GHA and Cyno Issues - Remediation Plan Feedback

[crabgrass]

Yes you should get your phosphates up to.03- .1. I keep mine at the higher end. Your diatoms are depleted, you won’t see them again unless you add silicates.

This is a dumb question, but i was using a cheap squeeze bottle to add some AB+ and reefroids a few weeks ago (feeding corals + trying to boost P). That is the only thing (outside of adding direct P).

Is there a chance that it could have been leaching silicates? Unless there was/is something else adding silicates that I don't know about (RO water has 0 TDS).

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[kevgib67]

I don’t know for sure but I doubt it. Since every new tank goes through diatoms I think they are introduced with the rock or sand. They are literally self limiting unless you’re replenishing with tap water or poorly filtered RO/DI water.

 

[crabgrass]

Understand, thanks! Yeah, zero tap water has entered the tank. I get my water from a LFS, and while it says its 0 TDS, I guess its technically possible for the DI filter to have been bad as well and introduced some silicates.

 

[kevgib67]

I highly recommend you get your own RO/DI unit. It will pay for itself and you are totally in control of the water being produced.

 

[crabgrass]

The wild ride continues. I was keeping things in check by testing a couple times a week and dosing P up until Oct 29. I then went on a 2 week work trip and my wife had to take care of the tank. I didn't want her to dose anything (mainly because she was also taking care of other animals and a 6 y/o and this was too much to ask).

I came back to bottomed out P + Dinos.

I blacked things out for 3 day, dosed some P. Dinos look like they went away.

On 11/17, my P was at .6 - however looks like Cyano took their place.

Cyano is growing at a moderately slow pace

• P - 0.39
• N - 0.3

So mega nutrient imbalance again :(

I am not dosing anything at the moment. I do have some Chaeto that is growing in the back. Although I am sure are a little N starved at the moment.

I am sort of at a loss on what action I should do. Every "quick solution" I've taken has resulted in another problem (and i understand "nothing good happens fast in a reef").

I know the N needs to increase - and increasing that will have a reciprocal effect on lowering the P. However I don't want to over-rotate and create the next issue (ala GHA)

I am going to work on manual removal of the Cyano. Possible add some more snails and stuff to keep it at bay