I’m new to the hobby and have had a 75L nano cube running for around 3 months. The system was fishless-cycled by dosing ammonia and it passed the 24-hour test with no issues. Since then I’ve stocked 4 fish and a clean-up crew, and added a few zoas plus a torch. I’ve been dealing with diatoms for a couple of months (manageable), but over the last couple of weeks what looks like early dinos has started spreading and is getting worse. I’ve gone down the research rabbit hole and keep landing back on nutrients, but no matter what I do my ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and phosphate all read zero on Red Sea kits. I even double-checked with an API kit and got the same result.
My local marine shop suggested I turn the skimmer and ReefMat off to let nutrients rise, so I’ve had both off for the last week, but the tests are still reading straight zeros. I’m feeding brine shrimp with spirulina once a day (a decent sized portion) and still can’t get anything to show. I was doing 10L weekly water changes, but this week I skipped it to see if nutrients would climb, and they haven’t, meanwhile the dinos are spreading more. I’d really appreciate any suggestions on what to change next to get nutrients into a measurable range and get ahead of the dinos.
My local marine shop suggested I turn the skimmer and ReefMat off to let nutrients rise, so I’ve had both off for the last week, but the tests are still reading straight zeros. I’m feeding brine shrimp with spirulina once a day (a decent sized portion) and still can’t get anything to show. I was doing 10L weekly water changes, but this week I skipped it to see if nutrients would climb, and they haven’t, meanwhile the dinos are spreading more. I’d really appreciate any suggestions on what to change next to get nutrients into a measurable range and get ahead of the dinos.
