New to saltwater - The story of a recycled tank

[Arthur_Dent]

Saturday evening, November 28

Water was looking a bit cloudy, probably from the snexy times that happened the other day (see video below) so I picked up a marineland magnum polishing filter. Set it up as a diatom filter. Ran diatom filter for about 2.5 hours while stirring sand. Blasted rocks.

I've gotta say, I'm impressed with the diatom filter. Thanks to @Paul B for his threads on the matter. Anyone who chunks nuclear waste into their tank for the biodiversity is A OK in my book. Thanks, Paul, for the threads. Your tank is awesome.

Before:

after:

Reddish stuff (presumably the beginnings of cyano or dinos) cleared off rock when I blasted it. Hopefully the diatom filter got most of it out of the water.

I also recently purchased a microscope. I grabbed a sample of this brown stuff (presumably dinos) off the sand. Will look at it under the microscope.

pic of brown stuff:

Don't think I got any red off rocks, but got something, and will look at this under the scope as well. No pics of the reddish stuff.


Interestingly, while I was running the filter, disturbing the sand/rocks, etc., our RBTA was fine. As soon as I finished and turned the lights back up, the new got upset, and retracted. Spit out brown stuff. Went back to normal after about an hour. All fish look healthy.

New creatures have materialized:

There are some small pointy white snails in sand that weren't in the tank when I started it. Will continue to monitor these.

Saw a bug on rock. Scurried off before I could snap a pic. Presumably an amphipod.

There were 2-3 flatworms on the glass. Not sure if they are the bad ones.

Pic of flatworm:

Pods EVERYWHERE. Coating the back glass, which I haven't been cleaning, and all over the front glass and in the water column at night. They were either in the rock I used, or came in the "live sand" that I seeded the tank with.

Pics of pods:

There are also what appear to be juvenile bristle worms in the sand. I like benthic creatures. Unsure what these are, or if I'm imagining them, but will continue to monitor. "He who controls the spice controls the world".

Pics of sandworms:

Inverts and fish all seem OK. Small clown acts bizarre, as per usual. Large clown and damsel still a jerk. Shrimp still my homeboy.

Green algae expanding on rocks. Doesn't scrape off easily. Purple and pink coralline algae seems to be growing. Weird red algae has entered the chat. Some stuff in the sand is turning green. I hope this is indicative of green beasties eating diatoms.

Pics of algae related:

Other stuff:
- Burning through di resin. Tds off tap is about 415-420. After ro membrane is 17-18. 9 coming off di. Need to order more di resin already. Not ideal.
- Bought parts to build a manifold to bring carbon reactor online.
- Not going to run gfo for now. Just going to run polishing filter before carbon.
- Unsure how to wash carbon out. Will need to figure this out.
- I have some leftover saltwater. Will likely use this, and the polishing filter to rinse it.
- Need to figure out appropriate flow rate for carbon.

As promised, video of snexy times:

Here is a video of a tiny beastie in the sand taken with the microscope:

The boulders are grains of sand. Too cool.

 

[Arthur_Dent]

I checked out the brown goo in the sand with the microsope today.

All of these came from a small spot of brown that developed on the sand bed.

I wanted to see if the brown was caused by diatoms or dinoflagellates. There are definitely both diatoms and dinos.

The dinos appear to be "procentrum minimum", unfortunately, which is the same species that causes red tide. We'll see if they get outta hand, and if they do, they'll be nuked from orbit. Hopefully they get out competed.

Also found a tiny worm, perhaps a nematode? Also of note, the copepod. If you look closely, you can see his heartbeat.

Too cool. This all came from a single drop of water with a single algae strand in it. Pics and vidyas below.
I'm so fortunate that my wife fell in love with a huge nerd, and I haven't managed to scare her off yet...

 

[Emptyness]

Another great movie (Dune) reference.
Keep the pics coming and gl in your battle with the dinos. Nuke them from the orbit.

 

[Arthur_Dent]

Another great movie (Dune) reference.
Keep the pics coming and gl in your battle with the dinos. Nuke them from the orbit.

I can't wait for the remake. Really looking forward to it. Read the books years ago, and may have to give them another read as well.

 

[Arthur_Dent]

12/4 - Dinos in the sand. They're spreading. Going to do the following to attempt to rid the tank of this scourge:

- Plumb UV filter
- Increase flow
- Stir and blast sand daily
- Reduce light or lights out
- Run diatom filter

Will check back in one week. These jerks need to die.

 

[Arthur_Dent]

12/6 - Dinos still in the sand. Did the following:

- vacuumed sand into a filter sock extensively.
- stirred and turned over the sand agressively
- ran a diatom filter while doing this for 4-5 hours
- blasted everything off the rocks (very little dino growth on rocks, just in the sandbed)
- sand looked reasonably clean after doing this.

other
- planning how to connect a manifold, and subsequently, some carbon and a UV setup. Unfortunately, I think I'm going to need to re-plumb my drains and returns, but this time, I'll do it in a sane way that maximizes space under the tank. If you're gonna be dumb, you've gotta be tough, I guess.

12/7 - Dinos appear to be coming back to the sand

- going to only run skimmer at night
- reduced flow from 50% to 30% (gyres on one side of the tank, running the GTC program)
- will monitor

 

[Emptyness]

Did you consider total blackouts (for like 3-4 days without any light), dosing some competetive bacteria (like Microbacter7 or Vibrant) and increasing feeding? I wish you good luck in your battle with them. I think you are off to a good start there - with all the gadgets you have at your disposal. Keep us updated.

