I put cyano and GHA in my tank on purpose...

[Artillerydrill]

Title pretty much says it all. Got a bit of a dino problem(4 months now) it comes and goes. I haven’t lost any fish or inverts even though my fox face, tang, and angel all eat them from time to time. I’ve done blackouts(3 day) h202, overfeeding, UV, higher flow, refugium tactics(got a bunch of hair algae down there but it doesn’t grow in the display). My nitrates and phosphate in balance is most likely to blame. I cannot for the life of me get phos or No3 readings. I’m pretty heavily stocked imo. It’s 140 gallon(175 total) display with a mag fox face, sailfin, yellow angel, 2 clowns, 2 chromis, a diamond goby, 2 lyretail anthias, i feed 2-3 times a day ROE, mysis, Arcti pods, pellets, sea veggies. I’m introducing nuisance algae to try to combat nuisance algae it’s probably not smart but at this point i don’t think it can hurt. I also order Seachem phos and flourish nitrogen to try and dos to around 10no3 and .08ish po4. Do you all think this is a reasonable goal?

 

[Artillerydrill]

 

[Leslie Tabor]

I am wondering if this isn't more of a flow issue? If you didn't have any nitrate or phosphate, you wouldn't have algae at all. What test are you using?

 

[Viner87]

Seachems nitrogen is a great tool. How old is the tank? Are you sure it’s dinos? New tanks can produce bacteria bubbles in the sand - that mixed with diatoms often causes confusion. You won’t have any No3 and Po4 because the algae is consuming it all mate. What’s your RO water measuring? Are you using DI resin? Silicates in your RO might be a cause.

 

[Artillerydrill]

I use 150gpd unit from BRS I’ve never used anything other than 0tds water

 

[Artillerydrill]

I am wondering if this isn't more of a flow issue? If you didn't have any nitrate or phosphate, you wouldn't have algae at all. What test are you using?

Using these...i have refills for my Hanna coming tomorrow

 

[Artillerydrill]

Tank is 5 feet long using an m1 and two Neptune Wav pumps as various settings. Sometimes it looks like Dino’s sometimes it doesn’t...not really sure

 

[Artillerydrill]

Seachems nitrogen is a great tool. How old is the tank? Are you sure it’s dinos? New tanks can produce bacteria bubbles in the sand - that mixed with diatoms often causes confusion. You won’t have any No3 and Po4 because the algae is consuming it all mate. What’s your RO water measuring? Are you using DI resin? Silicates in your RO might be a cause.

Tank is 6 months old

 

[DCross]

I had a Dino problem for months. I finally got serious about getting rid of it and did a lot of reading on here. I was hesitant and skeptical it would work, but started dosing nitrate (stump remover) to maintain 2-5ppm. Did not dose phosphate since I was at .04-.08 and didn’t want to go too fast. It took about a week, but the Dino’s disappeared. I’ve been clear about a month now. When I started dosing, I was surprised how much better everything in the tank looked. I’m still dosing and monitoring nutrient levels.

 

[Cscultho]

i fought the same battle as you with the dreaded dino and the only way i was able to get the visible dino out was to remove my sand bed. ive been bare bottom for months now. every time i try to add the sand bed back the dinos come out in force. Ive been able to keep my PO4 and NO3 elevated but still dinos win out.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Personally , I think it’s some new tank uglies.
Most likely form food and waste build up.

My self I like dr Tim’s one and only bottled bacteria .
Perhaps look at the ph first thing in the morning and right before the lights go off.

It seems you’re feeding a LOT.
Rotting food an poo give off everting a cyano and a lot of Dino’s like . Ammoina and the nitrifying bacterias also exhale c02. Cyano likes that.

I wish keep disturbing the mats , a vac or stir of the sand would not hurt. Massive pro biotic to compete with the ugly stuff. A little extra floss or sock to get the organics out.

I do find it a bit odd you have so little corraline algae.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

It should be observed , some dino like high no3 some Po4. But it’s stull speculative as different methods keep working on diffent cases weather it is a positive ID or not.

A fwiw , the balance thing has been largely de bunked. It’s limitation that causes problems. Most often (caviat most often) it’s po4 not no3. As no3 is readily supplied by rotting foods.

But honesty id bet too much food and not read into it.

 

[Artillerydrill]

Personally , I think it’s some new tank uglies.
Most likely form food and waste build up.

My self I like dr Tim’s one and only bottled bacteria .
Perhaps look at the ph first thing in the morning and right before the lights go off.

It seems you’re feeding a LOT.
Rotting food an poo give off everting a cyano and a lot of Dino’s like . Ammoina and the nitrifying bacterias also exhale c02. Cyano likes that.

I wish keep disturbing the mats , a vac or stir of the sand would not hurt. Massive pro biotic to compete with the ugly stuff. A little extra floss or sock to get the organics out.

I do find it a bit odd you have so little corraline algae.

My alk has been very low(or so i suspect) i just recently added the coral and started testing around 7 but I’ve brought it up to 8.2 in the last couple days. I guess that may be a reason for the absence or corraline but I’m not sure. Calcium was 450 and mag 1400.

 

[Artillerydrill]

Personally , I think it’s some new tank uglies.
Most likely form food and waste build up.

My self I like dr Tim’s one and only bottled bacteria .
Perhaps look at the ph first thing in the morning and right before the lights go off.

It seems you’re feeding a LOT.
Rotting food an poo give off everting a cyano and a lot of Dino’s like . Ammoina and the nitrifying bacterias also exhale c02. Cyano likes that.

I wish keep disturbing the mats , a vac or stir of the sand would not hurt. Massive pro biotic to compete with the ugly stuff. A little extra floss or sock to get the organics out.

I do find it a bit odd you have so little corraline algae.

Just did a big vacuum as you can see in the tank shot

 

[Artillerydrill]

Seachems nitrogen is a great tool. How old is the tank? Are you sure it’s dinos? New tanks can produce bacteria bubbles in the sand - that mixed with diatoms often causes confusion. You won’t have any No3 and Po4 because the algae is consuming it all mate. What’s your RO water measuring? Are you using DI resin? Silicates in your RO might be a cause.

Would silicates come through even in 0 tds water??

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Would silicates come through even in 0 tds water??

It does apperanly happen.
Diatoms are generally brown and dusty.

 

[Viner87]

Would silicates come through even in 0 tds water??

I had a similar problem and discovered that my RO storage container was leaching silicates, which were then ending up in the tank. Seachems nitrogen could also be a good starting point to try and balance the nutrients.

 

[Artillerydrill]

It does apperanly happen.
Diatoms are generally brown and dusty.

This stuff forms a semi thick mat and is reddish brown in color

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

This stuff forms a semi thick mat and is reddish brown in color

Yep. That does not look like diatoms to me.

 

[Artillerydrill]

Yep. That does not look like diatoms to me.

I’m pretty sure it was Dino’s at one point and it kind of looks like a mix of cyano as well but i know there are other types of algae out there