Fostering Fillory - Mixed Reef - IM 25g

[MONTANTK]

Are you sure it’s cyano and not Dinos? Either way I would continue at least dosing phyto and feeding (if you’re talking about fish). It took about a week and a half of dosing phyto before I noticed a difference but once I did everything moved pretty quick

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Are you sure it’s cyano and not Dinos? Either way I would continue at least dosing phyto and feeding (if you’re talking about fish). It took about a week and a half of dosing phyto before I noticed a difference but once I did everything moved pretty quick

Yeah I've had cyano in the past and I'm pretty sure that's what it is. It's red/purple, not brown and it doesn't hold any air bubbles etc.

The break from phyto/AA was because of the AA "overdose" - I was afraid something was going to have a poor reaction to the AA

 

[MONTANTK]

Yeah I've had cyano in the past and I'm pretty sure that's what it is. It's red/purple, not brown and it doesn't hold any air bubbles etc.

The break from phyto/AA was because of the AA "overdose" - I was afraid something was going to have a poor reaction to the AA

Ah okay, it was hard to tell from the pics. Since it’s cyano, and AA were overdosed I’d definitely continue with the phyto. The phyto will bring down those extra nutrients and eventually outcompete the cyano

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Tested this morning - 0.00 phosphate and 0.2 nitrate. I dosed another .5ml of nitrate solution, started back on phyto and Target fed the Corals reef chili this morning.

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Here are some pictures of the Corals and cyano.

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Things went downhill pretty quickly once I started dosing Nitrate. Phosphate bottomed out, and cyano came in hard.

I don't see a way to get around nitrate and phosphate dosing...
1) The skimmer is set extremely dry
2) The refugium is set to 2hours/day [and not really growing at this point]
3) Only one small pack of Chemipure blue in the filter compartments
4) Changing filter floss ever 5-ish days [it's nasty, but trying to keep nutrients up]
5) Feeding phyto, amino acids, 2x daily pellets/flakes and copious amounts of frozen w/ Reef Chili
6) 4 fish in my 25 gallon

Anyways - Most of the SPS are dead [white] and I'm having to blow cyano off of the remaining corals 2x+ per day [fine in the morning, then I go to work - 8ish hours later I blow them off, then after dinner time I blow them off again].

Thanks for following! I'll keep things updated. At this point I may try chemiclean [never used it before]. My first plan of action is just to try to get nutrient levels up via other methods.

I'm wondering if removing the MarinePure spheres might help nitrate rise?

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Are you sure it’s cyano and not Dinos? Either way I would continue at least dosing phyto and feeding (if you’re talking about fish). It took about a week and a half of dosing phyto before I noticed a difference but once I did everything moved pretty quick

Read through a few other threads, and I'm starting to wonder if it might actually be dinos and not Cyano...

 

[Mjl714]

Here's a short video of the tank.

I'm going to probably be adding another cleaner shrimp as the eggs are appealing to me.

Also, I'm missing my skimmer cap, so I'm debating what to do about that, as I originally intended to run a CO2 scrubber. The problem now is that I'm running kalk and I don't have a pH monitor, so I'm a little worried about too high of pH.

In michigan I had a lot of success running a CO2 scrubber.

I found someone semi-locally that I'm going to trade my fluval 13.5 for his Nero 5 pump on Saturday, so I'll have the MP10 on one side, the Nero 5 on the other, and the Jebao going across the back side of the rock. Overall a LOT of flow...

Future plans:

Build a hood for the tank
Build shelving/storage in the stand
Add second 150w MH fixture
Add some blue LED strips
Upgrade current bulb to phoenix 14k
Add CO2 scrubber
Buy 5 gallon trigger systems ATO container

I think you’ll find the cleaner shrimp don’t lay eggs they release free swimming very small young.

 

[MONTANTK]

Read through a few other threads, and I'm starting to wonder if it might actually be dinos and not Cyano...

