After 2 weeks vacation, I returned to what I'm pretty sure is a Dino bloom, and lost my conchs. PO4 was high before I left, placed a small bag of GFO in the filter. Bad move. Dropped to 0.04-0.02 when monitoring it remotely, though I expect it actually bottomed out.
Please help identify and let me know what else I should be doing to eliminate. I think this is Prorocentrum, maybe some Coolia in there as well?
Seems to keep mainly to the sand bed, finding few on rock work. Not seeing the mucous-like strands on the sand bed, it looks more like a dusting of gunk.
Today I did find strands of algae clinging to the power heads, checked under microscope, which showed some signs.
It may move off the sandbed at night? hard to tell, but appears it may be.
Very little, if any movement.
Tank has been running just under 6 months, fish and softies only right now, not dosing two-part yet. CUC (snails, shrimp, crabs) seem to be unperturbed.
Tank: IM 80 gal AIO
Sand bed: 2-3 inches
Lots of Marco Rock
Refugium w/chaeto
Tropic Marin Pro Reef salt
Temp: 77
pH: ~8.0 - 8.1 (running a skimmer and a bubbler in the sump to help maintain levels)
PO4 is back up to 0.12
NO3 now at 22 (need to change carbon to bring down slightly)
Mg: 1205 (dropped from 1300s recently)
Alk: 7.7
Ca: 500
What I'm doing so far:
Turned LED lights down to 10%, blue spectrum only, and reduced lighting schedule (was 12h, now 8h).
Running carbon reactor in the AIO sump 24/7. Changing carbon to bring NO3 down slightly
Running skimmer in the AIO sump 24/7
Stopped water changes
Dumped a load of pods in the tank - both in the sump/fuge and in the main tank.
Dosing phytoplankton daily
I have been dosing MicrobacterClean 1/week, Razor every other day.
Next Steps:
Lower UV throughput rate for sterilization vs. clean
Start dosing Waterglass to encourage diatoms
Softie corals didn't like the short blackout attempt, but maybe I should try a short blackout again?
Should I start dosing Microbacter7 in addition to or in place of the MicrobacterClean?
Images below:
1. Dinos on sand granule
2. Possibly Coolia found in algae growth?
3. What they look like on SandBed (not uniform throughout tank)
4, 5, and 6. close ups under microscope
Please help identify and let me know what else I should be doing to eliminate. I think this is Prorocentrum, maybe some Coolia in there as well?
Seems to keep mainly to the sand bed, finding few on rock work. Not seeing the mucous-like strands on the sand bed, it looks more like a dusting of gunk.
Today I did find strands of algae clinging to the power heads, checked under microscope, which showed some signs.
It may move off the sandbed at night? hard to tell, but appears it may be.
Very little, if any movement.
Tank has been running just under 6 months, fish and softies only right now, not dosing two-part yet. CUC (snails, shrimp, crabs) seem to be unperturbed.
Tank: IM 80 gal AIO
Sand bed: 2-3 inches
Lots of Marco Rock
Refugium w/chaeto
Tropic Marin Pro Reef salt
Temp: 77
pH: ~8.0 - 8.1 (running a skimmer and a bubbler in the sump to help maintain levels)
PO4 is back up to 0.12
NO3 now at 22 (need to change carbon to bring down slightly)
Mg: 1205 (dropped from 1300s recently)
Alk: 7.7
Ca: 500
What I'm doing so far:
Turned LED lights down to 10%, blue spectrum only, and reduced lighting schedule (was 12h, now 8h).
Running carbon reactor in the AIO sump 24/7. Changing carbon to bring NO3 down slightly
Running skimmer in the AIO sump 24/7
Stopped water changes
Dumped a load of pods in the tank - both in the sump/fuge and in the main tank.
Dosing phytoplankton daily
I have been dosing MicrobacterClean 1/week, Razor every other day.
Next Steps:
Lower UV throughput rate for sterilization vs. clean
Start dosing Waterglass to encourage diatoms
Softie corals didn't like the short blackout attempt, but maybe I should try a short blackout again?
Should I start dosing Microbacter7 in addition to or in place of the MicrobacterClean?
Images below:
1. Dinos on sand granule
2. Possibly Coolia found in algae growth?
3. What they look like on SandBed (not uniform throughout tank)
4, 5, and 6. close ups under microscope
