SHALAKO Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 So, I did 2 things over 2 days to change the water chemistry of my system: 1. boosted Mg from 1,320 ppm to 1380 ppm and 2. increased the Ca from 410 ppm to 440 ppm. one day after (3rd day), some of the larger-surface more leafy macro algeas lost their color. Algae production is still slow in refugium and surface algae on glass in display tank is also slow in growing. Everything else remained the same, lighting, duriation, feeding, dKh... After conducting additional testing, I found that the Fe is down to approximately 0.05 ppm or less. Ran test twice with similar results. Never tested it before, so there in no background for Fe. ________________________________ I have perused the net and am going to get some chelated Fe today and was wondering if any body doses for Fe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 What's your NO3 and PO4 levels? Sounds like a lack of available nutrients but it's definitely curious that it happened specifically after you made changes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SHALAKO Posted January 8, 2016 Author Share Posted January 8, 2016 0.07 PO4 (hanna checker) and minimal NO3 (0.25) with no NO4. I am wondering if the added Mg may have pissed off the algaes...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sascha D. Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Increasing Mg is a known treatment for nuisance algae and cyano. As I understand it, you need to raise it pretty high and keep it there for several weeks but I'm not sure of the exact number. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SHALAKO Posted January 8, 2016 Author Share Posted January 8, 2016 I believe that 1380 ppm of Mg is not a treatment concentration for algae; I think that 1,600 ppm of Mg is considered a treatment concentration for algaes...? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Algae of any kinda needs NO3 and PO4 to grow. You have plenty PO4 but not enough NO3. With extremely limited NO3 I wouldn't see much growth. Mg needs to be in excess of 1600-2000 to have any impact of algae growth. I usually run my mg at 1450-1500 Your Fe is low as well. Fe isn't critical to algae growth however at lower Fe levels you may notice bleaching and a lime green color instead of a dark green color. Your limiting factor remains your NO3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SHALAKO Posted January 11, 2016 Author Share Posted January 11, 2016 Thanks, Reburn. I have wondered about the NO3 being too low, the growth rate was very fast and to see it just stall like that is very confusing and could be starvation of some kind. I remain unsure of where to go...do I turn off my skimmer and over feed, to increase nitrates...? Sounds so counter intuitive and wrong and dangerous. I am leary and still at odds with myself about this... the Iron is definitly helping with coloration and it appears like the production is going up...too early to be difinitive. more / later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SHALAKO Posted February 9, 2016 Author Share Posted February 9, 2016 OK, so I did two things to system: stopped skimmer for 2 days and increased Fe. Algae production is back to normal and everything looks better... THANKS for all the help. Looks like the No3 and Fe were too low...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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