Nutrient confusion and frustration

[>>klong<<]

For those of you looking to answer a question, warning: I don't know if I really have a question. This is more of a cathartic rant.

I have a 73g DT with 18g sump - total 91g. The tank is about 4 months old now and is stocked with 2 clowns, a royal gramma and a one-spot foxface. I have a couple corals, too. The tank was started with dry rock and about 1.5" sand bed. I run a skimmer, filter socks, and I have a really terrible refugium with a little pompom, but more bubble algae and GHA and a Tunze Eco Chic (I melted a bunch of chaeto and Ulva).

In December at my tank's two month mark I started getting some Dinos and GHA and diatoms. I was freaked out about the dinos and we were going out of town for a couple days, so I took the opportunity to do a blackout with a Dr.Tim's dino treatment. After a 5 day blackout and the treatment, the dinos started to disappear. But GHA and diatoms started to explode.

The dinos were a little confusing, because my nutrients were not very low at the time - nitrate was hovering around 8 and phosphate was about 0.1. Nevertheless after the blackout, the dinos disappeared and GHA ran rampant. Until I got a the foxface at the end of January. It mowed down all of the GHA in about 3 days, and I was happy. I have been feeding heavier than I did previous to getting the FF. Since he's in the tank, I've been feeding about a cube a day for the 4 fish, plus some baby brine shrimp and some pellets here and there.

I thought that with the extra feeding and FF eating all the algae, there would be less algae to consume the NO3 and I'd see a rise, but that didn't happen. Instead, over the last week my Nitrates bottomed out. I think I see some dinos returning.

Is this just new tank issues? I definitely want to raise my NO3, but I'm unsure how to go about it. Dosing? Skim less? Feed more? Clean my refugium of all the GHA and bubble? I'll probably end up doing all of them.

It's not all frustration. I'm having some successes. My blasto, torch and green birds nest seem to be doing well, with the birds nest and blasto putting on some noticeable growth. The birds nest color has been shifting from brownish to green, too. The fish seem healthy and well acclimated to the tank, and the tank is supplying a lot of enjoyment for the family.

Here are my phosphate and nitrate values for the last 3 months. Nitrate has be steadily dropping, while phosphate has been bouncing around, commonly being around 0.1. Like I said - I don't really know if I have questions. The options seem clear, and I knew this hobby would be a journey full of challenges. If you got this far, thanks for reading.

 

[Tiki Reef Joshua]

Feed more. Feed until you get your nitrates around 5 IMO. that keeps you from bottoming out and also from going crazy high. Starting with dry rock is a long........ LONG road of uglies. Just add CUC and a keep bumping up your feeding. You are probably gonna get some dino.... it happens, but you need to avoid an outbreak. Slowly diversify and feed heavy and water change regularly. Heavy in heavy out. GHA is way better than Dino’s.

 

[00W]

I started in 1988 while in college. For 30 years I did and loved this hobby with everything I had. But I was a cook with little money. All my stuff was used and I replaced little and did the best I could. I came from the school of Albert Theil. I did a lot of water changes. All my tanks were dirty, green and somewhat messy. I longed for that beautiful spotless reef I always saw on line somewhere that someone else had.
My fish and corals were always great just wanted more looks from my tank.
I opened my own business and had money. Bam. Into the tank it went. Clean as a whistle. New lighting the whole works. Toothbrush in hand daily.
dang. Mike tank looked terrible. Dinos brown algae. I almost quit. I forgot what I learned long ago. One thing at a time slowly.
I started reading here on R2R and picked up all my old books. I was longing for the day of GHA. I couldn't take the dinos anymore. I started feeding too much and not being so over the top with cleaning. Let some stuff go. Add some nutrients back into the tank. Dose some phyto and chill more, like I used to.
That and patience made a whole lot of difference. No more ugliness now it's just my own ugliness but I can live with that and I'm proud of my tank.