RedSea Reefer 450 Reboot?

[cfendya]

My phosphate is currently sitting at .03 (testing with a Hanna) and I did have GFO in one of my reactors. I just took it offline as I've read having a raised phosphate closer to .1 has helped mitigate and combat Dinos (Idoc above also mentioned this same thing).

I have a CO2 scrubber online controlling my pH and its typically hovers between 8.1 and 8.0(night).

You really need to have the GFO in a reactor if possible as it’s not very effective in a media bag at all. I’m not familiar with Rox you mention, but I would get the GFO reactor up and running again. I run rhowaphos 24/7 in a reactor and will be doing so from day 1 in my new system, as you need to keep phosphate locked down very low at around 0.03ppm to avoid all sorts of issues.

Unless you have good reason, I wouldn’t worry about your pH if it’s between 7.8-8.5 and you also need to account for test error +/-

I will get a pic uploaded but as I mentioned earlier, I've been staying on top of things and constantly blowing off rocks and stirring sand trying to get it in the water column and out of the tank. I'm traveling over the next couple days so won't be there to do it so when I get home, I'll see what kind of a mess I have and get a pic taken before tackling it.

Just a note on this in case you missed it above...I am leaving the lights out these next few days while I'm gone. I'm not doing a complete blackout (i.e. wrapping tank, etc) so there will be some natural light the tank gets but no direct sun or anything else.

Yes, 2 quarts of marinepure + the rock in your DT should be enough probably. I know it might feel embarasing (it is not, most of us have been there), but could you post an FTS of the current situation?

 

[Spare time]

Thanks for the reply and suggestions. Is there a reason you suggest using dry rock vs LR especially if I plan on cycling it? I'd have to go back through and see if I can find the post, but somewhere I read dry rock has been problematic for a lot with algae and Dino issues.

I meant use dry rock and then turn it onto live rock. Live rock is where most problems with pests come from.

 

[cfendya]

Gotcha and that would make a lot of sense!

Lights have been out for two full days and there isn’t a sign of Dinos anywhere. I’m going to leave the lights out all day tomorrow and will keep my fingers crossed.

What are your thoughts in blowing off the rock and stirring the sand bed tomorrow just to make sure anything still there gets in the water column and into the filter floss, skimmer, and UV?

I meant use dry rock and then turn it onto live rock. Live rock is where most problems with pests come from.

 

[cfendya]

Just a quick update...Yesterday ended a 72hour black out and there are zero signs of Dinos in the tank.

I performed a 20% water change, put in all new carbon and filters, and also changed the skimmer to run a little more wet than usual.

Fish all are doing well and appear happy the lights are back on. I had a pretty large colony of zoas that were covered in Dinos leading into the blackout and they mostly were all open for most of the day yesterday. A leather I have stayed closed up but I noticed this morning a lot of polyp extension and I suspect as the lights ramp, he’ll be back to normal today. My Monti hasn’t shown any signs of polyp extension yet but I’m not too concerned as it’s one of the toughest corals in my tank and has recovered through absolute hell so hoping to see some signs of life later today or tomorrow. Other than that, everything else is looking good so far.

I’m trying not to get my hopes up as I’ve read and have heard Dinos appearing a week or so later after black outs so have my fingers crossed all will stay well.

My parameters are as follow and I plan to keep a close eye on them over the following days...

Nitrates - 10
Phosphate - 0.02
ALK - 8.5
CA - 430
MG - 1430

 

[ArmyReefer]

Any Updates on this? What did you decide to do? how did the black out work for you?