I tanked my Phosphates with Microbacter Clean.. Do I have Dino's now?

[Voodoo288]

So I'm right in the ugly phase with my 3 month old Biocube 32g. I've been fighting back my hair algae with Microbacter Clean for about 3 weeks now. I just realized you don't really want Nitrates and Phosphates to actually hit 0 (definitely a newbie mistake). Currently sitting at 10PPM Nitrates and 0 on a Hanna Phosphorus ULR, don't think you can go lower than that haha.

I need help identifying if this is the start of Dino's or am I misidentifying hair algae or cyano

 

[gideon2086]

This looks like Dinos. Slowly bring your po4 and no3 up.

 

[Kai K]

+1 on raising PO4.
When your PO4 is up and balanced with your NO3, boost your bacteria, pods and phyto as much as possible and outcompete the dino's.

Your tank is only a couple of months old, so this type of imbalance is not out of the ordinary and will probably happen a few more times as your tank slowly swings towards an equilibrium. It's just a matter of recognizing the signs early on and taking long term measures.

 

[Voodoo288]

+1 on raising PO4.
When your PO4 is up and balanced with your NO3, boost your bacteria, pods and phyto as much as possible and outcompete the dino's.

Your tank is only a couple of months old, so this type of imbalance is not out of the ordinary and will probably happen a few more times as your tank slowly swings towards an equilibrium. It's just a matter of recognizing the signs early on and taking long term measures.

Should I dose Microbacter7 again and boost it that way?

 

[gideon2086]

I would not dose bacteria. It will result in the opposite of what you're looking to do here and bring your levels back down. Phyto and pods will potentially help though.

 

[Waters]

Your tank is only 3 months old....I wouldn't dose anything to try and combat algae. Just needs to mature and balance out.

 

[zuri]

yuppers if you really had 0 phos you would be phosphate bound no nitrates

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Looks like cyano
D

 

[DCN01]

Should I dose Microbacter7 again and boost it that way?

I use microbacter 7 & phytoplankton to out compete cyano and dino, worked for me after 2 weeks with recommend dosing every days.

 

[SPR1968]

If you have GHA is probably caused by raised phosphate levels and as its used up you will get a zero test reading

So if you want an hair algae garden just keep adding phosphate If not look into phosphate removal methods or more frequent water changes

You dont need to dose anything all you have to do is maintain water quality and parameters thats it.

oh and just noticed this is an old thread…