GFO not lowering phosphates

[Yates273]

If your thread is name that algae then no. Mine is just like green hair algae but more of a brown color which is in tufts on the rocks

 

[redfishbluefish]

You have link

@Rueric has the same screen name over of R2R....here's the link:

GHA and dosing nitrates​

 

[Yates273]

Yours looks like it could be Dino’s. What I did to best that was 3 day blackouts and leave the tank as dirty as possible to outcompete the Dino’s. Took me about 2 months to beat

 

[Yates273]

Ok was looking at wrong post. Yes mine does look like that but like I said a little more on the brown side. Not nearly as bad as you have it but like you said nothing works on it. I have resorted to scrubbing and siphoning. I also took one of the rocks out and sprayed with peroxide. That did the trick but I refuse to tear down the tank to do this. I will just keep doing what I am doing and allow time to assist me. I do t want o keep throwing stuff at it and make the problems worse.

 

[horseplay]

I’m not home right now when I get home I will check my phosphates. If my phosphates are still in the .12 area do I still need to dose phosphates. I am aiming for .03/.04. I also think my phosphates readings could be false since I have an algae issue I am dealing with that could be consuming my phosphates.

I have never been able to keep phosphate at the ideal level, which is @0.03ppm according to some. In nature the phosphate level is undetectable yet corals are thriving. Nutrient is continuously produced and consumed. That's the balance I try to achieve. In my tank most of the time phosphate is undetectable by normal range Hanna phosphate checker. I feed the tank quick frequently (about 4 times a day using auto feeder). There is always plenty of particles floating in the water column. I measure phosphate weekly if it goes beyond 0.06 I dose carbon otherwise I leave it alone. If it's zero I feed more for a few days and dose some nutrients and a little diy nopox just to keep the bacteria going.

I had cyano and other kind of nasty stuff but they kind of disappeared by themselves after a while. I did have to treat for a hair algae problem at the beginning. Now I see hair algae here and there but it does not become a big issue.

 

[Rueric]

Ok was looking at wrong post. Yes mine does look like that but like I said a little more on the brown side. Not nearly as bad as you have it but like you said nothing works on it. I have resorted to scrubbing and siphoning. I also took one of the rocks out and sprayed with peroxide. That did the trick but I refuse to tear down the tank to do this. I will just keep doing what I am doing and allow time to assist me. I do t want o keep throwing stuff at it and make the problems worse.

I’m ready to take that next step as well, going to take my main rock structure out and just scrub/peroxide it.
I think based on my last round of peroxide on a number of my misc rock structures, the algae has not been growing back there.
im
Beginning to think that scrubbing is just spreading it and allows it to settle all over the tank.
my main concern is that if and when I go to scrub the glass going forward, will that mean this will continue to spread?
Perhaps by next weekend or July 4th after my latest fluc treatment, I’ll pick up more cuc and hope it stays clean

 

[paintman27]

I too have been scrubbing my rocks, but when I do, I put 2 power filters in the tank and crank up all my powerheads and return pump. As well as running my skimmer wet. This twists the piss out of the tank keeping as much susspended as possible. I am also considering adding calcium carbonate as a floculant when I scrub to help get all the nasties to the skimmer.

 

[Rueric]

I too have been scrubbing my rocks, but when I do, I put 2 power filters in the tank and crank up all my powerheads and return pump. As well as running my skimmer wet. This twists the piss out of the tank keeping as much susspended as possible. I am also considering adding calcium carbonate as a floculant when I scrub to help get all the nasties to the skimmer.

Recently read about the calcium carbonate too, that’ll be my next, next step

 

[Yates273]

So I just picked up a Hanna nitrate checker and tested my water. 75 was the blinking number I got which indicates out of range so I still have high nitrates. I don’t know what is going on with my nitrate issue considering I’m also running a fuge with Chaeto. I upped my carbon dosing to 10 ml a day. Phosphates came in at .08. The high nitrate reading is bothering me and my guess has everything to do with this algae. Guess I have to keep chugging along until it decides to balance out I hope

 

[horseplay]

Would be interesting to see if the nitrate can be brought down. I never have anything so high. Does the phosphate go down with the dosing? Also keep in mind don't increase the dosage until it starting to work. It does take a while for the effect to kick in. You should see much increase skimmate production when this happens.

 

[Yates273]

I’ve been dosing 5 ml for 1 week. Not much increase in skimmate yet, but I dosed very conservatively based off of the recommendation of NOPox. I
Should be dosing 3 ml per 25 based on my nitrate reading. I figured I would start with 1ml. I think I should be ok if I bump up to 2 per 25. I will run this for a little longer. I will also keep an eye on my skimmate knowing now that I should see an increase in it. As far as phosphates they have gone down a little bit from .12 to .08