Zero Nitrate & Phosphate readings, what now?

[CallMeLloyd]

Here are pictures of my tank currently. I should have cleaned the glass so you all could see in better.

 

[tdyrkacz]

Wowzers. Scrub off the algae with a brush. Improve your clean up crew. Add lots of pods. Make sure your lights don't have reds or greens. Lower the whites too. Make sure your skimmer is running well. Use filter socks. You may need to scrub multiple times. Also siphon your sand. It will take some time but you can beat this.

 

[CallMeLloyd]

Wowzers. Scrub off the algae with a brush. Improve your clean up crew. Add lots of pods. Make sure your lights don't have reds or greens. Lower the whites too. Make sure your skimmer is running well. Use filter socks. You may need to scrub multiple times. Also siphon your sand. It will take some time but you can beat this.

Algae looks so much worse when I just turned the whites on . Do you suggest removing all the rocks and scrubbing, then syphon sand the put rocks back? I currently do not have a skimmer or refugium. My lights are on the lowest white setting which is 10% (I just increased them for the picture) Blues are on 90%

 

[tdyrkacz]

Hmm.. Since you don't yet have a lot of coral and you may have an easy way to remove them then that might be the best way... others on this forum may also give you ideas of how to cure them correctly. In my case I did not have the option of removing them so I just scrubbed them in place.... but then you need something to catch all of the algae our of the water column. Since you don't have a good export mechanism then you should probably remove them.... and get the sump setup with filter socks and a skimmer.

 

[CallMeLloyd]

Hmm.. Since you don't yet have a lot of coral and you may have an easy way to remove them then that might be the best way... others on this forum may also give you ideas of how to cure them correctly. In my case I did not have the option of removing them so I just scrubbed them in place.... but then you need something to catch all of the algae our of the water column. Since you don't have a good export mechanism then you should probably remove them.... and get the sump setup with filter socks and a skimmer.

Tank stand does not support a sump, I'll look into a hob skimmer & refugium. I feel like I will need to take a week off of work to tackle this... But I want my tank back! I want to be able to add more corals but can't in the correct conditions.

 

[CallMeLloyd]

Regarding the previous posts about feeding more & skipping wc/doing less of a wc do you still think I should do that as well? Or just get to cleaning? And keep doing my weekly water changes?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I don't think most folks will advise not dosing more when everything is covered with green algae. The biggest concern with low nutrients is dinos, but there's no bare place for dinos to grow in that tank.

That's different than just algae lowering nutrients too low, which is the scenario I was assuming.

IMO, that problem cannot readily be solved by nutrients. You need algae consumers.

 

[tdyrkacz]

Agreed. You need an export mechanism too.

 

[CallMeLloyd]

I don't think most folks will advise dosing more when everything is covered with green algae. The biggest concern with low nutrients is dinos, but there's no bare place for dinos to grow in that tank.

That's different than just algae lowering nutrients too low, which is the scenario I was assuming.

IMO, that problem cannot readily be solved by nutrients. You need algae consumers.

Start with adding more CUC, manually removing as much algae as I can, and syphoning sand bed?

 

[CallMeLloyd]

Agreed. You need an export mechanism too.

Skimmer or refugium? Or both?

 

[tdyrkacz]

Even a canister filter with bio media would help.

 

[tdyrkacz]

But you should have a skimmer. Once a tank is mature you may get away without a skimmer, but for the first few years I think a skimmer is crucial.

 

[CallMeLloyd]

Even a canister filter with bio media would help.

I am using a fluval 307 as well as a hob filter. Do you ever change out the biomedia? I know you clean/replace the sponges and filters but what about the bioballs and such?

 

[crabgrass]

We’re probably 20 minutes out from a rip clean advertisement. But that is what you probably need to do. There is a thread on here with step by step instructions on how to do it.

Take all rock coral and livestock out. Drain all water (you can keep 50% if you want). Put those rocks in a bucket of saltwater and scrub the crap out of them with a toothbrush.

Take the sand and hose it down continuously, until it is completely clear. Do the same for the tank - clean the crap out of everything.

Rinse the sand and tank with RO.

