Help! - beating Dinos?

[Alexreefer]

Hey Randy, I know you must be busy but I came for your advice. I have been fighting diatoms for 5 months now. I have tried everything, I have 0 tds rodi water(fresh filters). Tried chemiclean if it was cyano. I don't think its dinos(no bubbles) Have a UV sterilizer in place. I added sera siporax to combat my nitrates which I did effectively. Grows everywhere. Easily brushed off with a toothbrush, Grows back in little as 12 hours. When I leave it to grow it grows in mats. I can take some pictures and add them. What could be fueling this as I know they need silicates. Recently added some dry rock as well. Now I am dosing vibrant. And saw vivid aquariums video on how they added bakers yeast and the problem went away.

Thanks, Alex

 

[Saintnovakai]

Not Randy. Well not in the name sort of way but let me ask, what type of sand did you use? Is it brand new? What's the temp of your light? Just wondering if your sand is leeching silicates. In your case I'd run GFO. It's a known silicate sponge.

 

[Alexreefer]

Not Randy. Well not in the name sort of way but let me ask, what type of sand did you use? Is it brand new? What's the temp of your light? Just wondering if your sand is leeching silicates. In your case I'd run GFO. It's a known silicate sponge.

I used caribsea indo pacific black sand. It is about 2 years old but did the sand rinse method 2 months ago I have two Ai prime hds running David Saxby's settings. I am not running gfo. What brand do you recommend?

 

[Saintnovakai]

Was the Caribsea live sand? Either way, if you did the sand rinse method, it's dead now. Matters not, sand could just be cycling again. Wiser folks will chime in. Randy would say that diatoms thrive on silicate and most likely yours is coming from the sand, the rocks or and the water.
Any GFO would work really. Buy cheap, you'll be using quite a bit if there's a lot of silicate and phosphate being leeched. I'm not sure about the aluminum based phosphate binders. Do some research if so but good old rust will do the trick.

 

[Alexreefer]

Was the Caribsea live sand? Either way, if you did the sand rinse method, it's dead now. Matters not, sand could just be cycling again. Wiser folks will chime in. Randy would say that diatoms thrive on silicate and most likely yours is coming from the sand, the rocks or and the water.
Any GFO would work really. Buy cheap, you'll be using quite a bit if there's a lot of silicate and phosphate being leeched. I'm not sure about the aluminum based phosphate binders. Do some research if so but good old rust will do the trick.

Yes the sand was live. I did the sand rinse method to help combat the diatoms. It helped for 2 weeks but then diatoms came back. Will look into some gfo. What do you mean rust will do the trick?
Are you saying if i have rust somewhere it could be causing diatoms?

 

[Saintnovakai]

Yes the sand was live. I did the sand rinse method to help combat the diatoms. It helped for 2 weeks but then diatoms came back. Will look into some gfo. What do you mean rust will do the trick?
Are you saying if i have rust somewhere it could be causing diatoms?

Lol. Nah it's just that GFO is literally rust. I've battled through this problem before. I used the sand rinse method too. The difference is I added a little microbacter7 bacteria just too boost bacteria populations. GFO for diatoms is your first step. If it persists it might be something else. Hopefully Randy can chime in soon but try that. Don't use too much or it will tick off your corals as it will strip phosphate from your water. Slow and steady.

 

[ScottR]

Like someone else mentioned, you have silicates in your water. I’d get a silicate test kit from Salifert and test just to see how much you actually have. Test on a regular basis and see if it goes up or down. Also test your RODI just in case. Once silicates get eaten up by the diatoms, they go away.

 

[Alexreefer]

I have a salifert but have a problem that lots of people have, I am not getting a reading. Will get some gfo soon.

 

[Saintnovakai]

Yeah try the Gfo. Testing is good but it's kinda pointless if the evidence already shows the result of the test. You have silicates. They will burn out but may need some help. GFO should help.

 

[Alexreefer]

Yeah try the Gfo. Testing is good but it's kinda pointless if the evidence already shows the result of the test. You have silicates. They will burn out but may need some help. GFO should help.

