NoPox seems to be creating an algae issue?

[laezur]

So I’ve stopped dosing NoPox. The algae isn’t growing as fast, but I’m having a major issue with dino’s right now. Nitrates almost bottomed out, but my phosphates are at 0.25. Not good

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

So I’ve stopped dosing NoPox. The algae isn’t growing as fast, but I’m having a major issue with dino’s right now. Nitrates almost bottomed out, but my phosphates are at 0.25. Not good

Dinos seem to thrive more when nutrients are very low, not because they are unusually high.

 

[djf91]

Dinos seem to thrive more when nutrients are very low, not because they are unusually high.

@Randy Holmes-Farley , what’s your opinion on the prevelance of Dino’s in recent years in aquaria? I’m sure you remember years back when we kept nitrates and phosphates near undetectable and didn’t have nearly as many cases of dinoflagellates. Loss of a diverse microbiome? The water on wild coral reefs reads 0 phosphate and nitrate too, correct?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

@Randy Holmes-Farley , what’s your opinion on the prevelance of Dino’s in recent years in aquaria? I’m sure you remember years back when we kept nitrates and phosphates near undetectable and didn’t have nearly as many cases of dinoflagellates. Loss of a diverse microbiome? The water on wild coral reefs reads 0 phosphate and nitrate too, correct?

It's not the nutrients themselves directly, IMO, but the competition that is not present when nutrients are too low.

Maybe using dead rock has more exposed surfaces not previously colonized by competitors such as coralline, algae, bacteria, etc.

I'm not sure, but I haven't seen anything that proves competition is not a big part of the story.

 

[djf91]

It's not the nutrients themselves directly, IMO, but the competition that is not present when nutrients are too low.

Maybe using dead rock has more exposed surfaces not previously colonized by competitors such as coralline, algae, bacteria, etc.

I'm not sure, but I haven't seen anything that proves competition is not a big part of the story.

Exactly, that’s what I’m getting at. We always kept undetectable phos/nitrate in our SPS tanks in the past and very rarely had dinos. I think the key factor was that we had indo-pacific live rock. IMO, it was so vital in creating a diverse, stable ecosystem.

Having elevated nutrients in our aquariums doesn’t mirror the “undetectable nutrients” coral reefs in the Pacific.

 

[Dburr1014]

So I’ve stopped dosing NoPox. The algae isn’t growing as fast, but I’m having a major issue with dino’s right now. Nitrates almost bottomed out, but my phosphates are at 0.25. Not good

Are you sure you have dinos? Did you use a microscope to identify?
I didn't see any pic of your tank on this thread to even validate you have hair or dinos.
Can you post a pic of what you think you have?

If you have Dino, I doubt you have 5.0 no3 and 0.25 po4

If you have hair, your readings are probably right.
In that case, why stop nopox?
Imo, start nopox up again and dose nitrates so you can start consuming phosphates. Keep the nitrates in the 5 to 10 range.

White and blue lights are going to grow algae. You need to out compete them. Gfo, nopox, lanthium chloride, ect... Will do that.

 

[laezur]

Are you sure you have dinos? Did you use a microscope to identify?
I didn't see any pic of your tank on this thread to even validate you have hair or dinos.
Can you post a pic of what you think you have?

If you have Dino, I doubt you have 5.0 no3 and 0.25 po4

If you have hair, your readings are probably right.
In that case, why stop nopox?
Imo, start nopox up again and dose nitrates so you can start consuming phosphates. Keep the nitrates in the 5 to 10 range.

White and blue lights are going to grow algae. You need to out compete them. Gfo, nopox, lanthium chloride, ect... Will do that.

No I’m not sure, I have no microscope unfortunately. I have corals so can’t shut off the blue and white. I was told to stop NoPox so that I could get my nitrates up, if they’re bottoming out then my pho’s won’t go down, I was wet skimming so probably over skimming and causing an imbalance.

 

[laezur]

Are you sure you have dinos? Did you use a microscope to identify?
I didn't see any pic of your tank on this thread to even validate you have hair or dinos.
Can you post a pic of what you think you have?

If you have Dino, I doubt you have 5.0 no3 and 0.25 po4

If you have hair, your readings are probably right.
In that case, why stop nopox?
Imo, start nopox up again and dose nitrates so you can start consuming phosphates. Keep the nitrates in the 5 to 10 range.

