Having trouble with keeping sps and growing GHA

[Akhan]

Hi All,

Hope everyone’s having a great reef season!

I had a question regarding algae growth and sps husbandry but before I start here are my tank specs.

Salinity: 1.025 (Refractometer)
Ph. 8.24 (Hanna and checked / Red Sea test kit)
Alk: 9.9 (Hanna)
Calc: 420 (Hanna)
Nitrate: 0.0 (why in concerned) (Hanna)
Phosphate: 0.05 (Hanna)
Tank: Redsea xl425
Tank uptime: 2 years
Water changes: 15g weekly
Salt: Redsea reefer pro

Recently I’ve been wanting to try my hand at SPS and have started dosing kalk to keep my level high. I’ve also been monitoring phosphate and nitrate to ensure I have the right levels. Recently I’ve been noticing gha growing (a lot of growth) along with an increase in the growth of my chaeto. I run my fuge lights 24/7 and also run my skimmer 24/7. I can’t seem to figure out where this gha is coming from. I feed my mysis and brine along with seaweed daily but dip in omega 3 and selcom twice weekly. All standard stuff. The only change is I upgraded my lights from 3 Prime 16HD (AB+) to 3 noopsyche k3 pros.

Problems:
Growth of GHA
SPS lose color and polyp extension and die

Thanks in advance!

 

[rc8t6353]

I think that your nutrient levels are too low. Especially the nitrate. It's a fine balance but the GHA and chaeto are consuming the nitrate and phosphate. I try to keep my nitrate between 10-20 and phosphate between 0.05-0.1. Some manual removal and maybe cutting down on the skimming or refugium lighting time should help get the levels up. Or you could keep things the same and manually dose nitrate and or phosphate. But be careful and go very slow if you decide on the latter. I hope this helps! Keep us posted with progress

 

[bradreef]

It's a fine balance with nutrients, coral, and algae. I will 2nd that 0 nitrates are bad for coral. I aim for .1 phos and 10 trates.

 

[Lavey29]

I agree with the above and why run fuge light 24/7?

 

[Akhan]

thanks for the feedback all. Just responding below:

Regarding refugium uptime: I’ve never really thought about it. I just assumed the cheato growth was contributing to keeping gha and other undesirable algae’s at bay.

Regarding notes on increasing nutrient:
I’ll give this a shot. I feed three times a day regularly (enough that I see it all being eaten in a few minutes). I would rather not increase the feeding any further so I’ll try to dose nitrate in small quantities.

Question: I’m sorry I just can’t understand how by increasing the nutrients and reducing the time of the refugium lights are on, it will help remove the gha growth and not increase it. I’ve seen this advice multiple times and would just like to understand how it would work.

Thanks!

 

[Akhan]

thanks for the feedback all. Just responding below:

Regarding refugium uptime: I’ve never really thought about it. I just assumed the cheato growth was contributing to keeping gha and other undesirable algae’s at bay.

Regarding notes on increasing nutrient:
I’ll give this a shot. I feed three times a day regularly (enough that I see it all being eaten in a few minutes). I would rather not increase the feeding any further so I’ll try to dose nitrate in small quantities.

Question: I’m sorry I just can’t understand how by increasing the nutrients and reducing the time of the refugium lights are on, it will help remove the gha growth and not increase it. I’ve seen this advice multiple times and would just like to understand how it would work.

Thanks!

Again not refuting the excellent advice. Just wanting to learn how this process works. Thanks!

 

[gbroadbridge]

You will never starve algae of nutrients - it will always find them as it can easily use other forms of nitrogen including ammonia.

However you will starve corals and other organisms that help to outcompete the algae.

I would really cut back the fuge lighting and if you're dosing any other foods such as coral foods cut them back too. You may even find that cutting back skimming would help as well. Only do one thing at a time though otherwise you will have no idea what helped.

My tank runs Nitrate around 10-15 and Phosphate around 0.5-0.10. Alk at 7.7 just like the ocean.

 

[rc8t6353]

There's a reef chemistry thread that you should check out. There's tons of info on the balance of nitrate vs phosphate and how it contributes to coral color and or algae. I would try to explain it but I know I'd be wrong lol. The thread is called Reef Chemistry by @Randy Holmes-Farley .

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

gha in a 2 year old tank, do you have enough flow in the tank?
Is it near a window? Do you overfeed (food not being eaten and left to rot?)
Can we see a pic of the tank to get an idea of the algae?
What kind of sps are you trying, acros or monti's?
Do you have an idea of your par levels?

