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

[Artillerydrill]

I was having major trouble with bubble algae so I made an in-tank refugium out of plastic canvas and some styrofoam. I filled it with chaetomorpha and let it float around in the top of the tank. It worked. It didn’t take long for the algae to go away. My foxface loved it because he ate any pieces of chaeto that stuck out of the holes in the basket.

Pretty awesome

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

On post number 707 lol...

Ewww.....
crib notes.
Keep nutrints up. Suck bad stuff out or kill it. Add competition. Keep ph up.

 

[Bebow]

Looks like you’re getting a wide range of advice here which has to be confusing! If you can get your hands on a microscope or take a sample to someone who does you’ll quickly know if your dealing with Dino’s which will take a whole different route than cyano or algae. Dinos are round, some football shaped single cell 10 to 50 microns in size and usually very active and bouncing around under + 300x. I created my outbreak by bottoming out my Po4 and No3. Adding those to the tank will help but you may need to remove some of the sand with the Dino’s. I found just cleaning the sand didn’t help as I think the Dino’s where attached to it. I had great result by dosing silicate, Dino’s and diatoms do not coexist. But diatoms are the better of the two and easier to control. Also lost one of my sand conchs and several cerith snails, Dino’s release a toxin that plays hell on any Sand dwellers. Just had the Dino’s return even with elevated nutrients but they quickly went away with silicate dosing to 2-3ppm and the return of the diatoms. There’s a definite color difference between the two, Dino’s are a dog crap brown, diatoms are golden brown but I have a microscope to verify that.
I would suggest a microscope so you know what you’re dealing with. The Dino forum here on R2R is excellent! I probably would have sold my 180 and through in the towel with them!

 

[Kscope]

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

Try reading this page. It might help. Looks and from your discription it is cyano.

http://www.drtimsaquatics.com/treat-aquarium-algae/treating-cyanobacteria

 

[Randy-Carcass]

Give Dino x from fauna marin a shot it worked for me after nothing else did. It took about 2 weeks of the 21 day treatment to clear out all my Dino’s. And to this day I’m still shocked it worked at all. I now keep this stuff on hand at all times just incase. It did bleach and kill 2 acro frags but it’s better than all my coral getting choked out.

 

[Ferrell]

FWIW
Just suspended a battle with cyano:
Vacuumed all cyano I could two weekends running
Turned lights out for three days
Cyano gone
Running limited lighting to reacclimate critters
NO3 had been 0 for a month
PO4 same.
Turned up flow on 2 mp10s
Tested today after two days with lights, NO3 is at 5. Cyano was consuming all nutrients. Feeding only frozen now ensuring good cleansing flow after feeding

 

[ajm83]

If you didn't have any nitrate or phosphate, you wouldn't have algae at all. What test are you using?

This is wrong i'm afraid, I have the same problem with low nitrate and phosphate as the op. I have to dose them both and if I forget the dinos reappear.

I battled the dinos for a year or more, it's not a new tank problem.

Note: this is properly low po4, as in 0 or 1 on Hanna ulr.

 

[JakeK]

Tank is 6 months old

Tank is still new. It can take 2 years to reach stasis. Until then it may undergo multiple cycles including boom/bust algae.

Don’t add chemical sponges/binders. Don’t dose anything. Those become additional variables to account for and can create conditions ripe for something else to take over. Just do manual removal and increase the flow. It will go away.

 

[klp]

I would think both the Dino's and Cyno's have to be imported in rock, sand, salt mix (Red Sea) etc. They are not spontaneously formed out of nothing. Has anyone ever tried nuking the tank first when fully set up before adding fish? Then quarantine all fish and inverts possibly treating them as well? Trying to think outside the box and be proactive rather than wait for the boogie men to show up. Any thoughts on this?

 

[Brew12]

I would think both the Dino's and Cyno's have to be imported in rock, sand, salt mix (Red Sea) etc. They are not spontaneously formed out of nothing. Has anyone ever tried nuking the tank first when fully set up before adding fish? Then quarantine all fish and inverts possibly treating them as well? Trying to think outside the box and be proactive rather than wait for the boogie men to show up. Any thoughts on this?

Cyano and dino's are present and travel great distances in the upper atmosphere. You couldn't keep them out if you tried.

That is one major reason I encourage people to not think of them as something to be killed but to instead alter conditions to allow something else to thrive in their place.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I would think both the Dino's and Cyno's have to be imported in rock, sand, salt mix (Red Sea) etc. They are not spontaneously formed out of nothing. Has anyone ever tried nuking the tank first when fully set up before adding fish? Then quarantine all fish and inverts possibly treating them as well? Trying to think outside the box and be proactive rather than wait for the boogie men to show up. Any thoughts on this?

After a number of years of research in different fields, I went the other way. I put everything in. Natural seawater , kelp , live rock from multiple sources ,live rock w coral colonies in the us for barely days, never had room for a coral qt early on, shells from the beach and odd algaes I found there. My Mexican turbos are actually sourced close to me and I’ve met the guy who drives them across the border. I’ve always had a fuge , well, after a couple months in actually.

I’ve never had a slimy dino bloom.
Crud , I put new sand in the tank a bit ago , and I couldn’t even keep the diatoms alive for a more than about two weeks.
I have a couple conks though, and a lot of sponges.

