Brand New 8 gallon bio cube

living_tribunal

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What's going on with the rocks.
@Robin Haselden I need to add a cuc to the 55 but my Mel and Toby puffer are hard on cuc. I wonder if a sea hare may be a good choice for you

I nearly went deranged for the last month. Every day my phosphates have been zeroing out. I was a bit paranoid because I really wanted to prevent dino from popping up in my new display.

I turned off my skimmer, no lights on in fuge, started feeding my fish 3 times a day, and was dosing .02ppm phosphate a day.

Every afternoon, the same thing, phosphates read 0. I tested the kit against standards and my tank after dosing and the reading was spot on.

Turns out some new dry rock and argonite sand, anything with calcium in fact, can bind up to 52ppm of phosphate per lb...

So right now I'm trying to find the sweet spot of how much phosphate the rock can bind in a single day to dose higher than that in order to have a phosphate surplus.

Sadly, I didn't figure it out in time to prevent a dino outbreak. So this situation is a tougher challenge than before.

I'm getting close to the dosage. By my calculations the rock is binding about .005ppm every two hours. I'm dosing three times a day and am up to .03ppm in a single dose.

Kind of nuts lol, everyone is like "why in the world are you adding so much phosphate to your tank?"

The plus side is my corals have started to grow even stronger with phosphates being present in the tank for more hours of the day than not.

I'll probably have it figured out in the next week and can start eradicating the dino.
 

living_tribunal

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I understand your pain. I am on that fence now. I just want to drain the tank, bleach it all, and start over. The only thing that stops me is knowing that it can be some other fight later.

You can get rid of it man, I just beat it. You have to hit dino at all angles. Everything.
 

SashimiTurtle

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Mine is in a 55 with blue fin damsels , yellowtail damsels, cinnamon clown and a toby puffer. He stays chill
Everyone but my wrasse can take it. The female clown acts like an offensive lineman sitting in front of the quarter back blocking a rushing linebacker.

I've lost a pin tail, mccoskers, bicolor leopard and a blue leopard from nothing I can think of but aggression from the melanarus.
 

sfin52

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I had to dose 15 mil twice a day for my po4 to say up. With that said the rock will than leach out the po4 causing ha. Avoid the temptation to run po4 reducers. Increase the cuc. That's my experience.
 

living_tribunal

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Everyone but my wrasse can take it. The female clown acts like an offensive lineman sitting in front of the quarter back blocking a rushing linebacker.

I've lost a pin tail, mccoskers, bicolor leopard and a blue leopard from nothing I can think of but aggression from the melanarus.

How did you like the mccoskers? I just put in an order for one and am excited. Started cycling the qt tank today.
 

living_tribunal

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I had to dose 15 mil twice a day for my po4 to say up. With that said the rock will than leach out the po4 causing ha. Avoid the temptation to run po4 reducers. Increase the cuc. That's my experience.

I will definitely be sure to avoid that. From my understanding, and other who are familiar, once the rock is fully bound, it will act as a buffer for po4, leaching when levels are low in the tank and absorbing when they are high.

I consider phosphate the most underrated param in the hobby. I watch it like a hawk. I found that it's just so important for coral growth and biodiversity.

My poor chaeto is ready for 16 hours a day of summer sump light when that day comes.

I'm getting closer to 15ml but it's seachem phosphorous. I think it's less diluted than brightwell which makes the doses smaller. I am considering switching to brightwell neophos after this bottle. I use neonitrate and like it a lot more than seachem.
 
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SashimiTurtle

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I nearly went deranged for the last month. Every day my phosphates have been zeroing out. I was a bit paranoid because I really wanted to prevent dino from popping up in my new display.

I turned off my skimmer, no lights on in fuge, started feeding my fish 3 times a day, and was dosing .02ppm phosphate a day.

Every afternoon, the same thing, phosphates read 0. I tested the kit against standards and my tank after dosing and the reading was spot on.

Turns out some new dry rock and argonite sand, anything with calcium in fact, can bind up to 52ppm of phosphate per lb...

So right now I'm trying to find the sweet spot of how much phosphate the rock can bind in a single day to dose higher than that in order to have a phosphate surplus.

Sadly, I didn't figure it out in time to prevent a dino outbreak. So this situation is a tougher challenge than before.

