Am I Rushing?

[MONTANTK]

I have been in the hobby for about 7 or 8 years, excluding a year and a half hiatus. Before I left the hobby, I had set up my previous 3 or 4 tanks all the same way and had a lot of success. I’d set up the tank, put the real reef brand live rock in, wait a week and add my first fish and wait a couple more days and introduce some Zoas. If the zoas looked good for a week or two I’d start adding additional corals here and there. Never had any issues.

Fast forward to my most recent two tanks. I follow the same process. The only difference is I’m tackling SPS/Zoas instead of softies and LPS. Waited about a month or so before putting in a test acro in both tanks. Everything looks good for a month and then BOOM! Dinos.

For whatever reason I can’t seem to keep nutrients up in these two most recent tanks and it causes a crazy bloom of Dinos. I also have Chrysophytes, or however you spell it.

The only thing I can think of is maybe I’m moving things along faster than I remember or perhaps it’s just a difference between SPS and LPS. Thoughts?

 

[twhit030]

Did you still add the fish? My routine is very very similar. However I’m lucky enough to live in Florida and my LFS gets saltwater right out of the ocean. So I use that water. Use whatever rock I want dump some dr Tim’s one an only wait 24 hours get blue green chromis (never had one die) wait about 2 weeks throw in some snails and crabs wait 2 more weeks and get some simple acros in there.

I too struggle with little to unregistered nutrients. I was running a huge skimmer and a refugium I did away with the refugium (I have a hang on back for m sump if I really ever needs it) and then I downgraded my skimmer and now have nutrients back

 

[MONTANTK]

Did you still add the fish? My routine is very very similar. However I’m lucky enough to live in Florida and my LFS gets saltwater right out of the ocean. So I use that water. Use whatever rock I want dump some dr Tim’s one an only wait 24 hours get blue green chromis (never had one die) wait about 2 weeks throw in some snails and crabs wait 2 more weeks and get some simple acros in there.

I too struggle with little to unregistered nutrients. I was running a huge skimmer and a refugium I did away with the refugium (I have a hang on back for m sump if I really ever needs it) and then I downgraded my skimmer and now have nutrients back

I don’t even have anything exporting nutrients

 

[Gtinnel]

I have an issue keeping my nitrate levels up. I usually wait until they get down to about 1ppm then dose it back up to around 2.5ppm. I also have nothing that I've added to reduce nitrates (other than a skimmer that is set to barely pull anything out, I use it for oxygenation and pH reasons). My current tank has been up for a little over 2 years and I still have low nutrients. I suspect it has nothing to do with you rushing it and I doubt it will get better anytime soon. Just dose whichever nutrient you can't keep at a reasonable range.