Don’t fear the reefer
New Member
I had a dino outbreak about 5 weeks ago. In the 2 months before the outbreak, I observed PO4 trending down steadily. It had been stable in the 0.08 range through summer and early fall, then from Sep.4 to 25 it dropped from 0.06 to 0.00 (6 different tests, each time lower) and went into emergecny dosing mode, adding Nyos Phosphate+ almost daily. This slowed down the PO4 drop but did not halt it. Around Nov.1, 0.00 and BOOM: ostreopsis. I did a 3-day blackout with some UV but kept the refugium light running at night. When I turned the lights back on, dinos were gone and PO4 was at 0.10. I had been running the refugium at about 16 hours/day and I cut it way back to 10 hours. (Only I didn't; I cut to 14 because I swapped the times: I programmed 8pm to 6am as 6pm to 8am. Oops. That's fixed.)
Everything looked great for about 10 days but then PO4 started to tank again: 0.08 - 0.07 - 0.01 ... Nov.22 BOOM dinos started showing up again on a few rocks. This time I did a 5-day blackout, including the refugium, and boosted the UV (1 in-tank, 1 in-sump). I've also been dosing frequently (but not on a schedule) with Microbacter7.
When I turned the lights back on last week, NO3 was at 32+ (Red Sea), PO4 was at 0.20 (Hanna) and everything's great! Crystal clear water, happy corals, happy fish, happy me.
But now it's happening again. I didn't run any tests over the weekend. Today's PO4 is 0.02!!! Down 90% in a week??
Has anyone observed this level of consumption before? What tricks can I try? I can't get this PO4 to hold. The tank has been running for like 4.5 years. Rocks and substrate are very mature. Coral growth has always been hit-or-miss but my GSP and mushrooms and some zoas are great. 55g display with maybe 15g-20g in the sump. 8.3dKH, 8.3pH, 370Ca, not sure what else might help here.
As I've observed this pattern 2x this fall and also a year ago, I am nearly convinced that dinos are not caused by low nutrients; dinos CAUSE the low nutrient by consuming everything while in some sort of invisible / microscopic state that's likely pellagic. Once the nutrients are too low for competing organisms, that's when dinos appear in benthic form on the rocks and substrate. That's my working theory.
I'd love other ideas and suggestions for how to stabilize this thing.
Everything looked great for about 10 days but then PO4 started to tank again: 0.08 - 0.07 - 0.01 ... Nov.22 BOOM dinos started showing up again on a few rocks. This time I did a 5-day blackout, including the refugium, and boosted the UV (1 in-tank, 1 in-sump). I've also been dosing frequently (but not on a schedule) with Microbacter7.
When I turned the lights back on last week, NO3 was at 32+ (Red Sea), PO4 was at 0.20 (Hanna) and everything's great! Crystal clear water, happy corals, happy fish, happy me.
But now it's happening again. I didn't run any tests over the weekend. Today's PO4 is 0.02!!! Down 90% in a week??
Has anyone observed this level of consumption before? What tricks can I try? I can't get this PO4 to hold. The tank has been running for like 4.5 years. Rocks and substrate are very mature. Coral growth has always been hit-or-miss but my GSP and mushrooms and some zoas are great. 55g display with maybe 15g-20g in the sump. 8.3dKH, 8.3pH, 370Ca, not sure what else might help here.
As I've observed this pattern 2x this fall and also a year ago, I am nearly convinced that dinos are not caused by low nutrients; dinos CAUSE the low nutrient by consuming everything while in some sort of invisible / microscopic state that's likely pellagic. Once the nutrients are too low for competing organisms, that's when dinos appear in benthic form on the rocks and substrate. That's my working theory.
I'd love other ideas and suggestions for how to stabilize this thing.
