YHSublime

Go with your plan of ESV for 2 part. Remember, calcium and alkalinity are tied together. Good rule of thumb is don’t climb higher that 1 dKH point a day. If you’re dosing manually for now to get good levels, make sure to space out each part to deter precipitation. if you have fish and a CUC, just feed a little heavier, you’ll get your phosphates and nitrates up.

Wasn’t able to get to a microscope last night, but, a little past 24 hours and it seems to be almost completely gone. Who knows what the story is once the lights come back on, but for now it’s nice to see everything thriving in the dark…

cool. Cool cool cool. Will get a confirmation ID and go from there.

It's definitely dinos after doing the coffee filter test. I'm going to head over to my friends house tonight and get a photo under a microscope so I can figure what what type. No sense in guessing, but I am doing a little pre-emptive strike here. Yesterday early evening I cut my lights off, and I'm going to do an at least 24 hour "black out." I put that in quotes, because I'm not covering up the sides, etc, so some light is penetrating. I've been worried about overfeeding such a small tank (I downgraded from a 100 gallon tank volume to a 35 gallon tank volume, and only moved 3 fish over. I'm now no longer worried about feeding the fish. Good news is I only feed frozen (LRS) and everything goes in the tank (I thaw in a shot glass in tank water and then broadcast feed, so I don't think I'll have issues bottoming out nutrients. I've taken my skimmer cup off. I've slowly bumped my tank temperature up to 81, and 82 by the end of today. I'm going to shout out to some buddies and see about getting some LR or scoop of sand to add to my display. I'm also going to grab some pods, a CUC, and some phyto, if I can find it. I know I'm just throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks, but I'd rather start chipping away than being idle. Whatever kind it is, it's very aggressive. I've already lost several valuable pieces. So I'm barebottom, and most of this seems to be growing on the corals/frag rack. To be fair, I don't have a lot of exposed rock, as most of it is covered with corals. If it's open water dino's, then I'll get a UV, but I'll hold off until I have a proper diagnosis. For what it's worth, the 12 hour lights off seems to have quelled a lot of the growth I normally see by now.

Based on how that works, I can already tell you it’s Dino’s, bit I’ll do the test anyways. I just siphoned this morning from my DT into the sump, and all the pieces I siphoned are covered again already. And were covered in like 2 hours again.

good point. phosphate is between .025 and .05 nitrate is 10 I’m not familiar with the coffee filter test, and I don't have a microscope. I might have a neighbor that does, I'm looking into that now.

no, I have a 9” clam, do you think that would effect it?

nutrient levels could be out of wack. I’m feeding much less, and y filtration is much more efficient.

Hey WAMAS! So a bit of a story, and advice requested: My gigantica decided to walk into an MP40 a few weeks back. I was home, it was a Saturday, and I caught it within the first 10 minutes or so of doing it. The anemone is fine, but there is a bit of a chunk taken out. The aquarium was a mess, and I did a 100% water change. I replaced all the filter socks, floss, added some carbon, emptied the skimmer cup and set it to aggressively skim. Looked like I was out of the woods, no harm, no foul. Now I have this super aggressive cotton candy/dino looking algae, coupled with hair algae all over the tank. Within 24 hours of removing it, it's back again. I'm continuing to do frequent water changes, but it's to the point in which a lot of the zoos or palys wont even open, or cant open. Am I just doing a small water change every day and siphoning it out? Is there something I can do, like get a large CUC, reduce my photo period, fluconazole? All of the above?

Amazon seems to be the go… for now

doesn’t sound bad, your risk tolerance is whatever you set it at.

Yeah, I don't know if it matters or not. But I have a 20' roll coming (aquarium grade) at about $35. It should last me at least the year. I've found that the pad above my filter socks blocks a lot of stuff, and helps keep from swapping them out for a longer period of time. Amazing how much gunk is coming out.

I think you'll find that any store (if you want to do local) should be able to do an order for you. I know you want to see them, and you're disappointed with what's in stock, but I think that model is gone the way of the Dodo. I'm sure that sitting on inventory/livestock and hoping it moves doesn't produce a decent enough amount of money to make it worth having a large livestock selection on hand. Are you QT'ing at home? I only ask because you said that's what you were interested in (buying QT'd) If you didn't, then I don't think it matters much who gets them for you. YMMV.

As soon as I posted this, I just went to amazon and found what I was looking for and bought it. Used to be you could find obscure stuff like that at Michaels, etc. I kept it up in case anybody else is looking and happens to come across this thread!

Hey WAMAS, I found some big rolls of filter pads in my basement, I’ve been cutting them to the size I need, and I’m nearly out, and have no idea where I got them from. Amy ideas where I can buy them?

Yeah, that's my speculation, just checking with others who have maybe seen this before and have had the same experience.

That's usually the way it works, it drops! I'm already seeing some aggressive coraline growth. Truthfully, I struggled keeping my alk up in the bigger tank as I had the same issue you currently do. In the new tank (current) it's seeing rapid SPS growth, like 1/2 growth in 1.5 months. I don't know if that's standard, but I've never had that. Yes, this is a reef tank that was taken from 80 gallons and put into a 30 gallon. No visible cycle, everything has been doing great. Everything IS doing great, but my alkalinity consumption started very heavy, and then slowly dwindled, by almost half. My speculation is nitrates are much lower now (I've halfed my livestock and I'm feeding less.) 480 and 1300, so yes!

Hello WAMAS! Quick question, that I think I might have the answer to already, but wanted to see what others have maybe experienced. First, I use ESV bIonic for 2 part dosing. When I swapped into my new tank, I was pretty much dosing 50ml a day in an overgrown 80 tank, into 35ml a day into a 30 gallon tank. For about 3 weeks my alk held steady, and I started testing x2 a week vs every day. When I would go back, I'd find that my alkalinity had slowly been creeping up, pretty much a whole point (from 9 to 10) I've slowly been dialing back, and as I do this, my alkalinity will hold steady for a few days, and then I'll find it creeping back up again. I've been playing this game for the past month and a half, and now I've gone from 35ml of each solution daily down to 20. I suspect that what's happening is that my nitrates are not bottoming out, but getting very very low. From a visual observation, my SPS is doing reaaaaally good, and my softies and torches are still doing great, but not peak. This has been a 180 from the old tank.

Another banger

thanks, Pedro! So were 9 days out of 14 in. I will do a 30% water change this upcoming Monday. the corals are visibly happier. I still have not put my skimmer cup back on, although they say you can after day 3. The many years ago I used it, I remember the tips turning white, and dramatically wilting algae away. This time it’s not as dramatic, but it is working, the algae is simply disappearing. the tank looks clearer, the water looks clearer, and nothing seems to be effected except for the algae. Hopefully this will be a permanent fix!

For whatever reason, that frag tank keeps popping up with algae. I've broken it down, and scrubbed everything, and set it back up again. I've added a giant CUC, and I've even done a skimmer and aggressive water changes, and added an MP10 for flow. No matter what, it always starts to take a hold again. So I've started a fluconazole treatment. It doesn't look like bryopsis, but at this stage, 100% natural has not been working on this particular tank. It's only been 3 days, but I'm going to keep my skimmer offline. No visible differences yet, other than the coral seem to be "brighter" or more opened up. This tank also grows coraline really well.

Wow, next update everything will will be out of the water

Thanks! I have a little frag tank (11gallons) as well, but there’s no plan for it.

Wish I had some for you. i think it’s still like the good ol days where you can get it for free, at least i hope so!