Need advice on GHA solution

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nwsharksfan

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Mar 2, 2012
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Seattle area
I have a 92 gallon tank with a 20 gallon sump. Roughly 90 lbs of live rock. Cheato and phosban reactor in sump along with some live rock. Soft coral. 3 fish - 1 inch clown, 1.5-2" bicolor dottyback, and 3" goby. 1 brittle star. I feed lightly - perhaps too lightly - once every three days or so. Nitrates are 0. Phosphate is .04 with red sea pro phosphate test. No CUC aside from a handful of nassarius snails. Cant seem to knock down my GHA problem. Any suggestions? I have been researching media and there seems to be horror stories for many - especially phosguard.
 
I wouldn’t get worried about those stories. I’ve used all ranges of media for algae with no issues from any of the reported problems...
That said though, I’d pull the rock out one by one and scrub them down before anything. That and with a couple days of blackout will knock it down some more so you can have a cleaner plate to work off of.
There isn’t a such thing as algae free. Our rocks ‘age’ as tanks mature and get very colorful. This color is many different types of algae, just not macro algaes that can be seen as problematic.
 
I bought a salifert nitrate test because I wasn't believing the API test. 0 nitrates. And how do you remove and scrub down a rock that has coral on it? The rocks that are - say - 4 inches above the substrate have no GHA at all. It's all towards the bottom of the rock pile. I'm tempted to over feed my tank just to obtain some nitrate normalcy. Can I dose no3:po4-x if my nitrates are 0 already?
 
I bought a salifert nitrate test because I wasn't believing the API test. 0 nitrates. And how do you remove and scrub down a rock that has coral on it? The rocks that are - say - 4 inches above the substrate have no GHA at all. It's all towards the bottom of the rock pile. I'm tempted to over feed my tank just to obtain some nitrate normalcy. Can I dose no3:po4-x if my nitrates are 0 already?



Just out of interest but both API and Salifert reading 0?
 
Interesting! Side topic but that matches my tests as well with api and other test kits.

More on FW side but (for me) at low nitrate levels around 20ppm I’ve seen varying test results. Each test is consistent but results between test kits can vary by say next colour change.

I did spend a few hundred on an expensive nitrate test kit and even that was saying plus/minus one colour change (for that test +/- 12ppm).
 
Algae doesn't only feed off of nitrates, there are also phosphates...and I'm sure other things since we have all seen those 'perfect parameter' systems with algae.
When it comes to rock with corals on them, what is stopping you from bringing it out of the water to scrub? All corals that are in our systems are exposed to air...it only varies on the amount of time. Many are even exposed for long period of time to air in the wild. The only place I'd be worries about the corals is when scrubbing around them and it would simply be me being careful and gentle with a toothbrush.
 
I agree with tooth brush method. It did not grow over nite and it will not go away over nite.
 
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