I not believing in GFO.

[reefslugs]

I am haveing a heck of a time with my tank. I have been in this hobby a long time. My 200g has cyno, diono, and green-red algea. I do not have many fish. I have replaced all of my RO-DI. All light bulbs are new. I have biopellets in a phosband 150 half full that were working, but now I show nitrates. At about 25. I bought a phosband 550 and filled it half full of GFO. My algea is be coming more and more. The only thing the GFO has done is lower my KH.

 

[airtime23]

Please post all of your water parameters as a starting point.

 

[ViktorVaughn]

I interpreted GFO use as a way to lower phosphates which will in turn make it tougher for algae to grow without high phosphate levels. I don't think it is supposed to kill algae outright and don't know of any manufactures that claim that it does. It definitely worked in my system bringing my phosphate levels down from .3 to the undetectable levels now.

 

[MinnFish]

Are you trying to lower nitrate or phosphate?

 

[Linkblaze]

GFO isn't going to do a thing for your nitrates, assuming that's what you want to get down. GFO is just going to lower your phosphate.

Couple things to check:

Did something die in the tank?
Are you feeding too heavy?
Is your skimmer working as it should?
Your bio-pellets could have become a nitrate source? (I'm not experienced with bio-pellets, so read up on that if you suspect it could be the problem).
Are you growing macro in your fuge to export nutrients? It should be growing like gang busters with that nitrate level and from the description of your algae growth.
How's your tank doing otherwise? If it's doing well, I'd go easy on any solution. Quite a few people these days saying a bit of nitrates and algae has been good for their tanks, though I agree that 25 is too high.

 

[bertoni]

I agree that some test measurements might help. How often are you changing the GFO, and how long has it been in the system?

 

[d2mini]

How deep is the sand bed and how old is it?
How old is the live rock? Where did it come from?
Sounds like you have an excess of nutrients somewhere. Could have been building up and is now being released. GFO can only do so much. Cheato in your refugium would be better for sucking up nitrates.
I also agree that biopellets could be the issue. Not a fan. Hard to beat good live rock and a good skimmer and water changes.

 

[ca1ore]

Sorry, not believing in GFO because you don't think it works, or because you don't think it's necessary? It certainly works, whether it's necessary is a tank-by-tank call.

 

[reefslugs]

OK trying to answer all of your questions. First water chemistry.

KH=8 Red Sea Pro
CA=420 Red Sea Pro
PH= late in the day= 8.2 Apex
MAG=1250 Red Sea Pro
Temp=78-80 Apex
No3=25 API & salifert
salt 1.025
PO4= 0 API & salifert (My test kits always show zero, but I do not have like a Hanna.)

Most of my rocks are old, but I have slowly removed them do to coverage of corals and wanting to add something new. So rocks are replaced with new wet rocks. Not dry. My sand bed is about 3 inches. Which every three months I syphon. I do have the best skimmer I have ever owned. Blows away my old $1200 Deltec. I do have a refugium with cheato, but does not grow very fast.

 

[das75]

No3=25 API & salifert

what are you doing to bring the levels down?

 

[tkeracer619]

GFO brings phosphates down.

If you are testing zero it is because the free phosphate in the water column is used up by the algae and bacteria growth.

Reducing phosphates is just that. A reduction. Phosphates are required in a reef tank but on a much smaller level than your test kits can read.

Just because the rock is "new" to you does not mean it is loaded with phosphates. Calcium carbonate binds a ton of phosphates so rock can and will leach for a long time if it has po4 bound in its structure.

The longer things fester the harder they are and the longer they take to correct.

My first question is... what about your source water? RO/DI? TDS?

 

[reefslugs]

what are you doing to bring the levels down?

Hopeing that the biopellets will start working again. Also have been doing weekly 40 g water changes. Just three weeks now.

 

[reefslugs]

RO/DI? TDS?

I thought the same thing. Three weeks ago I replaced all four, but not the membrane. TDS reads zero in and out. Five stage BRS RO/DI.

