Algae growing on corals

[1st reef]

Question... Doi remove carbon before dosing with flourish phosphorus? 

[DevilDuck]

I do not remove carbon normally when I need to dose. Raise it slowly, no more than 0.2 ppm a day. 

[1st reef]

Isnt 0.2 high? I'm aiming for 0.03ppm.

Once Dinos are gone, do I still need to keep dosing? 

[jefferythewind]

most likely the mushroom will survive but you need to get phosphates in there quickly.

[W1ll]

23 hours ago, 1st reef said:

Ok.... Will go buy.  Any dosing tips will be appreciated. Thanks. 

I recommend dosing only a couple mL at a time until you reach a level of around 0.1ppm and keep it there, try to test everyday if possible. Considering your tank has been starved of PO4 for a little while now, expect a extreme uptake in it as you start dosing. So much so that phosphate levels could drop back to zero within a couple of hours, so don't be surprised if you see a near 0 result on your first couple tests. This will slow down after a few days and you should hopefully start getting some stable results. There is a good Reef2Reef thread on working out the dosage calculations for Flourish Phosphate here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/help-dosing-seachem-flourish.359243/

[W1ll]

9 hours ago, 1st reef said:

Isnt 0.2 high? I'm aiming for 0.03ppm.

Once Dinos are gone, do I still need to keep dosing? 

I could be wrong here, but I think @DevilDuck may have meant 0.02ppm. Also, I suggest maybe aiming a little higher than 0.03, something closer to 0.1 might benefit you more, especially when it comes to dinos.

[1st reef]

10 hours ago, jefferythewind said:

most likely the mushroom will survive but you need to get phosphates in there quickly.

Dosed yesterday. Will dose again today. 

[DevilDuck]

3 hours ago, W1ll said:

I could be wrong here, but I think @DevilDuck may have meant 0.02ppm. Also, I suggest maybe aiming a little higher than 0.03, something closer to 0.1 might benefit you more, especially when it comes to dinos.

Sorry, that is correct, increase by 0.02ppm each day until 0.1 or even 0.2 ppm. Keep it there until the dinos go away. You may also start to get other algae like cyano, green hair algae, or diatoms. This is a good thing because they are competition for the dinos.

 

 

[1st reef]

So even when I get the other algae, I don't do water changes and keep the phosphates up?  Or can I stop dosing as soon as dinos go away? 

[DevilDuck]

Once the dinos go away you can go back to doing water changes. You'll still need to keep phosphates detectable but you can target lower levels like 0.04ppm. 

[Jakesaw]

19 minutes ago, DevilDuck said:

You may also start to get other algae like cyano, green hair algae, or diatoms. This is a good thing because they are competition for the dinos.

 

I can confirm. 

 

In my 13 mo old 10 gallon, I had heavy GHA ( wookie tank ) after raising Phos to get rid of DINOs.  Lasted maybe a month - added 8 snails since then to consume and GHA + manual removal - it's mostly if not fully gone, but I still have other Green & Red algaes on the tank.  Which is why I kept adding snails.  I think my snail number should be good from here ( maybe more than I need ). 

4 x Trochus

3 x Astrea

1 x Spiny star Turbo

3 Red Scarlett Hermits

 

I'm going give it some time before passing too much of a judgement on my CUC.

 

Rocks are " pretty clean " and my walls are trending toward clean - but always something to snak on for snails.

[W1ll]

9 hours ago, 1st reef said:

Dosed yesterday. Will dose again today. 

Just out of interest, what are your nitrate levels sitting at?

[1st reef]

3 hours ago, W1ll said:

Just out of interest, what are your nitrate levels sitting at?

5ppm 

Will test tomorrow morning and confirm phosphates and nitrates. 

[1st reef]

Coincidence the Duncan is opening up? 

After 2 days of phosphate dosing? 

[jefferythewind]

Just want to say you're not out of the woods yet, lot of other things but phosphates are a big one

[1st reef]

Like what else? 

[W1ll]

10 hours ago, 1st reef said:

Coincidence the Duncan is opening up? 

After 2 days of phosphate dosing? 

