Corals dying and dinoflagellate problem!

[Joeush123]

Hi, for the past month or so my corals have not been looking healthy and have been having problems with nuisance algae, I have been testing regularly and even sent off for an ICP test from triton and everything came back good. I got some advice from another forum and from some experts that I know that said my nitrates where too low and that this would probably be the cause of all this. I have been dosing with Brightwell aquatics NeoNitro daily, however this has not increased my nitrates and I also have been feeding more regularly. Some corals now such as my Forest Fire montipora colony are now bleaching from the base. Just wondered if anyone could help me please!
Tank- Red Sea reefer 350 liter
Lighting - Maxspect rsx 300
Flow pumps- Maxspect gyre x 2
Dosing system- DD ocean pro dosing with Triton method Reef daily.
I have a mix of softies LPS and SPS and a large carpet anemone, with two maroon clownfish, 3 neon blue damsels and a dragon goby.
Tank test:
Alkalinity- 9.0
Calcium - 475
Magnesium - 1420
Phosphate - 0.07
Nitrate- 1
PH - 1.026
Temp 25.5 degrees
Any help would be appreciated

 

[ZoWhat]

You're dosing yourself into self-fulfilling troubles.

Nitrate measurements are AFTER your algae have had their meal.

If you like to dose bc you like to play Scientist.... dosing phytoplankton

 

[reeferKen]

how reef bum beat them here and its interesting what did not work too

 

[Joeush123]

You're dosing yourself into self-fulfilling troubles.

Nitrate measurements are AFTER your algae have had their meal.

If you like to dose bc you like to play Scientist.... dosing phytoplankton

so should I stop all dosing and just try dose phytoplankton?

 

[ZoWhat]

so should I stop all dosing and just try dose phytoplankton?

Regular waterchanges and dosing phyto is all you need

You need to do a deep dive research on the benefits of phyto. Especially on R2R

 

[Joeush123]

Regular waterchanges and dosing phyto is all you need

You need to do a deep dive research on the benefits of phyto. Especially on R2R

ah okay, its just that I bought the dosing system and triton method on recommendation from the store, as water changes where not keeping my levels stable

 

[Super Fly]

How old is the tank?

 

[Joeush123]

How old is the tank?

around 5 years old

 

[redeyejedi]

Sounds like the dosing is your issue. People are to quick to chuck chemicals in their tanks. Imo

 

[Joeush123]

Sounds like the dosing is your issue. People are to quick to chuck chemicals in their tanks. Imo

I was having these issues before i started to dose, ive had my triton dosing set up for around a year to help keep stuff stable, and dosed nitrate on recommendation of both triton and another person who is well versed in this kinda stuff.

 

[Super Fly]

I was having these issues before i started to dose, ive had my triton dosing set up for around a year to help keep stuff stable, and dosed nitrate on recommendation of both triton and another person who is well versed in this

what are symptoms of other corals, have u checked sps for flatworms?
wait, I just reread ur thread title and it said "corals dying and Dino problem", so in addition to coral issues when u said u have "nuisance algae", were u referring to dino?... any pix?

 

[Dkmoo]

What pH? I think you put salinity instead in OP

 

[Dark_Knightt]

I got rid of my dinos with phyto and soem chemiclean, but that only got rid of the ones in the sanbed. Turned on UV, skipped on a water change one week to let the bacteria populations in the rocks/sand/water grow, which grow large enough to fight off the dinos.

 

[JosephM]

If you go the phyto route which I fully believe in. Make sure it is live phyto. Live phyto will want to constantly grow so they will compete with the same nutrients as your nuisance algaes and stuff. It will also benefit filter feeders which I think can be pretty like feather dusters

 

[TheDuude]

Double check your No3 test against another test or a reference solution. I had a similar issue recently when dosing and found my No3 test was bad and I had overdosed the tank on No3.


But I did have success knocking down the Dinos with the "Dirty method" I back my water changes down to once a month, did not clean the glass, and dosed phyto from IPSF. My Dino are nearly completely gone now and things are rebounding nicely.

 

[Dkmoo]

The whole point of "the dirty method" of dino treatment isn't that the extra nitrate some how kills the dino, its that the extra nutrient (in all forms of N - ammonia, aminos, nitrates, dissolved organics) help promote a more diverse biome that increases nutrient competition to keep everything including dinos balanced.

Are you running any kind of sterilizing setup, like UV, or any other chemical treatment "miracle bottles" thats designed to "kill something"? If so thats actually counter productive to using the "dirty method" for dino treatment.

A 5 year old tank should be mature already, but the low N high P ( po4 seem too high at 70ppb) seem to suggest otherwise. Often this is the result of an imbalance in the N to P consumption rate as corals and algae are mainly high N consumers while things that contribute to biodiversity and stability (signs of mature tank) like bacteria, copapods, worms, and filterfeeders, are high P consumers.

A tank that has depended on excessive external controls - ie, gfo, bottled "algae cleaner dosers", uv, etc, has a harder time reaching natural equilibrium and tend to have these imbalance issues more often.

Feeding phyto will be good as these are the most nature foods for corals. Phytos also have N to P of 16:1 while corals absorb approximately 20:1 so you will still have high P unless better P absorbing biome is established. Would also consider dosing amino as thats all N, to help better match N to P input with N to P consumption in your tank

 

[Joeush123]

what are symptoms of other corals, have u checked sps for flatworms?
wait, I just reread ur thread title and it said "corals dying and Dino problem", so in addition to coral issues when u said u have "nuisance algae", were u referring to dino?... any pix?

yeah i checked all my SPS for different kinds and couldn't see any checked at night too just in case and still couldn't. The symptoms of the other corals are that my softies are not opening at all and my LPS are only slightly extended. and yes I was referring to the dinos.

 

[Joeush123]

What pH? I think you put salinity instead in OP

My PH is testing at 8.3 atm

 

[Joeush123]

I got rid of my dinos with phyto and soem chemiclean, but that only got rid of the ones in the sanbed. Turned on UV, skipped on a water change one week to let the bacteria populations in the rocks/sand/water grow, which grow large enough to fight off the dinos.

ah okay i actually have some chemiclean that I never ended up opening, I just don't want to throw in any many treatments and stress the corals even more is all.

 

[Joeush123]

If you go the phyto route which I fully believe in. Make sure it is live phyto. Live phyto will want to constantly grow so they will compete with the same nutrients as your nuisance algaes and stuff. It will also benefit filter feeders which I think can be pretty like feather dusters

Im going to go to my LFS today and get some as he makes his own live phyto thank you for the help!