Confused

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fernalfer

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Ok i have a 120 gallon tank that has been running a year now. Since the start of my tank i have done 10-15% water changes every week for about 10 months until i got Dino's. I blacked out my tank for 3 days and unbelievably they went away. I did not do a water change afterwards for a month because was told dinos love new nutrient water from the change.

Now my tank and corals have never looked better not changing the water. My Alk went from 9.7 to 8.1 before doing another water change after not doing one for a month. Again Corals were great and algae has been hardly present.

Now after doing that water change my Alk went back up to 8.5 because i'm using reef crystals salt and it has high alk. Not a big alk swing from 8.1 to 8.5 my calcium sits steady at 470 and magnesium is 1400. Nitrate- 3 and Phosphate 0.031 per hanna checker.

How come 3 days after that water change my Phosphates rose to 0.051 and the algae on glass that took 9 days to see came just 3 days after water change and my sand is increasingly getting browner?

I thought water changes were supposed to be beneficial? My tank has looked its best in the 1 month without water changes, what gives?
 
Well that's pretty odd. I assumed your TDS was up there or wasn't using RO water.
 
Test your newly mixed salt water to see if it's adding nutrients to your tank.
 
Dinoflagellates are incredibly resilient organisms, virtually indestructable.

Maybe try a different salt, one with a lower dKH more where you run your tank. I dunno if it will help with the dinos but it should help with preventing any significant alkalinity swing
 

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