Reef Salt or ProBiotic Reef Salt which and why?

[landlubber]

good day @Anirban!
so it's been 2 months since my fluccanozole treatment and while it managed to control much of my algae issue i am left with more brown cyano on my substrate than i can tolerate.
just a brief overview of my system... 120 standard mixed reef, ati 8x54w, 10 small-medium sized fish, well skimmed, stable Ca,Alk and Mg with phos sitting from 0.04-0.06ppm and nitrates at around 0.05ppm.
initially i assumed the cyano to be associated with the boost in nutrients left behind from the algae die-off but while my nutrients are in check the cyano absolutely isn't. i have already bought new bulbs as the final counter-measure to combat this even though i replaced all 8 properly burned in bulbs in December.
it seems like probiotic everything is the rage these days and admittedly i bought into it as well without an understanding why but it got me thinking... i am not shooting for ulns and keep relatively stable nutrients so am i doing myself a disservice by using probiotic salt or is a surplus of bacteria a potential cause for my issues?

 

[Anirban]

good day @Anirban!
so it's been 2 months since my fluccanozole treatment and while it managed to control much of my algae issue i am left with more brown cyano on my substrate than i can tolerate.
just a brief overview of my system... 120 standard mixed reef, ati 8x54w, 10 small-medium sized fish, well skimmed, stable Ca,Alk and Mg with phos sitting from 0.04-0.06ppm and nitrates at around 0.05ppm.
initially i assumed the cyano to be associated with the boost in nutrients left behind from the algae die-off but while my nutrients are in check the cyano absolutely isn't. i have already bought new bulbs as the final counter-measure to combat this even though i replaced all 8 properly burned in bulbs in December.
it seems like probiotic everything is the rage these days and admittedly i bought into it as well without an understanding why but it got me thinking... i am not shooting for ulns and keep relatively stable nutrients so am i doing myself a disservice by using probiotic salt or is a surplus of bacteria a potential cause for my issues?

Hey, you are back...lol.
Its good that your major algae problem is gone. For cyano, I will suggest bring your NO3 up to 2-5ppm range while let the PO4 sit at where it is currently. Use reef salt you really don't need the probiotic one. It will cause more problem than solving it. Also, stop using any carbon source if you are dosing for bacteria it fuels the cyano too.

 

[landlubber]

Hey, you are back...lol.
Its good that your major algae problem is gone. For cyano, I will suggest bring your NO3 up to 2-5ppm range while let the PO4 sit at where it is currently. Use reef salt you really don't need the probiotic one. It will cause more problem than solving it. Also, stop using any carbon source if you are dosing for bacteria it fuels the cyano too.

nice to hear from you too man
sorry, i meant my nitrate sits at 5ppm (not 0.05ppm) and i agree that probiotic seemingly is more suited to nutrient absent systems. fortunately i'm able to control my nutrients in the desired range via filter socks and skimming so i've done away with my carbon dosing routine. i have however started into amino acids and wondered if it helps support cyano growth at all? the substrate was brown previous to implementing it and it hasn't either improved nor gotten any worse as far as i can see.

 

[Anirban]

If you are using probiotic salt then stop it and use reef salt. Stop amino acid too as well as carbon dosing. You can add probiotics like Pro bioS alternate day or twice a week but without NP Pro. Clean the sand bed and do water change and then follow the upper regime for one month. If it still stays then we will take another route.

 

[landlubber]

@Anirban
so in asking around a little bit about this persistent issue with this brown "algae" that coats my aragonite and obviously irritates my corals i ran into a few others that are suffering the same issue, all of which picked it up since switching over to aquaforest salts. i'm curious if you or anyone else in the aquaforest team have encountered this?
at first i was convinced it was just related to a surplus of probiotic bacteria which i wholeheartedly agree with but it sounds like others are chiming in that have the same problem with the reef salt as well.
not sure what to do...

