Refugium and cheato reactor

[Remus]

Hi I been running my tank for 1 year since with refugium since day one with macroaglea. But since then my phosphate is alway 3ppm to 5 ppm and nitrate is around 2 to 5ppm never drop below that. I try using AF ULNS but it also doesnt work using bacterial. On top of that I also using AF carbon and phosphate minus and pro bio s and pro bio f and my skimmer is 4x the exchange rate of return and my macroalgea refugium tank is full size is 20cm x 15cm by 15cm which is also full of macroaglea. My tank is nano tank only 40 x 4 x 40 and i only feed once a day and also dosing live phytoplankton daily. Since then my display rock there are bubble algae here and there which i try to remove them which is abit hard to remove them all. And the return hose is full of bynosis algea. I not sure why my tank is alway full of nutrient so i think adding a cheato reactor to help reduce more. Will it be overkill, as of now my tank is LPS, soft coral and some easy birdnest sps. My stock is around 9 fishes but most of them are small size goby. I thinking of trying cheato reactor and refugium will it be over kill for my tank. 

[Chadicus Meridius]

A water change can also lower nutrients.

 

also how many gallons is your tank? 
 

9 fish in a nano could cause a nutrient imbalance 

[Remus]

This is my set up after 1 year, you can see I have a hang on refugium which is full but my phosphate won't go down no matter what I try so wanted to use cheato reactor and refugium to bring it down. 

[SliceGolfer]

Phosphates come from source water, food, even fresh salt mix. Identify where it’s being introduced and you can limit introduction to your tank. 

[teenyreef]

My advice is don't chase numbers. Your tank is beautiful and the corals seem to be doing great. Everyone should have numbers like yours if that's the result 🙂

 

But I understand your real concern is the bubble algae and the bryopsis in the return hose. I'd get an emerald crab for the bubble algae, and just manually clean the return hose and see how things go after that. if your refugium is still going strong, I doubt a chaeto reactor would make that much difference. But it wouldn't hurt to try it since that would just be another source of nutrient export.

[Clown79]

Your phos is high and not dropping from daily phyto dosing.

 

Why are you dosing daily? Moat instructions say every 2 days. 

 

I only dose 1 time a week because my phos was getting way too high.

 

 

[Remus]

I don't dose initial and my phosphate is still hovering around 1 to 3ppm but since I dose daily I also didn't see much impact either on my phosphate. The reason why I dose daily is because I notice after I dose daily my pods population seem to increase alot. And I need the pods as I have a mandrain fish with me. And I read online live phyto will also help in a way reduce nutrient not sure how true is that but the only thing I found out is my pods increase with different kinds of pods in my display. To be honest I not sure live phyto have any impact on my tank.

[mcarroll]

On 5/3/2020 at 7:47 AM, Remus said:

Hi I been running my tank for 1 year since with refugium since day one with macroaglea. But since then my phosphate is alway 3ppm to 5 ppm and nitrate is around 2 to 5ppm never drop below that. I try using AF ULNS but it also doesnt work using bacterial. On top of that I also using AF carbon and phosphate minus and pro bio s and pro bio f and my skimmer is 4x the exchange rate of return and my macroalgea refugium tank is full size is 20cm x 15cm by 15cm which is also full of macroaglea.

That is some hard-core number-chasing.

 

I didn't even see you mention a problem....so there's a focus issue IMO.

 

On 5/3/2020 at 7:47 AM, Remus said:

My tank is nano tank only 40 x 4 x 40 and i only feed once a day

On 5/3/2020 at 7:47 AM, Remus said:

My stock is around 9 fishes

You can stop wondering where the nutrients are coming from....you're feeding NINE FISH in a tank that's like a puddle of water in size.

 

LOTS of food in ALMOST NO water.

 

On 5/3/2020 at 9:31 AM, Remus said:

So there's no sign of trouble in the pic either.   Why are you so on-edge about your test results??   Sit back, look at your tank, enjoy.  Stop chasing numbers...or even worrying about them.

 

In case it helps, my tank's nitrate level is running at 100+ (it pegs my salifert test) and 2.0 for phosphates.  Nutrients are NOT your problem.  So stop tweaking your tank before you manage to "upset the applecart".

 

On 5/4/2020 at 2:23 AM, Remus said:

And I read online live phyto will also help in a way reduce nutrient not sure how true is

Most of what can be read in the hobby online about nutrients is completely bogus.  (Most of what you read online is someone parroting someone else...so the advice you read is probably from 1980.)

 

To wit...

 

IMO it seems unlikely that you have a bubble algae problem AND a bryopsis problem AND have neither one growing in the display (judging from the pic).  You certainly can't have enough to worry about.  My guess is that you have some other hair algae anyway and not bryopsis.

 

If the algae are your real concern, and they are really there, and actually a problem (my tank has algae come and go on its own, inlcuding bubble algae, but never a bloom, never a problem) then I'd suggest forgetting about your whole current thought process and re-focus on the algae.  It's not related to feeding or nutrients.  It's related to lack of removal.

 

Can you post a detail pic of each algae?  (Best you can...no need to get fancy tho.  Pls use daylight and/or flash for the photo, not blue tank lights.)

[Tamberav]

Tank looks nice ...just manually remove it or try some emerald crabs.

 

You probably won't get the numbers down with 9 fish ....lol 9 fish! Especially the Mandarin.

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Your tank is actually very beautiful! 😮 

[Remus]

Yup i stop chasing number and jus leave it at it is. And I install additional ats, let the algae do the work then. Apart from weekly water test and water change I jus monitor as long as the coral are fine I guess jus focus on other thing.