 

[themcnertney]

I dont see any talk about water source. Are you using RO/DI?

Slow and steady wins the race!

^also this

 

[Artillerydrill]

I dont see any talk about water source. Are you using RO/DI?



^also this

Yea 150gpd 6 stage BRS source water is 120 tds. Never put anything over zero in the tank as of yet

 

[AQD-Seneye]

I too have a Dino issue right now! (Man this feels like an AA meeting! My Name is Michael and I have Dino! LOL)

I am dosing with Vibrant and so far I am seeing some decent die off, I also have lost a lot of snails and my Urchin is toast, so not sure if it is just bacteria, I am starting to think there could be a small amount of algaecide in it. (interesting spell check just changed that to Genocide, worryingly!) I admit I have been double dosing but that would not affect Inverts if just bacteria.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I too have a Dino issue right now! (Man this feels like an AA meeting! My Name is Michael and I have Dino! LOL)

I am dosing with Vibrant and so far I am seeing some decent die off, I also have lost a lot of snails and my Urchin is toast, so not sure if it is just bacteria, I am starting to think there could be a small amount of algaecide in it. (interesting spell check just changed that to Genocide, worryingly!) I admit I have been double dosing but that would not affect Inverts if just bacteria.

With vibrant yes. An algecide of some sort, also a what appears to be a potent carbon source. I’ve seen vibrant spur what appeared(no microscope just standard snot) a dino bloom in a very new tank.

Invert die off is somewhat common. Not sure I’d its starvation or the food in thier gut goes bad.

I thought it was just me, but a friend of ours concurred

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dr-tims-eco-balance-snake-oil-or-not.373347/#post-4574108

 

[AQD-Seneye]

With vibrant yes. An algecide of some sort, also a what appears to be a potent carbon source. I’ve seen vibrant spur what appeared(no microscope just standard snot) a dino bloom in a very new tank.

Invert die off is somewhat common. Not sure I’d its starvation or the food in thier gut goes bad.

I thought it was just me, but a friend of ours concurred

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dr-tims-eco-balance-snake-oil-or-not.373347/#post-4574108

Least I know its not just me then. I had a mild tank crash that lead to the Dino outbreak, now getting No3 and Po4 under control and of course my rocks growing large patches Trump wigs!!!!

 

[Brew12]

I too have a Dino issue right now! (Man this feels like an AA meeting! My Name is Michael and I have Dino! LOL)

I am dosing with Vibrant and so far I am seeing some decent die off, I also have lost a lot of snails and my Urchin is toast, so not sure if it is just bacteria, I am starting to think there could be a small amount of algaecide in it. (interesting spell check just changed that to Genocide, worryingly!) I admit I have been double dosing but that would not affect Inverts if just bacteria.

One of our members, @jason2459 , captured what appeared to be a long bacteria string from Vibrant that directly attacked algae. I don't think he ever fully identified it or exactly how it impacted the algae. So yes, it likely contains a bacterial based algaecide.

If I had to guess, the snails and urchin dying is due to dino's releasing toxins as they are dying off. I think it is important to run a good amount of GAC any time they are dealing with dino's.

 

[Artillerydrill]

One of our members, @jason2459 , captured what appeared to be a long bacteria string from Vibrant that directly attacked algae. I don't think he ever fully identified it or exactly how it impacted the algae. So yes, it likely contains a bacterial based algaecide.

If I had to guess, the snails and urchin dying is due to dino's releasing toxins as they are dying off. I think it is important to run a good amount of GAC any time they are dealing with dino's.

Let me put on my tinfoil hat and say that i think dino is a bio weapon from the dark side of the fish industry. They want us to buy all this crap that no one would otherwise need for a balanced aquarium. This is a joke of course...but maybe..... not[emoji848]

 

[AQD-Seneye]

One of our members, @jason2459 , captured what appeared to be a long bacteria string from Vibrant that directly attacked algae. I don't think he ever fully identified it or exactly how it impacted the algae. So yes, it likely contains a bacterial based algaecide.

If I had to guess, the snails and urchin dying is due to dino's releasing toxins as they are dying off. I think it is important to run a good amount of GAC any time they are dealing with dino's.

My snails seem to die within a week of putting in the tank, I also lost two sea hares and a cucumber all since this Dino outbreak. So I think you could be right about toxins from the Dino. I am running GFO.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

One of our members, @jason2459 , captured what appeared to be a long bacteria string from Vibrant that directly attacked algae. I don't think he ever fully identified it or exactly how it impacted the algae. So yes, it likely contains a bacterial based algaecide.

If I had to guess, the snails and urchin dying is due to dino's releasing toxins as they are dying off. I think it is important to run a good amount of GAC any time they are dealing with dino's.

I’ve seen it in GHA , bryo and bubble algae cases.
Well before “the year of the dino!”
Lol.

Let me put on my tinfoil hat and say that i think dino is a bio weapon from the dark side of the fish industry. They want us to buy all this crap that no one would otherwise need for a balanced aquarium. This is a joke of course...but maybe..... not[emoji848]

One would wonder why I never get Dino’s.
It’s probaly my hat.