 

[Akhan]

You will never starve algae of nutrients - it will always find them as it can easily use other forms of nitrogen including ammonia.

However you will starve corals and other organisms that help to outcompete the algae.

I would really cut back the fuge lighting and if you're dosing any other foods such as coral foods cut them back too. You may even find that cutting back skimming would help as well. Only do one thing at a time though otherwise you will have no idea what helped.

My tank runs Nitrate around 10-15 and Phosphate around 0.5-0.10. Alk at 7.7 just like the ocean.

Understood. I’ll try the following in order after a few days each.
1. Turn off fuge light for 12 hours to see if there’s an increase in nitrates.
2. If fuge doesn’t work, turn off skimmer for 4 hours alongside fuge and increase duration.
3. Increase feeding or introduce nitrates chemically.
Thanks!

 

[Akhan]

gha in a 2 year old tank, do you have enough flow in the tank?
Is it near a window? Do you overfeed (food not being eaten and left to rot?)
Can we see a pic of the tank to get an idea of the algae?
What kind of sps are you trying, acros or monti's?
Do you have an idea of your par levels?

The flow pattern I’m using is the wwc setup for two mp40s on either side.
It is not near a window. The food usually disappears in a minute or two as I feed small amounts three times a day.
I’ll attach a picture in a few hours when the tank lights are fully on.
I’m trying very easy sps. Montipora is the only one remaining and the rest have perished. Initially I had a green slimer and a birds nest. I think the green slimer was due to it being hit with too much light too fast.
Unfortunately I do not have an par meter. I’ve been going off the meter ratings within similar depth tanks provided by individuals on this site.

Other corals such as the euphilia, mushrooms and zoas are doing well.

Thanks!

 

[Lavey29]

The flow pattern I’m using is the wwc setup for two mp40s on either side.
It is not near a window. The food usually disappears in a minute or two as I feed small amounts three times a day.
I’ll attach a picture in a few hours when the tank lights are fully on.
I’m trying very easy sps. Montipora is the only one remaining and the rest have perished. Initially I had a green slimer and a birds nest. I think the green slimer was due to it being hit with too much light too fast.
Unfortunately I do not have an par meter. I’ve been going off the meter ratings within similar depth tanks provided by individuals on this site.

Other corals such as the euphilia, mushrooms and zoas are doing well.

Thanks!

How old is the tank? Do you have abundant coralline growth?

 

[Akhan]

How old is the tank? Do you have abundant coralline growth?

The tank is two years old. And I do have very good coralline growth. I’d say roughly 70-80 percent of the rocks are now covered with coralline. Thanks!

 

[NotReefsafe]

Are you running GFO?

 

[Akhan]

No GFO. At most I’ll run carbon sometimes just to settle any cloudiness. I’m very reliant on the sump and chaeto. Thanks!

 

[Akhan]

I forgot to mention that I do run a UV sterilizer. It’s the aquauv 25w.

Thanks

 

[NotReefsafe]

No GFO. At most I’ll run carbon sometimes just to settle any cloudiness. I’m very reliant on the sump and chaeto. Thanks!

GFO is what helped me go from overrun with GHA to no GHA.

 

[Akhan]

gha in a 2 year old tank, do you have enough flow in the tank?
Is it near a window? Do you overfeed (food not being eaten and left to rot?)
Can we see a pic of the tank to get an idea of the algae?
What kind of sps are you trying, acros or monti's?
Do you have an idea of your par levels?

I’ve attached a few pictures of the tank. I’ve only run another nitrate and phosphate test after turning off the fuge lights for 12 hours. The readings are:
Nitrate: 0
Phosphate 0.03

 

[apb03]

I think you would find much more success if you invested in herbivores. The nutrients are probably too low and the Corals are starving. Tangs will take care of the algae and increase your nutrients.

I bet you'll see a huge improvement if you just added tangs and slowed down your export. Using export to control algae I think is going to cause too many problems.

 

[Akhan]

I think you would find much more success if you invested in herbivores. The nutrients are probably too low and the Corals are starving. Tangs will take care of the algae and increase your nutrients.

I bet you'll see a huge improvement if you just added tangs and slowed down your export. Using export to control algae I think is going to cause too many problems.

I was hoping that I would as well. I may have gotten the only fox face and yellow tang to exist that have no interest I grazing haha. I did read that they aren’t fans of the fuzzy stuff that’s too long. I usually have a set maintenance day to go into the tank to make adjustments. I try to not touch anything on a whim. Thanks!