Dinos? From stopping N0P0X?

[MtrSkllz]

Dark brown algae, long strings coming off it and bubbles in some places in it. Blew it off the corals two days ago but it is growing back. Really ticking off the zoas, but everything else looks fine so far.

Tank is a reefer 170 and has been up for about 6 months, and i was using n0p0x up until a few weeks ago. The nopox was keeping ammonia, nitrate, and phosphate all at 0. I don't really think that was healthy from what i have read, and i also had some Dictyota nuisance macro in the tank, Also i could not even get chaeto to grow in the algae reactor. Brushed off the dictyota but chaeto still does not seem to be growing.
So i started lowering the nopox a little every week for two weeks, and all of a sudden the other day this pops up in the display.
At that point i stopped nopox completely, and i also stopped dosing reef energy (aminos)

All tank params here are current as of right now. salinity is a little low from acclimating a few things over the last two weeks, should be back up to 1.025 - 1.026 tomorrow with water change

Calcium - 420
Mag - 1280 these two are a little low, added some new things so i need to adjust the doser.
Alk - 8.6
salinity - 1.024
Ph - 8.6 - This might be a little higher, its at the top end of the red sea kit i have.
nitrate - 0
phosphate .08
ammonia - 0

Here is a link to my logs
http://www.aquaticlog.com/aquariums/mtrskllz/1/parameters

Link to my build thread
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/mtrskllz-first-mixed-reef-reefer-170.310007/

Any help is appreciated. I am also thinking about posting in reef chemistry to try and get help getting my tank back in balance after stopping the N0P0X

 

[SEMA]

From just reading your post, seems like the tank is having flucuations with nutrients (po4) since it has a fairly young population of bacteria and nutrient limited. IME, when phosphate has a quick increase (over a week) with nitrate being a limiting factor (near 0ppm) , diatoms and alike start to show up to help balance the nutrients. Younger the tank= more prone to algae outbreaks. Also 8.6 ph? Why/how so high?

To maybe help prevent this is use a doser with any liquid p04 binder for consistancy, keep feeding the same no matter what, or change to GFO. GFO gives me better consistancy of removal. If your showing 0.08ppm p04 with algae present, production of p04 is usually higher. You could also add nitrate manually, since your at 0ppm roughly. It will help bacterial growth, coral growth, p04 reduction, ect.

My 2cents

 

[MtrSkllz]

From just reading your post, seems like the tank is having flucuations with nutrients (po4) since it has a fairly young population of bacteria and nutrient limited. IME, when phosphate has a quick increase (over a week) with nitrate being a limiting factor (near 0ppm) , diatoms and alike start to show up to help balance the nutrients. Younger the tank= more prone to algae outbreaks. Also 8.6 ph? Why/how so high?

I honestly can not answer that question, I usually do not test for PH, just maintain close to 9 alk. But when all this started i wanted to get as many params as i could. From what i read its not bad, actually desirable to alot of people, and most people see increased coral growth at that level.

To maybe help prevent this is use a doser with any liquid p04 binder for consistency, keep feeding the same no matter what, or change to GFO. GFO gives me better consistancy of removal. If your showing 0.08ppm p04 with algae present, production of p04 is usually higher. You could also add nitrate manually, since your at 0ppm roughly. It will help bacterial growth, coral growth, p04 reduction, ect.

My 2cents

I have been feeding mostly rods food, and i just switched to LRS reef frenzy yesterday because i finally found it in stock. I was thinking maybe feeding heavy to try and bump up nitrate but wanted to make this thread first to ask experts. I have an algae reactor i am experimenting with right now, if it does not work or i have no other choice i can just switch it back to a basic reactor and run GFO, I did really want to keep the tank as natural as possible with chaeto in the reactor rather than GFO.

I have never heard of or used a PO4 binder, I will have to take a look into it.

 

[SEMA]

Yes a elevated ph is a good thing, primarly balanced hardness and low c02 levels. 8.6ph is probably MAX, it can get dangerous, as ph scale is exponential. .1 increase is 100× stronger.

Anyways, going natrual as far as nutrient removal is a great way to save $ and time. The trick to being actually successfull at it is, you have to be equally porportionate in algae mass to nutrient production. If not, the p04 can creep up and intice a small algae bloom. I would say alot of people make this mistake by not having a refugium big enough to offset nutrient production. I would run GFO and cheato if you could. Use the GFO in very small quanities only when you see a reading > 0.03ppm. The cheato will offset some GFO useage.

Increased feeding will raise nitrate, but p04 aswell! I would get some potassium nitrate to move nitrate only. I personally feed my fish a very generous amount anyways no matter water quality, and adjust filtration needs to keep nutrients in check.

Good luck, just get p04 down and nitrate 2ppm +- is a good starting point.

 

[Reefer1978]

salinity is a little low from acclimating a few things over the last two weeks, should be back up to 1.025 - 1.026 tomorrow with water change

This is your first clue. I would not think no NOPOX is the cause of Dynos, but more towards accidentally introducing dynos into a system that's already perfect for them to strive in (low nutrients).

 

[MtrSkllz]

This is your first clue. I would not think no NOPOX is the cause of Dynos, but more towards accidentally introducing dynos into a system that's already perfect for them to strive in (low nutrients).

Whatever this is showed up right before i added a few new things. Small tank so drip acclimation brought the salinity down from my usual 1.025 to 1.024.

At this point I am still not even sure its dinos, could be brown cyano or something else.

I blew off all the rocks and coral today, It really hasn't gotten any "worse". I am still hoping giving it a few days after stopping n0p0x and aminos will get nutrients back in line and take care of itself. But i did order some GFO tonight just in case i need to convert the reactor and add that. And i have to go away this weekend, so i am thinking maybe shut the lights off before i leave to try and kick them, although i realize if the nutrients do not get back in line they will grow back.

Also it looks like the chaeto in the reactor has at least started to grow some.

 

[Reefer1978]

From the pictures it does look more like dyno then cyano. Best identification is under a microscope, if you can get access to one.

 

[Dutch_Mill]

Yes a elevated ph is a good thing, primarly balanced hardness and low c02 levels. 8.6ph is probably MAX, it can get dangerous, as ph scale is exponential. .1 increase is 100× stronger.

It's actually logarithmic. Meaning one whole point is 10 times stronger.

Why is the pH Scale Logarithmic?

pH Log. pH is an incredibly important parameter that is measured in nearly every water quality application. Logarithmic pH scale/pH scale logarithmic/Logarithmic scale pH.

www.ysi.com

 

[DarkReefer]

I'm gonna take a stab and say Dino just because it looks similar to mine apart from the bubbles stuck in it.