Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Hoaster
How are things going? Sorry to hear you've had some losses. Are you back on track? I wonder what's happened. Maybe a delayed reaction to the new substrate addition? That seems unlikely, since it basically just adds filtration capacity. I've heard of mini-cycles happening in similar situations. Maybe there was a Nitrite spike.
Water changes seem like a good strategy. Changing out charcoal and/or letting some macros grow out a bit more might help. With a large number of fish, it would make sense to maximize the filtration capacity of your refugium, so it may help to let it get shaggy.
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I am perplexed too. I also wondered about the addition of the garden dirt causing a delayed reaction but like you, I thought that was unlikely. I did worry however that there might have been something toxic in the dirt. That too seems unlikely since I actually have been running a bit of carbon for a month or two. The water definitely has a tint to it when I do a water change. It might just be tannins from all the food I feed so I plan to continue with the larger water changes for a while.
I wondered about the new probiotic food I have begun feeding since the frag swap. Again that seems unlikely because I am sure that the food has been extensively tested but the downward trend did coincidentally seem to start after that. At any rate I have discontinued feeding it for now.
I also had decided to not prune the macros back so much in the refugium thinking that might help. At this point it is a wait and see what happens. Downward trends can be discouraging but I need to remind myself that this is minor compared to a while system crash. I do not want to over-react. I will make these smaller adjustments, and see if the ship rights itself. Typically my tank has become very stable and I need to keep that in mind.