Mike's 200g

[MichaelW]

Fantastic colors! Can you do a resume of your rutines? And nitrates and phosphate do you have ?

Thank you.
I am using the Aquaforest probiotic method.
I do about 15% water change every other week with probiotic reef salt.
Dose pro bio s and np pro daily
Dose coral energy and coral build daily
Dose amino mix and vitality 4 times a week
Feed powder food 3 times a week
Use the AF balling method (self mixed) to control major 3
Use zeomix, carbon, phos minus in a reactor changed monthly.

Other maintenance is a use a filter sock cleaned every other day, skimmer emptied and neck cleaned weekly, about one water change a month a vacuum detritus out the sump. Every water change I blow "junk" off the rocks before removing water. I also fresh water baste some corals for AEFW which I have in my tank unfortunately.
And I also add zeovit flatwormstop daily.
Fish are fed 5 cubes of frozen food a day plus 3 rotations of an auto feeder with seaweed pellets.

Oh and nitrates less than 1 and po4 0.02

 

[glaukos]

Michael do you get any cloudy water after the WC with the probiotic salt?

 

[MichaelW]

Michael do you get any cloudy water after the WC with the probiotic salt?

No.

 

[glaukos]

I always do man
It clears away after a couple of days but until then,there's a small cloudiness,just like in the WC container.

 

[drawman]

Corals/colors are look great Mike! That deep blue one is a stunner!

 

[MichaelW]

I always do man
It clears away after a couple of days but until then,there's a small cloudiness,just like in the WC container.

Intresting.. Mine isn't really cloudy in the mixing container either. Do you have a strong pump mixing it? Maybe it's getting too hot in the mixing container?

 

[MichaelW]

Corals/colors are look great Mike! That deep blue one is a stunner!

Thanks Tim. The blue one on this page is just standard Cali tort.

 

[plyle02]

Such an amazing array of colors, you have an amazing collection too. Your corals are brilliantly colored, a very wonderful spread of colors, awesome job Mike

 

[MichaelW]

Having a few problems lately. Lost a few pieces, getting horrible brown type cyano with gas bubbles over the sand. Not exactly sure of cause. Possibly my nutrients dropped a little bit? I had upped a little bit of the phosphate minus and zeomix as I had been wiping glass daily so I thought even though tests were low nutrients were not that low... The brown stuff was kinda there before but now it's much worse. Corals suddenly stopped using as much alk so it began to rise. I turned my doses off for a day and it did drop a fair bit so there is some uptake.
All my tests for po4 and no3 still test the same as normal though.
For now I have stopped the np pro as I thought it could be fueling the cyano. Also stopped the amino mix etc incase that is feeding it. Did keep up with the pro bio s and coral b though.
Any ideas what to do. More corals are not looking good and I hate this red slime. Is it good to disturb the sand bed to break it up or best to leave it to grow?

 

[reefmutt]

Not sure I'd stop both np pro and aminos..
There is so much anecdotal evidence of aminos causing cyano, I think I'd be inclined to keep nutrients in check and not swinging too much by continuing the np pro and just stopping the aminos..

 

[MichaelW]

Wouldnt you think the np pro would feed the cyano as it is a carbon source

 

[reefmutt]

Yes and no, I guess. Certainly not more than the aminos..
Don't you think you'll get a nutrient rise if you completely stop the np pro?
I'd worry about that..
It's a tough call..
not that I practice what I preach very well but maybe doing it in steps, starting with the aminos would be more prudent.

 

[MichaelW]

Just took tests.
Alk 7.5
Calcium a little low 390
No3 like 0.2
Po4 like 0.02

So those numbers read low for nutrients and some of the corals have become pale or dull looking. However these are basically the same numbers I was running before. It kinda makes me want to continue with the amino and vitamins etc... But I don't want to fuel cyano.
I blew all the sand clean just now water is all cloudy and it's running through a filter sock. Also have all my pumps running on max. Just not sure why this stuff keeps going back all over my sand and why I had a few corals die off.
Will order a triton test to see if that shows anything.

 

[MichaelW]

Starting to wonder if maybe it's dino's... Lots of gas bubbles. Not that stringy in my display tank but quite stringy in my frag tank

 

[MichaelW]

I know it's really hard to tell because the camera on my phone is broken. But if possible to make out, what do you think? This is in the frag tank. Completely cleaned it out last weekend, now looks like this. Kinda looks like dino's to me.

 

[reefmutt]

Those are pretty low numbers..
Maybe stop aminos and cut np pro in half?
I'm really no expert on dinos but they certainly could be.
JBNY talked about aminos recently, saying that from what he has learned, aminos are really just another nitrogen source for corals and given the choice, they'd prefer real nitrogen.. personally, the only thing I've ever seen aminos help in my system nuisance algea.
Maybe cutting the aminos and letting nutrients drift up a bit would do the trick. Only problem is that with the dinos or cyano going, they will absorb the extra nutrients..
Maybe a 3 day black out along with stopping the aminos and reducing the np pro?

 

[vinhle00]

That is not hard to tell at all. Thats definitely dino looks to be a bad case of it.

 

[MichaelW]

That is not hard to tell at all. Thats definitely dino looks to be a bad case of it.

Yeah I'm thinking the same.. However this is only like this in frag tank. Display has bubbles on sand and brown on sand but it is nowhere near as stringy and snotty looking (water is connected)

Any experience with battling them? I've of course read all the different methods but wondering if any of the people specifically here have had luck.

 

[reefmutt]

Fwiw.. I tried dino x along with a 5 day blackout in a very large tank and it didn't work.. that's extent of my experience. After getting nutrients better controlled and lowering the lights, it has been better. Now, I'm going to buy some sand sifting gobies and see if they can keep the sand turned.
Obviously this doesn't apply to your tank too much since your nutrients are already low and you can't permanently reduce lights..
I've heard some say that raising po4 helps get rid of them.... not sure about that one..

 

[vinhle00]

I would definitely not increase po4. That might be a mix up with not doing water changes as water changes usually fuel them even more. As for the difference in the frag and display even though they are connected by water i bet there are other algae competing with them in the display. It doesn't mean the display wont get that bad eventually as dino take over.

The black out is use to put them on pause they often come back right after. Unless you use the black out in combination with other method. You may experience some paling and lost of color. its also a risk because sps that are already weaken might rtn and basting will be a task in the dark unless you put it on hold for the three days.

I would run carbon and gfo replacing them often. The carbon is to help with the toxic that the dino releases. Watch the snails or if you can remove them because they will eat the dino and then die and release more nutrient into the water. Basically what worked me was 1. no water changes, 2. run gfo and replacing it every few days. 3. adding something else to the water to out compete them(there are a few different methods)

It's hard to know which would work because of the different dino stains while some method work for one others doesn't work. What i do know is it helps to just treat them like other algae when trying to eradicate because they still need a source of nutrient like other algae.