Coralline algae growth.....affected by Nitrates??

[philthefish]

Morning all,

My tank has been set up for around 7-8 months now and I'm having problems sustaining Coralline algae growth. When I add new LR with plenty of Coralline on it, it disappears within a few weeks. Do high nitrates affect it? My nitrates are currently around 50ppm (due to the way I cycled the tank with Ammonia solution). I'm currently doing 10% water changes every weekend to bring it down. I haven't got the ability to do more than 20% at a time.

I can live with the nitrates as its a FO set up at the moment, but I'd like to know if this is the cause of the coralline die off? I know there are other variables involved (Kh levels and Ca etc....I haven't fully researched this yet as I don't really need to know for the FO setup), but are the nitrates a major problem?

Phil

 

[Reese]

If you're doing 10% water changes weekly, I'd think you should be fine unless you have an excessive bioload.

Other things you might want to look at:

Lighting. Did you recently upgrade your lighting or time your tank is lit? Actinic lighting?

Stability in your pH and salinity. Any sudden drops in either?

Phosphates?

And as you already mentioned, supplements. Calcium is needed for coralline growth. But don't dose with anything without first checking your levels...