DInos are back after waterchange

[Shawn4455]

So I beat DInos after reducing lighting and added some macro algae and got my tank super dirty, got it all cleaned up, all my corals and anenome etc became happy, everything was thriving so well. I attributed my initial outbreak from having low nutrients (I have 2 clowns in a 60 gallon tank) Now I have 2 clowns and two other fish a shrimp, sunny Ds, 2 anenomes and a bubble coral. I started doing water changes, I do a water change weekly about 5 gallons. Ive done 2 water changes with RODI water and now they are back again after the second water change, I noticed my macro algae started to die off so now im back here. Does this sound like a low nutrient system causing this? due to my macro algae dying after I did water changes etc im attributing it to this and im worried to do anything. I am downgrading to a 25 gallon tank soon so im trying to keep this tank alive and free of issues until I get it plumbed etc.

 

[ahiggins]

IMO dinos only show up when phos (no so much nitrates) hits zero. I beat it with adding a uv filter and dosing phosphates. Then I had hair algae. Which is seems you went through that already (getting them up again).
so that’s my bet-you bottomed out on phos. What do you feed? I have a hard time keeping my phos up unless I feed “dirty” food. Calanus and mysis usually do it for me-not draining the water it was frozen in

 

[Shawn4455]

I feed pellets most of the time and cleaned mysis every now and again. Should I start feeding heavily again?

 

[ahiggins]

If you’re struggling with dinos now, heavy feeding will only take time to increase nutrients. I use monoammonium phosphate for planted tanks to dose. That and a uv filter completely irradiated them. The heavy/dirty feeding is how I maintain phos

 

[BeejReef]

What are you testing phosphate with?
How long are you lighting your fuge?

Guessing, but I'd wager that when you discover why your chaeto is dying, you'll have taken a big step towards beating back the dinos again.

 

[Shawn4455]

What are you testing phosphate with?
How long are you lighting your fuge?

Guessing, but I'd wager that when you discover why your chaeto is dying, you'll have taken a big step towards beating back the dinos again.

I was lighting my fuge with a red light on the opposite times of my regular lights and I was using a LFS to test my phosphates. It has been zero for a while. I'm wondering if I should add another fish or dose phosphates and nitrates

 

[ahiggins]

I would dose phos for sure. Rarely do I dose nitrates, if ever. I decided to leave a sponge in the bottom of my sump and it keeps my nitrates up around 5ish

 

[Shawn4455]

So these are my parameters, I started to feed heavily with mysis and pellets and my Phos went up but my nitrates are 0... should I just keep feeding or should I dose? Should I add more fish?

 

[Shawn4455]

I would dose phos for sure. Rarely do I dose nitrates, if ever. I decided to leave a sponge in the bottom of my sump and it keeps my nitrates up around 5ish

Just got my water test done, thoughts?

 

[ahiggins]

Do you currently have hair algae in any notable amount? Or just specs of it. If it’s a big amount, they can strip phos and nitrates but doubtful if it’s super small amount. If you have a ton of hair algae, I wouldn’t dose. I would work on removing the physical algae you can get to (ie pull it) and keep your feeding the same. If you don’t have algae then yes I would dose.
mid their phos in ppm or ppb? Usually I aim for 30 ppb or roughly 0.3 ppm. Same advice as with nitrates.

 

[Shawn4455]

Do you currently have hair algae in any notable amount? Or just specs of it. If it’s a big amount, they can strip phos and nitrates but doubtful if it’s super small amount. If you have a ton of hair algae, I wouldn’t dose. I would work on removing the physical algae you can get to (ie pull it) and keep your feeding the same. If you don’t have algae then yes I would dose.
mid their phos in ppm or ppb? Usually I aim for 30 ppb or roughly 0.3 ppm. Same advice as with nitrates.

its PPM, and I don't see any hair algae, just a few (not a lot) of bubble algae. My dinos are still hanging out right now. My nems and coral are kinda reclused for the past few days. I do have some sea lettuce in sump, should I remove that?