Dino/Diatom thoughts

[noobreefer2]

Hey everyone, the package with the vibrant should be coming tomorrow. My salinity has also been around 1.024, so I’m going to do a small water change with higher salinity before I start dosing. Fingers crossed, I’m exited to see how this turns out!

 

[ScottB]

If you can get some samples under a scope again and post it is always helpful. 400X and 1000x is good.

 

[noobreefer2]

Alright, I dosed vibrant last Thursday, I got the cheato in a bucket, an I already see a visual improvement with the algae. The long strands are starting to shrink, and the dense spots of algae are shriveling up and getting smaller.

I will dose vibrant every 2 weeks at 1 ml/10 gallons until the chrysophytes are gone. I will do manual removal the day before I dose again and I don’t think I’ll do a blackout because I was looking at some other threads and it seems that it is not very affective.

One question, what should I target for my phosphate and nitrate? I have heard mixed opinions about this algae liking low or high phosphate. My phosphate is around 0.04 and my nitrate is 0-1 ppm.

I also am going to start adding some of the things vetteguy said, I’ll monitor my nutrients more closely and moderate them if needed.
Thanks all that contributed to this thread.

 

[ScottB]

Alright, I dosed vibrant last Thursday, I got the cheato in a bucket, an I already see a visual improvement with the algae. The long strands are starting to shrink, and the dense spots of algae are shriveling up and getting smaller.

I will dose vibrant every 2 weeks at 1 ml/10 gallons until the chrysophytes are gone. I will do manual removal the day before I dose again and I don’t think I’ll do a blackout because I was looking at some other threads and it seems that it is not very affective.

One question, what should I target for my phosphate and nitrate? I have heard mixed opinions about this algae liking low or high phosphate. My phosphate is around 0.04 and my nitrate is 0-1 ppm.

I also am going to start adding some of the things vetteguy said, I’ll monitor my nutrients more closely and moderate them if needed.
Thanks all that contributed to this thread.

Awesome. I like that you are going slow with the minimum dose and seeing some results already.

Make sure you keep a little bit of both nutrients available at all times. The territory that the chrysos were holding onto are freeing up and nature hates having a void, so someone is going to take that space. If the tank is nutrient poor, dinos are the most competitive. I actually had a pretty good surplus of nutrient when I treated for chrysos, so ended up with some GHA. But the slow continued use of Vibrant got that taken care of.

 

[Uriken]

Hello. I usually have a tendency to stay on the sidelines and just read up on everyone's various issues. I felt I should mention a couple things as of late I have had similar issues. Oddly trying to pinpoint the cause of the outbreak has me looking toward a pre-made bag of red cheato the local fish store sells along with their live brine and blood worms. I had for some reason an impulse buy and grabbed a bag and ended up with a new outbreak a day after. Whether that stemmed the algae growth I don't know but that's not for review right now due to that being another story at length.
To the point: I had exactly what you have in your 1st picture. I dropped my lights just a bit on the strength and then purchased a live bottle of tig pods and then within one night with the skimmer and the filtration off I woke up to nothing. I have "reef" Vibrant on my shelf and was going to add a very small amount just as a backup but truthfully I don't like using band aid shelf products. I notice the corals don't like that for a few days when dosed on top of it. But back to the copepods. They helped greatly. I put them in at dark with a tube so they would get to the rock and the main area. Now I'm just trying to get my levels back up a bit since they bottomed on 0 across the board which allows the algae to grow if it gets hold again.
Best of luck. You will pull through one step at a time if you haven't already.

 

[noobreefer2]

Great, I don’t want to end up with Dino's so I’ll keep the nutrients in check. strange that vibrant also harmed your corals, what was the dosage?

 

[noobreefer2]

Parameter update:

Alk: 8.9
Cal: 440
Phos: 0.03
Nitrate: 0.5
Mag: 1250

My hammer is also getting irritated by the algae, most of the skeleton is exposed, I have been trying to scrub the algae off with a toothbrush is that irritating it? Can I do a peroxide dip?

 

[noobreefer2]

Alk: 9
Cal: 450
Mag: 1350
Nitrate: 1
Phos: 0

Just did a manual removal of most of the algae the tank loos SOOO much better, hopefully vibrant will finish it off. Also I finally found a microscope to Id the algae!

Pics:

 

[ScottB]

Oh man. So sorry. Starvation is never the answer for coral survival. I guess I was not clear about that.

Get some fish and feed them 3-8 times a day. Once you have green film on the glass then add coral. Up your nutrient export to avoid going overboard.

5/.05 to 10/.1 for nitrate to phosphate.

Unless you are feeding all day long. Then you can run real close to 0/0 like the ocean.

 

[noobreefer2]

All good, thanks for the advice.

 

[temple2101]

How's the battle going? I've had a long struggle with the uglies starting with Cyano which I treated with Chemiclean. That did wonders, but a month later Dinos showed up. Fought that for a long time with manual removal, UV, etc... and then finally got a scope and found I had LC Amphidinium. Went round and round with different treatments and finally dosed Si and thought I was getting nowhere. Put a sample back under the scope and much to my surprise I saw practically no Dinos, but now I had these much smaller, clumped together cells that I hadn't seen before. After doing some research, found out I had Crysophytes...

