Anthrax & Gangs! 50G SCA

[thecoralbeauty]

3 hours ago, vlangel said:

Wow, you moved on the biodiversity fast.  I'm hoping that you see positive results as well but it does seem that that would be too easy.  Still, not many folks try the biodiversity route and hopefully there is something to that.

Yea, it seemed the safest and like generally good husbandry anyway. 

 

Tested phosphates when the kit came in, tank is reading at .25. Tap water is reading at .03. I'd bet it was that dang frag rack. Given that my Nitrates are always low- 2.5ish, Phosguard is going in for a little while. My ratio is now a 10-1, rather than your suggested 30-1, Dawn. 

 

At least I now know the source of the phosphates isn't my tap. Here's a quick photo of what we are dealing with today. Drastically reduced, but I'm not going to celebrate yet. Constant vigilance! 😉 

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtZe9XXh3Ed/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

 

[vlangel]

2 hours ago, mwhitelock said:

Yea, it seemed the safest and like generally good husbandry anyway. 

 

Tested phosphates when the kit came in, tank is reading at .25. Tap water is reading at .03. I'd bet it was that dang frag rack. Given that my Nitrates are always low- 2.5ish, Phosguard is going in for a little while. My ratio is now a 10-1, rather than your suggested 30-1, Dawn. 

 

At least I now know the source of the phosphates isn't my tap. Here's a quick photo of what we are dealing with today. Drastically reduced, but I'm not going to celebrate yet. Constant vigilance! 😉 

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtZe9XXh3Ed/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

 

It doesn't look too bad.  I would only use a little tiny bit of phosguard and maybe test again in a day or two.  You do not want to strip the water of all phosphates.

[thecoralbeauty]

Ok. Been running Phosguard over the weekend, so far my phosphates are still reading at .25. Nitrates are now at 10. (Honestly, not sure what they are normally at, though- don't typically test them.) So my ratio is now 40-1, and i'm seeing the dinos slowly come back. I'm pretty sure they're forming a film around my red goni which is why it's getting so annoyed all the time and not fully extending. 

 

Interesting that my phosphates haven't dropped any, despite running phosguard for three days. 

 

pH is 8, alk is 9.6, ca is 450, mg is 1230. 

 

Adding a little phytoplankton daily, have more in the mail on it's way to me, and some pods too. 

[thecoralbeauty]

Params this morning before work- did a 20% water change yesterday again, manually removing what i could over lunch, and dosed pods and phytoplankton in the afternoon when they arrived by mail. 

 

ph is 8.3-5ish, which is awesome. alk is 10.5, ca is 420, mg is 1200.

didn't take readings on No/Po yet this morning as i've just done a water change. 

 

also took out the phosguard and carbon, as my tap is reading clear for both nitrate and phosphate, and I'm hoping my tank will find its natural balance again with all the extra phyto/pod/bacteria love i've been giving it. 

 

[thecoralbeauty]

other readings this afternoon: phos back at .01, nitrates at 10. 

[pgrVII]

Just caught up...

Yep thats an adventure for sure this tank had.😆

[thecoralbeauty]

57 minutes ago, pgrVII said:

Just caught up...

Yep thats an adventure for sure this tank had.😆

I just browsed back over the last page, too, and realized the beauty of trying to keep a general log on the forum- I had that RFA spawn (either that or it was a bacterial bloom, that can cause cloudy water. though not sure why that wouldve happened) and then i noticed the diatoms/dino. So it seems that whatever that cloudiness was caused the dino's to precipitate in the coming weeks. 

I wouldn't have even thought of that/connected it had I not read back just now. 🙂

 

[pgrVII]

6 minutes ago, mwhitelock said:

I just browsed back over the last page, too, and realized the beauty of trying to keep a general log on the forum- I had that RFA spawn (either that or it was a bacterial bloom, that can cause cloudy water. though not sure why that wouldve happened) and then i noticed the diatoms/dino. So it seems that whatever that cloudiness was caused the dino's to precipitate in the coming weeks. 

I wouldn't have even thought of that/connected it had I not read back just now. 🙂

 

Yea its cool that way isnt it? 😊 its cool to look back on it and connect it all together. 

So what's next?

[thecoralbeauty]

9 minutes ago, pgrVII said:

Yea its cool that way isnt it? 😊 its cool to look back on it and connect it all together. 

So what's next?

pods, phyto, keep ph up and get mg up higher (themes i've noticed from my reading that helps with dinos) and keep monitoring nutrients until it clears up.

