LFS

[Dburr1014]

It seems I really need to get those diatoms on the sand under control.

Dinoflaggets is not the same as diatoms.

Unfortunately you have dinoflagellates.
Syphone out what you can, however you can. Top the tank back off with nsw. Shut the lights off. Get a microscope to see what type of dinos you have. And then we can go from there to correct it. Feed minimal, if you can wrap the tank in the blanket to keep light from getting in.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Confirming, these are dino. The puzzling part is that .3 phos contributes to cyano. I believe you are getting false readings. Your best bet here is to address the dino issue first as you will never get a correct reading with the presence of flagellates. With that . . . . . . .
Prepare by starting with a water change and blow this stuff loose with a turkey baster and siphon up loose particles.
Turn lights off (at least white and run blue at 10-15%) for 5 days and at night dose 1ml of hydrogen peroxide per 10 gallons for all 5 nights. If you dont have light dependent coral- turn all lights off.
During the day dose 1ml of liquid bacteria (such as bacter 7) per 10 gallons.
Clean filters daily and DO NOT FEED CORAL FOODS OR ADD NOPOX as it is food for dinos.
Day 5,, you can start with blue lights - ramping up and work your white lights up slowly

 

[Just John]

Confirming, these are dino. The puzzling part is that .3 phos contributes to cyano. I believe you are getting false readings. Your best bet here is to address the dino issue first as you will never get a correct reading with the presence of flagellates. With that . . . . . . .
Prepare by starting with a water change and blow this stuff loose with a turkey baster and siphon up loose particles.
Turn lights off (at least white and run blue at 10-15%) for 5 days and at night dose 1ml of hydrogen peroxide per 10 gallons for all 5 nights. If you dont have light dependent coral- turn all lights off.
During the day dose 1ml of liquid bacteria (such as bacter 7) per 10 gallons.
Clean filters daily and DO NOT FEED CORAL FOODS OR ADD NOPOX as it is food for dinos.
Day 5,, you can start with blue lights - ramping up and work your white lights up slowly

Somehow the phosphate actually made it up to 3.0, not 0.3.

 

[brandon429]

you have a chance to win, by cleaning your reef a certain way, saving you upcoming 5 straight months of dislike of that reef by doing dose and response for dinos, they'll take over preventing you from adding life to the tank for weeks and weeks.

want to keep pressing that way? or hop off the train

the whistle is tooting lol about to leave the station, lemme know. its not too late, unless you want it to be.

heres how much your phosphate matters: 0%

your tester isn't even accurate to be able to give a reading. you shouldnt be testing here, you should be acting. train is slowly pulling away...even the kind of dinos doesn't matter, what matters is you have a 100% accessible nano reef and aren't using that character one iota. you're approaching the reef as if its 200 gallons and to reach in only gets you elbow deep in access.

you have full access, and in two hours can be fixed back to the way you want it to look.

most will directly choose the invasion path, we like it that way by and large. its rare to want to be uninvaded actually.

 

[damsels are not mean]

LFS wants to sell you expensive sand. I am not convinced live sand does anything especially if you have live rock already. Live sand certainly won't remove phosphates.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Somehow the phosphate actually made it up to 3.0, not 0.3.

Yeah, darn spell correct

 

[vetteguy53081]

Phosphate actually does matter and often Nitrate is blamed for coral death. When phosphate gets high, Nitrate is affected and phosphate also then decreases calcification in corals prohibiting coral growth. Also at high levels, aggressive algae blooms begin to occur thereby promoting the proliferation of brown algae in the tissue of corals, masking the natural color pigments of the corals and causing the coral to turn brown and eventually preventing zooxanthellae to form and leading to coral death of starvation
This does Not mean high phos is lethal but rather should not be ignored. When numbers are getting this high, you need to look at feeding habits/quantity, your water source, skimming effectiveness amongst other contributors.