bboileau92 Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 Hey everyone, I have a red sea 525 xl that has been up since October. I've been slowly adding fish and am up to 2 clowns, a blue tang, a purple tang, solar wrasse, and 2 firefish. I run a skimmer 12 hours a day and a carbon reactor that I replace rox media on once a month. I have no measurable Nitrate via Nyos kit, and no measurable phosphate via hanna ulr checker. I get a bit of algae on the glass and a bit on the sand, but this is the most minor ugly phase I've had aside from the bacterial blooms. They go in and out but the water never gets completely clear. When I feed less, the bloom seems to get better, but I've always fed more to increase nitrate and phosphate. So... 2 questions. Any ideas what's causing the bloom? If it is the food, how should I get nitrate and phosphate up? Other parameters: Salinity 1.026 pH 8.1 Alk 8.2 CA 420 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MReef20 Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 You can raise the nitrate via chemical means, but I'm finding that it just takes time for things to balance out, especially if you started with dry rock? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burningbaal Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 sounds like you may have excess organic carbon in your reef, but presumably you aren't dosing vodka/sugar/vinegar/NoPox, right? Also, as MReef20 says, inescapably low NO3 and PO4 seems to usually be in tanks started from dry rock, is that you? you can run an ugly airstone to make sure the bloom doesn't consume the oxygen, but you might even try turning the skimmer off for a week or two. It's not helping if your nutrients are really non-detect. You might as well turn it off until you can detect one or the other. I'd try turning it off for a week and see if it's measurable. If both are still non-detect, leave it off another week. If you have a weir or an airstone, that'll provide all the gas exchange you can get. You could try an old school canister filter with a 1 micron pleated filter, but that's probably way more trouble than it's worth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bboileau92 Posted February 9, 2021 Author Share Posted February 9, 2021 I did start dry. I'm using blue iquatics. No carbon dosing source. Rather than getting an airstone, I think I'll probably just open the plug on the skimmer cup. Any reason not to do that? Is there anything to be done about the bloom? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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