Starting to get dinoflagellates

[mchammer]

I have a new 120 gallon tank that finished cycling not that long ago. The past few days I have been noticing rusty looking spots on the rock and sand bed. I assume it is dinoflagellates. My water parameters are as follows:
SG - 1.025
Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 5
Phosphates - 0
Calcium - 350
Mag. - 1230
Alk - 7.0
PH - 8.04
Temp 78

I have not run my GFO/Carbon unit yet because I wanted to have the tank cycle. Should I start running the GFO/Carbon unit now or wait until I see Algae? The only things in the tank now are a CUC and Candy cane coral some zoos and polyp corals.

[Deinonych]

Are you sure it's not diatoms? My tank is finished cycling and it got a huge diatom bloom about a week ago. It has now run its course and has mostly disappeared.

[mchammer]

Yes I meant diatoms not dinoflagellates. Sorry about that. Still should I run the GFO/Carbon reactor now or wait awhile.

[Deinonych]

I just let the cycle run its course. Once they've consumed all the silicates in the tank, they will die off.

[TomTheWicked]

EDIT: My response was a little late...

The Carbon/GFO reactor won't do anything to help with diatoms, just let them run their course.

[P0LECAT]

I ran my reactors from the start, I used all live rock and had a lot of die off. I ran both GFO and carbon. The diatoms will go away, really stressed me out because the tank looked bad, but a little patience and its all good. Here is a good before and after to show you it gets better.

[P0LECAT]

More pics

[P0LECAT]

Now with out diatoms

[P0LECAT]

No more diatoms

[mchammer]

Wow nice tank polecat. How long did it take for diatoms to go away?

[P0LECAT]

Originally Posted by mchammer

Wow nice tank polecat. How long did it take for diatoms to go away?

I had two big out breaks of diatoms, first one occurred after the first month, then I had another at about the forth month, my tank went through a couple bacteria blooms as well. It was very frustrating, however I kept my routine going and by the end of the fifth month the tank really started to come together and look the way it does now. Thanks to this forums support I kept my patience and I'm know able to enjoy the tank instead of stress about it.

[eugene2011]

Originally Posted by P0LECAT

I had two big out breaks of diatoms, first one occurred after the first month, then I had another at about the forth month, my tank went through a couple bacteria blooms as well. It was very frustrating, however I kept my routine going and by the end of the fifth month the tank really started to come together and look the way it does now. Thanks to this forums support I kept my patience and I'm know able to enjoy the tank instead of stress about it.

during the tanks process of maturing, did you keep your tank stocked with corals polecat? Curious if you lost any livestock...

[P0LECAT]

Originally Posted by eugene2011

during the tanks process of maturing, did you keep your tank stocked with corals polecat? Curious if you lost any livestock...

Yes I lost one frog spawn frag. I put it in after what I thought was a complete cycle and my nitrates spiked and killed it. But my ric and Zoa that I put in at the same time lived through it. That one loss really motivated me to do more research and be patient.