Insane and unstable over 1 year.

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alexanderthefishlover

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So I set up a 30 gallon a year ago have have had nothing but issues with stability in the water. I mean, nitrate and phosphates. They constantly run at 0. When I raise them slowly, I get hair algae and other nasty outbreaks.

Basically I had Dino totally under control eradicated with Dino x and was great until I added some macro that must have been contaminated with Dino.

I don’t understand why my tank never has nitrate or phos and why it keeps having issues.

I started a 10 gallon over a month ago now and it’s PERFECT so perfect I want to cry. It’s beautiful, gorgeous macro algae and soft corals. I began dosing nitrate and phos so that the macro could grow well. Iron added iodide, Chaeto grow had some diatom and then now, it’s perfect and super stable parameters are stable and everything is great.

I was told, nanos are unstable and hard to care for. Yet, I’ve had no issues. I’m having issues in the larger of the two. I’m so overwhelmed. I’m dosing Dino x again, and I also had some hairy cyano (can’t remember the name) I on my rocks was a clear bubble hairy slime for a while until I dossed nitrates up and phos from 0 and began getting brown hairy crap growing.

I’m cultivating caulpera pro and I know Dino x says it can kill macro but the cultivating aquarium has Dino even at (20ppm nitrate 1ppm phos) and if I treat the tank and then add it back from that cultivating aquarium it will grow again in he DT, so I’ve left a handful in the aquarium to see how it takes the Dino x treatment. Ugh.

Needed to rant a bit about this because it’s frustrating me. I cannot for the life of me understand where all the nitrate and phosphates go to. I dosed the nitrate in DT to 10ppm (no macro added) and the next morning, nitrate was 4ppm…. That’s fast too fast don’t you all think? I use the Hanna high range and it’s really accurate on these readings in my experience thus far.

The more nitrate and phosphate I add the faster the Dino grows. It’s stupid! I thought it was cyano on the sand but treated with slime out and it did jack. So over Dino like what the heck.

Who would have thought the 10 gallon would be easier and more stable. My LSF tried to convince
me not to start it glad I didn’t listen.

Any advice, please give me it I just need to know what’s going on. And, do I need to worry is the Dino x kills the caulpera? Will it add toxins to the water? Anyone know about this!

Thanks in advance!
 

winxp_man

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For phosphate you need ULR and Nitrate you need to run the low reader. It’s what I have need reading from many here and my brother that has been in the game for a long time.

I would aim for 1-2 ppm on nitrate and .02 ppm on PO4.
 

winxp_man

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I have to say being you don’t have the ULR for PO4 and the LR for the Nirates the numbers are off on the high range reader. If you have a LFS go grab the two correct readers and report back what you find on the PO4 URL reader and the nitrate LR.
 
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alexanderthefishlover

alexanderthefishlover

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For phosphate you need ULR and Nitrate you need to run the low reader. It’s what I have need reading from many here and my brother that has been in the game for a long time.
They did an ULR for both phosphate and nitrate at my LFS and it came back at 0 ppm for both.

They said that was hard to believe unless I was cleaning it all the time. I said, I’m not I don’t even change the filter sock anymore but once biweekly.

They said my biological activity is consuming them at high amounts + the soft corals. But, only the pulsing Xenia has grown and the encrusting gorg.

I moved a Kenya tree that wasn’t growing at all to the 10 gallon it’s already doubled in size! Like it’s crazy! My guess is it wasn’t getting and nitrate and phosphates in the 30.

This is so overly frustrating x it’s clean and nice with 0 (besides this cyano hairy clear crap) and then BOOM I add something new and dino takes off. So annoying a type of Calothrix I believe it is.

I can’t win with this aquarium and I’m wondering if it’s because I used live rock that wasn’t real rock it was man made and “sustainable” whereas so used real reef rock for the 10 gallon that came from the pacific!
 

winxp_man

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Okay, so you have live stock in the tank. From the first posted I might have missed that. How much live stock in the tank? And did you get a complete cycle before putting in live stock?
 
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alexanderthefishlover

alexanderthefishlover

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Okay, so you have live stock in the tank. From the first posted I might have missed that. How much live stock in the tank? And did you get a complete cycle before putting in live stock?
Yes cycled with ammonium chloride, dr Tim’s Fritz 900 and Fritz 9+ many bottles of MicroBacter+ stability plus fluval cycle and NutraFin cycle. I also added probiotics.

