Needing advice, can’t get Macro’s to grow anymore

mvallee

Non-member
My tank, 90 Gallon DT running just over 2 years has had and is maintaining a Nitrate and Phosphate spike all while I cannot get Cheato or Caulerpa to grow anymore.
My tank would typically run around Nitrates 10-25 and Phosphates around .3 but now for the past month Nitrates max out my test at 100 and Phosphates are reading 2-2.5. How could I have nutrients this high and not be able to see any growth in my Macro Algae? I had a refugium light, one of those pink looking LED lights and when it started not growing I went back to the CFL 5K lights I had always used with great success but still nothing
In the past 2 months I have done a few things, I deep cleaned the sump, pulled all rubble/rocks and had them sitting in a bucket of tank water while I drained the sump and cleaned all the crud and detritus out, it was gross. I added a clarisea roller filter as I had no form of mechanical filtration, no socks nothing but after cleaning the sump I knew I needed to do something so that has been in place for about a month and my sump is staying clean. I also added a bag of sand to the tank, one of those caribsea arag alive bags of reef sand. It covered the sand in spots where the power heads blew it but mostly mixed in with existing. I also got rid of one of my bigger fish, a large Fox Face. Between the Fox face and the Trigger I was really overfeeding the tank to make sure my shyer inhabitants were getting enough.
The Macro’s really stopped growing after I cleaned the sump and nothing has made a difference as far as Nitrates and Phosphates. Before that I would pull out a good amount every few weeks as well as feeding the tank Caulerpa on occasion and I assume this was keeping the nutrients in check. There is still a small chunk of Cheato and Caulerpa in the refugium so not dying just not growing.

Fish are all healthy, Nems, leathers, rhodactis and Yuma are doing great. Monti, Chalice and lepto all browned out and died.
I was thinking about putting a pellet reactor on line but would rather go back to using my refugium and Macro algae as the control and not another piece of equipment to maintain and monitor.

Tank details; a redsea reefer 450 approximately 94 gallon DT and another 20 or so gallons in the sump, 1000 GPH return pump. Nitrites and ammonia undetectable PH 8, temp 78, Calcium 450 and KH of 8.9 I have the typical looking sump full of Sponges, copepods and feather dusters so I feel like my tank is healthy

WHAT AM I MISSING

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Iron. I use two little fishies iron supplement my cheto grows like weeds ever since. I harvest around 5gal a month
 
My guess would be a lack of iron as well. Cleaning the sump so drastically may have killed a bunch of surface bacteria causing the spike.
 
Iron supplement on order, hopefully that is the fix. Reading the reviews of the products sounds like it will do the trick and can't hurt. I will probably try to find some Cheato or Caulerpa to start fresh.
 
Heard that having nutrients too high can also stunt macro growth.
hopefully the iron fixes your problem
 
quick update, I started dosing Iron and the few strands of chaeto I had have grown noticeably and starting to form a ball so looks like Iron was the missing piece to this puzzle.

I have no way to test Iron, should I be? is there any issues that could arise from continuing to add it? Directions state to dose 1 cap full per 50 gallons every other day so I am doing two caps in my tank.

Thanks all for the good advice on this :)
 
It’s going to be trial n error. Every tank will be different but if you have been dosing consistently for a month you can send out a icp test to figure that out.
 
I use just follow the instructions on two little fishies supplement for a little while then backed off. If I notice slower growth or phosphate rising I ad a capful
 
Reds need blue light and a lot of flow
Greens need red spectrum and little flow
Nitrates at 10ppm
Phosphate 1.0
I also dose macros and micro nutrients 2x a week I use an all in one formula from nilcog from plantedtank.net
 
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