Where are the nutrients coming from?

I have to say i am completely puzzled! My algae is slowly getting worse and i feel as though i am taking every precaution.

-Tank is 7 months old.
-20 gal
-ato
-1 clown
-1 Blue damsel
-1 peppermint shrimp
-4 Narcissus snails
-3 Astera Snails
-2 Margarita Snails
-Green star polyps
-1 zoa frag
-1 frogspawn frag

-I have been running a phosphate reactor for 5 weeks, changing regularly
-Protein Skimmer for 6 weeks
-Use only distilled water
-Rinse frozen food, feeding every other day
-I have a fuge with cheato
-Plenty of flow and new API bulbs
-16 lbs of live rock

-Amm: 0
-Nitrite: 0
-Nitrate 0-5
-Cal: 440
-Alk: 8
-Ph: 8.0
-Temp: 80F.
-Phos: I must have some, i have algae
-I dose mag, reef plus, and reef trace
-I also started hydrogen peroxide therapy as a last resort, not helping yet.


I need some advice because there is no way I can keep spending so much money and only grow gross algae

 

Do you have any sponges? (90% of my outbreaks have been caused my sponges)

Do you have sand or crushed coral substrate?

How deep?

Where did you get your rock/ how much do you have?

Why distilled water/where do you get it?

One thing that I've discovered is that algae and nutrients are a trend. As they build bu you sometimes don't notice until you have an outbreak, and as you treat that situation you dont see a whole lot of success right away because the nutrients are trapped in the sand/rock.

It took my 55 almost 6 weeks of hardly feeding at all, shorter photo periods, and manual removal to get things under control.

 

No sponges, 2" deep sand bed. 16 lbs of rock from That Pet Place in Lancaster Pa. I buy distilled water from the grocery store, because i am a poor college student that can't afford the initial investment of a DI unit. I will get one in the summer though.

 

There is one thing that always stuck with me years ago about sand beds. There are generally three option: People who like the look of sand (me), People who feel all sand does is trap nutrients and make a mess (bare bottom reefkeepers), and people who feel a deep sandbed is an important part to a tanks filtration and biodiversity.

What I read (and therefore believe to be true) Is that if you want a DSB it need to be at least 3 inches in depth. This is to create a stable low oxygen layer that allows for anaerobic bacteria to break down nitrates into nitrogen gas among other things.

If you aren't going with a DSB but want sand, it needs to be shallow so that it doesnt trap alot of gunk deep in the sand. This layer should be less than an inch.

In this hobby there is alot of 'stuff' out there, heck years ago I had a plenum for example when it was the niche substrate choice. But I have to agree, when I have had more than an inch of sand in a tank I had nutrient issues. Might be the cause, might not.


THAT BEING SAID: Trapped nutrients are in your systems, and you need to draw them out. This can be done with alot of water changes over time, but keep in mind that the rock and sand probably have elevated levels too. Secondly, you could set up a GFO reactor, which has done wonders for many in the hobby for years. You last option, and one that many many people now use is setting up a biopellet reactor. I don't have experience with biopellet so I won't comment much on them, but they are becoming as mainstream as LED lights now.

 

would i go through a cycle if i siphoned out my Sb? I have actually been thinking about going bb for awhile now...

 

yeah probably a bit of one. I like have the surface area for Bactria of a sand bed. You could try to scoop a bit out every few days, li a cup full. Disturbing a sand bet is a scary proposition due to the traped media. I would do that as a last resort.

 

Post pics of your tank showing the problem

Also, why not change your peroxide method to one that works faster? Your method of whole tank dosing is the slowest outcome option

 

Chasing nutrients does not always help with gha, the ocean can have probs with it locally in what we'd test as pure water. You should keep your nutrients as is, and fight the algae directly

Remember, our peroxide challenge thread is seeking any tank of 700 posted with an algae challenge that is out of control. If you use our method, prob solved. Your nutrients aren't the issue. we cured tanks with far worse problems, post pics!

 

So to summarize, if you post pics, follow advice exactly, and your tank isn't cured you will have the first tank ever after 700 tanks and a year of challenges. There's no way your tank is that bad!

 

Your right its not bad, yet! For the past 3 days it has gotten progressively worse, which is why I am posting now. I will post pictures as soon as I can. Its mainly red slime algae. My hair algae is worsening however, just not as rapidly as the slime. I truly feel it might be my sand bed leaching out all kinds of goodies from when I was a beginner with poorer husbandry... I just find it shocking that algae can rapidly grow when I am running a large amount of GFO and skimming on a 20 gal in addition to 25% weekly water changes. I know your targeting method of H2O2 works great but I would rather know WHY it is growing. If i kill it all off without finding the cause, more then likely it will come back with a vengeance. :-/