhikers!
I blow the bubble algae with turkey baster my skimmer eats it up. Nom nom nom. Also got UV sterilizer so harder for it to reproduce. Less nitrate phosphate harder for an algae to replace another algae you dislike. This hobby for me for a whole year was beating one algae for another algae to win no more.
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