It kind of looks like Dinos to me. Cyano would be brighter red and look like a thick mat. Dinos are brown, thin and stringy

 

[Reef of Fillory]

It kind of looks like Dinos to me. Cyano would be brighter red and look like a thick mat. Dinos are brown, thin and stringy

I took some more pictures

 

[MONTANTK]

I took some more pictures

That looks like both honestly. In the sand on the right side you definitely have cyano. It looks like you have Dinos on the rocks. I’d definitely keep dosing phyto and also consider temporarily adding GFO

 

[Reef of Fillory]

That looks like both honestly. In the sand on the right side you definitely have cyano. It looks like you have Dinos on the rocks. I’d definitely keep dosing phyto and also consider temporarily adding GFO

Yeah problem is i've had zero nutrients for a couple of weeks and my intention was to raise them. If I add back in my export methods, won't it just bring me right back to where I was before [and was trying to move away from]?

Any suggestions on how to balance keeping the corals from dying/fading from too low of nutrients while avoiding the dinos/cyano?

I did "baste" the sand and rocks, pulled some of the dinos/cyano out [physically] and I have a 20% water change mixing up overnight. I also added back in a small bag of Chemipure Blue.

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Better pics - definitely two different things. The Corals are pretty much all dead aside from a few euphylia.

 

[MONTANTK]

Yeah problem is i've had zero nutrients for a couple of weeks and my intention was to raise them. If I add back in my export methods, won't it just bring me right back to where I was before [and was trying to move away from]?

Any suggestions on how to balance keeping the corals from dying/fading from too low of nutrients while avoiding the dinos/cyano?

I did "baste" the sand and rocks, pulled some of the dinos/cyano out [physically] and I have a 20% water change mixing up overnight. I also added back in a small bag of Chemipure Blue.

The reason you have both is because the cyano is consuming most of the Po4 in the tank thus keeping nutrients low and out competing the corals which allows the Dinos to grow. If you lower Po4 with some kind of phosphate absorber you will at least get rid of the cyano. It’s best to use a microscope to identify Dinos but if you continue to dose phyto that may get rid of them. I suspect the same thing happened to your tank as it did to mine. Likely not enough bacteria build up which made it easy for the bacteria to take over

 

[Reef of Fillory]

The reason you have both is because the cyano is consuming most of the Po4 in the tank thus keeping nutrients low and out competing the corals which allows the Dinos to grow. If you lower Po4 with some kind of phosphate absorber you will at least get rid of the cyano. It’s best to use a microscope to identify Dinos but if you continue to dose phyto that may get rid of them. I suspect the same thing happened to your tank as it did to mine. Likely not enough bacteria build up which made it easy for the bacteria to take over

Any thoughts on if adding some Dr Tims or MB7 might help in the recovery?

 

[MONTANTK]

Any thoughts on if adding some Dr Tims or MB7 might help in the recovery?

It’s been recommended to me quite a bit but I have never used it because phyto started working. I believe both require a skimmer or airstone

 

[Reef of Fillory]

It’s been recommended to me quite a bit but I have never used it because phyto started working. I believe both require a skimmer or airstone

I do run a skimmer, so I think that would be fine. I have one more dose of phyto left, so i'll need to get to a LFS soon to get more!

 

[MONTANTK]

I do run a skimmer, so I think that would be fine. I have one more dose of phyto left, so i'll need to get to a LFS soon to get more!

Have you tried algaebarn? I’m still on my first bottle and I’m very impressed with it!

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Have you tried algaebarn? I’m still on my first bottle and I’m very impressed with it!

I bought what I have at the LFS just because I wasn't sure about getting it shipped with the Florida heat [and paying for shipping as well].


I might have to compare pricing per oz, etc. to see if maybe it does make sense to buy online!

 

[MONTANTK]

I bought what I have at the LFS just because I wasn't sure about getting it shipped with the Florida heat [and paying for shipping as well].


I might have to compare pricing per oz, etc. to see if maybe it does make sense to buy online!

I don’t have phyto availability near me so it made sense for me. They offer a subscription service so you get it a little cheaper. Shipping is a killer though