Carbon dosing question

[drew300]

Hey guys this is a question for those of you that have been in the hobby for a while or for anyone who has experience in carbon dosing. I have a 55 gallon tank with LPS corals. The tank has been running for about 15 months. I have been doin some research on carbon dosing to help beneficial bacteria. Lately I have been having a big problem with GHA and cyano. I have been doing water changes every couple days to bring my nutrients down. I actually managed to get my nitrates down to 0 my phosphates read between 0-0.25 it's hard to tell. The cyano has completely disappeared but I think it's because the GHA out competed for the nutrients. I can't seem to understand why I still have hair algae. I don't have a sump so I can't start a fuge or add reactors. I do have gfo and chemipure in my HOB filter and HOB protein skimmer. I'm thinking my bacteria population is down and I'm planning on carbon dosing. I can't make up my mind on what to use vodka, sugar, or vinegar. I also read that bacteria need both nitrates and phosphates to grow as well as carbon. What are your thoughts. My tank isn't that stocked. I only have a misbar blood clown, blue damsel, and 2 Bangai cardinals. I just recently got ridnof a lytretail anthias. I only feed maybe 3 times a week.

 

[Sniperhank]

It can be a pain to track.
First thing is to address your phosphate test. If this is something that concerns you, then you'd want a low range phosphate test. .1 is a lot of phosphate and the goal is to run around .03 phosphate.
I'd still stick to water changes and manual removal. Algae doesn't vanish over night. Even a 50% water change will only take a nitrate level of 100 down to 50...even if it was detectable. The bacteria in your system has nothing to do with there being algae in your tank.

 

[drew300]

Ok thanks

 

[bskerrichard27]

I had issues years ago with cyno and gha I start using red sea no po4 and have not had a outbreak in over two years as long as you follow the dosing regime and have a decent skimmer you won't experience any I'll effects .. I tried the excessive wc route and after nine months and no improvement I decided to carbon dose hope this helps

 

[drew300]

I had issues years ago with cyno and gha I start using red sea no po4 and have not had a outbreak in over two years as long as you follow the dosing regime and have a decent skimmer you won't experience any I'll effects .. I tried the excessive wc route and after nine months and no improvement I decided to carbon dose hope this helps

Thanks...it seems that ive actually got it under control...a lot of elbow grease and wc...i think my problem was the salt i was using. I change salt and now my tank after 2 wc is almost algae free. I say about 98% clean