 

[landlubber]

If you are using probiotic salt then stop it and use reef salt. Stop amino acid too as well as carbon dosing. You can add probiotics like Pro bioS alternate day or twice a week but without NP Pro. Clean the sand bed and do water change and then follow the upper regime for one month. If it still stays then we will take another route.

i may as well mention that it's been basically 2 weeks since following this program and i am seeing no improvement.
in case you were curious where my number are i'll just post them to help with the investigation
Ca 445 Alk 8.32dKH Mg 1425 Nitrate 2.5ppm and Phosphate 0.04ppm SG 1.026 and ph seems to ride from 8.05-8.35.
i've held off on water changes and since late june have stopped dosing aminos and all other additives.

 

[Anirban]

i may as well mention that it's been basically 2 weeks since following this program and i am seeing no improvement.
in case you were curious where my number are i'll just post them to help with the investigation
Ca 445 Alk 8.32dKH Mg 1425 Nitrate 2.5ppm and Phosphate 0.04ppm SG 1.026 and ph seems to ride from 8.05-8.35.
i've held off on water changes and since late june have stopped dosing aminos and all other additives.

I don't no what other people say about the salt and brown stuff. Because I have seen hundreds of tanks using them without any issues. Lets try this. Do a weekly water changes 10% and stop dosing any carbon in the tank including NP Pro. Dose Pro bios once or twice a week.
What is your light source?

 

[landlubber]

I don't no what other people say about the salt and brown stuff. Because I have seen hundreds of tanks using them without any issues. Lets try this. Do a weekly water changes 10% and stop dosing any carbon in the tank including NP Pro. Dose Pro bios once or twice a week.
What is your light source?

an ati 8 bulb sunpower running both channels separately from 0%-50%-0% for a 6 hours. i also run a reefbrite xho from 10am-noon then from 6-10pm.
i currently don't dose any carbon source into the system as it only fed the problem as did amino acids so i ceased all but will dose pro bio s.
basically my personal opinion is that because i am running probiotic salt i have a bloom occurring on the substrate. just today i have purchased a pail of reef salt so i was considering doing a large water change to see if that helps but would like your opinion first. i was thinking 25% in my 120g standard.

 

[Anirban]

I told you to stop using the salt few weeks back. Just clean everything with a brush and do a water change. Do weekly water change for next month and lets see. Dose Pro bios twice a week half dose thats all.

 

[landlubber]

I told you to stop using the salt few weeks back. Just clean everything with a brush and do a water change. Do weekly water change for next month and lets see. Dose Pro bios twice a week half dose thats all.

just to update... its been just shy of 2 weeks since going to reef salt and cleaning everything and no progress has been made. the brown on the substrate is heavy enough that it doesn't really recede as much as it used to during dark periods.

 

[Anirban]

Where are your nutrient now?

 

[landlubber]

my nitrate and phosphate were lower than usual. normally i sit at 0.06ppm phosphate and 5ppm nitrate but since the addition of probio S every second day my phosphate has fallen to being undetectable today and the nitrate is somewhere between 0ppm and .25ppm.

 

[Anirban]

Bring those up back to atleast 0.03ppm PO4 and 2-5ppm NO3 and try to keep it there. Can you post a picture of the brown stuffs?

 

[landlubber]

Bring those up back to atleast 0.03ppm PO4 and 2-5ppm NO3 and try to keep it there. Can you post a picture of the brown stuffs?

since photobucket dropped free 3rd party sharing i'm a little scrambled on how to share my photos here but i'll try to get one for you today sometime and learn how to post it.
aside from that, my nutrients do read low but i suspect there is more phosphate than represented by the testing. my tank has algae albeit very miner amounts but if it was truly that low i don't think i would have anything. i just feel that i have a case similar to what i've been reading where the phosphate is taken from the water column by the dinos/cyano/diatoms (whatever it is) before i get an accurate reading.
as for nitrates, i think that the probio S is responsible for the low reading. i've had no trouble at all keeping it between 2-5ppm for the past few months until i started dosing it 2x weekly in which it has been falling off.
finally, today is waterchange day so i'm hoping to get 15% out and see what results.

 

[Anirban]

Don't dose Pro bios unless your NO3 is up. There are already enough bacteria in the system so don't need to dose. Once a week after water change at half of the recommended dose is fine. Also try to bring up the NO3 to atleast steady 2ppm level or a bit more. If dosing is required then dose too.