Questions about starting carbon dosing

[Atrumblood]

Greetings all,

I have been battling GHA, bryopsis, and red cyanobacteria for a while now and I haven't been making a lot of progress.
I have reduced feeding, 20% water changes every week, changing filter socks every 2-3 days, running GFO, and I have been trying vibrant for the last 6 - 7 weeks.

The only thing I have not tried is carbon dosing. I plan to grab a bottle of cheap vodka this weekend to start a dosing schedule. I am confident in my understanding of how carbon dosing works, but there is one thing I am not very clear on and that is carbon dosing while in the middle of an algae outbreak.

Because I know someone is going to ask, my parameters are below, even though nitrate and phosphates will never be detectable when a lot of algae is present in a tank.

So, my questions are: How does the presence of algae affect the dosing schedule I want to establish, and should I add more beneficial bacteria to my tank?

Looking forward to your replies.
Thanks,
Atrum


Parameters
Nitrates: 0
Phosphates: 0
Magnesium: 1350
Alkalinity: 170
Nitrite: 0
Ammonia: 0
Salinity: 1.025
pH: fluctuates between 8.2 and 8.4 on a diurnal cycle.

 

[ColoredRock]

Parameters
Nitrates: 0
Phosphates: 0

That might be your problem...

A little bit goes a long ways.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/BRSImages/brsVideoContent/infographics/BRS-AquariumParameter-HP-Hero-2400-v2.pdf

 

[Atrumblood]

That might be yor problem...

I little bit goes a long ways.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/BRSImages/brsVideoContent/infographics/BRS-AquariumParameter-HP-Hero-2400-v2.pdf

Yes, they are at 0 because of the algae. The algae eats the nitrates and phosphates faster than they can be detected, believe me, the numbers can't be trusted when algae is in the tank.

 

[Quietman]

With 0/0 you're not going to be able to monitor the reductions in carbon dosing by testing. It's going to be purely visual clues on GHA as the bacteria out compete (which they will). No need to add additional bacteria...it's there and will explode when fed (assuming they're carbon limited which is good assumption).

Go very, very slow. When you see GHA looking unhealthy, I might back off a bit.

One thing...have you tried diligent manual removal. It's a pain, but with 0/0 you maybe able to pull it out and see what's what before dosing.

 

[ColoredRock]

Yes, they are at 0 because of the algae. The algae eats the nitrates and phosphates faster than they can be detected, believe me, the numbers can't be trusted when algae is in the tank.

reading for the win... on my part. I dose NoPox manually 1 mL twice a day. Volume is roughly 80g

 

[Atrumblood]

With 0/0 you're not going to be able to monitor the reductions in carbon dosing by testing. It's going to be purely visual clues on GHA as the bacteria out compete (which they will). No need to add additional bacteria...it's there and will explode when fed (assuming they're carbon limited which is good assumption).

Go very, very slow. When you see GHA looking unhealthy, I might back off a bit.

One thing...have you tried diligent manual removal. It's a pain, but with 0/0 you maybe able to pull it out and see what's what before dosing.

Thanks for the advice.

Yea I remove quite a bit during water changes, but it all grows back or spreads to other areas. A toothbrush, tweezers, and suction are my usual tools.

I know that vibrant is trying to kill off the algae which is evidenced by my skimmer cup filling up every week, but something in my tank is acting as a nutrient battery. I can't find anything that has died, such as a snail or other critter.

I plan to use this site http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/ as a guide, but it sounds like as you said, I will be having to use visual clues.

 

[Quietman]

I will add...I had similar issue. I took out skimmer, put in ATS (algae scrubber - not macro refugium). When I had micro algae growing in the scrubber it vanished from the display. And I didn't have to dose carbon (did that early on and hello dinos!). It's all in last several entries of build thread.

Good luck.

 

[Pistondog]

Ime and others, carbon dosing vodka encourages cyano. It is a bacteria.
Had better success with vinegar for some unknown reason.

 

[Atrumblood]

I will add...I had similar issue. I took out skimmer, put in ATS (algae scrubber - not macro refugium). When I had micro algae growing in the scrubber it vanished from the display. And I didn't have to dose carbon (did that early on and hello dinos!). It's all in last several entries of build thread.

Good luck.

Thanks for that.

I am hoping that carbon dosing will be the magic bullet, but I have thought about getting an algae scrubber. The danged things are bloody expensive (as all things are in this hobby). Hopefully, my 40W UV sterilizer will help keep any errant dinos at bay and give me a little bit of a cushion for screw-ups on my part.

Cheers!

 

[Atrumblood]

Ime and others, carbon dosing vodka encourages cyano. It is a bacteria.
Had better success with vinegar for some unknown reason.

Hmm, interesting. That does make a lot of sense. I am hoping that if I can keep the matt of cyano broken up it will give the good bacteria the leg up and out-compete the rest.