The dreaded dinos???

[mcarroll]

@Thor2j Algae and coral have similar light requirements, BTW. So if algae won't grow...

The only way this is contributing is indirectly. If there are corals in that zone, they're gong to be at least a little light-deprived. That'll reduce their potential metabolism of NO3 and PO4.

 

[reeferfoxx]

If all the available PO4 is adsorbed to the sand, then it's unavailable to the rest of the system, including your test kits – and to varying extents, it's unavailable to other more desirable algae. (You want to be encouraging all of their competitors. )

But guess who has a 4 billion year old trick up their sleeve?

Cyano will harvest that PO4 from the sand and then "pool" it under/within the mats it forms.

It uses the sand and their own dead biomass like a battery for PO4 storage.

^^+1 This.

To add, I began increasing light intensity and dosing KNO3 for nitrates, a couple days ago. My nitrate tests have been showing zero for few weeks. I thought about it and decided regardless of cyano, algae, or any other no3 uptake, I want a visible reading of nitrates in the water column. I also noticed my frogspawn, acan and goniopora coral had been lacking in color? Added a couple more coral to the tank, as well. @saltyfilmfolks mentioned increasing lighting to promote nutrient uptake and coral growth.

After two days of KNO3 dosing and slowly increasing light I notice more cyano, brighter fuller coral, more purple coralline vs green, and I now have to dose alkalinity? My calcium was 420 @ 8.5dkh, two days ago. That reminds me, I need to test calcium... But alk consumption is at 0.2dkh a day. To me this is a good sign despite the cyano growth. My only concern is if the cyano covers a zoa polyp or something. Plan is to let it grow out.. again... until it's gone? lol

If this works, I want to give a big thanks to @saltyfilmfolks and @mcarroll for the awesome suggestions. Mentioning the current thread trends helps a lot too.

 

[Thor2j]

My cyano is so strange to me atleast. Will get confirmation tomorrow with microscope. Almost none on rocks what so ever. Sand though looks like diatoms or detrius but as pictures show seems like cyano. Never has enough to make sheets. It's very brittle.

 

[reeferfoxx]

My cyano is so strange to me atleast. Will get confirmation tomorrow with microscope. Almost none on rocks what so ever. Sand though looks like diatoms or detrius but as pictures show seems like cyano. Never has enough to make sheets. It's very brittle.

Your GFO was most likely reducing growth. With PO4 still remaining in the sandbed, cyano is absorbing po4. I remember back when you had diatoms. We suggested GFO to remove silicates. It is very possible your GFO was absorbing PO4 from the sand and rocks if any were leaching. I don't want to say GFO is a bad route in this case. As mcarroll mentioned, our tanks are different and our cases may not be the same but other algae needs to grow. Restricting all po4 from the water column with GFO, is reducing growth for something else.

 

[Thor2j]

Do u think my phosphates are going to shoot up??

It's either all or nothing with gfo isn't it?? If I use less it just depletes that much faster.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Do u think my phosphates are going to shoot up??

No. Whats been absorbed by GFO is gone. Could po4 eventually go up? yes. With excess feeding or phosphates leaching back into the column.

It's either all or nothing with gfo isn't it??

You can quit using GFO at anytime.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

^^+1 This.

To add, I began increasing light intensity and dosing KNO3 for nitrates, a couple days ago. My nitrate tests have been showing zero for few weeks. I thought about it and decided regardless of cyano, algae, or any other no3 uptake, I want a visible reading of nitrates in the water column. I also noticed my frogspawn, acan and goniopora coral had been lacking in color? Added a couple more coral to the tank, as well. @saltyfilmfolks mentioned increasing lighting to promote nutrient uptake and coral growth.

After two days of KNO3 dosing and slowly increasing light I notice more cyano, brighter fuller coral, more purple coralline vs green, and I now have to dose alkalinity? My calcium was 420 @ 8.5dkh, two days ago. That reminds me, I need to test calcium... But alk consumption is at 0.2dkh a day. To me this is a good sign despite the cyano growth. My only concern is if the cyano covers a zoa polyp or something. Plan is to let it grow out.. again... until it's gone? lol

If this works, I want to give a big thanks to @saltyfilmfolks and @mcarroll for the awesome suggestions. Mentioning the current thread trends helps a lot too.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Come on. Tell me I'm wrong? Some people recommend no nitrate dosing, right?

 

[Thor2j]

No. Whats been absorbed by GFO is gone. Could po4 eventually go up? yes. With excess feeding or phosphates leaching back into the column.


You can quit using GFO at anytime.

I pulled it today

 

[mcarroll]

@Thor2j as with most changes I think an argument to be made for doing this one slow. Especially if you're worried about it.

Perhaps cut volume used by half this week and half again next week, then none?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Come on. Tell me I'm wrong? Some people recommend no nitrate dosing, right?

Oh no. Pretty sure youd jump through the Internet and kick my but.

Yea that face is a bit sardonic isn't it
What I should have said was. Thank you. Its nice to get a mention when I've helped out in solving a puzzle ESP when using seemingly unconventional means.

I'm going back I've to the lux convo to get harassed by people who don't use meters everyday but can afford the best ones and why that's better.

 

[mcarroll]

Or just run an extra PO4 test or two in the next day or so to see what things are doing.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Oh no. Pretty sure youd jump through the Internet and kick my but.
Yea that face is a bit sardonic isn't it
What I should have said was. Thank you. Its nice to get a mention when I've helped out in solving a puzzle ESP when using seemingly unconventional means.

I have no idea. I didn't get googled out with this thought. I just didn't see the harm in using potassium nitrate?

 

[Thor2j]

@Thor2j as with most changes I think an argument to be made for doing this one slow. Especially if you're worried about it.

Perhaps cut volume used by half this week and half again next week, then none?

How to u cut volume with gfo. Can't turn flow to reactor down as it will solidify. If u use less doesn't it just get used up quicker then u have none. All or nothing?

 

[mcarroll]

I use mine in a mesh bag in my skimmer outlet, so I'm not sure in your case. I just use less.

 

[mcarroll]

I may have misunderstood before I ate breakfast earlier.

X grams of GFO will remove Y ppm of PO4.

So using less will remove less.

 

[Brew12]

I have some on my sand bed also, along with a little on the rocks. I know what my cause is. My own foolishness. I wanted to grow macro-algae in my sumps refugium so I threw in a ball of chaeto and some red Ogo algae. Add a nice algae grow light, and I thought I would be good.
Not so much. It just dawned on me yesterday why the Ogo algae grew so good in my DT but looks terrible in my sump. My algae light has a bunch of red LED's along with some blues. Most of these LED's provide no benefit to red algae so it is slowly dying off and adding extra nutrients to my system. The light is great for green algae, not so much for reds.

You are probably smarter than I am along these lines and didn't make the same mistake. Just thought I would throw it out there.

 

[Thor2j]

So here are microscope pictures. I believe this is the algae. Problem is its just like light brown dust right now, never has sheeted. Hard to get any strands.

 

[Reefer1978]

So here are microscope pictures. I believe this is the algae. Problem is its just like light brown dust right now, never has sheeted. Hard to get any strands.

A little hard to tell form the pictures as they are a little blurry, but possibly Amphidinium or Prorocentrum species of dynoflagelates with some cyano (long strands). Good news is that this dyno should be easily beatable with DynoX.

 

[reeferfoxx]

I don't see any flagalates coming off the spherical 'things'? I would say it looks more like phytoplankton with cyano.

@twilliard get your head out of the books for a moment and help us!