Help Identify This? Please!

rickynho

New Member
View Badges
Joined
Jun 7, 2024
Messages
17
Reaction score
3
Location
Miami
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Hello, thanks for reading.

Tank is 11 months old, and I have been battling what appears to be one thing or another since the tank was installed, and to make matters worse I am a newbie.

Long story short, my RedSea ATO started failing and filling my sump with RODI water, I would bring down the sump's water level to acceptable range but never registered that it was lowering my salinity. This happened 3 times in a matter of a week and my salinity bottomed at 17. Needless to say I lost all my corals, and got hit with a bad case of Dinos. Thanks to Graham, I did the DinoX treatment and the tank started to look good again.

Today I am seeing some of the red spots come back on the sandbed, although may be not be Dinos because is different this time. The Dino's had a "strand" that would stick out with a white bubble on top. This time appears to be red slime/algae, but now my overflow has dots. Does anybody know what this is? Should I be worried?

Parameters are as followed, Ph 8.1, Alk 8.8, Amonnia 0.02, Calcium 440, Mag 1565, Nitrate 14.1, Nitrite 0, Phosphate 0.00.

Every research I've done indicates my phosphate is too low, and/or the ratio between Phosphate and Nitrate is disproportionate. I am a heavy feeder so I don't understand how Phosphate remains at 0.00; even though I test with a Salifert and Hanna for Phosphate.

Some corals are doing well, others not so much. I used to get a lot of polyp extension, not anymore, and there's certainly discoloration on some SPS.

What is this? Should I be worried? How an I raise Phosphate?

IMG_3869.jpeg
 

Moe K

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 16, 2018
Messages
256
Reaction score
194
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
The dots look like coraline algae which is a good thing. Don't worry about that.

Red slime on the sand is most time cyano bacteria. Again this is natural and I would not worry about it much.

What I would be concerned about is undetectable po4. That will starve out coral and invite other nuisance issues pretty soon. Best thing to do is to dose something like Brightwell Neophos. Take it slow and test 24hrs after your first dose.
 

HAVE YOU EVER KEPT A RARE/UNCOMMON FISH, CORAL, OR INVERT? SHOW IT OFF IN THE THREAD!

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%
  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%
  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%
  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%
Back
Top