 

[pgrVII]

6 minutes ago, mwhitelock said:

pods, phyto, keep ph up and get mg up higher (themes i've noticed from my reading that helps with dinos) and keep monitoring nutrients until it clears up.

 

🎯🎯

[jack1978]

On 10/30/2015 at 2:04 PM, righttirefire said:

Is thing wet yet? You're as bad as jack! Lol

How dare you!

Oh, wait ....... my reply is 3 years and 4 months late.

Nevermind.

[thecoralbeauty]

8 hours ago, jack1978 said:

How dare you!

Oh, wait ....... my reply is 3 years and 4 months late.

Nevermind.

😂 this is definitely a zombie thread. 

[thecoralbeauty]

Params this morning:

alk- 9.6, mg- 1380, nitrate-15, phos-.25, ca- 410 

 

Hopefully alk is stabilizing a bit. 

 

still dosing phyto and pods. no water change this week. 

[thecoralbeauty]

 

[thecoralbeauty]

added the mp10 back to the right side to help provide some cross-flow... @pgrVII suggested perhaps it was due to flow allowing them to settle.

 

so we are doing more flow! can't hurt, anyway. if it makes no difference, then it's ruled out as a variable. 

[pgrVII]

5 minutes ago, mwhitelock said:

added the mp10 back to the right side to help provide some cross-flow... @pgrVII suggested perhaps it was due to flow allowing them to settle.

 

so we are doing more flow! can't hurt, anyway. if it makes no difference, then it's ruled out as a variable. 

🤞🤞

[vlangel]

You might be on to something with the flow.  That's why I think my sump has dinos but not the display.

[ninjamyst]

your tank actually looks fantastic!  dino?  i dont see much =P

[vlangel]

Your tank really does look amazing and the dinos are not so bad as to be detracting.  They just look like a little diatoms or cyano.

[thecoralbeauty]

7 minutes ago, vlangel said:

Your tank really does look amazing and the dinos are not so bad as to be detracting.  They just look like a little diatoms or cyano.

Thank you!

 

8 hours ago, ninjamyst said:

your tank actually looks fantastic!  dino?  i dont see much =P

thank you!!

 

Seriously, I appreciate it so much.

I'm not so much worried about them aesthetically as I am about their effect on my corals- the goni  colonies are not fully extending. Also, I definitely want to stay on top of them so they don't become an out-of-control issue! 

[thecoralbeauty]

Adjusted the light spectrum to a little more blue- 14k at most. 

Decided to brave a water change today- and I pulled out the RO/DI unit to refill my ATO bucket. The water I had mixing was tap, so I'll be able to see if the tap makes what's left of the dinos any worse. I'm filling another 5 gal bucket of salt mixed with RO/DI. 

 

Also went to a 200 micron filter sock yesterday.

 

Params are all very steady. Dinos weren't on the rocks today, and only a small spattering of them on the sand bed, I sucked out as much as I could with the water change. 

We'll see!

[vlangel]

Way to persevere!  Hoping for the best!

[thecoralbeauty]

5 hours ago, vlangel said:

Way to persevere!  Hoping for the best!

You know, it didn't occur to me that since I am dosing and am skimming, the need for weekly water changes is drastically reduced both for parameter stability and nutrient export. No wonder my nutrients dropped so much. Also, adding macros into my sump I'm sure didn't help that scenario. Overall the tank is running a bit more smoothly without them- though I've definitely increased my biodiversity and added a bright well brick for more surface area for bacteria as well- but again, that's nutrient export. I can take it easy on the water changes- hooray! 

[vlangel]

2 hours ago, mwhitelock said:

You know, it didn't occur to me that since I am dosing and am skimming, the need for weekly water changes is drastically reduced both for parameter stability and nutrient export. No wonder my nutrients dropped so much. Also, adding macros into my sump I'm sure didn't help that scenario. Overall the tank is running a bit more smoothly without them- though I've definitely increased my biodiversity and added a bright well brick for more surface area for bacteria as well- but again, that's nutrient export. I can take it easy on the water changes- hooray! 

Hooray!  Me too!

[thecoralbeauty]

Happy to report that after this mornings 10 gal water change with RO/DI water, dinos have not returned! 

However, the goni's and elegance now are a bit retracted... unsure as to why- but no more snot or dino film or dino bubbles irritating the red goni.

 

Turned the flow down a notch, upped the light intensity back to around where it was before....

 

knock on wood! 🙂