Hammer dying, dinos, A LOT at once!

[Quincy]

This is my first post, but certainly not my first search and read! We inherited a 90 gallon tank 2 months ago. Had nothing but live rock, small amt of sand, 1 wrasse, 2 clowns, and a brittle star. Everything else has been added since. Everything started off amazing, new lights, new corals, etc. Everything was great. Now, we have diatoms on the sand (all over!) and dinos. Was told to be patient...did some cleaning out of dinos with Micron 10 filtering, water replacement (same water, just cleaned), physical removal, etc. And we've had blue only lights on now for 6 days. I have my water tested at LFS and he said it's great. Now my hammer is dying, terribly! One picture is a week ago and the other is yesterday. Total skeleton on one section. Should I be feeding it? What the heck is an Iodine dip? I bought MacroBac 7, haven't added it yet, thoughts? Just really overwhelmed and kinda clueless so any help would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks!

 

[Spare time]

Do you know what your alk is at?

 

[Quincy]

No, but I was told water parameters were all good. We're extremely rural so closest location is 3 hour round trip to get it looked at. Can I test at home with a kit? There was a string of dino hitting the back of that area, could it kill a hammer?

 

[Quincy]

Here is a better pic of the dino we're dealing with. One of those long strings was hitting the hammer where it is now a skeleton.

 

[Ajayabb]

I would move post to Nuisance Algae forum. Lots of people there to help you through this. “Good parameters “ may mean absent nutrients especially Phos and Nitrates which helps dinos thrive

 

[LesPoissons]

You need test kits for sure. Hanna checkers, Red Sea, salifert etc are some of the most reliable, You need alk, ph, phos, ca, nitrates and ammonia. The key to reef tanks is stability of all these parameters working together. If you have Dino’s you need to increase nitrates and phos but if you don’t know your starting point you are going to run into more issues. if your alk swings constantly your corals won’t do well. If the ca and mag aren’t in balance with the alk you corals won’t be able to build their skeletons. If you are bottoming out your nitrates and phos with water changes you will get Dino’s and your corals won’t do well. If you have an over abundance of phos or nitrate you will have algae issues. If you have ammonia your fish and corals will suffer etc. Its a lot, I know. But having a new reef tank without test kits is like driving your first car without gauges. You need to understand how everything works if you want it to succeed!
Get your test kits, (I’d highly recommend Hanna checker for phosphate)
Shoot for 8-8.5 alk, 420 calcium, 1350 magnesium, 5-10 nitrates (probably 10 with Dino’s), 0.03-0.08 phosphate, 0 ammonia.