Diatoms and GHA after Dino’s, now what? copepods?

[bkwonnn]

Hi Guys,

Thanks to alot of usefull information on this forum i am making progress with my battle against dinos. I see diatoms and GHA or bryopsis developing. Phosphate is 0.2 and nitrate 20. Ph around 8.

I’ve added some urchins to battle the new stuff, what else should i do now? Add copepods or is that a possible fuel source for the Dino’s? Should i let the new algea develop more or battle it with the CUC and copepods? I don’t want to use chemicals.

 

[Jekyl]

Check out reefcleaners.org for a cleaner package. Pick up some live phyto while you're at it. I started with the stuff from algae barn

 

[ryanjohn1]

3 days lights out

 

[19Mateo83]

Yes on the pods and phyto. The pods eat diatoms and dinos. @Dinkins Aquatic Gardens has great products at a great price. The more biodiversity you can add the better.

 

[Jay'sReefBugs]

Your system is trying to rebalance its self I would recommend setup up a alage scrubber or refugium to give it somewhere to go . Unfortunately GHA you are going to need to remove it manually or like you stated urchins copepods aren't going to do anything for that particular problem. Like everything in this hobby it just takes time I went through the same thing after battling dinos as well .

 

[bkwonnn]

So my nitrate is down from 25 to 1.5
i assume because of the algae growth.
phosphate still 0.25 ish

i started skimming and changed filter sock to reduce phosphates, but now my nitrate dropped and phosphate did not. Should i stop skimming? Also added a lot of copepods.

im don’t want nitrates to drop more because this would open the door for the dinos again.

What would you guys suggest me to do? Dose nitrate?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

What kind of test kits are you using? How old is the tank? How big is the tank? How many fish in the tank? What is the feeding schedule? What is the light schedule? Did you start with live rock or dry rock? A tank pic always helps a lot.

If you have algae problem, then should not dose nitrate....... Depending on the tank age, if the tank is newer, then it needs time to mature. But there is so much info missing that its hard to give suggestion.

 

[bkwonnn]

Thanks

Its al Hannah testing
Tank is running 1 year
25 gallon nano
3 fish 8 CUC
Light now only 9 hours a day including 1 hour ramp on and off
Live rock
Sorry not at home now for pic

 

[bkwonnn]

During the rise of the nitrates to 20+ the ph rose also quite much. From average 7.7 to 8.0

Now the nitrates dropped again to 2.0 give or take, and the PH dropped again to average 7.6

Is that due to the development of the Dino’s of diatoms / GHA ? Or bacterie bloom because of adding beneficial bacteria? Any ideas ?? Always struggling with low alk aswel, most
Of the time is around 6.5. Can’t seem to raise that