Help I’ve crashed my tank

[ElvisReef]

Good afternoon reefers


So I decided to try out the AB+ from red sea and boy did I make a mistake. Dosed as recommended 1 time waited a week did again and it seems to me since I have no current skimmer setup this could have caused it from not evacuating the AB+?
Before and after no matter how much I take out the hairs they come right back

 

[Tahoe61]

Please post chemistry including Nitrate and phosphate if able.
It looks like Dino to me.
There's a couple ways to approach this.

 

[ElvisReef]

Please post chemistry including Nitrate and phosphate if able.
It looks like Dino to me.
There's a couple ways to approach this.

Here they are sorry for delay

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Have you been doing water changes?

 

[VintageReefer]

The amino acids?

You don’t need a skimmer for that. I pour it right in, I have consistent .3 phosphates, no skimmer, it doesn’t cause any harm.

In fact, after many years of ab+ On and off, I’m not sure it actually dies anything except make my tank yellow for a few hours.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Good afternoon reefers


So I decided to try out the AB+ from red sea and boy did I make a mistake. Dosed as recommended 1 time waited a week did again and it seems to me since I have no current skimmer setup this could have caused it from not evacuating the AB+?
Before and after no matter how much I take out the hairs they come right back

Pull back from AB_ which too gave me issues but no losses in the past and use instead Aminos such as Seachem Fuel

 

[BeanAnimal]

I don’t see a need to add any of that to a tank that is clearly new and has so few corals….

 

[ReefBoost]

I changed from AB way back and had much better results from using KZ LPS Aminos :)

 

[Besieged]

Here they are sorry for delay

Nitrate is excessive, phosphate way too low. Nitrite reading anything over 0 indicates it spiked, possibly as a result of ammonia (typically overfeeding, or something died), and there wasn't sufficient nitrifying bacteria to handle it.

Not convinced that's dinos tho. Not enough on the sand bed for typical dino behavior. Plus, dino isn't hairy -
more snot-like, bubbly, or stringy in appearance. Some species can form longer strands, but they don’t have the dense, fuzzy, or filamentous look of hair algae.

Best bet to ID would be a microscope. If it is dinos, knowing which type will help with treatment. If it’s hair algae, that’s a different battle entirely.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Nitrate is excessive, phosphate way too low. Nitrite reading anything over 0 indicates it spiked, possibly as a result of ammonia (typically overfeeding, or something died), and there wasn't sufficient nitrifying bacteria to handle it.

Not convinced that's dinos tho. Not enough on the sand bed for typical dino behavior. Plus, dino isn't hairy.

Best bet to ID would be a microscope.

I wouldn't put too much stock into the accuracy of those tested values - ballpark, sure or target values being something to shoot for.

I think the issue here is as simple as a new tank with a handful of corals being unable to process the large amount of food dumped in -- queue algae or bacterial bloom.

No skimmer, so water changes are in order.

 

[VintageReefer]

Nitrate is excessive, phosphate way too low. Nitrite reading anything over 0 indicates it spiked, possibly as a result of ammonia (typically overfeeding, or something died), and there wasn't sufficient nitrifying bacteria to handle it.

Not convinced that's dinos tho. Not enough on the sand bed for typical dino behavior. Plus, dino isn't hairy.

Best bet to ID would be a microscope.

Phosphate .3 is way too low?
Nitrate 13 is excessive ?

These are nearly identical numbers I have and my reef is very successful

 

[bubbgee]

I don’t see a need to add any of that to a tank that is clearly new and has so few corals….

This!

When I restarted in the hobby, I cant believe the amount of misinformation that you need to feed corals massive amount of reef roids or aminos to grow them quickly with very little coral to my detriment as well. Or that you need to dose All For Reef immediately with just a bunch of zoas, mushrooms or a single torch where a water change would be sufficient.

To my eyes, that's dinos. I got those when I started using AB+ which made me stop using it. I try not to use aminos at this point as I get dinos the moment I dose that.

 

[BryanM]

Some dinos go in to teh water column at night, so UV is pretty effective, if that is what you have.

 

[Besieged]

Phosphate .3 is way too low?
Nitrate 13 is excessive ?

These are nearly identical numbers I have and my reef is very successful

For general rule of thumb, as I've been told repeatedly by others, nitrate should be around 5 - 20ppm, phosphate should generally be roughly 1/10th of that.

YMMV, I'm not a reef biologist ‍:shrug:

EDIT: Sorry, I should have said phosphate is somewhat high, particularly in ratio to nitrate. I read it as 0.03, not 0.3.

 

[VintageReefer]

For general rule of thumb, as I've been told repeatedly by others, nitrate should be around 5 - 10ppm, phosphate should generally be roughly 1/10th of that.

YMMV, I'm not a reef biologist ‍

Not accurate.
Nitrates of 10 is very common and by that formula phosphate should be 1.0 which would be excessive.

 

[ElvisReef]

Every Saturday 5 gallon change in a 20 gallon tank

 

[ElvisReef]

Is there anyone using a phosphate remover that knows will work in my canister filter. , there is this black style sludge or algae that comes on rocks a day after water change.
It’s making corals and rocks so ugly :(

 

[bubbgee]

Every Saturday 5 gallon change in a 20 gallon tank

The excess AB+ is probably fueling your phosphates and nitrites. Try not using it for a couple of weeks and do your scheduled water change and re-test the water a day after so you have a baseline.

 

[VintageReefer]

Is there anyone using a phosphate remover that knows will work in my canister filter. , there is this black style sludge or algae that comes on rocks a day after water change.
It’s making corals and rocks so ugly :(

What makes you think its phosphate?
I run .3 phosphate and I’ve never seen black sludge

 

[BryanM]

Is there anyone using a phosphate remover that knows will work in my canister filter. , there is this black style sludge or algae that comes on rocks a day after water change.
It’s making corals and rocks so ugly :(

Do you use RODI water to make your salt for water changes?

I do not believe the day after a water change you should be seeing that.