White and blue lights are going to grow algae. You need to out compete them. Gfo, nopox, lanthium chloride, ect... Will do that.

This is what I’m dealing with at the moment

 

[Dburr1014]

This is what I’m dealing with at the moment

Hair algae.
I see no evidence of Dino
What's your cuc consist of?

 

[laezur]

Hair algae.
I see no evidence of Dino
What's your cuc consist of?

I’ll take a picture of the sand bed as well just to be sure and send you that in a seperate reply.

CuC is currently: 1x cleaner shrimp, 2x hermit crab, 5x torpedo snails

 

[laezur]

Hair algae.
I see no evidence of Dino
What's your cuc consist of?

SO. MUCH. ALGAE lol

 

[Dburr1014]

I’ll take a picture of the sand bed as well just to be sure and send you that in a seperate reply.

CuC is currently: 1x cleaner shrimp, 2x hermit crab, 5x torpedo snails

An urchin would clean that right up.
Or you can get a couple mex turbos, Cerith Snails. A conch would stir up that sand too.

 

[Dburr1014]

SO. MUCH. ALGAE lol

Hair algae and maybe a touch of diatoms. I'd get some different types of snails for the algae.

 

[laezur]

Hair algae and maybe a touch of diatoms. I'd get some different types of snails for the algae.

Good to know, was afraid of dealing with dino’s. Anything I can do in the meantime while I get some more stock?

As I said before in the thread, I’ve stopped dosing NoPox because my nitrates are bottoming out but my Pho’s are 0.25.

 

[Dburr1014]

Good to know, was afraid of dealing with dino’s. Anything I can do in the meantime while I get some more stock?

As I said before in the thread, I’ve stopped dosing NoPox because my nitrates are bottoming out but my Pho’s are 0.25.

Need to get the po4 down.
I'm in the almost same situation as you.
I had dinos, beat them but now have hair.
My no3 was low 0.8/2.0
Po4 is 0.1 +- 0.02
I tried gfo but wasn't committed to it.
Bought some more cuc, snails and urchins.
Now I'm dosing vinagar and nitrates.
Hair is slowly going away. I pull it out weekly and it's starting to gray out.
My sps have lost a little color cuz I dosed my nitrates up to 8ppm. All in all, I'm glad the hair is weakening.

 

[scardall]

NoPox is not the answer and often promotes DINO
For GHA, pull as much as you can by hand and reduce white light intensity and add snails such as Astrea, turbo, ninja star, cerith and even fighting conch
Pencil sea urchin and carribean blue leg hermits also help

Are you using RODI water or tap water from Faucet ?
Is Tank at or near a window?

Low Nitrates promotes Dino's. ( Zero nitrates) Nopox reduces nitrate and phosphate. You should monitor your Nitrates till they reach 5-10ppm. Then stop using the nopox. Hope this helps as managing nopox correctly is key to getting desired results. I found out the hard way.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Low Nitrates promotes Dino's. ( Zero nitrates) Nopox reduces nitrate and phosphate. You should monitor your Nitrates till they reach 5-10ppm. Then stop using the nopox. Hope this helps as managing nopox correctly is key to getting desired results. I found out the hard way.

Thats what I stated above. It drops no3 rapidly. Problem is many do not stop until the tank goes haywire with dino and other issues as nutrients are diminished as well as production of cloudy water.

 

[Clownfishy]

What is interesting, I have not sen this rapid decrease in Nitrates that people talk about. In my aquarium, I see more of a drop in Phosphate first and then Nitrate follows but I observe a quick reduction in Phosphate.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

What is interesting, I have not sen this rapid decrease in Nitrates that people talk about. In my aquarium, I see more of a drop in Phosphate first and then Nitrate follows but I observe a quick reduction in Phosphate.

I'm not sure there's a good rationale for that. What sort of drop in each are you talking about in what time frame?

 

[Spare time]

Thank you I’m going to stop NoPox and reduce my white lights all the way down to 30% and just scrub my glass and back panels every day. Hopefully my snails can take care of the rest, and then this problem will slowly resolve itself. The tank is about 8 months old at this point, things have definitely been up and down recently which is annoying

White light does not cause algae