I'm getting close to the dosage. By my calculations the rock is binding about .005ppm every two hours. I'm dosing three times a day and am up to .03ppm in a single dose.

Kind of nuts lol, everyone is like "why in the world are you adding so much phosphate to your tank?"

The plus side is my corals have started to grow even stronger with phosphates being present in the tank for more hours of the day than not.

I'll probably have it figured out in the next week and can start eradicating the dino.
Just out of curiosity and I guess I'll be that cat, what are you using for Ca and Alk dosing?
 

SashimiTurtle

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How did you like the mccoskers? I just put in an order for one and am excited. Started cycling the qt tank today.
Mccoskers was a sub male, but they are great. Peaceful and will flare up and show nuptial colors if you have any other male wrasse in the tank... different species of course. My shadow fairy wrasse used to flare up at it occasionally. The mccoskers wasnt completely there yet.
 

12gallonsofhex

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You can get rid of it man, I just beat it. You have to hit dino at all angles. Everything.
I did the Elegant Corals system twice. Once while dosing nutrients and then once without dosing per the advise given by the dinoflagellates support group on FB. Sunday I decided to throw a hail mary. I pulled the chaeto out, dosed nutrients, over fed pellets and reef chilli for 2 days, added bacteria and vodka to force a bloom, and blacked out the tank. I am anxious to see what the tank looks like tomorrow.
 

12gallonsofhex

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@12gallonsofhex can you pull all the sand make the dino go into the water. Start fresh with new sand. I know your dealing with the hardest strain to kill.
I am worried about spiking the ammonia and losing what beneficial bacteria I have. It may come down to that though.
 

living_tribunal

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I did the Elegant Corals system twice. Once while dosing nutrients and then once without dosing per the advise given by the dinoflagellates support group on FB. Sunday I decided to throw a hail mary. I pulled the chaeto out, dosed nutrients, over fed pellets and reef chilli for 2 days, added bacteria and vodka to force a bloom, and blacked out the tank. I am anxious to see what the tank looks like tomorrow.


I'd go a step further. So i literally did everything in the book to get rid of it.

1.) Added uv sterilizer.
2.) Removed all cuc.
3.) Dosed hydrogen peroxide twice a day.
4.) 3 day blackout.
5.) Fed live phytos every single day.
6.) Dosed phos and nitrate every day (always keep the nitrates lighter so they don't reduce the phos too much)
7.) Turkey basted out the dino every day.
8.) Stopped feeding reef roids.

I think there were a few more things but those were the main points of attack. I also added a carbon packet to absorb the toxins so the corals didn't get stressed by the toxins.
 

living_tribunal

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I am worried about spiking the ammonia and losing what beneficial bacteria I have. It may come down to that though.

And causing a bacterial bloom at that. I'd only baste the rocks and keep the sand alone. Everything is probably under enough stress in the tank.
 

12gallonsofhex

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And causing a bacterial bloom at that. I'd only baste the rocks and keep the sand alone. Everything is probably under enough stress in the tank.
The problem is that they are only in the sand. There may be a small amount on the rocks, but its not at all noticeable. I have the anphydinium that are hard to rid, but not very toxic. I have had no losses of cuc, corals, or fish.
 

living_tribunal

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A quick note as well, be sure to raise parameters before the blackout. You want everything in place once the dino is gone to support algae growth. The second you see any film algae or cyano, you're going to make it.

You just need to keep the new algae and let it grow out.

It's like an older sibling that beats the tick out of you every day but when push comes to shove, he has your back.
 

living_tribunal

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The problem is that they are only in the sand. There may be a small amount on the rocks, but its not at all noticeable. I have the anphydinium that are hard to rid, but not very toxic. I have had no losses of cuc, corals, or fish.

Large amphidinium or small? If I remember correctly, small is a doozie. It too up to 8 days of blackout in one test to eradicate them.

All you want to accomplish by the blackout is knock out the majority of them and weaken them. They will be super easy to turkey baste once you turn the lights on. So go immediately to town. I'd consider doing a light gravel suck and dump in some fritz turbo start and also get a cheap $25-$50 uv to prevent a bacterial bloom.

A bacterial bloom is chump change compared to dino which is by far the worst thing I've experienced since starting this hobby.

Once they are weak, the algae will prevail if your nutrients are up.
 
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