Help please... Stuck in an unbreakable cycle.

Gobi-Wan · Dec 15, 2021

Hello. My reef is about 3.5 years old and it's been about 1.5 years since i upgraded to a 125 gallon setup. Since then, i have not been able to control the aquarium at all and the understanding i once thought i had about nutrients and chemistry is seemingly meaningless now. My rock is 100% carpeted in gha and a small layer of ongoing dynoflagellate infestation. I can not raise my nutrients because the gha explodes, and i can not do a water change because the dinos explode. I don't know where to start but i'm really really sick of watching this thing get worse and worse. It's been a long time since i enjoyed watching the reef. Thanks in advance, sorry for not including many details but i'm so beaten by this stupid thing i just don't know where to start.

polyppal · Dec 15, 2021

How is the livestock doing? If it were me, if possible id prob look into peroxide dipping the algae infested rocks to start.

Awesome username btw

Lost in the Sauce · Dec 15, 2021

I can't seem to find him to tag him but Brandon's your guy. Get some more comfy. You're about to read.

Idech · Dec 15, 2021

I don’t know but it sucks and I hope someone can help.

polyppal · Dec 15, 2021

Lost in the Sauce said:
I can't seem to find him to tag him but Brandon's your guy. Get some more comfy. You're about to read.

LuizW13 · Dec 15, 2021

If your rocks aren’t too big, do a couple of water changes into a bucket and use that as a bath tub to scrub the algae off the rocks.
Then you can slowly raise your nutrients without fueling the algae, make sense?

in my opinion, I don’t think this is a cycle issue. You just have so much algae eating away at the nutrients that it caused dinos to appear. At least that’s how you made it sound.

Rocklefrag · Dec 15, 2021

Black Out Time maybe?

Gobi-Wan · Dec 15, 2021

zatch said:
How is the livestock doing? If it were me, if possible id prob look into peroxide dipping the algae infested rocks to start.

Awesome username btw

Thanks about the username

Fish are fine and healthy, corals have all basically died except the super hardy ones. I have large pieces of monti caps, and a buttload of green palys that are invincible of course. My anemone shrank a long time ago and has been living shrunken for many months. never seen anything like it but it doesn't do any other unhealthy anemone things like lose its grip... its just mini. I have had very low nutrients (nitrate / phosphate) for a long time. I did a water change last weekend to try to get some other salt mix nutrients in the water and the dinos took off.

Rocklefrag · Dec 15, 2021

Silly question but are you using 0 TDS RO water?

polyppal · Dec 15, 2021

Gobi-Wan said:
Thanks about the username Fish are fine and healthy, corals have all basically died except the super hardy ones. I have large pieces of monti caps, and a buttload of green palys that are invincible of course. My anemone shrank a long time ago and has been living shrunken for many months. never seen anything like it but it doesn't do any other unhealthy anemone things like lose its grip... its just mini. I have had very low nutrients (nitrate / phosphate) for a long time. I did a water change last weekend to try to get some other salt mix nutrients in the water and the dinos took off.

Yeah I would do peroxide dips on the rockwork, esp if your not super concerned with some paly loss (although ive seen them survive peroxide dipping no problem). The Monti caps prob can't take it though

Gobi-Wan · Dec 15, 2021

Lost in the Sauce said:
I can't seem to find him to tag him but Brandon's your guy. Get some more comfy. You're about to read.

you must mean @brandon429

Gobi-Wan · Dec 15, 2021

Rocklefrag said:
Silly question but are you using 0 TDS RO water?

Yes i do have a tds meter on the incoming and outgoing of the di resin, and i just this weekend replaced my sediment carbon and RO membrane thinking maybe that was becoming an issue. However the resulting water change just made the dinos kick up again

thesoulpatch · Dec 15, 2021

@brandon429 is your best bet. Love this guy

Gobi-Wan · Dec 15, 2021

I used to take the rocks out and scrub them in used water change water. I also did a combination of lights out and some chemical, i forget what, that killed the algae along with most of my corals and then the algae grew back. I just don't know how to keep enough nitrate and phosphate in the system to keep corals happy and prevent dinos, without it being sucked up by mats of gha. my tang and foxface are useless and for the most part i don't have any cleanup crew left except a few nassarius but i never thought cuc made much difference on the rocks. I guess that could be a place to start but i don't know why the anemone is remaining shrunken and i hesitate to add any more invertebrates. a week ago i did add a spotted sea hare which has been cruising the rocks every day but has done jack squat.

MnFish1 · Dec 15, 2021

@brandon429

LuizW13 · Dec 15, 2021

This is the thread you’ll ultimately get directed to.

How to unstick any seemingly stuck cycle

Updated Cycling Science in Action This is a testless reef tank cycling thread, the only one from any board. If you ever had trouble with reef tank cycling in the past, you won't any longer after working some jobs with us. chances are you are using/about to use a method of reef tank cycling...

www.reef2reef.com

MnFish1 · Dec 15, 2021

I think he is talking about a cycle of 'dinos' - as compared to a cycle itself (i.e. nitrates). To the OP - your parameters (whether you want to or not) - are somewhat important here - as is perhaps a picture, what lights you're using, etc etc)

DrZoidburg · Dec 15, 2021

Start by getting adequate cleanup crew. A lot of tanks have under amount.

Timfish · Dec 15, 2021

I'll be blunt, very blunt. DO WATER CHANGES. FEED YOUR SYSTEM. Yes, algae will get worse, initially. But to get to the point where corals grow even with higher nitrients than you have now and dinos dissapear even with more water changes than you're doing now you have to work through shifting the equilibrium of the system. I would hesitate to dip too much rock in H2O2, it will kill a lot of algae but ti will also kill beneficial sponges you need to process the DOC in your system. I would do primarily manual removal with very judicious use of H2O2 to limit any sponge loss. Be patient.

Here's two threads I did on the local forum where I used just manual removal and water changes to shift the equilibrium of systems over run with nuisance algae.

Hair Algae, A Case Study.

Nuisance algae in reef systems is pretty much a ubiquitous problem, and one that is a common source of frustration for reef aquarists. It is also one I've learned to view the problem very differently than what is generally portrayed and it just takes a few rather basic steps, and patience. (This ...

www.austinreefclub.com

Hair Algae, a second case study

Nuisance algae in reef systems is pretty much a ubiquitous problem, and one that is a common source of frustration for reef aquarists. It is also one I've learned to view the problem very differently than what is generally portrayed and it just takes a few rather basic steps, and patience. (This ...

www.austinreefclub.com

Gobi-Wan · Dec 15, 2021

MnFish1 said:
I think he is talking about a cycle of 'dinos' - as compared to a cycle itself (i.e. nitrates). To the OP - your parameters (whether you want to or not) - are somewhat important here - as is perhaps a picture, what lights you're using, etc etc)

Correct, the contents of the tank have essentially been established for years, i'm not cycling. What parameters? Without measuring i can tell you the nitrates will not be detectable on my old api kit and the hanna phosphate checker will say something between .001 and .005. do i need to get a better nitrate kit?