nitrates, phosphates,dinos

[tidefanjam]

ok, my current parameters, nitrates 2ppm, phosphates 0, dkh 10, cal 400, sg 1.026, ph 7.9, i had a bad GHA problem a coupe of months ago and started dosing vibrant twice a week, this worked well and got rid of the GHA (and most of my cheato in my sump) so i cut back to once a week a couple weeks ago, the GHA is still gone but I believe i have some light dinos showing up, could this be because of my phosphates being too low? should i try to raise them?
75 gallon total volume , mixed reef

 

[Gareth elliott]

0 phosphate will cause dinoflagellates to out compete other organisms that use them. I would raise them to somewhere between .03-.1.

https://rotalabutterfly.com has a calculator to do this with kh2po3.

You will want to verify with testing, as phosphate readily binds to rock and sand. Dont need to chase a particular number in that range just something that means your tank never hits 0 through the day.

 

[reeferfoxx]

I agree with the above. Also, assuming you have coral, the increased alk will cause an increase in nutrient consumption. In addition to increasing P and maintaining N, you could let your alk fall to the 7 to 8 range. That will slow down uptake so your not dosing nutrients like crazy. Hopefully the strain you have will dissipate over time. If you find yourself struggling I suggest a cheap microscope off amazon to get an ID. For now, just focus on nutrients and if the bloom isn't too bad you could do some heavy live phyto feedings. Sometimes that will reverse the bloom.

 

[Elgringodiablo]

Interesting, I am dosing Vibrant twice a week to deal with a bubble algae outbreak.

I’ve noticed what I believe to be the beginnings of a dino outbreak. Dark brown stringy algae that appears to be capturing air bubbles (not super long, stringy and snotty like I have seen in the past), growing on my rocks and frags.

No3 is about 0.25 and Po4 is 0.06. I’m running zeovit and it’s a relatively young system. Considering dosing nitrates to try to get them up around 2ppm.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Interesting, I am dosing Vibrant twice a week to deal with a bubble algae outbreak.

I’ve noticed what I believe to be the beginnings of a dino outbreak. Dark brown stringy algae that appears to be capturing air bubbles (not super long, stringy and snotty like I have seen in the past), growing on my rocks and frags.

No3 is about 0.25 and Po4 is 0.06. I’m running zeovit and it’s a relatively young system. Considering dosing nitrates to try to get them up around 2ppm.

I will say my tank had dinos in the past and dinos never really go away but they only take over when conditions are right. During the bloom I added live rock to help with biodiversity. With that diversity came bubble algae. I dosed vibrant twice a week for the bubble algae and it's never cause my tank to have dinos take over again. In fact nutrients stayed stable and the bubble algae went away.

 

[tidefanjam]

Interesting, I am dosing Vibrant twice a week to deal with a bubble algae outbreak.

I’ve noticed what I believe to be the beginnings of a dino outbreak. Dark brown stringy algae that appears to be capturing air bubbles (not super long, stringy and snotty like I have seen in the past), growing on my rocks and frags.

No3 is about 0.25 and Po4 is 0.06. I’m running zeovit and it’s a relatively young system. Considering dosing nitrates to try to get them up around 2ppm.

i dose potassium nitrate to keep my nitrates between 2 & 5 works well.

 

[tidefanjam]

I agree with the above. Also, assuming you have coral, the increased alk will cause an increase in nutrient consumption. In addition to increasing P and maintaining N, you could let your alk fall to the 7 to 8 range. That will slow down uptake so your not dosing nutrients like crazy. Hopefully the strain you have will dissipate over time. If you find yourself struggling I suggest a cheap microscope off amazon to get an ID. For now, just focus on nutrients and if the bloom isn't too bad you could do some heavy live phyto feedings. Sometimes that will reverse the bloom.

unfortunately I'm going out of town next week so the tank will have to be on cruise control, i may up the auto feeder a bit to get the nutrients up some while I'm gone.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Interesting, I am dosing Vibrant twice a week to deal with a bubble algae outbreak.

I’ve noticed what I believe to be the beginnings of a dino outbreak. Dark brown stringy algae that appears to be capturing air bubbles (not super long, stringy and snotty like I have seen in the past), growing on my rocks and frags.

No3 is about 0.25 and Po4 is 0.06. I’m running zeovit and it’s a relatively young system. Considering dosing nitrates to try to get them up around 2ppm.

Dosing seems like a fine plan.