Zoanthids melting and sky high nitrates

NS Mike D · Mar 29, 2020

Dixon B said:
Do a series of large water changes over the next two weeks for the most natural approach, or run out and get a container of nopox and start dosing that in combination with water changes.

I am not sure the it's organics (could be) in the water column but rather just the decomposing dead matter in the rocks and sand that are making ammonia and releasing phosphates, so I would hesitate on carbon dosing until I was sure the rock and sand were cleaned.

TripleTruble · Mar 29, 2020

What does everyone have in sump for bacteria growth? I have some live rock and ruble

Dixon B · Mar 29, 2020

NS Mike D said:
I am not sure the it's organics (could be) in the water column but rather just the decomposing dead matter in the rocks and sand that are making ammonia and releasing phosphates, so I would hesitate on carbon dosing until I was sure the rock and sand were cleaned.

You're probably right, it's still released into the water as excess nutrients though and they have to be exported somewhere. It sounds like his bio-media isn't up for the whole task.

Dixon B · Mar 29, 2020

TripleTruble said:
What does everyone have in sump for bacteria growth? I have some live rock and ruble

Brightwell No3 bio bricks are the name of them I believe, and I also use regular bio bricks

NS Mike D · Mar 29, 2020

TripleTruble said:
What does everyone have in sump for bacteria growth? I have some live rock and ruble

I use rubble. Marine pure blocks (and similar) are common and can be replaced (before they start to crumble).

Unless you have ammonia in your tank, your biological filtration is fine. Look how much ammonia it's turning into nitrates!

There is a theory that rock will eventually clog losing its efficiency over time. This is why some reefers will put just enough rock in the DT to host the corals, and then use several marine pure blocks that get rotated out and replaced.

Dixon B · Mar 29, 2020

to further what Mike said, is there a lot of coraline in your tank? Sometimes that has been known to "clog" porous cavities in live rock which would otherwise be used for filtration.

NS Mike D · Mar 29, 2020

There are a comment about macro algae.

You can put this with you rubble rock in your sump with a light sufficient to support photosynthesis. Cheato is the most common macro algae and commercially available

Macro algae will synthesize the NO3 and PO4 when the lights are on locking it up and helping to bring down those number and competing for these nutrients with the nuisance algae

When it grows bigger, trim it back.

NS Mike D · Mar 29, 2020

Dixon B said:
to further what Mike said, is there a lot of coraline in your tank? Sometimes that has been known to "clog" porous cavities in live rock which would otherwise be used for filtration.

tank is four months old.

Dixon B · Mar 29, 2020

NS Mike D said:
tank is four months old.

Oh okay, so that's not an issue either then.

TripleTruble · Mar 29, 2020

If I were to keep doing bigger water changes and vacuuming and blowing out rocks is that going to matter. Or we thinking this RIP CLEAN is the best option.

Stigigemla · Mar 30, 2020

I would make a 8 to 10 gallon water change every day and cut down the feeding of the fishes 50%.
When the nitrate is down to 30 it is time to add an urchin and some snails to take care of the algae.
Continue the water changes until the nitrate value is under 10. It will in theory take about 12 water changes to reach that but you are feeding the fishes so I guess at least 15 water changes.
To avoid the stones from getting clogged with detritus You have to add a new live rock or 2 to introduce small worms and copepods that will clean Your stones. Any stone from a tank with good microfauna is good. But not from a LFS thats using copper. It kills all worms and copepods.