Dino battle opinons

[Sidney3773]

So I’ve had dinos for a while now, tried low lighting, dosing with special blend and nite out, and manual removal. But it’s not really making a dent. So going to look at nitrate and phosphate dosing.
Attached are the tests I’ve just done.

Nitrate at 2 (aiming for 3-10 as per BRS guidance)
Phosphate at 0 (aiming for 0.03-0.09 as per BRS).

So I believe I want to dose neonitro at 30ml and neophos at 14ml as per my calcs at the bottom.
also going to dose Dino X (worth a try) at 6ml.

Tank is 120 litres. Stocked with 2 x clowns, 3 x green chromis, an anemone (who’s not been very happy with all the faffing), a cleaner shrimp, a pistol shrimp, 4 x astro snails, 2 x conch, 6 x Trochus snails, 3 x zoas and a star polyp (I think).

Running a tunze comline skimmer, fluval 7 canister filter and 2 fluval marine 3 lights. Light details attached (currently have smaller light period)

Opinions? Suggestions? Haven’t dosed the above yet as waiting for lights to finish cycle. Tank attached, looks a little sad as have just blown off and removed some dinos.

 

[Saltyreef]

More fish!!!

Also, are those daily doses?
You want to increase your nutrients VERY slowly.
I did the same and the nitrate was raised too much too fast and caused a cascade of issues.

 

[ryshark]

What type of Dino’s? Do you have microscope identification

 

[EricR]

I've been dosing NeoPhos for 1.5 months so just my observations:
Don't be surprised if test 1 hour after dose shows expected PO4 rise but test next day is back to 0.00 ppm.
If so, just dose more, test the next day, and adjust dose from there.

Dosing NeoPhos is working for me but did seem to cause my NO3 to drop significantly so had to dose DIY Calcium Nitrate to bring back that back up. (Based on reading, seems that should've been expected but I didn't know it at the time).

*I agree that GO SLOWLY is the best idea but just pointing out that it took more than I expected to get to desired level

 

[Saltyreef]

I've been dosing NeoPhos for 1.5 months so just my observations:
Don't be surprised if test 1 hour after dose shows expected PO4 rise but test next day is back to 0.00 ppm.
If so, just dose more, test the next day, and adjust dose from there.

Dosing NeoPhos is working for me but did seem to cause my NO3 to drop significantly so had to dose DIY Calcium Nitrate to bring back that back up. (Based on reading, seems that should've been expected but I didn't know it at the time).

*I agree that GO SLOWLY is the best idea but just pointing out that it took more than I expected to get to desired level

Glass Ketchup bottle effect lol.
As the phosphate is added, it binds to rock and substrate. As soon as the rock and sand cant hold anymore BOOM, excess in the water column and too much for the system to handle.

 

[Sidney3773]

More fish!!!

Also, are those daily doses?
You want to increase your nutrients VERY slowly.
I did the same and the nitrate was raised too much too fast and caused a cascade of issues.

I’ve been reluctant to change up the stocking while they’re here, but more fish you reckon?!
Will test daily after to see how things lie and then dose accordingly

 

[Sidney3773]

What type of Dino’s? Do you have microscope identification

Not as yet, but my partner does have a microscope apparently, so going to aim for that tomorrow

 

[Sidney3773]

I've been dosing NeoPhos for 1.5 months so just my observations:
Don't be surprised if test 1 hour after dose shows expected PO4 rise but test next day is back to 0.00 ppm.
If so, just dose more, test the next day, and adjust dose from there.

Dosing NeoPhos is working for me but did seem to cause my NO3 to drop significantly so had to dose DIY Calcium Nitrate to bring back that back up. (Based on reading, seems that should've been expected but I didn't know it at the time).

*I agree that GO SLOWLY is the best idea but just pointing out that it took more than I expected to get to desired level

Aye aye, will do testing and amend dosing as necessary. Those doses should only go up a bit, so not aiming for the full whack of suggested levels straight away!

