Guessing dinos, but check my logic.

[bevo5]

I've got a 5month old tank that is going through rounds of fine brown dusting on the sand/glass. I was chalking it up to diatoms, but it just wont quit and my RO is testing out at zero - so I started thinking dinos.

I tried to scoop some for a microscope test but it just turns into powder and floats away. So I tested everything and I'm getting about Nirates at about 2, and phosphates just not really showing up much at all....which is weird because they were showing up at about .08 two weeks ago and I've only added chemipure to the tank. My ALK is low (dunno why) so I've been dosing to get it up about 7.3 right now (up from 5ish a week ago).

Anyway - based on those readings I'm thinking it's probably dinos and I should maybe feed more? I've got a small bioload of just 6 fish for a 220g system.

Should I turn the skimmer off at night maybe? See if I can get the nitrates up around 5+ and maybe stuff clears up?

Thanks for checking my logic.

 

[dwest]

I've got a 5month old tank that is going through rounds of fine brown dusting on the sand/glass. I was chalking it up to diatoms, but it just wont quit and my RO is testing out at zero - so I started thinking dinos.

I tried to scoop some for a microscope test but it just turns into powder and floats away. So I tested everything and I'm getting about Nirates at about 2, and phosphates just not really showing up much at all....which is weird because they were showing up at about .08 two weeks ago and I've only added chemipure to the tank. My ALK is low (dunno why) so I've been dosing to get it up about 7.3 right now (up from 5ish a week ago).

Anyway - based on those readings I'm thinking it's probably dinos and I should maybe feed more? I've got a small bioload of just 6 fish for a 220g system.

Should I turn the skimmer off at night maybe? See if I can get the nitrates up around 5+ and maybe stuff clears up?

Thanks for checking my logic.

Some version of chemipure have gfo. Make sure yours doesn’t. I would try sampling again for the microscope. Just suck some goo up with a pipet and put a couple drops on the slide. If you are not intentionally removing phosphates with gfo, carbon dosing, or some other method you probably have enough. What phosphate test kit are you using?

To answer your question, you can feed more and turn off skimmer. Although you can also dose phosphates and we often see more success doing that.

 

[bevo5]

Hi, thanks.

I packed a big media reactor with carbon and chemi-pure, some purigen as well. So maybe that's what is doing it. All of those things were sitting in bags in my sump, but now they're in the reactor so maybe they're just being more effective at what they do.

I have a hannah phosphate checker but I just keep getting weird error messages, and the vials aren't turning any hint of color when mixed. I'm going to try again today but I thought maybe that was because levels were too low? Typing that out I realize Im probably way wrong about that.

 

[bevo5]

Ok I need to spend more time with this Hannah checker. I keep getting crazy stats. One will give me the inverted error then I’ll redo with the same vial (different one for the first phase) then I get a blinking .9. I don’t think my phosphates are above the readable range. I’ll try again here in a bit.

 

[ScottB]

Ok I need to spend more time with this Hannah checker. I keep getting crazy stats. One will give me the inverted error then I’ll redo with the same vial (different one for the first phase) then I get a blinking .9. I don’t think my phosphates are above the readable range. I’ll try again here in a bit.

Your cuvettes must be absolutely clean inside and out. Wear nitrile gloves to prevent smudges. Make sure you are following the directions properly. There are a few youtube vids with helpful pointers . I is annoyingly easy to perform these tests poorly.

 

[ScottB]

I've got a 5month old tank that is going through rounds of fine brown dusting on the sand/glass. I was chalking it up to diatoms, but it just wont quit and my RO is testing out at zero - so I started thinking dinos.

I tried to scoop some for a microscope test but it just turns into powder and floats away. So I tested everything and I'm getting about Nirates at about 2, and phosphates just not really showing up much at all....which is weird because they were showing up at about .08 two weeks ago and I've only added chemipure to the tank. My ALK is low (dunno why) so I've been dosing to get it up about 7.3 right now (up from 5ish a week ago).

Anyway - based on those readings I'm thinking it's probably dinos and I should maybe feed more? I've got a small bioload of just 6 fish for a 220g system.

Should I turn the skimmer off at night maybe? See if I can get the nitrates up around 5+ and maybe stuff clears up?

Thanks for checking my logic.

Whatever you have at 5 months simply does not matter. There is SO MUCH change taking place in there right now which is perfectly natural. The organisms in your biome are just taking their turns at being dominant. Bacterial film, film algae, brown algae, green algae, cyanobacteria, 12 other bacteria, dozens of microfauna species, and some dinos thrown in for good measure. My diatoms came/went for over a year. Maybe throw some pods in there.

