Wiping glass and nutrients

[MichaelW]

I had asked this in my build thread but thought I might get more responsesmaking a new thread.
I have not been getting any reading for phosphate (hanna) or for nitrate (red sea pro and salifert) for some time now,so I had been thinking of raising nutrients. However, I get a dusting to be swiped on glass pretty much daily and I have algae growth in overflow (hardly any on rocks).
Do you think there could be false readings due to algae taking up measurable nutrients? My corals are a little confusing as some are great, some are kinda dull but have some color, some are a bit pale (making me think low nutrients), some are a bit brown (thinking higher nutrients). I had been thinking about dosing acro power, possibly the fauna marin color elements, and biggles had mentioned sponge power to me. All in the search for improving colors (growth seems fine). Didn't want to start this if I have elevated nutrients despite tests.
How long do you go before glass needs a wipe?

 

[Docdiggy]

I too have bubble and gha in my overflow. None in the tank. I clean my glass about every 3 days.

 

[sahin]

I only need to clean the glass every 10+ days...my PO4 measures 0.01ppm on Elos High Resolution test kit and NO3 as 0.2ppm on Salifert kit.

My rocks and sand are clean; no nuisance algae. I havent used any GFO in MONTHS.

So in my situation, everything corresponds...whereas in your situation, despite the low PO4 tested by the test kits, you have algae and are needing to wipe the glass daily...

So, IMO I dont believe you are at low nutrient. What I think is happening is that the algae is extracting the PO4 from the water. I bet if you shut the lights for 36 hours (thereby not allowing the daily algae buildup), you'd get a higher PO4 reading.

 

[reefmutt]

i got nutrients and i got algae, so I can't comment but i would be VERY interested to see if you get higher n and p readings after a 36 hour blackout..

 

[MichaelW]

I'm starting to think the same Sahin. I think for now I will actually cut back a bit on feeding and any aminos for now. See I was confused by the few pale corals. I also covered the back euro brace with black to block light so the algae in there will die off and not grow,hopefully giving me a more true reading. I would have liked to remove it but it's inaccessible.

 

[MichaelW]

Will maybe try the lights off for a while and see readings 2.

 

[MichaelW]

I have a bio pellet reactor and some all in one biopellets on my shelf, do you think I should try firing some up? I hadn't before due to no readings for anything.

 

[reefmutt]

I have a bio pellet reactor and some all in one biopellets on my shelf, do you think I should try firing some up? I hadn't before due to no readings for anything.

If your corals are doing well and look good, not sure it's necessary. Imo.. It's not like you have out of control nutrients.. You have a dusting of algae..
Personally, I think Sahin's current situation to be atypical and what you are experiencing to be normal....
Animos are a known contributor to algae growth...

 

[MichaelW]

If your corals are doing well and look good, not sure it's necessary. Imo.. It's not like you have out of control nutrients.. You have a dusting of algae..
Personally, I think Sahin's current situation to be atypical and what you are experiencing to be normal....
Animos are a known contributor to algae growth...

Yeah I know what your saying ... If all is going well why not just leave it the H3LL alone! That's our problem for some of us!

 

[reefmutt]

Yep... I'm a big preacher but I I've been known not to practice what I preach... To my detriment..

 

[markalot]

I have a bio pellet reactor and some all in one biopellets on my shelf, do you think I should try firing some up? I hadn't before due to no readings for anything.

People much better than I like the all-in-one. I run them and I'm not a big fan. Needs more power to tumble and for me creates a lot more dust in the sump. I would rather run regular bio-pellets and feed them with some nitrate in order to keep the PO4 low. I'm still fairly high nutrient with a lot of background PO4 to deal with.

 

[slavetonet]

Before I have to clean my glass every 2nd day, as it would be green or brown haze if I didn't. This was before I did a massive vacuuming of my sand bed. It has basically accumulated so much detritus in 1 year of zero cleaning. It was giving out nutrients back into the water column.
Now the sand cleaned, I would be lucky to need clean the glass every 3 days. I have been dosing Nitrate and Phosphate to raise it to 5ppm and 0.1ppm. Even that didn't need more cleaning.

 

[nemodan]

I have 0.04 Phosp and 0 Nitrates. I have a refugium FULL of macro algae that are lowering the Phosp. Then I have another HOB refugium full of Seacherm Matrix to grow bacteria. That is helping lowering the Nitrates.

I clean my glasses every 2 days of some "dust spots" here and there. When I am a week out of home (4-5 days), my family do not clean the glass and I find it 70% cover with that "dust". Just a pass of the magnet and is clean again. No strong algae growth on the glass. Just that "dust".

Cheers
Daniel

 

[Wiskey]

I've played this game before,.. I thought the algae on the glass meant I needed to clean up the water for my SPS. What I ended up with is STN and light corals. This was years ago.

What I do now is let algae growth on the glass dictate my feeding. If I get algae every 2 days I don't change a thing. If I get algae every day I back off things like Misys and Nori a hair (unless it's right before a water change), if I don't have to clean for 3 days I feed more Misys and Nori and coral food.

Right now this seems to be a perfect balance for my tank, though it may change as it grows out and matures.

Whiskey

 

[sahin]

I agree with Matt and wouldnt change anything to be honest. However, check out Biggle's thread. I took a glance last night and he mentions something about taking a PO4 read early in the morning or something and measured higher PO4.

Personally, PO4 upto about 0.08ppm is fine. I've seen amazing colour in the SPS when it was even higher.

Adding biopellets now will affect the whole tank/filtration/biology etc. You may even end with cyano etc.

Have you tested the PAR on the corals that are pale and on the ones that are brown?

Also remember that you have just treated for Redbugs; the brown ones may colour up in time now that the RB's are gone. Infact maybe even the pale ones may colour up. The thing with RB's is that we only see some of the symptons, we dont know how RB's affect SPS physiologically.

I'd certainly give it time.

 

[MichaelW]

I agree with Matt and wouldnt change anything to be honest. However, check out Biggle's thread. I took a glance last night and he mentions something about taking a PO4 read early in the morning or something and measured higher PO4.

Personally, PO4 upto about 0.08ppm is fine. I've seen amazing colour in the SPS when it was even higher.

Adding biopellets now will affect the whole tank/filtration/biology etc. You may even end with cyano etc.

Have you tested the PAR on the corals that are pale and on the ones that are brown?

Also remember that you have just treated for Redbugs; the brown ones may colour up in time now that the RB's are gone. Infact maybe even the pale ones may colour up. The thing with RB's is that we only see some of the symptons, we dont know how RB's affect SPS physiologically.

I'd certainly give it time.

I have not tested par. I might be able to borrow a meter from a LFS though. I think just giving it more time is good call. I think I will continue small doses of aminos as I just started and would like to see if they have effect, but maybe back off the fish feeding amount. I think if I got to every three days wiping glass it might be a better nutrient balance.