Half of my aquarium looks good. The other half ... I’m not sure.

Vahanyos · Mar 25, 2018

I forgot to ask, how old is the tank? Your tank does look good, maybe it’s one of those things where you just have to keep up your wc schedule and wait it out. My tank still have random algae blooms very minor and go away with water changes. Oh, I also cut back on feeding a little

TinyChocobo · Mar 25, 2018

It’s about 2 months old - but I had live rock for a few months prior that I had in with my marinepure.

I did my best to make sure it was cycled before I started.

saltyfilmfolks · Mar 25, 2018

Cheese!! 2 mo and corraline like that?

Look at some pics, don’t stress. Dino’s , dino flagellates. are usually snotty brown with bubbles. Like most stuff they usually cycle through as a phase. Siphon it off. Check the nutrients to make sure it’s not super low.

If you’re running GFO you should stop.

TinyChocobo · Mar 26, 2018

No GFO. Just a small chaeto reactor that’s it.

TinyChocobo · Mar 26, 2018

The stuff in the back looks more like dinos than anything else I've ever seen. It's getting long / stringy / snot like and definitely has a lot of bubbles in it.

I siphoned some out into a glass, shook the glass, then poured it through a paper towel into another glass and will give it an hour or two to see if it coalesces back into a stringy mess. I also have a microscope coming that will be here Wednesday.

If it is dinos - I may kill the lights for a few days, turn off flow to my chaeto reactor, and dose some H2O2.

Short of the microscope - and the general description of looking like brown snot and having bubbles - is there anything else I can do to try and verify they are or are not dinos?

TinyChocobo · Mar 26, 2018

I managed to locate some food-grade hydrogen peroxide 35% nearby. It's 1 part peroxide to 11 parts water to make a 3% solution - and this avoids the stabilizers/additives in the normal on-the-shelf 3% stuff.

I'll stop my chaeto reactor pump and then dose 1ml per 10g of water - so about ~9.5ML if I estimate correctly for displaced water. The only thing I'm not sure about is how quickly the H2O2 will dissipate.

saltyfilmfolks · Mar 26, 2018

Go very very very slow on the peroxide. It’s potent. It’s also a nondescruminate killer.

And Dino’s are not a death sentence. One thing I like to keep in mind while on the net, you see a lot of bad , most folks won’t post about the good.
I’ve had snotty crud pop up, did nothing, and it went way with normal husbandry.
Many report the same.

TinyChocobo · Mar 26, 2018

Yeah I’m just picking it up and getting prepared just in case.

Phosphates are 0.1 PPM and Nitrate is 5 PPM.

Anything else I should test?

My Chaeto reactor was totally overgrown - I’ve culled about 75% of the chaeto.

TinyChocobo · Mar 26, 2018

Alk is 7.9 DKH and Calcium is 525 PPM

saltyfilmfolks · Mar 26, 2018

Maybe just the tds of the source water really.

Look for aminos and vitamin c in foods. That kind of stuff. See if it makes a difference.

TinyChocobo · Mar 26, 2018

saltyfilmfolks said:
Maybe just the tds of the source water really.

Look for aminos and vitamin c in foods. That kind of stuff. See if it makes a difference.

I'm running Dual Membranes in Series, Cation Resin, Anion Resin, 3 Mixed-Bed Resins. My TDS coming out of the membranes is 7 TDS, out of the Anion is 2 TDS, out of the mixed bed 1 is 0 TDS. Mixed bed 2 and 3 are obviously also 0.

I've been feeding frozen mysis with selcon and nori.

To be honest - from where this is cropping up - it looks like it's coming from the rocks. Not sure if it's a low flow thing or a nutrient thing or what.

I'm not worried but do want to be prepared should things go bad. I've had a reef all but taken over by thick red cyano - and I didn't fret - just took it out with water changes and let it run its course

.

saltyfilmfolks · Mar 26, 2018

You got this covered!!

And dang , I wish I had your water! Mine is 360+ from the tap. Just burns the resins and carbons up.

TinyChocobo · Mar 26, 2018

Mine does too and that’s why I have non-Mixed bed resin followed by multiple mixed. I was going through a mixed cartridge in about ~75 gallons.

That said I have dual carbon blocks but haven’t worked out how to tell if I’ve used one up.

saltyfilmfolks · Mar 26, 2018

Thanks for the tip. I’ll look at that.

With our cloramines here I’m just going to start buying the catalytic activated carbon and pack it myself twice a year.

From what I’m reading I can’t do a dual RO membrane becuse it burns the DI too fast. I’d love to reduce the waste water here in So Cal and not take out a loan on rodi. Lol.

TinyChocobo · Mar 26, 2018

I have mine set up so that I can go down to a single membrane by turning a couple of valves. The waste line restrictor is the same size.

I just have it running dual to make water as fast as I can. It’s in an office and nobody likes the sound of the booster pump running.

saltyfilmfolks · Mar 26, 2018

Nice! My water is bad but it’ll knock ya over in the shower.

TinyChocobo · Mar 28, 2018

I put the substance under a microscope and it just looks like algae to me - doesn't seem to move / have any life. I'm going to have to guess it's brown cyano.