Fudsey's 135.4 Box of Water

Katrina71 · Jan 9, 2019

Update? C'mon we need a pic

Fudsey · Jan 9, 2019

Still have strings in the sand. Same corals still peeved. I have 4 BTAs now and all 4 are about the size of a 1/2 dollar coin and almost completely retracted. Water is clear and skimmer is back to normal. Too late for pics tonight as lights are almost off. Skipped this weeks Vibrant dose, but sure it wasn't the problem as I have been dosing 1 x per week or 2 for months. No idea what is causing it and need some ideas on where to go from here. Not touching anything til this week end to see if anything improves.

RichtheReefer21 · Jan 9, 2019

Fingers crossed for u that it clears itself up

Janci · Jan 10, 2019

If it are dinos, @Rakie had an idea to use Dr. Tims. Dosing at night and follow up with carbon dosing.
I believe he had good results.

Rakie · Jan 10, 2019

Janci said:
If it are dinos, @Rakie had an idea to use Dr. Tims. Dosing at night and follow up with carbon dosing.
I believe he had good results.

After having lackluster success with my typical treatment my club pres had a suggestion. He basically does the opposite of what Dr Tim advised, which was to dose his Waste-Away, followed by some carbon dosing. I believe Dr Tim doesn't advise this because it could cause a strong bacterial bloom, to the point where it may be dangerous for fish and corals.

So far, it's worked well. I was using waste-away by itself and it hadn't helped, but the addition of carbon dosing did -- literally overnight. They aren't 100% gone, but are absolutely in remission.

A lot of other people have always suggested dosing nutrients as well -- So since I'm dosing carbon, and bacteria, I've had to dose some po4/kno3 to make sure they don't bottom out. Previously dosing nutrients was a large part of beating dinos.

So if you try this -- be very careful, and make sure to watch your tank. This is specifically done at night

mta_morrow · Jan 10, 2019

Scurvy said:
Fairly typical for the bubbles to remain another day or so even after the water change.

I normally kill the lights while treating. Ive read of people doing it either way but to me it just seemed logical. No wrapping the tank or anything crazy. Just lights out.

Keep yoyr chin up. I tested almost 50ppm nitrate, .4 PO4 and alk at 6.6dkh. No wonder the trachy hates me!!

Agree and I always ran lights out, unwrapped tank as well.

A PO’d coral here and there is common but never lost one.

Took my finger leather 10 days to come back after this round but hey, my leathers kinda do what they want to do anyway!

siggy · Jan 10, 2019

Sad to hear your struggling, I am worried about mine too, I am battling similar parameters, no N and elevated P and was considering Vibrant. Have you done a ACP test lately ? Im sending one out this week. BOL
BTW What happen to @mcarroll

Fudsey · Jan 10, 2019

Thanks for the advice, I'll take it under advisement. I really need to have it identified.

Anyone got a microscope that I can send a sample to? Another question is will freezing affect the sample?

Rakie · Jan 10, 2019

mta_morrow said:
Agree and I always ran lights out, unwrapped tank as well.

A PO’d coral here and there is common but never lost one.

Took my finger leather 10 days to come back after this round but hey, my leathers kinda do what they want to do anyway!

I did a 3 day blackout for dinos once as an experiment, as suggested by someone who shall not be named (cough @mdbannister cough).. My neon goby got so stressed he had lympho when I looked at the tank, it also got my blenny. Both fish were completely fine prior to blackout. Sucked. Sometimes things just go wonky though. Nature of the beast.

Fudsey · Jan 10, 2019

Here's what I am seeing....

This is basically all over everything. Looks like strings or hair. If I dislodge it, it floats away in the current and is easily blown off. All it takes is a turkey baster and it comes off.

Here's a FTS, you can see the Gorg. and GSP(3 rocks in front) completely retracted.

Compared to 25 days ago with some cyano around goniopora. The strings are not there but hard to see in either pic.

Scurvy · Jan 10, 2019

Definitely Dino. No idea on the strain though. Looks similar to what I had in my Reefer the first 6 months or so it was up. I had been running it way too clean.

It actually cleared up while I was on vacation and my nephews fed ridiculously. I would clean and clean and clean some more trying to get ahead of it and all I was doing was feeding it.

I think manual cleaning each day of a blackout in conjunction with dosing N&P may be what you need to do. Heavy mechanical filtration as well. Socks or floss. Whatever you use but changed daily after manual cleaning and blowing it into the water column.

._Z_. · Jan 10, 2019

Looks like Dino to me too, but microscope would confirm. Of course look at the Dino thread, I’m battling dinos right now and it’s a beast, good news is the cyano was competing with it.

Fudsey · Jan 10, 2019

Well just tested PO4 and NO3 and now that cyano is mostly gone I think the numbers are about right

PO4 - .071 (shut off GFO for 2 days and it must have gone high)
NO3 - 1

Dosed NeoNitro at 65 ml which should raise it to about 3.5-4 if 1 ml raises 1 gal to ~5. I'll test tomorrow and see where it is.

Going to add 10 ml Vibrant now and see if cyano comes back.

Rakie · Jan 11, 2019

One of the first things people do to kill dinos is add nutrients, and your no3 looks very low, so good you're dosing some. I tell everybody to aim for 10 minimum no3, and 0.1 po4 (not a typo). You need good algae to combat dinos, and out compete them. Let algae grow on the glass for awhile and take root.

Also, dosing vibrant is a scary idea in general. We've discussed this at length in my club, almost every member who has used vibrant ended up with a different type of invasive algae, or dinos. If you look at the long thread on it, it almost never seems to work for anybody without some consequences. That's the problem with algaecides.

I would suggest as much manual removal as possible too. It helps slow them down, so that whatever treatment you use can finish them off.

Katrina71 · Jan 11, 2019

Any updates today?

Fudsey · Jan 11, 2019

Looks the same today. Added 2 things of Algagen pods, 1 Tisbe and 1 Apocyclops. Hopefully they will help combat this stuff. I had a large pod population before I added the Blenny and the Wrasse. I think they put a hurt on the pods. Hopefully these will multiply before they get eaten and will beat the dinos back.

@Rakie I have beaten dinos before in another tank with Vibrant and never got cyano but my NO3 in that tank were very high (over 80). I used Vibrant and manual removal but it was also the snotty looking dinos I had before. This is more like what @Abhishek had and documented HERE... It looks pretty much identical.

tripdad · Jan 11, 2019

I beat dino's after Vibrant by using a UV sterilizer and daily basting to get them into the water column along with nutrient level correction. Just my experience, not proof of anything.

GoVols · Jan 12, 2019

Fudsey,
Sorry for your troubles... :mad:

If you can get your nitrates up, it should help with cyano and or dino's.

You will over come, just going to take time.

Freddie

Katrina71 · Jan 12, 2019

How does it look today?

Fudsey · Jan 12, 2019

Well, after adding the pods and stirring up the crud yesterday, it actually looks a tiny bit better. tiny..... on the sand, rocks and corals it's still present.

Also I think I found what might be bothering my original frogspawn. I found a few vertimid snails on the stalks. What I thought was dino strands may have been webs from vertimid. And a decent sized aiptasia.

Getting some more Tisbe pods and some phyto from a guy semi local on Tuesday. @Scurvy gave me his info and I talked to him yesterday about getting some. Still hoping the pods and phyto are the answer to getting it under control.