Red algae

[Slyguy00]

Well lets start off by saying my tank is now about 6 months old and everything in it is healthy. Its a 50 gallon bow front with a fluval 304 external filter cleaned every 3 days, 50lbs of live rock and 40 lbs of live sand with no sump or skimmer. My light is only 3 months old, but it is a marineland led which i have heard is not very good. I have 2 clowns, a convict tang, a mandarin goby and a six line wrasse. I have lots of different corals and frags. for flow i have to 720gph power heads. My water perameters have been really good ( i test everyday) and I just tested now, and my nitrates are super high, nitrites are next to 0, no amonia, no phosphate. What would cause my nitrates to go so high in one day, but not nitrites? needless to say im about to do a water change. Any advice would be appreciated.

[Slyguy00]

thanks reef pilot, i will look into that for sure

[Reef Pilot]

What do you call super high nitrates? And how often and how much do you change water?

[Slyguy00]

well for now i have the crappy nutrafin max test set so its not exactly the most accurate test set. and i consider high like 20 and above. However i just washed my test tubes, and water syringe really good and re tested, and now it shows 5 or less nitrates, but it still is higher than my nitrites. Just proves how accurate it is. I do a 5 gallon water change once a week.

[Reef Pilot]

Even N03 of 20 is not really high, unless you have SPS corals. Fish certainly don't mind. But you should get a better test kit.

What do you use for P04? Many of the cheaper ones do not measure accurately at the low end. Salifert or a Hanna LR checker work well. I used to think I had no phosphates or very low until I got a Hanna Phosphate checker.

Having said all that, one of my tanks used to have high nitrates (40+ consistently) and high phosphates (over 1.0), but I still did not have a cyano problem because of my MB7 dosing. It adds beneficial bacteria to your system which out competes cyano.

You'd be better off changing 10g of water every 2 weeks.

[Slyguy00]

Thanks for all the input. I will be getting a new test set next week. I need a more accurate mag, all and calcium test anyways. Hagen six. I will deff be looking into that mb7. And really? You think it would be more beneficial to my tank to do 10 every two weeks instead? why is that?

[Reef Pilot]

You get a bigger vol turnover in your tank with 10 g every 2 weeks instead of 5 every week. Do the math.

Or think of it this way. If you changed 50% of your tank every week, or 100% every 2 weeks, which will provide a more complete turnover of your water? Of course that is not practical or recommended, but just wanted to use that example to help make the point.

[daplatapus]

Originally Posted by Slyguy00

My water perameters have been really good ( i test everyday) and I just tested now, and my nitrates are super high, nitrites are next to 0, no amonia, no phosphate. What would cause my nitrates to go so high in one day, but not nitrites?

Just to comment a bit on this. The progression of the breakdown of nutrients in our tank systems starts with ammonia after they begin to de-compose. Beneficial bacteria in our tanks feed on this ammonia, process it and turn it into nitrite. More bacteria then grows and feeds on this nitrite and turns it into nitrate. If you have a deep sand bed or other area that is very low in oxygen, or an anaerobic area, there are further bacteria that will process this nitrate and turn it into nitrogen. But if there is no deep sand bed or anaerobic area, the nitrates sit there until you get rid of them with water changes.

If you have a sudden spike in nitrates without a reading of nitrites or ammonia in the days previous, the only answer I can think of is an error in testing of either of the 3. If you are in fact testing every day and diligent in those tests, it would seem unlikely (but not impossible) that both the ammonia test and nitrite tests got fouled and you caught it in the nitrate test. But if the first 2 tests were accurate, I'd suspect the nitrate test could be inaccurate. This is where good quality tests and a clean, conscientious routine of testing is invaluable.

[Reef Pilot]

You may not have enough flow near your sand bed either, allowing detritus to accumulate there. I have Orange Spot Sleeper Gobies in my tanks, which constantly sift the sand and keep it stirred up. I think that helps, too.

[michika]

I'm just going to point it out that the tank in question is new, 6 months old I believe. This cyano bloom could be natrual and you may have to do nothing more then let time pass and keep up with good husbandry practice.

I too have recently set up a tank and I had a 2.5 month daily cyano cycle. It has finally started to pass without any changes to my current practices. Just something to think of of as you're considering the variety of response you've received.