GFO brings phosphates down.

If you are testing zero it is because the free phosphate in the water column is used up by the algae and bacteria growth.

Reducing phosphates is just that. A reduction. Phosphates are required in a reef tank but on a much smaller level than your test kits can read.

Just because the rock is "new" to you does not mean it is loaded with phosphates. Calcium carbonate binds a ton of phosphates so rock can and will leach for a long time if it has po4 bound in its structure.

The longer things fester the harder they are and the longer they take to correct.

My first question is... what about your source water? RO/DI? TDS?

 

[reefslugs]

The one thing I don't like is my refugium. My sump is a 65g. Half of which is the refugium. In the refugium half, it is bare bottom. Has cheato and another type of macro. Which does not grow very fast. I'm not sure if the lighting needs to be more or just changed. Also the bottom of the fug does have detritus.

 

[tkeracer619]

Most fuges are probably useless in regards to nutrient control. As long as the reefer is happy i'm happy.

Unless there is a reason you are keeping the fuge for something other than nutrient export I say ditch it, at least for now. It clearly isn't working for you as setup. I don't run one and probably never will. I have maintained many systems with them. Not for me.

 

[Jimmy54]

Maybe the 0 phosphate is really 0, or at least to low.
When that's the case then lowering nitrates will be a tough job as Bacteria won't be able to "digest it".
They need both NO3 and PO4 in order to function properly. I think at this point 25 nitrates, even 0.1 phosphate would be acceptable
So you might look into this matter too.

 

[Linkblaze]

Maybe the 0 phosphate is really 0, or at least to low.
When that's the case then lowering nitrates will be a tough job as Bacteria won't be able to "digest it".
They need both NO3 and PO4 in order to function properly. I think at this point 25 nitrates, even 0.1 phosphate would be acceptable
So you might look into this matter too.

I was wondering that as well. Might be why the macro isn't growing. Also, if you don't change the media, GFO can eventually become a nitrate factory. Maybe take the GFO offline and see what happens. Sounds like you're not sold on it anyways.

What's your water change schedule like?

 

[gpdno]

The one thing I don't like is my refugium. My sump is a 65g. Half of which is the refugium. In the refugium half, it is bare bottom. Has cheato and another type of macro. Which does not grow very fast. I'm not sure if the lighting needs to be more or just changed. Also the bottom of the fug does have detritus.

Why not? One of the best uses of a refugium is to control algae growth in your DT. I run the lights in my refugium 18 hrs a day and in the DT only 10 hrs a day.
Algae wants lots of light to grow and so I encourage it to grow like crazy in the refugium. This locks up excessive nutrients and by periodically removing some algae I export it from the system.
I have two LED spotlights from my refugium. I bought them at Home Depot for about $30 a piece so not only is it effective but it's pretty inexpensive.

 

[jda]

Did you use dry, or dried, rock? If so, then the dino, cyano and algae is likely getting the P from proximity from the dead/decaying matter on the rock. If it was dry, or dried, then it has dead organics in it that eventually need to decay. Anecdotally, this can take between 12 and 24 months. This can also happen if you reused rock from a really dirty tank without "cooking" it first.

If you did not use dry or dried rock, then my apologies.

 

[Jimmy54]

Did you use dry, or dried, rock? If so, then the dino, cyano and algae is likely getting the P from proximity from the dead/decaying matter on the rock. If it was dry, or dried, then it has dead organics in it that eventually need to decay. Anecdotally, this can take between 12 and 24 months. This can also happen if you reused rock from a really dirty tank without "cooking" it first.
If you did not use dry or dried rock, then my apologies.

How true (not sure boiling the rock will help though) But it's not only dead organics on -or in dried/dead rock.
Precipitation of Ca PO4 overtime can be a culprit too -especially when using kalkwasser it can become a "time bomb"
I guess that's what I am looking at right now, not the precipitation but the persisting cyano feasting on it (I think)
I have no measurable nitrate and no measurable phosphate (both RedSea)