Help with a plan for tank stability!

[hannernanner]

My tank is a little over two months old now. It's looking rough. I'm getting discouraged. I'm pretty sure I have Dinos. They seem to recede into the sand when lights are off, get much worse when lights on. Also a had a handful of Cerith Snails come down from the rocks to the sand and die the same day. I also have a bunch of hair algae. At first, I thought "hey, green algae is better than the other stuff!" and I embraced it thinking it would outcompete the other stuff. Now it is out of control, and other stuff remains. Since I set the tank up I've been testing weekly if not more often. Nitrates have stayed under 5ppm (recently sinking to 1ppm) and phosphates have been less than .02ppm (recently down to .01). All other parameters have been stable and within the acceptable range. The only one swinging a bit is dKH and I test every other day and dose accordingly. Only livestock is a single clown, a Duncan and a toadstool. I've fought off two bacterial blooms with a UV sterilizer because I couldn't seem to get them to clear up by waiting it out (first one lasted a month, I knocked it back, it reappeared after a water change).

So, I've read the Dino thread and watched multiple videos. Water changes are on hold. I know I have to first get my nutrients up. I've ordered Brightwell stuff to do this so I'm not relying on heavy feeding. I'm confused, though, by the fact that I do have hair algae (and thus, must have levels of nitrate and phosphate that are more than I'm measuring). Do I raise my nutrients anyway? Is it unusual to have Dinos and hair algae at the same time? Will it get better? Tell me it gets better...

 

[PBnJOnWheat]

My tank is a little over two months old now. It's looking rough. I'm getting discouraged. I'm pretty sure I have Dinos. They seem to recede into the sand when lights are off, get much worse when lights on. Also a had a handful of Cerith Snails come down from the rocks to the sand and die the same day. I also have a bunch of hair algae. At first, I thought "hey, green algae is better than the other stuff!" and I embraced it thinking it would outcompete the other stuff. Now it is out of control, and other stuff remains. Since I set the tank up I've been testing weekly if not more often. Nitrates have stayed under 5ppm (recently sinking to 1ppm) and phosphates have been less than .02ppm (recently down to .01). All other parameters have been stable and within the acceptable range. The only one swinging a bit is dKH and I test every other day and dose accordingly. Only livestock is a single clown, a Duncan and a toadstool. I've fought off two bacterial blooms with a UV sterilizer because I couldn't seem to get them to clear up by waiting it out (first one lasted a month, I knocked it back, it reappeared after a water change).

So, I've read the Dino thread and watched multiple videos. Water changes are on hold. I know I have to first get my nutrients up. I've ordered Brightwell stuff to do this so I'm not relying on heavy feeding. I'm confused, though, by the fact that I do have hair algae (and thus, must have levels of nitrate and phosphate that are more than I'm measuring). Do I raise my nutrients anyway? Is it unusual to have Dinos and hair algae at the same time? Will it get better? Tell me it gets better...

To me, that all looks like dinos. When I had them they formed big clumps and started to hair up together like GHA. From my experience GHA is super green too, should be a noticeable difference in color. I’m not sure just my 2 ¢ but if thats the cade then id heavy feed, incrwase nutrients and it should go away.

I know after i fed heavily to rid of mine, you get other algae that springs up and outcompetes the dinos and starts to ramp up. thats why i like chaeto and i'd say it could help with both if you have both. hopefully that helps but after fighting for a while time will start to assist you in fighting off algae/bacteria whatever else.

 

[SPR1968]

You probably need to look at methods of nutrient export, in particular phosphate, 5 nitrate is fine you don’t want that low.

Its highly likely that the GHA is using phosphate as a food source and therefore giving a false low reading. Look into rowaphos / GFO to remove this or similar methods and a good target is less than 0.03.

I would also check your not over feeding

Its a new tank and although the pictures not clear they look like diatoms to me which may be considered normal In a young tank.

 

[Ippyroy]

I really like this guy. He gives a very detailed method of how he beat them.

 

[hannernanner]

You probably need to look at methods of nutrient export, in particular phosphate, 5 nitrate is fine you don’t want that low.

Its highly likely that the GHA is using phosphate as a food source and therefore giving a false low reading. Look into rowaphos / GFO to remove this or similar methods and a good target is less than 0.03.

I would also check your not over feeding

Its a new tank and although the pictures not clear they look like diatoms to me which may be considered normal In a young tank.

I'm only feeding the one fish, once a day so I don't think I'm overfeeding. I actually turned my skimmer off for a few days thinking it was contributing to the bottoming-out of my nutrients. Nitrate and Phosphate have both tested barely registering, as before, after 3 days of no skimming. I did have what I thought were diatoms earlier on, but my hunch is that this is something different because a) the snails died after trying to eat it and b) even though I have barely detectable nutrient levels it is not going away after about 3 weeks.

If the algae is giving a false low phos reading, how will I know what's actually going on in there? If I dose Nitrate and Phosphate to get those levels up, is there a reliable way to tell if my phos is actually bottomed-out or if the algae is taking it all up?

 

[hannernanner]

I really like this guy. He gives a very detailed method of how he beat them.

I love Inappropriate Reefer, and I've watched this video three times already! Definitely going to follow his strategy. I just hope there's a "the tank will stabilize and be less of an eyesore" light at the end of this tunnel...so far just letting it mature on it's own hasn't been working.

 

[SPR1968]

If the algae is giving a false low phos reading, how will I know what's actually going on in there? If I dose Nitrate and Phosphate to get those levels up, is there a reliable way to tell if my phos is actually bottomed-out or if the algae is taking it all up

If you dose phosphate you will know because it’s likely the GHA will get worse.

Also assuming your doing water changes, make sure your using 0 TDS RODI for the new saltwater.

 

[Ippyroy]

I love Inappropriate Reefer, and I've watched this video three times already! Definitely going to follow his strategy. I just hope there's a "the tank will stabilize and be less of an eyesore" light at the end of this tunnel...so far just letting it mature on it's own hasn't been working.

You can't let it mature on it's own. The one thing you need to do is test, test ,test. Track these test results in an app or something and you will begin to see trends. Don't overreact to any of the trends. You have dinos. You have to get rid of them. You have GHA. You need to find a way to control it. Nothing good happens fast, but only can cause something to happen. Whatever you need to correct in your husbandry practices to correct the tank, go ahead and do it. Just develop you plan of attack and give it time to work. If it doesn't work, just reassess. You can do it, but it will take time. Good Luck!