Question about algae.

Hey guys, there is something that has always bothered me but I never really tried to find out.

I came across a few threads on people having issues with algae of all sorts. When they test, they always get low phosphates and nitrates etc... which would mean that they should not be having this issues.
Most people would agree that the tests are low because the algae is using up the nitrates and phosphates, correct?

So my question is.. If in fact, the algae is using up these things... Why does the algae keep growing with no end to it?

Especially after you manually remove it, shouldn't technically these nutrients be taken with it as well? and since the algae took most of them.. why does it come back? ( granted you are not adding them back by other means).

 

It comes back because there is something that continues to put the nutrients into the water. It is a matter of figuring out what the source is and removing that to cure the problem. It can be from water used in water changes, leeching from rocks or other items, food, etc.

 

Great Question
I have had the some thoughts. I did have a bad hair algae brake out But once I put a refugium with good algae almost all the hair algae went away So did the hair algae starve ?

 

Algae needs nutrients such as phosphate and nitrate as well as nitrate to survive and grow. As the nutrients are being put into the system the amount of them going in dictates the growth rate the algae can achieve. This growth rate is also affected by the amount and quality of lighting. If the lighting is not adequate for the algae to grow and consume the nutrients fast enough, you will be able to measure phosphate and/or nitrate. If the lighting is either adequate or exceeds the needs of the algae, you will read nothing on the tests.

A refugium works based on these same principles. Refugium lighting is better quality, for plants, and thus the algae grown there out competes algae in other parts of the system for the nutrients needed.

 

Simply put, from your bioload.

 

I am taking into account that those things are covered.
I have seen people with refugiums, and large skimmers on their tank and yet they still have TONS of algae.

 

regular water changes helps too.

 

No established tank on these forums is truly zero phosphate/no3 in solution regardless of the test kit used. There are trace amounts the algae can use

If food is added, there are nutrients. That's why tanks that test '0' can still get x invader, its not really zero. The algae is not necessarily binding the nutrients to read '0', it read that way in many tanks before the issue

 

sure it's not byropsis? I had an outbreak after battling byropsis when i stopped dosing mag for a about a month. Thought it was gha but the cuc wouldn't touch it. started dosing mag again and low and behold it was byropsis. it can look very similar to gha.

 

feed every other day, run gfo and fresh carbon. blast off rocks with a powerhead or turkey baster everyday, that should lower nutrients with a good water change.