Dinos!!!!!!!!!

[saltyfilmfolks]

Thank was setup in May

agreed with jsker. its a big fat ugly phase. check the major params.

bio is bio, theres different methods

But, im on a lil different approach, id bombard that thing with good diverse bacteria, mb7 AND dr t or you fav brand,(it will reduce Po, No to, what a pellet reactor does too), and air, check the skimmer outside air n stuff. look at a poly pad for the po and no(its a gfo basically) or GFO, and itll pull some of nitrate out too and silicate as well in a slightly higher flow area.. run carbon in a high flow area or reactor too.
im a big refugium guy. think about macros.
try to out compete the yuck for the food it needs.

a lot to swallow i know but keep in mind make those additions slowly. you dont want to strip the water too hard of nutrients or the corals will suffer. Mine hate it, i dont use it.

I had a major clean up too, and I became a fan of the $60 canister, ran carbon and floss and sponje. I break it out still when I aqua scape clean big or just make a general mess. you can put gfo in too, I dont use it but still have a bottle.
somewhere, I think.

 

[jsker]

Should I be running biopellets ?
No corals and 2 fish. I have a reactor and pellets but waiting for a few months to add it on.

I'm testing now

Members run different types of carbon dosing, I seem that you have everything to run bio pellets, so yes run them. Start with a quarter of what they say on the bio pellet package. I am only running a third of the recommended dose and I have my nitrates at 4 ppm which is good. I would like to keep mine at between 3 to 5 ppm but like yourself I am not chasing after numbers, that will only make you more frustrated. Go by the look of you tank and your tests. Once you know what your ideal look is and test are, then you will not have to test as often, but still test just to make sure.

 

[ecam]

Nitrates - salifert. Between .5 and 1 ppm
Phos .04 - Hanna low phosphate unit.

 

[ecam]

Hmmmm mainly trying to help this thread get some traction here but ill throw in my ideas as well. Could there be something in the water that you are using to do changes that is causing the outbreaks? Silicates ect? I dont quite remember if its dinos that consume silicates or some other pesky critter.

Anywho these guys can help...... #reefsquad awayyyy!

Thanks for the help on this !!!!

 

[ecam]

With these lower numbers. Should I still add biopellets ?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

With these lower numbers. Should I still add biopellets ?

My vote.
Id get the no and po down first. a good cleaning detritus, refugium etc, and dare I say it a gfo(esp for poss nef silicates) or nitrate reducer, poly pad etc same thing, SLOWLY.
And get a diverse bacterial population established first to starve the suckers out. then start on the pellets.
But Im not a pellet guy.
@jsker you turn.

both will take the same amount of time IMO.

 

[ecam]

Nitrates - salifert. Between .5 and 1 ppm
Phos .04 - Hanna low phosphate unit.

Are these number considered high ?

Or should be aiming for zero

I have no coral in the tank. So I can be as aggressive as possible. All corals removed before second blackout

 

[miyags]

If you have dinos, they will be on all the coral you removed,So if you eradicated them in display tank. You will reinfest it adding your coral back in.

 

[ecam]

If you have dinos, they will be on all the coral you removed,So if you eradicated them in display tank. You will reinfest it adding your coral back in.

I pulled all plugs off and dipped coral in Bayer and peroxide. So far the frag tank has shown no signs (knock on wood)

 

[jsker]

@saltyfilmfolks

were are you at on this chart?
Your phosphates are high, but not to high. The norm is .02 or below with a trace. My concern is the nitrates, though it will not kill anything, algae will grow like crazy and the nitrates should be a 2 to 5 with the Salifert test.

I did try Red sea NoPo X but did not like how my tank looked. The tank looked gray and not alive, I tried the H2O2 and that burnt my corals and really did not work well. There is also chem pure which I did not try and there are a few more options, so I went with the Bio Pellets and that worked for my situation. I actually run Aquaforest products in my system and auto dose Np Pro and now dose Pro Bio S and seeing if I can take the Bio Pellet line. When I first start using the Bio Pellets most were not familiar with using bio pellets. Bio pellets are plastic beads that spin at a low tumble. The low tumble creates bactria which eats nitrates. Using to much will strip the system of nutrients and that is not good, that is why the recommendation of starting with a quarter dose. It takes two weeks for the bactria to establish then after that one will start seeing results with dropping nitrates.

 

[ecam]

With the salifert. I'm at 5 to 10. On the low side.
So I inverted to look from the side and divide that by 10. Yielding .5 or 1 ppm.

 

[twilliard]

This would need to be identified.
guessing at this will just lead to unnecessary changes to the tank.
One should know what they are dealing with in order to make the best plan of attack.
My first impression is a bacteria due to the localized center frag (which was the import mechanism)
If this were dinoflagellates there would be more of a wide spread look as they travel through the night. (protozoan)

 

[ecam]

i just zoomed in on that... but the entire tank was covered