Setup the tank, re-add saltwater (and maybe some of your old water), and rocks. Then livestock.

I did this 2 months ago and made a big difference. I am still not out of the woods, but the battle is 100x easier. My readings were also 0 / 0 because the algae was consuming everything.

 

[CallMeLloyd]

We’re probably 20 minutes out from a rip clean advertisement. But that is what you probably need to do. There is a thread on here with step by step instructions on how to do it.

Take all rock coral and livestock out. Drain all water (you can keep 50% if you want). Put those rocks in a bucket of saltwater and scrub the crap out of them with a toothbrush.

Take the sand and hose it down continuously, until it is completely clear. Do the same for the tank - clean the crap out of everything.

Rinse the sand and tank with RO.

Setup the tank, re-add saltwater (and maybe some of your old water), and rocks. Then livestock.

I did this 2 months ago and made a big difference. I am still not out of the woods, but the battle is 100x easier. My readings were also 0 / 0 because the algae was consuming everything.

 

[CallMeLloyd]

Thank you all the advice guys. I really appreciate it, I don't have any friends or anyone in the hobby that I can talk to and bounce ideas off of so this is a lot of help.

 

[crabgrass]

This take a lot less of your time. Prob 4-5 hours including reassembly. It beats months of chemical warfare and or siphoning stuff up. Again, you won’t be out of the woods, but starts to reset you to baseline

 

[tdyrkacz]

This take a lot less of your time. Prob 4-5 hours including reassembly. It beats months of chemical warfare and or siphoning stuff up. Again, you won’t be out of the woods, but starts to reset you to baseline

Hard to argue with this approach considering where you're at.

 

[CallMeLloyd]

How do you think it got to this point? I wouldn't want to do all of this and then it just comes right back.

 

[trevorhiller]

Wowzers. Scrub off the algae with a brush. Improve your clean up crew. Add lots of pods. Make sure your lights don't have reds or greens. Lower the whites too. Make sure your skimmer is running well. Use filter socks. You may need to scrub multiple times. Also siphon your sand. It will take some time but you can beat this.

I definitely agree with scrubbing the rocks out of the tank to aggressively export the bulk of the algae.

Algae looks so much worse when I just turned the whites on . Do you suggest removing all the rocks and scrubbing, then syphon sand the put rocks back? I currently do not have a skimmer or refugium. My lights are on the lowest white setting which is 10% (I just increased them for the picture) Blues are on 90%

Yes, white light always give you a better view of your tank's condition than blue light. That's why we ask for pictures under white lights when problems arise.

Regarding the previous posts about feeding more & skipping wc/doing less of a wc do you still think I should do that as well? Or just get to cleaning? And keep doing my weekly water changes?

Absolutely not. You're going to need to do strong rock and sand cleaning followed by water changes. I've had great luck with removing a rock, spraying with 3% Hydrogen Peroxide (from Wal-Mart, etc.) and scrubbing with a tooth brush to remove algae. I would also work on vacuuming the sandbed. I've had good luck with scooping some out and rinsing it in tap water. Follow all this by a large 40-50% water change and some filter floss changes a couple times over the following days. You'll remove a ton of stored nutrients this way. Once the bulk of the algae is gone, I would repeat the nitrate/phosphate tests to see what they look like. You may benefit from some GFO/Rowaphos in the HOB filter, but let's see where things are once the initial "algae attack" is done.

How do you think it got to this point? I wouldn't want to do all of this and then it just comes right back.

Like I said in my first post in this thread, your inadequate organic export mechanisms caused this-without a doubt. We need to find a better way to export organics/nutrients in your tank.

Thank you all the advice guys. I really appreciate it, I don't have any friends or anyone in the hobby that I can talk to and bounce ideas off of so this is a lot of help.

That's what the forums are for! You can definitely fix this tank, it's just going to take some time, patience, work & perhaps a revamp of your filtration equipment. I do think some sort of skimmer would do wonders for your system if you have the ability to set one up.

You could also do a couple days blackout with no lights to try to set back the algae, but that won't fix this problem alone. Once the tank reaches a point like this, you really need a multi-pronged attack plan.