Yet Another Cyano versus Dinoflagellates Conundrum (pics attached)

[CMMorgan]

I've been trying to get my nitrates down for months. I have a terrible time reading these colormetric test kits but I'd guess I'm someplace between 25-50 now. I attached a picture, please chime in.
I have an aggravating sleeper goby named Chernobyl that continues to bomb my tank with sand.

I started getting this red slime bubbly snot about two months ago. I hit it with chemiclean immediately.... did water changes.... it pulled back for a couple weeks then BOOM.

I dosed with chemiclean again then started scrubbing rocks and corals. In the midst of this Chernobyl collapsed my entire aquascape. Giant pile of rock.... huge mess.

Last week, I took all of the rockwork out, one by one... scrubbed them each off with a toothbrush in the sink and rebuilt by rockwork. During this time, I netted out everything I could from the water column and let the filter socks do the rest. When that was done, I dosed Ultraslime.

Now, I have a daily battle with the toothbrush, knocking this crap off of my corals and rocks. It's not "sticky", it will come right off. (Except my kenyan tree...it loves that one. It is also hard to scrub zoas without damaging them.) I'm doing water changes every 4-5 days, changing socks twice a week. I've also been dosing NoPox 15 ml daily for 3-4 weeks. Nitrates are still high and this junk is just invasive as heck. Tank is a 90 gallon DT with a 30 gallon sump.

It is just a stringy, yucky mess. I'm starting to think that my diagnosis of cyanobacteria has been wrong all along. Maybe this is dinos? I always thought that dinos were brown... but aquarium lighting could be playing with me here. I could not even take pictures with the blue lights on. Even without them, the pictures do not do this snot justice.

Parameters are a bit out of wack... working on that as I got so distracted with the yuck that I wasn't on top of my testing. I just assumed all of the water changes were keeping the good stuff where it needed to be.... smack me later.
Ammonia 0
PH 8.3
Phosphate 0
Nitrite 0
Mag is high 1500
Calcium is low 300 - raised it from 230 since yesterday... will continue to gradually add. Next water change should help with the also.
ALK is low 6 same approach as calcium...

Any feedback is welcome. I have just run out of ideas.

 

[xxkenny90xx]

It's hard to tell in the pictures but I don't see any cyano....

 

[jpas]

I would add a UV sterilizer. It’s hard to tell from the pics , but it sounds like Dino’s.

I would get a cheap microscope and determine if it is for sure.

 

[CMMorgan]

Pictures show more when you click on the pictures individually.
What would I see under a microscope?
If it is dinos, then I guess I should be killing the lights to start. I swear there is so much info out there that it is overwhelming.

 

[Gravity]

Sounds mostly like Dino to me. Usually they occur when nitrate and/or phosphate is low. Since the nitrate is high and phosphate is zero it would seem to favor Dino and your description and pictures show them to be stringy.

General recommendation is nitrate 5-20 ppm and phosphate 0.03-0.1ppm to promote competing microbes. Then usually blackout and UV to remove the Dino. You could also try the Dr Tims dosing stragiey of Refresh and waste away. Results may vary based on the species and they will return if nutrients aren’t corrected. So be sure to get your phosphates up.

 

[Jeffcb]

NO3 to high

 

[CMMorgan]

NO3 to high

Well aware.... been dosing NoPo x for almost a month and doing water change after water change. It's killing me trying to bring it down.

 

[CMMorgan]

Sounds mostly like Dino to me. Usually they occur when nitrate and/or phosphate is low. Since the nitrate is high and phosphate is zero it would seem to favor Dino and your description and pictures show them to be stringy.

General recommendation is nitrate 5-20 ppm and phosphate 0.03-0.1ppm to promote competing microbes. Then usually blackout and UV to remove the Dino. You could also try the Dr Tims dosing stragiey of Refresh and waste away. Results may vary based on the species and they will return if nutrients aren’t corrected. So be sure to get your phosphates up.

Thanks, appreciate the feedback. I think I will try the Tim's. UV will need to wait until payday unless I can find a good deal. Kicking myself that I've been treating the wrong thing this whole time. If only I could get these Nitrates down. Unsure how to raise the phosphates.... google time!!
Thank you very much for looking at my post.

 

[Jeffcb]

Well aware.... been dosing NoPo x for almost a month and doing water change after water change. It's killing me trying to bring it down.

Water with changes?

 

[Fishfinder]

The nopox won’t lower the nitrate at all if your PO4 is actually zero. It needs both to work. You need to get the PO4 up first

 

[Gravity]

Brightwell neophos is the quick way without raising the nitrate more. Otherwise I hear the powder type food (reef chili/roids) are high in phosphate but haven’t tested it myself. If your using GFO or resin based phosphate remover reduce your media or remove it.

 

[Jeeperz]

Just a second thought. Have you checked nitrates with a different kit? I had a red Sea kit that always maxed out the test unless it was fresh mix salt. Tried a different kit and was under 20.

 

[CMMorgan]

Just a second thought. Have you checked nitrates with a different kit? I had a red Sea kit that always maxed out the test unless it was fresh mix salt. Tried a different kit and was under 20.

MY LFS tested my water for me last month and confirmed my nitrates were 50+. They did clue me in that my ALK was actually 17, which my test kit kept telling me was low... turned out that kit was expired when I bought it and did not catch it.
That said, I feel like the Red Dead Nitrate pro kit is pretty vague. I look at that color and it does not match anything (IMHO). I'm guessing that it is over 20 and less than 50 but I could be wrong.
I do intend to replace it with a kit that has more specificity. I though about Hannah but that is low range only. I want to check out Nyoos and see if that is easier to read.
Good thinking though .... I love this forum... everyone has been there done that....Thanks

 

[CMMorgan]

Brightwell neophos is the quick way without raising the nitrate more. Otherwise I hear the powder type food (reef chili/roids) are high in phosphate but haven’t tested it myself. If your using GFO or resin based phosphate remover reduce your media or remove it.

Thanks for the recommendation. I'm reading a lot of good things about Brightwell additives.
I actually don't run any GFO or Carbon. I was using Purigen in each filter sock but they need to be recharged. At this time, all I have in there is Cheato in the sump. I was feeding reefroids but I have not fed the coral since last week.
I think at this point, I may do yet another water change after brushing what I can into the water column. That should help my alk, calcium and mag. (Fingers crossed on the nitrates but not holding my breath.)
After that, I'll try the black out and hydrogen peroxide followed by a 50% water change.
By then, I should be able to get my hands on the Neophos and work to get that under control.
Dang though .... I don't even want to think about the havoc that sleeper goby (chernobyl) will reek on my tank if he does not get fed in three days.

 

[Sleeping Giant]

I'm running into the same thing, high nitrate and phosphate. I have red cyano on one side of my aquarium and GHA slowly growing on the opposite side. In-between both sides is my rock work. I can't for the life of me figure out why cyano only keeps reappearing on one side and not both.
Hard to see the cyano in this pic, but it's on the opposite side.

 

[CMMorgan]

I'm running into the same thing, high nitrate and phosphate. I have red cyano on one side of my aquarium and GHA slowly growing on the opposite side. In-between both sides is my rock work. I can't for the life of me figure out why cyano only keeps reappearing on one side and not both.
Hard to see the cyano in this pic, but it's on the opposite side.

What is the white furry stuff growing on the wavemaker on the left?
Your ZOAS are bomb.
Is that an enormous carpet nem on the right? DANG!!!! That is insane, I know they don't host but that thing is big enough to swallow a fish whole.
Sorry for the algae issues but this is a cool tank nonetheless. Thanks for sharing....