Algae Problems, Blah.

[Travillion]

Great information. Thank you both.
I figured 20% weekly changes was quite a bit, but I guess not. What is the suggested changes for a 28G?
Also a random question here. When doing water changes, should I leave my skimmer running or turn it off? The water gets so low in the chambers that it almost runs dry. I'm scared that if I turn it off it will restart and take another week or two to get going again.

[Aquattro]

I change 50% every 2 weeks. Most don't do that tho. More is always better IMO.
The skimmer can stay on as long as there is water in the pump, but I wouldn't let it run dry for more than a very short while

[reefwars]

I do about 25% weekly as well

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by Travillion

I think you may have pinned it. I do test for most, I have three separate test kits. Phosphate levels are at 0.05, which is a bit higher then the respectable levels. I understand that the best solution for this would be to incorporate a macro-algae refuge. Now how would I go about that on a NanoCube? The slot where the included 3-tiered-filter thing is now where my protein skimmer is, and I understand most people would use that for their macro algae refuge.

Not necessarily , for po4 in a small tank like yours with the aio chamber I would run a bag of gfo/rowaphos or at least something like chemipure and then if running a skimmer or another form of mechanical filtration I would start soluable carbon dosing......both of these can be manipulated to your liking and has less guess work then say what a fist sized piece of cheato will do (does any body know?)

In a tank like yours add 2.5 ml daily of 5% white vinegar for a week and then double it each week up until about week 3 or week 4 or around 10ml a day in total. This would be added daily.

If you have the means to remove available nutrients before say macro algaes have a chance to use up available nutrients then you've just eliminated a middle man in your task if your want other benefits from a fuge there are def a few but I wouldn't consider nutrient export as the most efficient purpose it would have.