Getting ready to go dark....

[reeftasticllc]

The first thing to do is check for Phosphate as algae loves it. If you don't have phosphate, check your calcium and magnesium levels. We worked on a tank that had a severe hair algae outbreak. The phosphates and nitrates were both 0. We found that the calcium, alkalinity and magnesium were all really low. The calcium was at 280, magnesium was at 990, and DKH was at 8. We found that once we brought these parameters back up along with a blackout period, the algae disappeared. We call it death by calcium!! We brought the calcium level up to 450, magnesium to 1300, and DKH up to 10. The tank is running great now.

 

[Mike2112]

I have used a blackout period when I was fighting red cycno and it did help, I also stopped the water changes and just filtered the water through a filter sock when I did my weekly clean. This help to reduce the cyno and I resumed the water changes after a month of just filtering. I made sure the Nitrates were good (about 10 ppm was the peak - fairly steady at 5 ppm) and the phosphate was at 0. Since I am still running my tank as a FOWLR I do not does calc but I do track it and it has been sitting at 380 ppm through the entire process. The cycno is gone, but I am dealing with green hair algea at the moment, again rinse and repeat on the vaccum of the sand and rock and decrease back to once per month on the water change. I now have red coralline algea on the rock and I want to keep it going so I am stearing away from lights out. I am learning the slow and steady is the way to go...at least I can grow algea in the tank and my 3 fish dont mind it.

 

[akitareefer]

I haven't read anything about your phosphate levels, sorry if I misread and they are posted. What are your phosphate levels of your ro/di before mixing the salt? I've never even concidered black out personally and I think there are better methods. IMO black out doesn't get to the root of the issue but I'm not an expert, just a few solid years of experience. My routine for any sort of bloom is checking all parameters and making sure my tests are still good. After all testing I make sure the alk and mag are raised. Clean and check all pumps. Then I do manual removal with toothbrushes, get everything off the surfaces. Then I vacuum into the sock like you did. Then I check for debris in sump and corners and suck all that bad water out into the backyard. Then I put fresh 20% water change. I check for dead spots, remove anything on the verge of death and maintain good flow. Let things sit. If it doesn't improve I'd concider vodka dosing. At this point you can also vodka dose yourself

 

[reeftasticllc]

Hi Mike, Have you checked your calcium, DKH and magnesium levels? It doesnt matter if you have a FOWLR or reef tank, theses elements still exist in both. When you have a reef tank, it is just that more important to monitor those particular parameters. Try bringing your calcium up to 450 and get your magnesium around 1200-1300. Dkh should be around 10-12. Remember, when you do water changes, your are not only removing dirty water and replacing it with clean water, you are replenishing the elements such as calcium and magnesium as well. You might want to look at getting some turbo snails etc.

 

[Dalmatia]

It should be fine, if anything they'll be happy

 

[clownfitch]

72 hrs and h202 wont stop it. Dinos are like herpes they come and go when they please, and they are god awful ugly when the come. Once they are in a tank they will most likely never leave. When you think they are gone they are only dormant and will present themselves when they please.

Best tip I got for ya is dont do water changes, or add trace elements. Just wait it out, and accept that they are going to continually keep showing up

The 72 hr blackout will look promising, but a week - a month later your hopes and dreams that the dinos are gone will be crushed.

my .02

+1 and if you have coral some of all of it will not like the 72 hours of lights out. I did the lights out a couple of months ago and some coral has still not bounced back from it. Wish I had not done it.

 

[ShawnSaucier]

I haven't read anything about your phosphate levels, sorry if I misread and they are posted. What are your phosphate levels of your ro/di before mixing the salt? I've never even concidered black out personally and I think there are better methods. IMO black out doesn't get to the root of the issue but I'm not an expert, just a few solid years of experience. My routine for any sort of bloom is checking all parameters and making sure my tests are still good. After all testing I make sure the alk and mag are raised. Clean and check all pumps. Then I do manual removal with toothbrushes, get everything off the surfaces. Then I vacuum into the sock like you did. Then I check for debris in sump and corners and suck all that bad water out into the backyard. Then I put fresh 20% water change. I check for dead spots, remove anything on the verge of death and maintain good flow. Let things sit. If it doesn't improve I'd concider vodka dosing. At this point you can also vodka dose yourself

I was getting a 0 due to the algae

 

[ShawnSaucier]

Just woke up to see the tank, it's looking much better though the lights are still ramping up. Today I'll have all LED and T5 running at 30% and will slowly boost this each day until I'm back to 100%. At this point, the sand and rocks look clear of Dino's, though is hard to tell with only the deep blue lights on currently. I still have 5 more days of H2O2 dosing to complete. I'll test my parameters today and also once I am done with the H2O2 I will take the added airs tone in my sump off line. Finally, I will still refrain from adding newly mixed salt water, I will vacuum the sand using the sock method and return the water back to the tank, hoping to avoid a cyano outbreak.
When I originally started planning this tank I had toyed with the idea of fresh dry rock, this time doing an acid bath. But after some heavy discussion on budget, and also having some great growth on the old rock, we decided to keep the rock from the old tank. I'm not sure where things have gone wrong but some thoughts have been the sand having large amounts of silicates, and the rock still possibly leeching after two years of use. I love the idea of starting a tank with dry rock, but I feel that you are still missing some bio-diversity in your Eco system. If I was to start over again, I would try to balance the dry/live ratio. And really spend time to clean the dry rock properly. But this is just my thoughts.
I still have a large battle ahead of me as far as bryopsis, red wire hair, GH and what ever else might pop up. Until then, I'll keep testing , cleaning and hoping. Will post as results continue

 

[ShawnSaucier]

So we are 5 days after the lights out and dose # 8 with the H2O2. The tank is looking much better. Lights are currently at 50% (both LEDs and T5s). I have done one "waterchange" without changing and water. Basically vacuumed through the sand and ran it throughout a filter sock. It really picked out a lot of crap. I will continue doing this once or twice a week for the next month. I'm hoping to starve out the algae.
With those of you that have dosed H2O2 in the past, do you still dose a maintenance amount? How much and how often?

 

[ShawnSaucier]

So I am 5 days since I've ended my H2O2 treatment and 10 days from doing 72hrs of darkness. Lights -T5@70% LEDs@50%.
Dino's have returned all over the sand and rocks. It's not long and stringy, just all rusty brown at this point. Not sure what to do next. Currently I am changing filter pads, socks every couple of days, GFO has been removed and I'm running carbon in a bag. I am still dosing Phosphate-E 3 times a week 50% dose. I've changed all of the filters on my RO/DI system, just in case the TDS meters were wrong. Three days ago I vacuumed the sand, which seemed to have strengthened the return, I think. Skimmer is running really wet at this point to.
Not sure where to go from here, both with the bryopsis and dinos. I have an order of pods, hopefully showing up this week. I really don't want to start over with the rock/system. Any help please

 

[ShawnSaucier]

I hate to say it, I've had enough. 130lbs of new haitian live rock now curing in the garage. I'm going to let this cure for a month in a stock tank, will be cleaning it regularly over that time. Once the change is done, muratic acid and then I'll cook the old rock for a few months. I'm not really sure how this got out of control. I'm hoping with restarting the tank with live rock may help the biological end of things. Pods will be added to the fuge and to the curing rocks, a small amount to the current display.

 

[Wbrian]

Gonna change out your sand bed, too?