GHA and Cyno Issues - Remediation Plan Feedback

[crabgrass]

Observing significant reduction in overall Algea accross the tank. Probably a combination of Scrub / Peroxide / Urchin. Posphates continue to spike at an alarming level @ 0.3 (from 0.19 and 0). I am attributing it to GHA/General Algea death in the tank.

I removed all carbon from tank earlier, however I have added some PhosGuard this AM. Skimmer is also running full blast.

 

[crabgrass]

Friday evening testing -
N - 17.2 (from 1.4 a week ago)
P - 0.14 (from 0.3 mid-week)

Assuming nitrates going up from algae decae (at least it’s not 0.1 like before and completely being consumed by GHA)

P dropped because of the Phosguard.

There are a few long strands of GHA left that need to be cleaned up. Rocks in general seem to have way less algae than before, although a a couple still are pretty green.

I re-introduced a few LPS a week or so ago, and plan on adding a few more next weekend.

I don’t plan on doing much for the NO, unless it gets into the 30-50 range, outside of adding Microbac7 daily. No idea if it’s doing anything (prob placebo), but the goal was to re-introduce good bacteria and maybe outcompete the next outbreak of something.

I stopped running NOPOX after the reef surgury and the elixers added earlier (Nitrates were at 0 anyway), and I wanted to eliminate variables. I also have room for chaeto and a light in the back, if we need to go that route.

 

[crabgrass]

Pictures (newest to oldest in september). The older ones were after a few rounds of hosing stuff up and water changes. The “really bad” ones were not documented out of embarrassment. But had 100% coverage in (long) GHA and Cyano.

 

[crabgrass]

Algae continue to die/decay (good). Numbers are out of whack, and obviously opening holes for next outbreak.

Wendesday update:

Friday evening testing -
N - 75 (from 17.2 four days ago)
P - 0.0 using Hanna HR (from 0.14 four days ago, and 0.3 a week ago

GFO Bottom'd out P. Major N spike

 

[crabgrass]

Also looks like Diatoms have now arrived.. which i sort of expected due to chemical warfare earlier and the free surface area available.

Regarding the 0 P (above), this was obviously caused by GFO added earlier (and maybe Diatoms consuming P). GFO is now removed, and will let the process start to work itself out.

 

[crabgrass]

Tested N again later on Wed to confirm 75+. GFO is out of the system. Did a couple of big water changes to try and drop the N down.

Stats as of 6 AM Friday:

N - 27 (from 75+ On Wednesday)
P - 0.0 using Hanna LR (same as Wednesday)

N isn't dropping w/o WC. Will attempt one more large WC to get N under 20.

My assumption is that I created a bottleneck by 0.0 P with GFO.

 

[Reefer911]

I would have held off on adding any corals. The tank is too new. Not sure how they’ll hold up to those parameter swings.

How did you cycle the tank?
Do you have plenty of bio media in the sump?

On my latest build I added coralline algae in a bottle very early on. Of course it takes months to show up but it contributes to the maturation process

Coralline Algae

Coralline Algae in a Bottle excelerates growth of colorful coralline algal crusts over your live rock. Choose between pinks with Pink Fusion®, purples with Purple Helix®, or get 2 bottles, one of each, with Pink and Purple! Unlike coralline "accelerators," Coralline Algae in a Bottle is a live...

www.algaebarn.com

 

[crabgrass]

I would have held off on adding any corals. The tank is too new. Not sure how they’ll hold up to those parameter swings.

How did you cycle the tank?
Do you have plenty of bio media in the sump?

On my latest build I added coralline algae in a bottle very early on. Of course it takes months to show up but it contributes to the maturation process

Coralline Algae

Coralline Algae in a Bottle excelerates growth of colorful coralline algal crusts over your live rock. Choose between pinks with Pink Fusion®, purples with Purple Helix®, or get 2 bottles, one of each, with Pink and Purple! Unlike coralline "accelerators," Coralline Algae in a Bottle is a live...

www.algaebarn.com

Tank is almost 18 months old. Parameters were stable (although I was not measuring with Hanna until this month), through Mar/April of this year. Then things got out of hand (lack of housekeeping, overfeeding, blah blah blah).

Cycling wise I used Red Sea Mature kit. That being said, after the first month of cyling, I did use Vibram on a weekly basis to fight the "ugly". I know this was bad, etc. This was before the Vibram being an algacide news became more widespread. I never had Ditoms, and assuming that is maybe why I am seeing this now.

I don't know if the Chemiclean (doubful), or the rip clean/peroxide dip maybe messed up the good bacteria on the rocks. In scanning the forums, it doesn't look like that is the case, but I really don't know

I think its more likely I am just dealing with alot of algea death. As P increased, I added GFO and bottomed out the P, and then created a major N/P imbalance.

As a side note, I did just add in some of that Coralline Agea stuff (plus a small live/mature rock) in to see if I can encourage Coralline.

Very open to thoughts/feedback. Thanks!

 

[Reefer911]

Wow. Honestly it looks like your tank is about three months old, going by the looks of your rock.

 

[crabgrass]

Wow. Honestly it looks like your tank is about three months old, going by the looks of your rock.

Yep. I had bits of Coralline last year, but it never took over. Not sure if it was a water quality issue, or lighting problem. I have tuned my lighting over the last month based I hope. Regardless, GHA/Cyano earlier this year smothered it out.

 

[crabgrass]

I know I am chasing numbers/way over testing at this point, but also want to document what I did.