I wonder what is leaching silicates because I have been fighting this for quite some time.

 

[taricha]

I have 0 tds rodi water(fresh filters). Tried chemiclean if it was cyano. I don't think its dinos(no bubbles) Have a UV sterilizer in place. I added sera siporax to combat my nitrates which I did effectively. Grows everywhere. Easily brushed off with a toothbrush, Grows back in little as 12 hours. When I leave it to grow it grows in mats. I can take some pictures and add them.

1. Siporax can leach Silica.
2. This sounds like could be dinos to me. Amphidinium type - mats in sand no bubbles.

 

[Alexreefer]

1. Siporax can leach Silica.
2. This sounds like could be dinos to me. Amphidinium type - mats in sand no bubbles.

Wow ok very interesting. Will look into Amphidinium type dinos. I will post some pictures.

 

[Idoc]

I think you would be well advised to step back from the chemicals/guessing and get a sample of that stuff under a microscope! What you're drinking into chemicals would easily have paid for a nice microscope... that will come in handy over and over in this hobby.

I bet you'll find that your "diatom" bloom is actually dinos... probably amphidinium dinos by the sounds of it. All these chemicals you are adding may actually be assisting them to take over! I would definitely NOT advise to run GFO until you know for sure what toy are dealing with here. Of all the dino threads I've read, GFO use seems to be present prior to infestations.

 

[Alexreefer]

I think you would be well advised to step back from the chemicals/guessing and get a sample of that stuff under a microscope! What you're drinking into chemicals would easily have paid for a nice microscope... that will come in handy over and over in this hobby.

I bet you'll find that your "diatom" bloom is actually dinos... probably amphidinium dinos by the sounds of it. All these chemicals you are adding may actually be assisting them to take over! I would definitely NOT advise to run GFO until you know for sure what toy are dealing with here. Of all the dino threads I've read, GFO use seems to be present prior to infestations.

Ok, will try and get a sample.

 

[Alexreefer]

I think you would be well advised to step back from the chemicals/guessing and get a sample of that stuff under a microscope! What you're drinking into chemicals would easily have paid for a nice microscope... that will come in handy over and over in this hobby.

I bet you'll find that your "diatom" bloom is actually dinos... probably amphidinium dinos by the sounds of it. All these chemicals you are adding may actually be assisting them to take over! I would definitely NOT advise to run GFO until you know for sure what toy are dealing with here. Of all the dino threads I've read, GFO use seems to be present prior to infestations.

What microscope would you recommend?

 

[Jdavison911]

I picked up a nice one off amazon for $65.00. You want something with a 1000x magnification. Going through the same thing you are and come to find out its actually dino's so had to change everything up on the battle.

 

[taricha]

What microscope would you recommend?

Metal body, glass optics, fine and coarse focus, diaphragm to control incoming light.
My current scope can't do 1000x power but I can image bacterial wiggles and dino flagella.
It's comparable to scopes in the 60-90 dollar range.

 

[Idoc]

What microscope would you recommend?

I got the Amscope M150C and really like the optics. I got a $40 scope package before it and returned it due to really poor image quality. I think the M150C is around $75-80.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Hey Randy, I know you must be busy but I came for your advice. I have been fighting diatoms for 5 months now. I have tried everything, I have 0 tds rodi water(fresh filters). Tried chemiclean if it was cyano. I don't think its dinos(no bubbles) Have a UV sterilizer in place. I added sera siporax to combat my nitrates which I did effectively. Grows everywhere. Easily brushed off with a toothbrush, Grows back in little as 12 hours. When I leave it to grow it grows in mats. I can take some pictures and add them. What could be fueling this as I know they need silicates. Recently added some dry rock as well. Now I am dosing vibrant. And saw vivid aquariums video on how they added bakers yeast and the problem went away.

FWIW, easily brushed off doesn't sound like typical diatoms.

 

[Alexreefer]

FWIW, easily brushed off doesn't sound like typical diatoms.

Had one of my teachers look under the microscope and it looked like dinos under the scope. Could not get any pics but I think it is amphidinium dino? Not sure that is how its spelled