Crazy instability, should I do something or do nothing?

[jnbrex]

First of all, all of the fish, corals, and inverts seem totally fine. 33g tank. Here's a timeline of events:

5/8
Got a Royal Gramma from Biota. The bag burst at some point during the shipping process, so the fish and the bag were in the outer bag when it arrived. I assume the fish was subjected to ammonia poisoning. It wasn't doing well at all but I added it to the tank to try to save it.

5/10
Parameters: Alkalinity 8.6, Nitrate 0, Phosphate 0.02

5/11
Added AlgaeBarn 5280 copepods, live brine shrimp, and coralline algae spores. I added the live brine shrimp to unsuccessfully try to convince the Royal Gramma to eat.
Parameters: Alkalinity 8.7

5/13
The Royal Gramma died I pulled it out within a few hours after it died, but it got stuck to a powerhead and I would say about 1/3rd of its mass got shredded into the aquarium.
Parameters: Alkalinity 8.7

5/14
Most of the algae disintegrated and the sand started blowing everywhere. Slight water cloudiness. I thought most likely nutrients had bottomed out due to heavy skimming and the prior low test. I added about 1 tsp of reef roids, heavily fed mysis and cyclopeeze, and I also turned the skimmer off.

5/15
High water cloudiness, still lack of algae in most places there was usually algae in the tank. White strings on the back glass of the tank. Copepods appeared everywhere on the glass. I suspected a major bacterial bloom was taking place and turned the skimmer back on.
Parameters: Alkalinity 8.9

5/16
Reduced water cloudiness, algae beginning to come back. Sand is still blowing everywhere.
Parameters: Nitrate 2.8, Phosphate 0.3 ppm!!!!!


What is going on? Why did the algae die and the sand start blowing everywhere while before it was held together, presumably by algae? Why are phosphates so high now even though most of the algae is gone?

 

[crazyfishmom]

Reef roids dramatically increases phosphates.

The algae started to die off because there were no nutrients in the tank but the reality is that spores and baseline levels of it are never gone in a reef tank and it’s blooming now that nutrients are back up.

I would suggest you let them come down slowly by performing water changes over time rather than overreacting. 0.3 is not a huge deal.

 

[jnbrex]

Reef roids dramatically increases phosphates.

The algae started to die off because there were no nutrients in the tank but the reality is that spores and baseline levels of it are never gone in a reef tank and it’s blooming now that nutrients are back up.

I would suggest you let them come down slowly by performing water changes over time rather than overreacting. 0.3 is not a huge deal.

Would it make sense to use GFO to strip some of the phosphates out of the water so that the algae doesn't come back too heavily?

 

[crazyfishmom]

Would it make sense to use GFO to strip some of the phosphates out of the water so that the algae doesn't come back too heavily?

I think that 2, 20% water changes will get you down to below 0.2 and that’s a pretty good place to be for phosphates.

 

[MnFish1]

I would use water changes as others have suggested - I would not useGFO, etc etc. A picture of your tank would help to tell why your sand, etc is suddenly blowing around.

 

[MnFish1]

PS - If you're going to add things - like when you thought nutrients bottomed out, measure the nutrients first. Otherwise - adding the wrong thing will likely worsen the 'stability'. There is also a calculator that will help determine how many water changes and how much to change to reach whatever goal you want - (hamzareef.com)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

If the goal is reducing phosphate, water changes often fail to accomplish anything significant since it often desorbs from rock and sand to replace most of what you removed with the change.

I’m not saying you need to do anything about phosphate, but if you decide to, water changes are not, IMO, a good way (unlike for nitrate which is well removed by water change).

 

[MnFish1]

If the goal is reducing phosphate, water changes often fail to accomplish anything significant since it often desorbs from rock and sand to replace most of what you removed with the change.

I’m not saying you need to do anything about phosphate, but if you decide to, water changes are not, IMO, a good way (unlike for nitrate which is well removed by water change).

Good point. I assumed this was more of an issue of for example an old tank - as in 'old tank syndrome'