 

[ryshark]

Not as yet, but my partner does have a microscope apparently, so going to aim for that tomorrow

That's good because different types are treated differently. One type will need UV and other types no UV but dosing silicates helps. Here is what worked for me:

Prorocentrum Dinos - Beat in less than 2-weeks

Here is what worked for me, I wouldn't say my case was severe yet, but they were spreading all over my tank. On the microscope I already had a good amount of diatoms and could clearly see prorocentrum dinos in my slides. I think you can use this same plan of attack for Amphidinium since they...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[killer2001]

More fish!!!

Also, are those daily doses?
You want to increase your nutrients VERY slowly.
I did the same and the nitrate was raised too much too fast and caused a cascade of issues.

He's got 5 fish in a 31 gallon tank, I'm not sure more fish is the answer.

Also your dosing amounts appear to be a bit high. You have to factor in feeding input as well, and also true volume after rock and sand.

For example, I currently dose 3 mL NeoPhos (daily) in my 45 gallon tank (about 40 gallon actual volume), which maintains my phosphate range between 0.05 - 0.09 ppm.

 

[Saltyreef]

He's got 5 fish in a 31 gallon tank, I'm not sure more fish is the answer.

Also your dosing amounts appear to be a bit high. You have to factor in feeding input as well, and also true volume after rock and sand.

For example, I currently dose 3 mL NeoPhos (daily) in my 45 gallon tank (about 40 gallon actual volume), which maintains my phosphate range between 0.05 - 0.09 ppm.

Two clowns and 3 chromis are far from a "stocked" tank unless its 10g.

If you arent having to export nutrients, you can always put in more.

Granted a tang isnt the answer, but increasing the bioload with more nanofish is completely doable and would help with nutrients.

 

[Sidney3773]

That's good because different types are treated differently. One type will need UV and other types no UV but dosing silicates helps. Here is what worked for me:

Prorocentrum Dinos - Beat in less than 2-weeks

Here is what worked for me, I wouldn't say my case was severe yet, but they were spreading all over my tank. On the microscope I already had a good amount of diatoms and could clearly see prorocentrum dinos in my slides. I think you can use this same plan of attack for Amphidinium since they...

www.reef2reef.com

Here’s some photos that I’ve just taken if you can tell what they are. I’ll post in identifying too.

 

[Sidney3773]

He's got 5 fish in a 31 gallon tank, I'm not sure more fish is the answer.

Also your dosing amounts appear to be a bit high. You have to factor in feeding input as well, and also true volume after rock and sand.

For example, I currently dose 3 mL NeoPhos (daily) in my 45 gallon tank (about 40 gallon actual volume), which maintains my phosphate range between 0.05 - 0.09 ppm.

I’d say total volume is 105l, so will amend that in my next lot of calculations.

It may be early to judge, but after last night’s dosing the come back doesn’t seem to be as aggressive today

 

[Sidney3773]

Here’s some photos that I’ve just taken if you can tell what they are. I’ll post in identifying too.

I think these ones?

 

[dwest]

Here’s some photos that I’ve just taken if you can tell what they are. I’ll post in identifying too.

I think those are prorocentrum

 

[TokenReefer]

go to the lfs and pick out the nastiest algae ridden rock they got buy it and throw it in :). kinda crazy i know but you need some competing algae I think..

 

[TokenReefer]

go to the lfs and pick out the nastiest algae ridden rock they got buy it and throw it in :). kinda crazy i know but you need some competing algae I think..

coralline algae works better probably if you can get that goin

 

[Sidney3773]

coralline algae works better probably if you can get that goin

Just been to the LFS and got some bangai cardinals, coraline algae scrapings, phytoplankton and copepods

 

[ryshark]

Here’s some photos that I’ve just taken if you can tell what they are. I’ll post in identifying too.

Prorocentrum. Same as mine. Consider the plan of attack I used in that link.
Silicates dosing is important.

 

[ryshark]

go to the lfs and pick out the nastiest algae ridden rock they got buy it and throw it in :). kinda crazy i know but you need some competing algae I think..

I wouldn’t do this, who knows what algae type you’ll be adding. Could be worse than Prorocentrum. For competition just dose Silicates to grow diatoms to outcompete the Dino’s.