Thinking of doing a blackout

[kyleshaw81503]

hello all I am new to reef2reef and I’m having a little trouble, I am dealing with some pesky, what I’m thinking is either Dino's or Calothrix. I’ve been trying to get nutrient levels up but can’t seem to. Can’t even keep Cheato alive which I’m assuming with a new-ish tank this is going to be a problem anyways.

Tank is 7 months old
Tank is sitting at 0 ppm-1 ppm nitrate and 0 phosphate.

Been battling outbreak of this pesky stuff for at least 3 weeks if not more. I’ve come to the conclusion I would like to do a blackout but am hesitant to the repercussions of doing so. My hopes is killing off the dinos/ calothrix to release the nutrients back into the water and then managing them.
what should I do after blackout to ensure it won’t come right back?

Tank specs: Stock:
32 gal bio cube. Derasa clam
Coralife protein skimmer. Sps,lps,softies
Ai Nero 3 power head. 2clowns,2cardinal
Auto top off. Fire fish, mandarin
And a damsel.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Calothrix and not much help with blackout
Remove rock and place in a container of tank water and scrub with a Firm toothbrush and hydrogen peroxide and return to tank, increase flow slightly and add snails such as astrea, chiton, ninja star and nerite to help with control

 

[kyleshaw81503]

Hey thank you “vetteguy53081” for the quick response I appreciate it. Going to giving that a try we’ll see how that works.

 

[kyleshaw81503]

Ok so I’ve decided no blackout went to the local fish shop and they said blackout not going to do a whole lot. They also told me to pull filter floss and unplug the protein skimmer so we can start raising nitrate. Makes sense but my question now is if nitrate goes up that’s not going to get rid of Dino/ calothrix. It’s just going to fuel it right? So is my only option to manually scrub this stuff off after nitrate raises?

 

[sixty_reefer]

Ok so I’ve decided no blackout went to the local fish shop and they said blackout not going to do a whole lot. They also told me to pull filter floss and unplug the protein skimmer so we can start raising nitrate. Makes sense but my question now is if nitrate goes up that’s not going to get rid of Dino/ calothrix. It’s just going to fuel it right? So is my only option to manually scrub this stuff off after nitrate raises?

Raising nitrates and phosphates should be the first priority, I would look for artificial sources of nitrates and phosphates.