I have 4 damsels and a Toby benett puffer. And a few turbo snails that do nothing LOL.

I feed my Toby 3 times a day + a halved clam too. I thought by adding a messy fish that it would help raise nitrates phosphates etc. NOPE hasn’t. It’s insane I can’t get my head around this.

Ive been in freshwater for 15 years and have many freshwater aquariums still and never faced such an issue.

I know what I’m doing works because my 10 gallon is thriving too much! So I don’t know why the 30 gallon is suffering so much!

My magnesium is 1450ppm calcium 450 ppm I dose iodine once a week and twice a week down strontium. I dose iron and I dose chaeto grow (when the macro was in there).

I only added macro to the aquarium because I thought the cyano was hair alage and didn’t bother testing (stupid me) until I noticed the caulpera turning
clear and that’s when I began dosing nitrate again and phosphate.

I did it slow but it caused the Dino , the cyano and the hair alage to grow even more rapidly! was a nasty mess was scrubbing rocks with tooth brush.

Another round of Dino x. Here we go. It worked last time. Another thing that triggered it the first time was that I dosed Livephyto which I did again and it got worse after this! Not sure about the correlation. I dose the same product in the 10 gallon. 0 issues
 

Mr. Mojo Rising

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Can we see a tank pic to start, need some visuals? How often do you feed? What is the filtration system?
 
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alexanderthefishlover

alexanderthefishlover

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Can we see a tank pic to start, need some visuals? How often do you feed? What is the filtration system?
Sure I’ll take some ina. Few minutes. It’s an waterbox AIO filtration system + a skimmer is added.

I feed three times a day, and I leave a clam half in the tank for the puffer to eat.

I had a lot of inverts before but removed them to the 10 because of the puffer wanting to eat them all LOL.
 
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alexanderthefishlover

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Randy Holmes-Farley

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What kind of herbivores can I get with the puffer? Do you mean inverts? He ate a hermit and ate a torchus :(

Well, a 30 gallon with a puffer does seem a significant challenge from an herbivore standpoint. I don't have an answer for you. Maybe someone else does.
 

Lavey29

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As long as you keep dumping harsh chemicals in your tank you will never be successful because you are killing your biome. Having bottomed out nutrients means your corals are starving to death and beneficial organisms in your tank can not out compete the bad stuff. Once you get into this cycle it will take months to correct the balance and improve your tanks environment not an over night fix. You need to raise nitrates and phosphate. Get a diverse cleaner crew. Cut out white light and just run blue and uv only. Weekly water changes with siphon sand removal.
 
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alexanderthefishlover

alexanderthefishlover

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Well, a 30 gallon with a puffer does seem a significant challenge from an herbivore standpoint. I don't have an answer for you. Maybe someone else does.
I know I was worried about that but the little guy was there for so long and no one wanted him and he was so cute and the staff convinced me to do it so I did it. I don’t regret it, I just wish this algae wasn’t an issue.

I will say this, even before I had this exact issue happen. And the tanks was filled with inverts and they wouldn’t eat any of the alage that was growing and it actually killed my emerald crab who was eating it.
 
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alexanderthefishlover

alexanderthefishlover

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As long as you keep dumping harsh chemicals in your tank you will never be successful because you are killing your biome. Having bottomed out nutrients means your corals are starving to death and beneficial organisms in your tank can not out compete the bad stuff. Once you get into this cycle it will take months to correct the balance and improve your tanks environment not an over night fix. You need to raise nitrates and phosphate. Get a diverse cleaner crew. Cut out white light and just run blue and uv only. Weekly water changes with siphon sand removal.
Had a UV it didn’t help sadly.

After the Dino X treatment las time, the tank had a gorgeous bloom of some coralline for the first time and some beautiful green algae which never happened before. Only the Dino and hairy crap.

The tank was looking perfect up until I added a new fish which I assume brought Dino into the aquarium once again.

Nitrates before were detectable but low at 1.5- 3ppm. Phos was .02. I saw cope pods thriving corals were more colourful than ever probably because the dino toxin wasn’t affecting them.

Now, the corals are unhappy since Dino appeared (even before the physicality of Dino appeared they stopped opening the same).

I understand your worry about the chemicals but my last experience with Dino X only benefited my aquarium more and it seemed to be stabilizing until I added a new fish.

