Just sharing some observations and change in water chemistry I had lately. As many of you know I built a new tank for my basement. Quite a large surface area being 10 foot long and 2 foot wide. I was prepared to get a bit of algae having new surface area for it to grow on. Those that came to the meeting in February saw the tank and a brown algae film on everything. Unfortunately it got worse; it was limited to the new tank and never showed itself in any other connected tanks.
I was planning on just letting it run it course, waiting for coraline algae to become dominant. However some water chemistry changes started occurring that caused many corals to get pale. Reds started turning pink, blues turned to a teal. In some cases it was a nicer color but most it lost it's rich deep colors in favor of a pale pastel. I tested my water and noticed that phosphate and nitrates were to low. Took the GFO offline and started feeding heavier and added amino acid and trace elements. It fueled the algae further and nutrient levels continued to drop. One of the SPS corals I had lost it's color entirely. I knew I needed to kill the algae as it was sucking all the nutrients out of the system. I have used API Marine AlgaeFix in the past so thought it would be the safest way to go but also knew it doesn't work on all types of algae. Directions says to add 5ML per 50g every three days until gone then add one more dose. So I put my cheato in a 5g bucket and did first dose. Each dose algae reduced dramatically. I have since dosed 3x and it almost all gone and I can see Coraline starting to establish on the tank walls. Nutrient's are coming back up to a normal level and corals are starting to look better. I thought it interesting how efficient algae can uptake nutrients and in some cases letting it run it course could kill the coral before starving out the algae.
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