Hello,
I have a 20 gallon tank, about a year old. Entirely softies and macros, no livestock.
About six months ago, most of my macros went sexual while I was on vacation. Soon after, I had a cyano outbreak, presumably due to all the organic matter from the dead macros.
After a few months of this, the cyano abruptly died. I now understand that the phosphate must have bottomed out, because immediately after I had a severe outbreak of dinos. I did a three day blackout and started dosing phosphate, which ended the dinos, but not before I lost a good chunk of my corals. After the dinos disappeared, the Cyano came back.
About a week ago, I started seeing dinos again. I had worried about this, but I assumed that they wouldn't reappear before the cyano went away. Additionally, my phosphate reads as >0.25, and nitrate at 20 on API. Dinos have now mostly replaced the cyano, but there are still large patches of cyano in parts of the tank.
I am planning on another three day blackout. Should I assume the API tests are incorrect and dose phosphates?
Please advice
Thanks
I have a 20 gallon tank, about a year old. Entirely softies and macros, no livestock.
About six months ago, most of my macros went sexual while I was on vacation. Soon after, I had a cyano outbreak, presumably due to all the organic matter from the dead macros.
After a few months of this, the cyano abruptly died. I now understand that the phosphate must have bottomed out, because immediately after I had a severe outbreak of dinos. I did a three day blackout and started dosing phosphate, which ended the dinos, but not before I lost a good chunk of my corals. After the dinos disappeared, the Cyano came back.
About a week ago, I started seeing dinos again. I had worried about this, but I assumed that they wouldn't reappear before the cyano went away. Additionally, my phosphate reads as >0.25, and nitrate at 20 on API. Dinos have now mostly replaced the cyano, but there are still large patches of cyano in parts of the tank.
I am planning on another three day blackout. Should I assume the API tests are incorrect and dose phosphates?
Please advice
Thanks