The clear slimy hairy stuff in the rocks began to appear after I began dosing iodide and I wrote a post about that a while back. Only when I increased nitrates and phos back up did the white hairy slimy crap begin to grow long and brown.

I also worried about the biome and what would occur but I only saw positive outcomes after defeating Dino the last time. It actually allowed my tank to not have an invasive competitor that truly aided until I bloody reintroduced it again and until they bloody clear hairy slimy crap began to consume (I believe) all my nitrates and phos. I think the pulsing Xenia also takes a lot of the nitrates because it won’t stop spreading and growing I’ve had to cut it back multiple times.

I am doing the Dino x this time because I cannot handle the Dino again or the brown hairy crap that follows. People use chemiclean, algae fix, vibrant and it’s highly recommended on nearly every forum here at some time or another. Dino X is just another algaecide with a focus on brown golden algae including hair and Dino/dioatom. I think people fear it but in my experience it wasn’t something to be overly feared.
 

Lavey29

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Had a UV it didn’t help sadly.

After the Dino X treatment las time, the tank had a gorgeous bloom of some coralline for the first time and some beautiful green algae which never happened before. Only the Dino and hairy crap.

The tank was looking perfect up until I added a new fish which I assume brought Dino into the aquarium once again.

Nitrates before were detectable but low at 1.5- 3ppm. Phos was .02. I saw cope pods thriving corals were more colourful than ever probably because the dino toxin wasn’t affecting them.

Now, the corals are unhappy since Dino appeared (even before the physicality of Dino appeared they stopped opening the same).

I understand your worry about the chemicals but my last experience with Dino X only benefited my aquarium more and it seemed to be stabilizing until I added a new fish.

The clear slimy hairy stuff in the rocks began to appear after I began dosing iodide and I wrote a post about that a while back. Only when I increased nitrates and phos back up did the white hairy slimy crap begin to grow long and brown.

I also worried about the biome and what would occur but I only saw positive outcomes after defeating Dino the last time. It actually allowed my tank to not have an invasive competitor that truly aided until I bloody reintroduced it again and until they bloody clear hairy slimy crap began to consume (I believe) all my nitrates and phos. I think the pulsing Xenia also takes a lot of the nitrates because it won’t stop spreading and growing I’ve had to cut it back multiple times.

I am doing the Dino x this time because I cannot handle the Dino again or the brown hairy crap that follows. People use chemiclean, algae fix, vibrant and it’s highly recommended on nearly every forum here at some time or another. Dino X is just another algaecide with a focus on brown golden algae including hair and Dino/dioatom. I think people fear it but in my experience it wasn’t something to be overly feared.
Not UV light but UV in your spectrum. Did you ID your dinos with a cheap microscope to even know what you are dealing with? Put some filter floss on a mag nori clip overnight and see if it catches stuff in the water column. You need to cut out your white light for now and just use blue and uv spectrum. Dino x is a bandaid fix that does not resolve the underlying problems with your tank so although you may think it shows improvements the underlying issues are still there and your algae issues will continue to return. You wasn't at least 10 nitrates and .1 phosphate.
 
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alexanderthefishlover

alexanderthefishlover

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Not UV light but UV in your spectrum. Did you ID your dinos with a cheap microscope to even know what you are dealing with? Put some filter floss on a mag nori clip overnight and see if it catches stuff in the water column. You need to cut out your white light for now and just use blue and uv spectrum. Dino x is a bandaid fix that does not resolve the underlying problems with your tank so although you may think it shows improvements the underlying issues are still there and your algae issues will continue to return. You wasn't at least 10 nitrates and .1 phosphate.
Oh! I didn’t even know that was a thing. I’m coming from freshwater. What brand of light has UV spectrum in it? What is the benefit? Would that not affect the nitrifying bacteria in the aquarium?

I’m using the nicrew reef light on the 30. And goose neck bulbs in the 10.
 
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alexanderthefishlover

alexanderthefishlover

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like someone said, you’re probably adversely affecting your biome by adding that Dino x stuff. I don’t think you need to keep skimming. Shut that off and see what your nitrate does. Add nitrate and phosphate and feed a little more.
is a skimmer necessary in a 30 gallon? I know some people said it wasn’t. I’m not using one on the 10. I was scared to not skim with the corals in the 30 LPS ones
 
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