Diano taking over pico tank

[Alphawolfxz3]

Okay so I have had this pico tank for about 7 months now and I crashed the system three months ago from carbon over dosing and phosphorus guard Elite. I had to move the tank to my new house and in the mean time I scrubbed all of the rock to get the Diana’s off and replaced the crushed coral out with sand and things looked like they were going okay. Until I noticed it comping back. But it’s always on the side where my filter return is for my external canister filter is.
And I noticed when I looked at the filter that it was covered in a white almost see through slime and now after removing the carbon out of the filter the top of the water in the tank will get coated with a white some what clear slime. And my filter flow isnt at do you guys think is going on?

I am dosing coral amino, micro bacteria7, neonitro daily. I am dosing marine buffer in my ATO, and am just barley staring to control my levels of nitrate with sodium nitrite.
2G
Ph:03
No3:0- working on it
Temp:77.5 +/- .5
Ph:8.0- working on it
Photos: January 19 to current date

 

[Nathancquinton]

Hey nice setup!
Dinoflagellates can be a pain in the butt; I'm guessing that's what you meant? Here's a link that I think could be very helpful:
Get Rid of Dinoflagellates once and for all

A few questions for you:

• How sure are you that it's dinos you're dealing with and not cyanobacteria or even diatoms?
• How did you choose to cycle your tank?
• Have you ever been able to register a reading for nitrates?
• Have you tested for NH4 or nitrites? (I ask because you say your nitrates are zero). I'm guessing your tank is still cycling based on your parameters and the look.
• How often do you do water changes?
• What's your water source?
• What's your dKH? Ca? Mg?
• What kind of filter are you using?

So as you more than likely know, Water chemistry is gonna be a hassle to maintain for such a small tank.
Here's what I think you could do to help your situation (if I may):

• Stop dosing Microbacter7/neonitro. Adding bacteria is probably gonna slow your cycle down IME. I personally just wouldn't add anything right now.
• Be able to produce nitrates before you worry about other stuff.
• Don't worry about achieving 8.3pH for now. Dosing is probably gonna do more harm than good IMO and 8.0 is optimal anyway. Make sure you have a good source of fresh air for your tank i.e open some windows for a couple hours and then try rechecking pH

I hope this helps!

 

[Alphawolfxz3]

Hey nice setup!
Dinoflagellates can be a pain in the butt; I'm guessing that's what you meant? Here's a link that I think could be very helpful:
Get Rid of Dinoflagellates once and for all

A few questions for you:

• How sure are you that it's dinos you're dealing with and not cyanobacteria or even diatoms?
• How did you choose to cycle your tank?
• Have you ever been able to register a reading for nitrates?
• Have you tested for NH4 or nitrites? (I ask because you say your nitrates are zero). I'm guessing your tank is still cycling based on your parameters and the look.
• How often do you do water changes?
• What's your water source?
• What's your dKH? Ca? Mg?
• What kind of filter are you using?

So as you more than likely know, Water chemistry is gonna be a hassle to maintain for such a small tank.
Here's what I think you could do to help your situation (if I may):

• Stop dosing Microbacter7/neonitro. Adding bacteria is probably gonna slow your cycle down IME. I personally just wouldn't add anything right now.
• Be able to produce nitrates before you worry about other stuff.
• Don't worry about achieving 8.3pH for now. Dosing is probably gonna do more harm than good IMO and 8.0 is optimal anyway. Make sure you have a good source of fresh air for your tank i.e open some windows for a couple hours and then try rechecking pH

I hope this helps!

I’m kinda sure that it is dianos. But I’m seeing 3 difrent types. One is the dark brown on the bottom of the sand and on the lower part of the rock. The other one is the bright red that is on top of the middle rock. And then the brown/green in the corner of the tank.

I cycled my tank using ammonia and microbateria7. It took 3 days to cycle but I still let the tank sit for two months I think before adding anything to it. When I checked for everything it showed 0 ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate and .3 phosphates.

no mater what I add I could always build phosphates but I couldn’t ever render nitrates with my cheep API testing kit.

ya I’ve tested for nitrites and that’s at a 0 too

I do water changes weekly to clean the algae in the tank because I don’t have a filter sock to reuse the tank water that’s in there.

I’m using an RODI machine 4 stage

I haven’t tested for calcium and magnesium because I haven’t worried on them dropping to low with me doing the water changes so frequently.

I’m using the ose filtosmart 60 for my filter. But it is about two and a half feet underneath the tank. Kinda pushing the MAXLH

Ya I just kinda figured if I try to get the perimeters up than I can slow down the growth of the unwanted stuff. I can’t open any windows close to the tank to get fresher air by the tank. That’s why I’m using the buffer. But I know it will run the tank at 8.4 when it does get fresh air.