New Tank, 0ppm NO3 0ppb PO4

[Samina]

Hey guys, I posted this in my build thread but didn’t get any input so maybe you guys can help me out. A little background, 110g tank has been running for a month. 80lbs of Stax was cycled (pure ammonia, Dr. Tims, Microbacter7), cured, seeded with a bunch of different pods, periodic dosing of phyto, and a bag of GARF in December (30g tote, pwerhead, Heater). The transition from the rocks from the tote to display was quick and I’d imagine had minimal dieoff (no ammonia cycle registered after the move). Have Caribsea Reef Flakes, about 3/4” thick. Flow is 2 mp40’s and a icecap 3k. Lighting is T5/LED. Have a Pax running at 12hrs reverse lighting cycle with chaeto and dragons breath. The tank is running Triton Base. My build link can give you more info if you’d like but that is the gist of it.

I am pretty sure I am having a diatom bloom and I checked my levels and here are nutrients:
Phosphate: 0ppm (Hanna ULR, Red Sea)
Nitrate: 0ppm (Red Sea, Fauna Marin)

In my previous tank, when I bottomed out nutrients, I started a losing battle with Dino’s. Tried everything to fight it. Dosing nutrients consistently and adding a UV helped, but in the end, it was futile. I am just worried if I should do anything to raise my nutrients so that I don’t end up having that nightmare happen with this tank.

I have a pretty decent bio load now and feed a good amount. Quarter chunk of LRS and cube of mysis soaked in selcon given divided 3-4 times a day. Sometimes I drop in a dime size amount of Chromaboost pellets a few times a week during the day. As far as fish go, I now have 2 firefish, 2 snowflake clowns, diamond goby, 5 small chromis, yellow tang, kole tang. The yellow tang and Kole tang were added a couple days ago. I have some Euphylia and softies in the tank and a good CUC. Should I increase feedings even more or should I decrease lighting time on my algae reactor? A part of me feels like I should just let the tank do it’s thing and not interfere as it’ll balance eventually. But the zeros scare me because of what happened before. I was at 2ppm nitrate and 0.08ppm Phosphate just last week.

I have not changed anything except for adding the rock rubble into what will become the cryptic refugium. Any opinions?

 

[Bret Brinkmann]

Wow nice aquascape.

I highly recommend maintaining nutrients above zero. Otherwise it will be matter of time until dinos kick in. Especially with your hybrid light setup. The levels you mentioned you had last week should be good. Reducing the lighting of the algae reactor would be a good idea. Or clean it more regularly so it draws out less nutrients. Possibly a combination.

I recommend using inorganic sources like Seachem Flourish for phosphates and Spectrocide stump remover for nitrates. Organic sources through feeding results in other problems like cyanobacteria blooms. Food is made up of stuff other than nitrates and phosphates after all.

 

[Samina]

Wow nice aquascape.

I highly recommend maintaining nutrients above zero. Otherwise it will be matter of time until dinos kick in. Especially with your hybrid light setup. The levels you mentioned you had last week should be good. Reducing the lighting of the algae reactor would be a good idea. Or clean it more regularly so it draws out less nutrients. Possibly a combination.

I recommend using inorganic sources like Seachem Flourish for phosphates and Spectrocide stump remover for nitrates. Organic sources through feeding results in other problems like cyanobacteria blooms. Food is made up of stuff other than nitrates and phosphates after all.

Thank you!!! I actually have a bottle of Seachem Flourish Phosphorus on hand. I also have some saltpeter (KNO3) mixed up from use on my last tank. Will put them to work on it. I really don’t want to take the chance with Dinos.

I think you right. The rock was in a tote for around 10 months I think before I finally got it into my display. On my last tank which I started by cycling the dry rock mixed with a bit of live rock right in that display, I ended up bottoming out nutrients around the year mark. And then disaster hit. It still pains me to think about it! I will lower the lighting duration on the algae reactor a couple hours. I had Chaeto growing in it and this is a week and half of growth, started with just a mere handful clump.

I will dose a bit of both, N and P to get readable measurements atleast and work my way up to atleast around 5ppm N and around 0.08 P slowly over a couple of weeks.

 

[Samina]

Well here are some pics, do you think it looks like Dinos? I am hoping it’s just diatoms with some bubbles trapped.
Dosing N and P. Was at 0 the other day. Now up to 2ppm N and 0.02 P.

 

[Samina]

So I’m case anyone was wondering what it was based of the pics of the rocks... it’s Diatoms!!!! Yayyyyy!!! I can honestly say I’m super relieved. This I am totally good with!!