Problems, cloudy water, overdose ahhh

dinoflagellates

 

Don't think so Dino is usally a really dark brownish red and has bubble at the end of the string

Seems like some kind of bacteria bloom. Stop dosing the reef energy and amino's. Is your skimmer freaking out ?

 

I don't think it's dino. Just a bacterial imbalance. Message Dr. Tim, purchase whatever bacteria supplement he suggests, dose it accordingly and problem solved. Siphon out as much as you can with water changes as well. Like stated before, stop the aminos.

 

If these are indeed your parameters, I would stop dosinjg everything except Cal, Alk, & Mag. You can always resume later after you have a full understanding of how each additional product will affect your results.

IMO, additives can be the downfall of many that are new to this hobby. Keep it simple as possible.

If your No3 and Po4 are 0 you likely did not have a bacterial bloom.

 

Thanks guys. I stopped dosing the aminos when instructed and I have been scooping a bunch of the gelatin stuff out of fuge for two days now. The skimmer is producing a light brown skimmate that is about 3 times as much as usual so I assume the skimmer is helping. My new CPR reactor came in last night so I hooked that up with carbon and 1 TBL of GFO.

HMMM..... I use Red Sea test kits and I am almost certain the NO3 and PO4 were at zero.

I think I'm going to order something from Dr. Tims as suggested. The corals are starting to look pretty bad now.

If it's dinos the GFO should clear up the problem, correct?

If the problem is not a bacterial bloom or dinos what else could it be? And would adding Dr. Tim's bacteria potentially have any negative side effects? I was really hoping this would level itself out. I am reluctant to "add something to fix something" but the tank is suffering.

 

First of all, your living in my former hometown, and the place of my first college degree, I'm a Longhorn thru and thru. Hook 'em Horns!

Second of all, kinda along the lines of Gcarroll here:
18g of total water volume? And you're dosing and running reactors?
You can try all the snake oil you want, but I'd go back to the basics and perhaps water changes to keep your Big 3 params stable.
IMHO- you're doing way too much, actually causing problems you have to chase, like a viscious circle.

I currently have about 260g total WV, and run no reactors, no GFO, etc.

What ever you decide- good luck and Keep on Reefing!
And go by Huts and have a Shiner Bock for me!

 

If the problem is not a bacterial bloom or dinos what else could it be? And would adding Dr. Tim's bacteria potentially have any negative side effects? I was really hoping this would level itself out. I am reluctant to "add something to fix something" but the tank is suffering.

As I see it, the Dr Tim's would add a competing form of bacteria and that should help. If I were using it for this purpose I would use it over a period of a week or two. Any reduction in available nutrients should also help.

 

Todd - I've been living here for two years now. I'm not a UT student but I am an ACC student lol. I'm sorry you had to move away but once a texan always a texan! I haven't been to Huts but I do love me an ice cold Shiner on draft. You aren't the first person to tell me to just stick to water changes for dosing. My math brain won't let me though. Day 1 Alk is at 10 then day 2 it drops about .5 Alk so I want to put that .5 back in there. When I don't dose the tank hovers around 8 - 8.5. If I let it stay there would I lose noticeable growth rate? I am happy with the reactor I have running now. I just put a tiny bit of GFO in there and some carbon on top. I'll see how it does moving forward. I wan't to get back into feeding the corals again so I assume I will need the GFO to mop up the extra nutrients. It's really hard to get everything dialed in. Hopefully I will get it there soon and quit screwing up.

Bill- thanks. I will probably pick one up. The tank looks like it's getting better but I think some additional good bacteria would help this from happening again in the future.