Shall I just give up and quit?

[Qasim]

Hello,

I have been trying hard to reduce nitrate cut on feeding that I feed every other day i have placed biopelletes for two weeks now and the darn cyano or dinoflagellets are not disappearing i have even tried running the tank with light off for three days and all my happy corals closed up and might have died.

Last photo is taken april 2019 three months ago things were happy.

Then it started to get worse and worse everyday.

I will be putting tank into blackout for the next few days hope things will get fine your suggests are highly appreciated today I replaced my Di resin hope that will help as well

 

[Angel_Anthias lover]

Turning lights off may help kill the algae it wont deplete the source of their nutrients so it is rather ineffective in those means. Have you tried running a refugium?

 

[ScottR]

High nutrients won’t create cyano and/or dinos. They thrive in low nutrient conditions. Perhaps your testing is off. Also, if you actually are having this problem, by underfeeding, you are helping them thrive.

 

[Qasim]

This is what i have now

 

[Qasim]

I have phosphate reduction media in my sump additionally im dosing nopox by redsea every night

 

[vetteguy53081]

Algae scrubber may be your Best defense

 

[PanchoG]

I would recommend a good UVC and scrubbing on top of the black out.

The UVC eliminated my dinos.

 

[Paul B]

How big is that tank and when was it started

 

[Qasim]

The tank is around 90 gallons and it started 2 years and a couple months ago

My parameters are
Nitrate 50ppm
Mag 1290
Cal 420
Alk 12.5
Phosphate 0.025

 

[Modest]

You say: "cyano or dino's". Before starting any treatment you should know what you are up against.

 

[hart24601]

How dirty is the sand? If you stir it up does a lot of 'ick' come out?

 

[Lasse]

The tank is around 90 gallons and it started 2 years and a couple months ago

My parameters are
Nitrate 50ppm
Mag 1290
Cal 420
Alk 12.5
Phosphate 0.025

What brand and type do you use for your tests?

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Qasim]

I dont know and I dont have the tools to identify what kind of issue Im facing thats why i have posted photos here.

I used to have API for reef and saltwater. I tested with api nitrates were more than 80, with tetra nitrate i tried it was more than 100 and with salifert it was showing the resukts above.

 

[Pete_the_Puma]

Have your nitrates been 50 or more for a long time or is this a new finding? how often do you test?

I think it might be reasonable to aim for lower nitrate numbers:

- Biopellets/bacteria/carbon dosing
- Feed much much less
- Large volume water changes
- Siphon the sand with water changes, does it appear dirty?
- Consider macro-algea/fuge in the sump if possible
- Is your protein skimmer sized appropriately?

With all these measures your nitrates should come down, although if at 100 it will take a long time.

 

[NewGoby]

Both are normal during startup - and can occur after years, when worrying too much about nitrates & phosphates, I've had issues with them aswell, and went on to the nopox route, which made it way worse, decided to say f it & not dose anything, but instead remove them daily by siphoning into a net layered with filter wool, into a bucket to then toss the wool & put the water back into the tank, they were all gone within a month & haven't returned since (this was 1.5 years ago)

 

[csb123]

You can up your dose of nopox and skim wet.

 

[Lasse]

Both are normal during startup - and can occur after years, when worrying too much about nitrates & phosphates, I've had issues with them aswell, and went on to the nopox route, which made it way worse, decided to say f it & not dose anything, but instead remove them daily by siphoning into a net layered with filter wool, into a bucket to then toss the wool & put the water back into the tank, they were all gone within a month & haven't returned since (this was 1.5 years ago)

I have heard from more people that stopping NoPOx and just mechanical remove the mats solve the problem. It have been mentioned that NoPox can promote Cyano bacteria growth in some threads I have seen both here and on the Swedish forum. I would stop with NoPOx and mechanical clean the sand every night with the method @NewGoby mentioned. Sometime it has been reported that WC can make it worse.

Normally - Cyano is linked to very low nutrient concentrations but I have seen some examples of the opposite. That´s the reason why I ask for which test you use. Try to have your PO4 concentration validated with a Hanna Checker

I would also skip the bio pellets for a while - no more adding of dissolved organic carbon. My advises is contradicting many of the others advises but - it is not your PO4 and NO3 that feeding the cyanobacteria IMO - it is something else.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Qasim]

Im siphoning the sand. With a vacum sand bed cleaner im adding microbacter razor every otherday i did cut on the nopox for a week. I have started dosing 10ml every day when they go in the evening mode.

I have surrounded the tank with black bag but the top is free shall I blose it az well?

I have a mangroves stick hanging in the sump with a grow light.

 

[Listant09]

Invest in a aquaripure.com filter, I have a 350gal reef with two of these on it, have literally no nitrates/nitrites whatsoever, also have one on a 240gal cichlid tank, stocked with about 80 fish literally 0 nitrates/nitrites

 

[Lasse]

You can try with darkness - but with Cyano bacteria I have heard of low success. The problem is that you will kill their competitors (normal algae ) too. I would suggest you keep on with this every evening just before the light goes out

Im siphoning the sand. With a vacum sand bed cleaner

But skip the NOPOx - it will take more than 2 - 3 weeks. With microbacter razor - I do not know - if it contain DOC - skip that too. And stop the Bio pellets. Run it without adding any dissolved organic carbon for 3 weeks or more. Test it out and if it does not work after a month - try to take another path.

Sincerely Lasse