Do i have a bacterial bloom or an algae bloom? need help with a new nano tank thats 2 month old

Guppyguppy

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Tank was setup in august 1st, its a 16g aqurium. Its been fine for a month and all hell broke loose the second month. I need step by step guidance on what i need to do . The fish looks stressed but seems to be ok for now. I have been dealing with what looks to be dino's (stringy brown algae with bubbles) for the last 3weeks. The dinos appear to be on the decline now but my water has been very cloudy the last 3weeks or so and still is very cloudy. The glass walls are covered with green film algae, i can scrape it off and its green again within hours. I have a uv setup for the last 4days and its not helping. Can anyone help with what is going on with my tank? The thing is i dosed bunch of stuff while trying to fight the dinos like nitrate and dead phyto because my nutrients didn't register on the test kits. Do i have a algae bloom or bacterial bloom?
 
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Guppyguppy

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Last water change was after the tank cycled about a month ago. I was fighting dinos so i read you shouldn't do water changes until dinos are gone. My nitrates barely registers less than 3ppm. I don't have a phos test kit yet. Strange thing is the dinos just simply bailed just gone, and this hazyness and the green glass started rather quickly. I decided to remove the sand about 2weeks ago to fight the dinos.
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Guppyguppy

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ok its definitely starting to clear up. I am not sure whether it was the uv or just time its clearing up not crystal clear yet but definitely not as cloudy. I feel like removing the sand bed cleared up the dinos fast.
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Guppyguppy

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on another note can i keep sps on the upper arch of the rocks with these lights i have on the tank. They are 16w each i have 2 on this 16g tank. They were pretty cheap at $40 each. They seem to be putting out good amound of light . I would say about 12k in color temp. Anyone with any experience on these lights?
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Guppyguppy

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so would you advise putting sand back in? only reason i took it out was because of the dino outbreak i had. Is it more unstable without sand?
 

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Wow, I’d slow down. Your tank currently seems to have ‘normal’ newer tank uglies. If you are reacting, reacting more, and overreacting by dumping in (dosing) random potions and going from sand to no sand and back again, you will likely extend the timeline before you reach stability. I think more patience is the key here. Think in terms of how nice your tank will look in 6 months to a year. :)
 
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Guppyguppy

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That is a valid point, i was just terrified of the dinos getting a hold on the tank because i heard so much bad stuff about. I think my hammer infested the tank with dinos. I noticed when i first introduced him to the tank he was constantly spewing brown algae from his mouth for like 3days and then bam nasty brown algae with bubble everywhere about 3-5 days later. I know that sounds weird but i think i read something similar before somewhere.
 

homer1475

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LOl your coral was pooping(expelling excess zooxanthelle(sp?) from the stress of moving), it did not bring in the dino's. You low nutrient levels invited the dino's in.
 
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Guppyguppy

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zoox is a type of algae , i assumed there could be some dinos mixed in there. The timing was just too spot on. I think i need to take a step back and stop analyzing so much. This hobby has a way of making you paranoid and anxious. I think my anxiety level went up 10folds since i started this tank.
 
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Guppyguppy

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oh another thing is the nutrients werent low to begin with, only once the dinos got a hold the nutrients went to zero so thats why i started dosing nitrates. could the hammer have a live dino inside of it that possibly released it? is that not possible?
 

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