I think I should start over

leptang · Oct 16, 2018

Mike1995 said:
Yes, I tested a few days ago before I started a blackout. I believe phosphate was .03. And nitrates were almost 0. I retested again tonight, the levels are a little different . Nitrates are up to 20ppm. Phosphate is like .05. not much change in that. Any idea what caused my nitrates to rise?

Decay of dying organisms from lack of photosynthesis raising those levels

Mike1995 · Oct 16, 2018

Sorry.. didn't mean to make anyone mad..

JasonK84 · Oct 16, 2018

Mike1995 said:
Sorry.. didn't mean to make anyone mad..

I don't think anyone is mad. We can just tell that you are chomping at the bit to be proactive about the situation and I'm trying to get you to slow down and keep with the methodical approach. I know you've heard sayings like too many cooks... or too many chiefs... stay on course and you will come out of this with a wealth of knowledge to share with someone else in the future (and a beautiful budding reef tank for your efforts).

Good luck.

leptang · Oct 16, 2018

Just a side note, if you really do have dinoflagellates and I'm not saying you do or don't have dinoflagellates. But dinoflagellates just go dormant in a black out period and will come back. Regardless of how much time in the dark you give it realistically. Once you got it, you got to live with it until other life gets a foot hold to combat the Dino's. It's doable if you keep on it.

leptang · Oct 17, 2018

I would also consider dosing beneficial bacteria from a bottle during your blackout period.
By doing so the good bacteria will at least help covering your aquarium surfaces and help keeping unwanted life-forms from popping up.

leptang · Oct 17, 2018

But if you are concerned get a microscope fish out the ugly brown stuff look at it with the microscope and ID it. Here is a link to identify dinoflagellates.
http://botany.si.edu/references/dinoflag/index.htm

pdiehm · Oct 17, 2018

just my opinion, but having dealt with Dino's previously, I wouldn't add snails. They'll most likely die and cause more nutrients. When you do want to add snails, I cannot recommend reefcleaners enough, for a few reasons. First, you get great value; Second, you get healthy specimens, and Third, you get pest free specimens.

I ordered 15 trochus snails from LiveAquaria, and since I hadn't quarantined inverts before, I wasn't going to start now. 4 months later, I had vermetid snails all over my rocks, and I'm sure was from a hitchhiker from the LA order as the only coral I had put in at the time which was on a frag plug was an encrusting montipora, and I couldn't remove it without destroying the frag...not to mention that frag came from boom corals, who I trust in terms of pest free stuff.

Reef Cleaners, along with Algae Barn keep their snails in fallow systems, meaning, no fish. No fish = no fish diseases coming along for the ride (ie: Ich, Velvet, etc). Scrub the shells with a wire brush, and in they go.

I would continue along the path that @dantimdad and I have given you...lights out until Friday (Saturday morning), skim wet, and change your socks out daily. This will help kick the butts of any algae in the system whether it be dino's, bryopsis, hair...do your 20 gallon water change. run lights a few hours (4), and keep changing the socks out. When you do your water change, you can siphon out a lot of the decaying algae.

Wait 2 hours, test. At this point, start making another 20 gallons of rodi. 3 days from the test, do another water change, and test afterwards (2 hours).

Let's get to Friday/Saturday and then tackle things.

dantimdad · Oct 17, 2018

Mike1995 said:
Sorry.. didn't mean to make anyone mad..

No one is mad.

It is all in who you are comfortable with when taking advice.

I prefer not to dose anything to cure an issue. I like the old Indian method of "Where there is a cause, there is a cure"

So, if light and nutrients (which I believe are the culprits here) are causing the issue, we take them out of the equation. Or at least minimize their impact.

My whole goal here is to keep you in the hobby and learn to enjoy it instead of fretting and wasting precious resources.

Remember: This is a learning experience but, above all else, it should be FUN!

EDIT: BTW, you should have seen my first attempt at keeping a gold fish pond. LOL!!! I think there are laws against having a sewage processing plant in your yard.

Mike1995 · Oct 17, 2018

pdiehm said:
just my opinion, but having dealt with Dino's previously, I wouldn't add snails. They'll most likely die and cause more nutrients. When you do want to add snails, I cannot recommend reefcleaners enough, for a few reasons. First, you get great value; Second, you get healthy specimens, and Third, you get pest free specimens.

I ordered 15 trochus snails from LiveAquaria, and since I hadn't quarantined inverts before, I wasn't going to start now. 4 months later, I had vermetid snails all over my rocks, and I'm sure was from a hitchhiker from the LA order as the only coral I had put in at the time which was on a frag plug was an encrusting montipora, and I couldn't remove it without destroying the frag...not to mention that frag came from boom corals, who I trust in terms of pest free stuff.

Reef Cleaners, along with Algae Barn keep their snails in fallow systems, meaning, no fish. No fish = no fish diseases coming along for the ride (ie: Ich, Velvet, etc). Scrub the shells with a wire brush, and in they go.

I would continue along the path that @dantimdad and I have given you...lights out until Friday (Saturday morning), skim wet, and change your socks out daily. This will help kick the butts of any algae in the system whether it be dino's, bryopsis, hair...do your 20 gallon water change. run lights a few hours (4), and keep changing the socks out. When you do your water change, you can siphon out a lot of the decaying algae.

Wait 2 hours, test. At this point, start making another 20 gallons of rodi. 3 days from the test, do another water change, and test afterwards (2 hours).

Let's get to Friday/Saturday and then tackle things.

dantimdad said:
No one is mad.

It is all in who you are comfortable with when taking advice.

I prefer not to dose anything to cure an issue. I like the old Indian method of "Where there is a cause, there is a cure"

So, if light and nutrients (which I believe are the culprits here) are causing the issue, we take them out of the equation. Or at least minimize their impact.

My whole goal here is to keep you in the hobby and learn to enjoy it instead of fretting and wasting precious resources.

Remember: This is a learning experience but, above all else, it should be FUN!

EDIT: BTW, you should have seen my first attempt at keeping a gold fish pond. LOL!!! I think there are laws against having a sewage processing plant in your yard.

So yesterday I did what you guys said, changed the filter sock and keep my skimmer going. I emptied the cup. After the water got really clear. Then this morning it went back to extremely cloudy . Is this what I should expect? Should I change the filter sock again?

JasonK84 · Oct 17, 2018

Sock changes are meant to remove organics before they break down into nutrients (nitrate/phosphate). I remember a BRS video that tested sock changes and the optimal time between changes. I want to say there was no significant difference in results changing more than every third day.

I think this is the video.

dantimdad · Oct 17, 2018

Just change it every couple or so days. It'll be fine.

When the lights come back on, you could put filter floss in the sock for even more clarity but it's not necessary.

Mike1995 · Oct 20, 2018

Well thanks for the help...

leptang · Oct 20, 2018

Mike1995 said:
Well thanks for the help...

How is your tank doing? Any pictures?

Mike1995 · Oct 20, 2018

leptang said:
How is your tank doing? Any pictures?

I guess good. I was waiting to see if any of you guys had anything else in mind that I should do. I don't wanna mess anything up. I had the tank in darkness until this morning.

Mike1995 · Oct 20, 2018

So far not much of anything has came back on the rocks. But I already have some on the one side of the glass and overflow. The algea on one side of the glass is due to a window being near by. I have the blinds down but that's the best I can do for now