Keep up the dosing, glad to see things appear to be recovering!

[jefferythewind]

6 hours ago, 1st reef said:

Like what else? 

I would say for me the other biggest thing comes down to water clarity. I started with a hand-on filter, then moved to a small sump, now recently I've added a skimmer. For me it seems each step of the way the corals respond well to the cleaner water, but even so it's hard for me to keep up with it. So you need to keep phosphates up AND have clear water. Besides that its just a lot of the little things, keeping an eye on the levels. Alk/Ca is important for the hard corals but I think Duncans will tolerate various levels of Alk/Ca.

[1st reef]

On 2/4/2022 at 6:26 PM, W1ll said:

Just out of interest, what are your nitrate levels sitting at?

So, tested phosphates at 0.1-0.2 and nitrates still around 5ppm. Maybe I increased phosphates too quick? 

Do I test phosphates weekly and dose accordingly? 

[Jakesaw]

1 hour ago, 1st reef said:

So, tested phosphates at 0.1-0.2 and nitrates still around 5ppm. Maybe I increased phosphates too quick? 

Do I test phosphates weekly and dose accordingly? 

At that level, I'd test again in a week.  Remember - stability over chasing numbers.  No need to dose Phos unless / until the numbers come down.  When Phos start dipping below .desired level,, you can dose em back up a bit as needed.  Your tank will guide your dosing frequency / amount.

 

.03 is healthy level if you're at 5ppm Nitrate.  You're 3 - 6 times needed level.  I'd let iPhos come down naturally and start with a weekly test to see how those numbers holds up.  I'm guessing your tank will absorb some of it over time or via your scheduled water changes.  

[1st reef]

1 hour ago, Jakesaw said:

At that level, I'd test again in a week.  Remember - stability over chasing numbers.  No need to dose Phos unless / until the numbers come down.  When Phos start dipping below .desired level,, you can dose em back up a bit as needed.  Your tank will guide your dosing frequency / amount.

 

.03 is healthy level if you're at 5ppm Nitrate.  You're 3 - 6 times needed level.  I'd let iPhos come down naturally and start with a weekly test to see how those numbers holds up.  I'm guessing your tank will absorb some of it over time or via your scheduled water changes.  

Do I bother with water changes yet? 

[Jakesaw]

1 minute ago, 1st reef said:

Do I bother with water changes yet? 

Every tank is different ( feeding levels & types of food / biodiversity / Surface area / maturity / bioload / filtration methods / etc ).  Is water changing a part of your tank's routine. 

 

Personally, I settled on a 10-15 percent change weekly to keep things elements in water stable.  My tank gets fed frozen food pretty dirty at night and has no mechanical filtration.  Corals and fish feed off whatever floats around the water and light.  

 

I got rid of my DINO's just by raising Nitrate ( fish + Frozen foods ) & Phos ( supplement ) + time to let competing algae grow on surfaces.  Stopping / increasing water changes was not a factor for my tank.  

 

Your tank should target to getting Nitrate & Phos to settle at healthy levels, Find a routine that allows these to balance " over time ".  It may involve water changes - it may be just leaving things alone.  But testing Phos / Nitrate / Alk are guides to what your tank's needs are.

[1st reef]

1 hour ago, Jakesaw said:

At that level, I'd test again in a week.  Remember - stability over chasing numbers.  No need to dose Phos unless / until the numbers come down.  When Phos start dipping below .desired level,, you can dose em back up a bit as needed.  Your tank will guide your dosing frequency / amount.

 

.03 is healthy level if you're at 5ppm Nitrate.  You're 3 - 6 times needed level.  I'd let iPhos come down naturally and start with a weekly test to see how those numbers holds up.  I'm guessing your tank will absorb some of it over time or via your scheduled water changes.  

OK thanks for the pointers. 

[1st reef]

So everything seems to good. 

Corals coming back and dinos seem to be gone.  Hammer and mushroom taking longer but they seem better. 

[1st reef]

So, maintaining phosphates at 0.2 +/- moving forward is my goal?  If they ever drop to zero again, will dinos come back?