My assumption at this point is death and decay after the elixers + rip clean spiked my phoshates and Nitrates (I wasn't able to export as much as was dying-off). I may have been somewhat P bound to begin with, but spike made me over-rotate and add GFO which really made me Phosphate bound and spiked the N even higher.

I am user the Hanna LR (not ULR), so there is +/- 0.4 accuracy and I may not currently be at zero. I suspect with GFO i was definitely at 0.

I am going to add a small amount of phosphate and test P daily until I see a decimal show up on the Hanna test for a few days.

	N	P	Action
15-Sep​	5.6	0	Chemiclean
17-Sep​	0	0	Rip Clean + 90% WC
18-Sep​	0.1	0	Added Carbon (smell was horrendous)
23-Sep​	1.4	0.19
27-Sep​	?	0.3	Added GFO
29-Sep​	17.2	0.14
4-Oct​	75	0	Removed GFO; N Tested repeatedly on 10/4 and 10/5 at reported to be 75+
6-Oct​	27	0	Multiple Water Changes
7-Oct​	5.6	0	Added Phosphate on 10/6

From late August - Sep 15, I did not test parameters. However was doing EOD Water changes, manual removal of GHA and Cyano + Dosing Clean/Razor. My assumption would be that the N/P would have reported near zero during that duration due to the algea consuming all of it.

 

[crabgrass]

I’ve been doing some experiments with adding Phosphates to the tank.

I have been able to add enough phosphate to raise levels to 0.07 - .1 30-60 minutes after applying. However after 4 hours levels are back to 0. So absolutely phosphate bound at this point. Would the GFO extracted phosphates bound in the rock? Tank has been running for 18 months, and I would be surprised if the rocks were not saturated at this point.

Nitrate levels have incrementally increased by 2-3 every day. I am backup to 18.

I am going to try and dose phosphates 4x a day (getting it to 0.1 immediately after the test). I will stop/slow down once I can sustain something to 0.05 after 24 hours.

 

[crabgrass]

Friday updates. Dosed phosphates at least 1-2x a day (based on measurements).

• If it is .08 - .1 in the AM I skip the Phos dosing.
• If 0.0, i will dose to get to .08 - .1 and re-test 12 hours later

Started adding 1/2 dose of Reef Energy daily. Nitrates are dropping at 2ppm a day. Phosphates are erradic at this point.

	N	P	ALK	Action
6-Oct​	27	0	8.7	Multiple Water Changes
7-Oct​	5.6	0	-	Phosphates + Reef Energy
8-Oct​	11	0	-	Phosphates + Reef Energy
9-Oct​	14.6	0.07	-	Phosphates + Reef Energy
10-Oct​	17.8	0		x2 Phosphates + Reef Energy
11-Oct​	17	0.08		Reef Energy
12-Oct​	14	0		Phosphates + Reef Energy + Reefroids
13-Oct​	12.2	0.14

Todays Phos readings are likely from the Reef roids spike. As it starts to level out, i will either decrease or stop adding P all together.

 

[crabgrass]

Also, I got a nasty case of Diatoms. I am assuming this is from P bottoming out earlier for 6-8 weeks + removing the all of the other surface algae (Cyano + GHA).

I never got Diatoms after cycling (as I said earlier) probably due to adding Viabrant in the early stages. So this maybe just a delayed reaction as others have noted.

I am adding some Copods to the tank to increase diversity, but otherwise am going to let the Diatoms ride itself out (keep adding P until things stabilize and some small WC to clean up junk on bottom of the tank).

 

[crabgrass]

Diatoms got crazy. I am assuming the P was just feeding them.

Stopped adding P yesterday, and going el-natural. 1/3 of them died overnight.

I am going to stop looking at number daily numbers for a week or two.

Learning Reef Science is fun

 

[crabgrass]

Rocks are 75% clean after 48 hours of not dosing P. Filter pads are filthy (changing every day), and skimmer cup if filling up with brown stuff.

I tested N @ 7.5 today. I didn't bother testing P, because it will be 0 at this point. My assumption my P and N will start spiking after some of the Diatoms organic matter decomposes.

Will try and do some small WC to clean stuff up, but not drastically throw off parameters more than I have.

 

[crabgrass]

Rocks are again spotless (outside of a little neon green algae) after a week of stopping P.

Nitrates - 1.1
Phosphates - 0

Skimmer is still full of junk and filter pads are full of dead diatoms.

I did do 2x 15% WC this week to siphon out diatom debree, so I think that is why the N is so low.

I am afraid of dosing P, as it had a direct correlation to diatom outbreak. Knowing that I am using a LR Phostate tester (and not ULR), P may not be 0.

My approach will be to feed heavier, do a 10% WC weekly and let nature work itself out.

 

[kevgib67]

You don’t want to have phosphate at zero you are putting a welcome mat out for dinos. Diatoms feed on silicates, that’s why they are self limiting. Once there are no more silicates there are no more diatoms.

 

[crabgrass]

You don’t want to have phosphate at zero you are putting a welcome mat out for dinos. Diatoms feed on silicates, that’s why they are self limiting. Once there are no more silicates there are no more diatoms.

So should i just attempt to continue to slowly add P back in? There was definitely a correlation between adding the P and Diatoms. Its possible they are erradicated now, assuming silicates are gone.

 

[kevgib67]

Yes you should get your phosphates up to.03- .1. I keep mine at the higher end. Your diatoms are depleted, you won’t see them again unless you add silicates.