I've tried MB Clean with MB7 for a few weeks but saw no real improvement. Manual removal helps, but is just a temporary bandaid. My sand seems to be the worst along with 1 side of my rock structure. Interestingly, this side used to have another rock on top of it for about a year before I re-did my scape. So, Cryso for me seems to love my sand and the areas of rock that have not been "exposed" like the rest. I've had a renewed interest in seeing what others have tried and I'm becoming more willing to try riskier treatments such as Vibrant. Seems that Vibrant is the only product that has at least a few confirmed successes for eradicating Cryso...

 

[noobreefer2]

How's the battle going? I've had a long struggle with the uglies starting with Cyano which I treated with Chemiclean. That did wonders, but a month later Dinos showed up. Fought that for a long time with manual removal, UV, etc... and then finally got a scope and found I had LC Amphidinium. Went round and round with different treatments and finally dosed Si and thought I was getting nowhere. Put a sample back under the scope and much to my surprise I saw practically no Dinos, but now I had these much smaller, clumped together cells that I hadn't seen before. After doing some research, found out I had Crysophytes...

I've tried MB Clean with MB7 for a few weeks but saw no real improvement. Manual removal helps, but is just a temporary bandaid. My sand seems to be the worst along with 1 side of my rock structure. Interestingly, this side used to have another rock on top of it for about a year before I re-did my scape. So, Cryso for me seems to love my sand and the areas of rock that have not been "exposed" like the rest. I've had a renewed interest in seeing what others have tried and I'm becoming more willing to try riskier treatments such as Vibrant. Seems that Vibrant is the only product that has at least a few confirmed successes for eradicating Cryso...

Hey, thanks, the battle is going great, I have raised my nitrate to about 5, and my phosphate to 0.05. I have been dosing vibrant Bi-Weekly, and the chrysophytes are almost gone. I am starting to get GHA, but that is much easier to deal with compared to chryso. For this entire treatment I have had my skimmer off, and my cheato in a bucket, so I can raise my nutrients as much as possible. Ill continue to dose vibrant until all of my algae is gone.

I have also noticed that some of my chrysophytes would grow in "patches", like it would only spread to where it had been contacted (this was only in some cases). If yo want to do what I did, take the vibrant slow, as said previously, I started dosing, and then did a MASSIVE manual removal of all the algae, and it hasn't really been coming back. Good luck with your tank!

 

[noobreefer2]

Hey all, I thought I would do an update on the tank.

The treatment is going well, most of the strands of chryso are gone, and gha is starting to take over. I got a new royal gramma to raise nutrients and I think it’s going well.

Nutrients:

PO4: 0.06

NO3: 4-5

Alk: 9

Ca: 450

Mag: 1350

I have turned on my skimmer because my phosphates are a little high, and I might do another manual removal or the algae soon.

Thanks to all contributors of this thread!

 

[noobreefer2]

Man I really want to up the vibrant dose haha.

 

[ScottB]

Man I really want to up the vibrant dose haha.

Unless your coral are already done for, I would stay the course. If you are now largely FOWLR, then fire away.

Vibrant says it has a small amount of carbon (vinegar) in it, so the skimmer is needed to remove the bacterial sludge it generates. Just make sure nutrients remain measurable.

 

[noobreefer2]

I have decided not to update the dose of vibrant, I'm almost done with the battle and there's no need to rush things.

 

[ScottB]

I have decided not to update the dose of vibrant, I'm almost done with the battle and there's no need to rush things.

I am not a Vibrant hater even though I started that thread about it containing something other than bacteria. The stuff does work. To me, the problem is people think that you can't really overdose bacteria. I mean, if you do, they just starve and get skimmed out, right?

Algeacides however accumulate. So when people OD, bad stuff happens. I think you are fine to coast into the finish line.

 

[noobreefer2]

Hey everybody, I think that the battle is going pretty well still, but progress has definitely slowed down a bit.

I have noticed that whenever I blow/scrub the rocks, a few days later, more chrysophytes and green hair will take its place.

I guess I was wondering what I should and should not be doing right now, if I should boost the dose of vibrant, stop scrubbing the rocks, etc.

Thanks.

 

[ScottB]

Hey everybody, I think that the battle is going pretty well still, but progress has definitely slowed down a bit.

I have noticed that whenever I blow/scrub the rocks, a few days later, more chrysophytes and green hair will take its place.

I guess I was wondering what I should and should not be doing right now, if I should boost the dose of vibrant, stop scrubbing the rocks, etc.

Thanks.

IIRC, you are largely coral free right now, no there isn't much risk concern. My sense is though, that the algaecide should gradually accumulate over time unless you are running carbon or other means of export. Don't do anything drastic.

Do you have volume to add a juvenile one spot foxface? I keep one in every tank I touch. When they get too big I swap it out for another juvenile if they outgrow.

 

[noobreefer2]

IIRC, you are largely coral free right now, no there isn't much risk concern. My sense is though, that the algaecide should gradually accumulate over time unless you are running carbon or other means of export. Don't do anything drastic.

Do you have volume to add a juvenile one spot foxface? I keep one in every tank I touch. When they get too big I swap it out for another juvenile if they outgrow.

I think that I could get a fox face, instead of a tang.