Tritie
Community Member
I have what I believe are dinos in my sand bed. I do not have a good microscope and could only get a video showing some movement.
Tank has been running since March 2022 and cycled all through that summer and fall. There was only 1 chromis living in it and I had no lighting. I started to actively get it ready for more fish and corals in Dec 2022. Nitrates were through the roof (200ppm) and phosphates were 0.00. Water changes did nothing to keep nitrates down. They were increasing by 5-7ppms per day. As per another R2R thread, I started dosing phos. It kept nitrates between 40-60 ppms, but I could not bring it lower without significant water changes, despite a refugium and protein skimmer. Carbon and phos dosing has allowed me to keep nitrates between 3.5 to 10 since October 8th. For the last three weeks, I've been between 6.8-8.7 ppms which I am comfortable with. I am currently dosing 0.07 ppm of phosphate 3x per day.
This morning the parameters were as follows:
Phos 0.02 (Hanna ULR - so very possible it was 0. I dosed 0.07ppm phos)
Nitrate 8.0 (Hanna HR)
Alk 9.2 (Red Sea)
Ca 450 (Red Sea)
pH 8 (Red Sea)
Over the last couple weeks I had cyano, which I was able to clean up. As I have had steady nitrates, I started dosing 2 drops of Coral Amino for about a week. As of today, I stopped as I read dinos love it. I have few corals in there along with 2 clowns, 1 basslet and a bangaii. I feed frozen 2x per day.
Tank has been running since March 2022 and cycled all through that summer and fall. There was only 1 chromis living in it and I had no lighting. I started to actively get it ready for more fish and corals in Dec 2022. Nitrates were through the roof (200ppm) and phosphates were 0.00. Water changes did nothing to keep nitrates down. They were increasing by 5-7ppms per day. As per another R2R thread, I started dosing phos. It kept nitrates between 40-60 ppms, but I could not bring it lower without significant water changes, despite a refugium and protein skimmer. Carbon and phos dosing has allowed me to keep nitrates between 3.5 to 10 since October 8th. For the last three weeks, I've been between 6.8-8.7 ppms which I am comfortable with. I am currently dosing 0.07 ppm of phosphate 3x per day.
This morning the parameters were as follows:
Phos 0.02 (Hanna ULR - so very possible it was 0. I dosed 0.07ppm phos)
Nitrate 8.0 (Hanna HR)
Alk 9.2 (Red Sea)
Ca 450 (Red Sea)
pH 8 (Red Sea)
Over the last couple weeks I had cyano, which I was able to clean up. As I have had steady nitrates, I started dosing 2 drops of Coral Amino for about a week. As of today, I stopped as I read dinos love it. I have few corals in there along with 2 clowns, 1 basslet and a bangaii. I feed frozen 2x per day.
