What should I do next?

[mjaquarium02]

Hello

I have a 30 gallon tank and I have algae. I recently had to quarantine my fish so my nitrates went down. My nitrates are less than 2 but definitely not 0. I don’t have a phosphate test kit, I just ordered one so it should come in soon.

Anyways I’m keeping my tank fallow except for invertebrates and I have soft corals so I had to keep the light schedule as is. I did make the schedule for less light time around 8 hours… it was 10 but i noticed algae growing so I dropped it to 8 hours. I noticed green hair algae at first. Then I did a water change (about a week ago) , took out as much algae as I could, and now I’m left with this…. I did add more invertebrates to my CUC and they’re doing great but I think this algae is getting out of hand.


Should I dose phosphate (if low… will know more soon once i get my testing kit) and nitrate until I add my fish back to the tank?
My fish needs one more week in quarantine and should be back in my DT.

Also to me this looks green hair algae?? any tips?


Thanks!!

PS my corals are “closed” their light schedule hasn’t started yet. But they’re doing ok but could be better in my opinion.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

The tank looks rather new, how old is it? Honestly I don't see much algae there, just a few little growths, algae is part of our tanks.

When my tanks are fishless, normally I just add a pinch of flake food every few days. You are feeding the clean up crew right?

I would wait until you get your phosphate test kit before deciding to dose anything

 

[DJF]

Looks like diatoms on fresh sand; normal cycle. Things will balance- your sand is prettier than mine

 

[CasperOe]

Yeah, what I would do once you are done with your testing as per the advice given by @Mr. Mojo Rising , i would sit down with a cold beer and enjoy being a patient reefer! I would not dose any chemicals, it's rarely the solution to long term success.

It does look quite new, and it is a stage you will just have to pass through during the cycling and setting up a new tank.

 

[Uncle99]

2ppm nitrate is too low…..I’d say 5-20ppm is fine.
.1ppm ish phosphate is good, test and shoot for that.

You can only dose if you can test.

 

[mjaquarium02]

2ppm nitrate is too low.
.1ppm ish phosphate is good.

You can only dose if you can test.

i agree nítrate is too low. i had it at 10 but since i moved my fish it dropped..

 

[mjaquarium02]

The tank looks rather new, how old is it? Honestly I don't see much algae there, just a few little growths, algae is part of our tanks.

When my tanks are fishless, normally I just add a pinch of flake food every few days. You are feeding the clean up crew right?

I would wait until you get your phosphate test kit before deciding to dose anything

Sorry, I forgot to mention an important factor. Haha the tank is 3 months old. I have been feed the CUC as well.

The algae was worse before I did a water change. Had my back and arms hurting the day after from all the motion.

I definitely didn’t think about how having no fish can cause low nutrients therefore.. algae break.

 

[DJF]

I recommend putting the fish back and monitoring- manually remove the gha. There will be plenty to worry about down the road. You’re off to a good start. You don’t have anything to worry about with nitrates at this point. For the types of coral I see (no sps) high nitrates would be fine- doesn’t start to negatively affect fish until much higher.

 

[mjaquarium02]

Yeah, what I would do once you are done with your testing as per the advice given by @Mr. Mojo Rising , i would sit down with a cold beer and enjoy being a patient reefer! I would not dose any chemicals, it's rarely the solution to long term success.

It does look quite new, and it is a stage you will just have to pass through during the cycling and setting up a new tank.

sounds good to me. i’ll wait it out. the tank is 3 months old. should i clean out the algae every time i do a water change? Before my last water change the algae was bad bad. I feel like if i let it be it’ll get worse like how i saw it last time

 

[Uncle99]

If you do water changes would that not lower nutrients?
Is that what you want? I don’t run less than 5ppm with an average 15ppm, stuffs got to be fed.
Adding fish would increase nutrients IMM.
Stabilize water chemistry, manually remove algae for the interim.

 

[mjaquarium02]

If you do water changes would that not lower nutrients?
Is that what you want? I don’t run less than 5ppm with an average 15ppm, stuffs got to be fed.
Adding fish would increase nutrients IMM.
Stabilize water chemistry, manually remove algae for the interim.

that’s exactly what i’m thinking. i was trying to hold off a wc for a while but the algae got out of hand so when i did one, my nitrates went from 10 to 2ppm…

i will manually remove algae until i put my fish back to my DT. thanks so much for the advice

 

[Uncle99]

that’s exactly what i’m thinking. i was trying to hold off a wc for a while but the algae got out of hand so when i did one, my nitrates went from 10 to 2ppm…

i will manually remove algae until i put my fish back to my DT. thanks so much for the advice

Not easy in younger systems, but that will change.
Watch phosphate as it is loved by anything green.
0.05ppm to .1ppm is fine. Hard to measure so use a Hanna.