Significant algae growth and bleached corals????

[brandon429]

I would say though there are exceptions to that rule, luck is involved in any algae free tank or we could just follow a series of steps and always be algae free with the brightest corals.

we still come across several ulns zero (detectable) phosphate/nitrate threads with algae problems, notably bryopsis and red brush variants. Several are detailed in our peroxide thread Neptune is so in love with

Also its interesting to consider the lineage of some of the live rock we have that may be a source of phosphate leaching while the water column tests relatively clean, glad I didn't get a hold of any of the bad luck rock!

 

[jlinzmaier]

I hope Jeremy finds a large scale fix in his tds adjustment these large tanks are a challenge. Many large tank runs are a slower cure than nanos but they share similar biology

I'm quite confident the extra elements coming through my RO/DI (whatever elements they may be) is a part of my odd situation and current trouble.

Tomorrow I'm going add a third DI resin chamber (a second SB canister) and see how that impacts the purity of the water. I'm still consistently getting a reading of 0.4-0.6 but I wonder if I can get it even lower. I have the resin on hand so I might as well give it a try. At the very least this whole situation has my checking the purity of my water much more often

ATS's don't fix the problem. The problem is nasty water that's causing nuisance algae to grow. If you install a ATS, you just move where the nuisance algae grows. You still have nasty water fueling that growth, so you haven't fixed the problem. Your animals still have to live in that nasty water. Clean up the tank, and the water your pets live in, and nuisance algae won't be a problem.

I agree. I'm just frustrated that the algae is growing so fast in my display but my chaeto is dying in my refugium. I'm sure that phosphate is bound to the rock and pockets of detritus are playing a part in that though. I've been routinely siphoning out any algea I can suck off the rock and blasting the areas where waste settles so I can filter it out. I really don't have " nasty" water. My PO4 is 0.02 per hanna photometer and my nitrates are undetectable and always have been. I realize the algea in the display is uptaking the nutrients before they can beccome concentrated in the water column, but I have good flow and I'm doing everything I can to keep the water free of algea inducing nutrients. In fact my nutrient levels were stipped so clean several of my SPS are recovering and/or still showing STN.

It's just a slow recovery on this one. Nothing good happens fast. I might set up an ATS when I have some time to put one together. It would be easier to remove the algae from that than from the display and the ATS cleaning does help clean the water and export nutrients. It isn't a miracle fix but does help export nutrients through the algae growth it induces (which in turn keeps the water from being "nasty"). I'd much rather have algae growing on an ATS instead of in my display. That's why I have macroalgea in my refugium but that is obviously not helping the problem at the moment.

Jeremy

 

[SushiGirl]

Make sure you pull any chaeto that looks to be dying before it releases anything back into the water.

 

[wgraham]

I have to disagree, you have to clean the algae screen each week or 7 to 10 days to get the n and p out of the water, every time you clean the screen you take out the problem. It is your tank and I'm just suggesting it to you.

 

[elegance coral]

If you take out the problem when you clean the screen, how does the nuisance algae grow back in 7 days?

Nuisance algae only grows that rapid if there's enough fertilizer (N and P) in the water to support it.

 

[kissman]

have you tried running GFO?

 

[wgraham]

From feeding your tank, there is a tread in the advance topics forum. Plus if there is gha in the tank, there is enough nutrients in the tank. I not an expert I just know it worked for me

 

[jlinzmaier]

If you take out the problem when you clean the screen, how does the nuisance algae grow back in 7 days?

Nuisance algae only grows that rapid if there's enough fertilizer (N and P) in the water to support it.

Algae growth is eventually limited as nutrients are exhausted. By allowing the algae to grow in a place where I can remove it more easily I'm generating more efficient nutrient export. Without fixing the real problem (input of nutrients) then your exactly correct and I'd be continually fighting a losing battle. It's highly suspected that the elements which were coming in from my RODI unit are fueling the algea growth. At the same time I'm limiting feeding and any other input of nutrients into the tank. Also, as I said before I'm routinely siphoning algea and detritus from the display and doing large water changes.

have you tried running GFO?

Yep. As I indicated above my po4 level had always been around 0.5-0.6 using a photometer to test. I started running some GFO and po4 dropped to 0.02 in one day. I started to have some RTN and STN on several sps. This is a common complication in SPS tanks. It's good to run low nutrients but it's a fine line in which a person runs their tank at a low nutrient level vs stripping organics too fast and to very low levels.

From feeding your tank, there is a tread in the advance topics forum. Plus if there is gha in the tank, there is enough nutrients in the tank. I not an expert I just know it worked for me

If there is enough nutrients in my tank than why do I have bleached corals, absolutely no chaeto growth, and no film algea growing on the glass? PO4 bound to the LR in the tank could be an explanation for that as well as the possibility of my RO/DI allowing trace elements into the tank when I thought it was quite pure. I have no way to test either of those possiblities but I have fixed the RODI problem and I just have to see how the tank responds.

It's quite a predicament because several of my corals are showing signs of limited nutrition - thinning of tissue, lack of polyp ext, bleaching in color, and no growth at this point.

I don't know if it's possible for GHA to outcompete corals for nutrients in the water column. I've never come across a tank in which it seems like the corals are irritated and starving and GHA grows like grass. PO4 bound to the rock could explain this but where is the nitrate source?? I have no areas in which there is any significant amounts of detritus or waste that could be leaching N into the water.

Jeremy