Don't sweat ANY of it. Besides keeping your temp, salinity, and some measurable nutrient don't intervene. Let the process run.

 

[bevo5]

Whatever you have at 5 months simply does not matter. There is SO MUCH change taking place in there right now which is perfectly natural. The organisms in your biome are just taking their turns at being dominant. Bacterial film, film algae, brown algae, green algae, cyanobacteria, 12 other bacteria, dozens of microfauna species, and some dinos thrown in for good measure. My diatoms came/went for over a year. Maybe throw some pods in there.

Don't sweat ANY of it. Besides keeping your temp, salinity, and some measurable nutrient don't intervene. Let the process run.

Solid advice. Thanks. The natural reaction to any of this stuff is to try and fix it but yeah, probably best to just let it go for a bit.

I will clean the vials and try again with gloves on. What a pain!

 

[ScottB]

Solid advice. Thanks. The natural reaction to any of this stuff is to try and fix it but yeah, probably best to just let it go for a bit.

I will clean the vials and try again with gloves on. What a pain!

Yeah, I wish testing low level PO4 was easier. I also found that small scratches can make for noisy readings. In the last few years I've replaced mine 2-3 times already.

There will be plenty to fix over time. The great thing about your 220G volume is that it will dilute your inevitable mistakes to a generous degree. Is that a Waterbox tank?

 

[bevo5]

haha - yeah well, I've made PLENTY of mistakes so I'm glad to have that much volume for sure.

This is a custom build from a company up in Seattle that I think is gone. I've had it for four years and it's been a reef, a Malawi cichild tank, and now back to a reef. I made too many mistakes the first time around and everything crashed during a fallow period. So I'm trying to do things slower and more informed this time around.

Been slow going with fish QT and coral QT. Fish are taking me about 45 days to get in and the QT is only 30g, so I do 2 or 3 at a time. I'm keeping corals in another QT for 45 days as well, but at least I can keep adding stuff to that one. But it's just slow....which is easier on the wallet!

 

[dwest]

haha - yeah well, I've made PLENTY of mistakes so I'm glad to have that much volume for sure.

This is a custom build from a company up in Seattle that I think is gone. I've had it for four years and it's been a reef, a Malawi cichild tank, and now back to a reef. I made too many mistakes the first time around and everything crashed during a fallow period. So I'm trying to do things slower and more informed this time around.

Been slow going with fish QT and coral QT. Fish are taking me about 45 days to get in and the QT is only 30g, so I do 2 or 3 at a time. I'm keeping corals in another QT for 45 days as well, but at least I can keep adding stuff to that one. But it's just slow....which is easier on the wallet!

Good plan!

 

[bevo5]

Ok. So I tried again and polished that vial clean. I got a .10 on phosphate. Is that horrible? Nitrate tested again at maybe 2, probably less.

if there’s nothing crazy about that phosphate level I’ll just keep on keeping on and see how things shake out. If that’s super high I can try to handle it.
Thanks.

 

[dwest]

Ok. So I tried again and polished that vial clean. I got a .10 on phosphate. Is that horrible? Nitrate tested again at maybe 2, probably less.

if there’s nothing crazy about that phosphate level I’ll just keep on keeping on and see how things shake out. If that’s super high I can try to handle it.
Thanks.

Phosphates are fine.

 

[ScottB]

Ok. So I tried again and polished that vial clean. I got a .10 on phosphate. Is that horrible? Nitrate tested again at maybe 2, probably less.

if there’s nothing crazy about that phosphate level I’ll just keep on keeping on and see how things shake out. If that’s super high I can try to handle it.
Thanks.

That is about what I run on PO4 with no visible algae. If you have a ton of algae, you could run a bit cleaner.

 

[bevo5]

Awesome. Thanks all.

I have the brown dusting and I have to clean the walls every few days, but I'm not seeing a ton of algae on the rocks yet. I also have a pretty huge clean up crew because I wanted to get them all in and QT'd at once. I also have zero coralline growing, which I would like to get going. I've seeded it with some rocks but nothing yet. Calcium level at 450.

 

[ScottB]

Awesome. Thanks all.

I have the brown dusting and I have to clean the walls every few days, but I'm not seeing a ton of algae on the rocks yet. I also have a pretty huge clean up crew because I wanted to get them all in and QT'd at once. I also have zero coralline growing, which I would like to get going. I've seeded it with some rocks but nothing yet. Calcium level at 450.

As long as you are keeping the basic parameters stable, coralline is not far off. 6=8 months is pretty common, but can depend on a lot of things. Little pink dots on the glass are my most frequent "tell" that they are getting started.