Nitrate Readings

Labmonkey · Sep 15, 2024

I have been having horrible issues with dinos the month, the worst in my 12 years of reefing. They carpeted my sand so thick, I initially thought it was cyano. I reduced my light schedule, increased my flow, and started to vacuum the sand bed but after a few days they they moved to the rocks and started to get stringy. Dinos, s***!

At this point my parameters were Nitrate < 5 and Phosphate 0.11, and they had been running stable since the tank cycled back in May. The next thing I knew, it was a complete takeover; glass, sand, rocks, powerhead, frag racks, etc. I added a UV light , in the hopes of cleaning up the water column, and I started to increase my feeding, same schedule but with more food, plus a 3 day blackout. After another week, there was no change, so I went drastic, pulling my chaeto and shutting off the skimmer, trying to bring my Nitrates up. I also started a 1 mL/10 gal H2O2 dosing, along with Microbacter 7 to outcompete the dinos. After an additional two weeks, the dinos have mostly receded from the rocks but are still bad in some parts of the sand bed. Today I tested my parameters, and again Nitrate < 5 and Phosphate 0.12.

How is it possible that, under these drastic conditions, my nutrients haven't budged an inch? The dinos are receding, but its been over a month, at this point some of my corals are starting to suffer. I know reefing is patience, but this has been one heck of a test.

Reef Wizard · Sep 15, 2024

Labmonkey said:
I have been having horrible issues with dinos the month, the worst in my 12 years of reefing. They carpeted my sand so thick, I initially thought it was cyano. I reduced my light schedule, increased my flow, and started to vacuum the sand bed but after a few days they they moved to the rocks and started to get stringy. Dinos, s***!

At this point my parameters were Nitrate < 5 and Phosphate 0.11, and they had been running stable since the tank cycled back in May. The next thing I knew, it was a complete takeover; glass, sand, rocks, powerhead, frag racks, etc. I added a UV light , in the hopes of cleaning up the water column, and I started to increase my feeding, same schedule but with more food, plus a 3 day blackout. After another week, there was no change, so I went drastic, pulling my chaeto and shutting off the skimmer, trying to bring my Nitrates up. I also started a 1 mL/10 gal H2O2 dosing, along with Microbacter 7 to outcompete the dinos. After an additional two weeks, the dinos have mostly receded from the rocks but are still bad in some parts of the sand bed. Today I tested my parameters, and again Nitrate < 5 and Phosphate 0.12.

How is it possible that, under these drastic conditions, my nutrients haven't budged an inch? The dinos are receding, but its been over a month, at this point some of my corals are starting to suffer. I know reefing is patience, but this has been one heck of a test.

The dinos will not go away over night it will take time. Months or so

Keep getting those nutrients up and doing the black outs I might even do the black out for a week if you can

Others are more versed in defeating dinos than I

Uncle99 · Sep 15, 2024

As you see, they multiply very fast.
They are simply a numbers game, so keep at it.
Continue to lower populations through manual daily removal from filters and socks, sand and UV while maintaining stable ALK and trace nutrients, and they will go on their own.

PharmrJohn · Sep 15, 2024

A rule of thumb is that the eradication of dinos often takes about as much time as it took to get them to the level they are now. You've increased flow, that's good. You are keeping your NO3 and PO4 above zero. Also good. Manual removal will help. UV will only handle a certain variety of dinos, not all. If the dinos seem to go away at lights out and come back when lights are turned on, you're in luck. Make sure your flow through the UV turns over your total water volume every 10 to 15 minutes. Realize that UV does not so much as kill them, rather than interrupt their reproductive cycle. If your using socks, change them out daily. You may want to consider setting up a 5 micron Sediment filter as well. Better than socks.

Labmonkey · Sep 15, 2024

PharmrJohn said:
A rule of thumb is that the eradication of dinos often takes about as much time as it took to get them to the level they are now. You've increased flow, that's good. You are keeping your NO3 and PO4 above zero. Also good. Manual removal will help. UV will only handle a certain variety of dinos, not all. If the dinos seem to go away at lights out and come back when lights are turned on, you're in luck. Make sure your flow through the UV turns over your total water volume every 10 to 15 minutes. Realize that UV does not so much as kill them, rather than interrupt their reproductive cycle. If your using socks, change them out daily. You may want to consider setting up a 5 micron Sediment filter as well. Better than socks.

The flow through through the UV is definitely not that fast, as it's a set up as a split off from the return. However, it does look to reduce by about 70% after an hour of no lights. It's why I added the UV. I have been changing out the socks every 1-2 days, but I don't have anything as low a 5 uM. Ill definitely look into that.

PharmrJohn · Sep 15, 2024

Labmonkey said:
The flow through through the UV is definitely not that fast, as it's a set up as a split off from the return. However, it does look to reduce by about 70% after an hour of no lights. It's why I added the UV. I have been changing out the socks every 1-2 days, but I don't have anything as low a 5 uM. Ill definitely look into that.

Good. You lucked out. With the UV, it's just a matter of time. But you still need to find the root cause, otherwise they will come home to eat your food and do their laundry. Dinos these days......