First I was dosing vodka for about 4 months and then I switched to vinegar which has been 4 or 5 months. I'm only dosing 10 ml per day which isn't much at all for vinegar. I started carbon dosing and adding bacteria to see if I could out compete the cyano but it didn't help at all. I never really had a nitrate issue I just tried carbon dosing to run a unls system for sps and try to rid the cyano.

Denny would you pull the gfo offline?

if it were me right now i would cut back on the carbon dosing and pull the gfo temporarily.

i would look at adding carbon and then stopping vinegar all together for a while.

still cut back on feeding but let everything settle back to low range and not so close to ULNS, these are very hard to keep stable when looking at it from a nutrient point of view( tough balance to keep stable, one binds the other feeds)

once your back to low range you can then try again with the vinegar and gfo , although i would start with the vinegar and add the gfo later or only when po4 is creeping up on you.

half the problem is the carbon dsoing is pulling out anything readable on nitrates but isnt doing it for the phosphates, in an ULNS system 0.02 for po4 is a bit high when you cant see anything for nitrates, what are you using im assuming the hanna ULR? cyano being resilient pulls out food where ever it can get it, sometimes more often then not for only whats available....half the reason why its so hard to pin point a cause:)

how low is your bioload ?



you using bulk gfo or rowaphos?

at your point theres nothing dying so i would do all this slowly and bring it back to low range , your corals will darken a bit you may even get some more cyano or diatoms but colors can come back and diatoms will go away , same with the cyano.

of course.....its all hard to pin point but i have noticed this many times while using carbon dosing methods.

other options are to start adding natural po4 removers like cheato and mangroves etc. , maybe not now while so low but once you get up there again.



cheers buddy


denny

Ok I'll give that a shot!
For checking phosphates I use an Elos kit
Bio load is light to medium
Rowaphos is what I've always used

Thanks a lot for your help

a little advice when trying to go with ULNS is too up your bioload the lower your getting, as well coral supplementation may or may not have to be met.

good luck buddy if you go slow back to low then slowly back to ULNS with a few extra steps youll find it will go away really quick and may not see again. its common for this to happen.

That's what I would do too.

Thanks for all the help. I just turned the vinegar and gfo offline. I'll report back with the results.

go easy on food for now so the po4 doesnt creep up to fast:)

Does the "redfield ratio" take account here? 16:1 nitrate to phosphate?

if i were you i would post this to RC as RHF is posting alot these days and he would help you better in the answers:)