On a side note, I think, I also have dinos in my almost 4mo old nano, but I don't want to go all out on UV, microscope and stuff. I also don't have a skimmer and just a HOB filter. So, I am looking on "cheap" ways to beat this pest - like manually removing them and actually feeding my 3 corals.

 

[Arthur_Dent]

Did you consider total blackouts (for like 3-4 days without any light), dosing some competetive bacteria (like Microbacter7 or Vibrant) and increasing feeding? I wish you good luck in your battle with them. I think you are off to a good start there - with all the gadgets you have at your disposal. Keep us updated.

On a side note, I think, I also have dinos in my almost 4mo old nano, but I don't want to go all out on UV, microscope and stuff. I also don't have a skimmer and just a HOB filter. So, I am looking on "cheap" ways to beat this pest - like manually removing them and actually feeding my 3 corals.

Absolutely. This is on the radar, I just have to connect my manifold first.

 

[Arthur_Dent]

Going to log my amphdinium fight here. I've decided to try the "dirty" method and see how it goes. Wish me luck.

Ordered some mb7, mb clean, sponge food (silica dosing to encourage diatoms).

Goals:
- get phosphate up to at least 0.5ppm.
- Get Nitrate up to 10ppm.
- grow algae and diatoms
- measure how fast the tank processes Nitrate and phosphate (or if it does)
- observe

12/11 at around 11pm
Phosphate - undetectable
Nitrate - ~0.2ppm

Dosed 10ml neophos and neonitro (I have this on hand from previous tank owner. Moving to home brew solution when I run out). Fed tank heavily.

12/12 at around 11am
Phosphate - undetectable
Nitrate - ~0.5ppm

Dosed 10ml neophos and neonitro. Killed skimmer and will run skimmer on reverse cycle for the duration. Fed tank some pellets. Turkey basted rock.

Noticed slight green haze on sand this morning. More larger pods on glass than usual. I will take this as a good sign. Fish, inverts and nem OK.

Edit:

12/11
Starting numbers
Undetectable phosphorus
0.2ppm Nitrate

Dosed 10ml neophos and neonitrate
Should yield 0.66 Nitrate and about 0.1phosphate

12/12 - 11:00am
0.2-0.5 Nitrate (salifert)
Undetectable phosphate (salifert)
Dosed 10ml each Phos and Nitrate

6pm
1ppm Nitrate (salifert)
Undetectable phosphate (salifert)
Dosed 20ml microbacter 7

11pm
0.01ppm? Phosphate?
1ppm Nitrate (salifert)
Dosed 10ml each Phos and nitrate
Turned skimmer back on

12/13 -

11am
Undetectable phosphate (salifert) 16ppb hanna (0.049ppm)
Just more than 1ppm Nitrate (salifert)
Turned skimmer off (it was full, despite opening it up more than usual)
Dosed 40ml neonitro
Dosed 20ml neophos

6pm
Undetectable phosphate (Salifert)
2ppm Nitrate (salifert)
Dosed 20ml microbacter 7

11pm
(skipped nitrate and phosphate measurement - will measure in the am)
dosed 40ml neonitro
dosed 20ml neophos

I also took a sample from the sand, which has gotten much much darker since I started dosing nutrients.

Here's a whole tank shot taken on 12/12:

And here is a whole tank shot as of tonight (12/13):

Interestingly, when I pulled some of the brown out of the tank, and scoped it, it appears I've initiated a diatom bloom! Hooray! This is what I was hoping for. I've posted a series of shots below that shows a massive number of diatoms. Still have the dinos, but I'm rooting the diatoms win.

I also tried my hand at focus stacking. I have a lot of room to grow here, but not too bad for a first attempt:

 

[Arthur_Dent]

12/14 11am
Phosphate is 0.01 to 0.03 ppm (salifert)
Nitrate is 5ppm
Dosed 40ml neonitro
Dosed 20ml neophos
Fed tank

7pm
Phosphate is 0.01 to 0.03 (salifert)
22ppb phosphorus (hanna - 0.067ppm)
Nitrate appears slightly darker than 10 (salifert)
**** Targets of 0.05 and 10ppm exceeded***

Dosed 20ml microbater 7
dosed 20 drops sponge excel. (Following with 5 drops per day till diatoms become a mess, and it's tough to find dinos. I have no way to measure silica at this time.)

Plan from here:
- Discontinue nitrate and phosphate dosing
- observe burn rate for 24 hours.

Some photos from today inline. Some observations:
- Green on sand starts to be coming in stronger.
- Rocks starting to change up color a bit. Getting darker again.
- Coralline appears to be coloring darker again.
- Snails are growing algae on shells.

I hope this is all a good sign.

 

[Arthur_Dent]

12/15

9:00 am
ph 7.71
temp 77.2

7pm
Phosphorus - undetectable on Hanna and salifert
Nitrate - looks about 5ppm
** tank is consuming at least 0.067ppm phosphate and slightly less than 10 (7-8ppm guessing) ppm Nitrate per 24 hours. Plan to dose 40ml neophos and 20ml neonitrate at 11

Dosed 20ml nitrobacter 7
Dosed 20drops sponge excel

11pm
Dosed 40ml neophos and 20ml neonitrate

12/16 -
noon
0.03 Phos, 10 Nitrate (salifert)
Dosed 40ml neophos
Does Jar of ecopods
Dosed yellow snow (100ml)
Doesed live pns bac (50ml)

6pm
Dosed 20ml nitrobacter 7
Dosed 20drops sponge excel

11pm
Phos 0.5ppm (salifert) Nitrate 10-15? (salifert)
Dosed 40ml neophos

Mostly green algae on the front glass. Progress....

 

[Arthur_Dent]

12/17

1:30pm
Nitrate 10ppm
Phosphate 0.25ppm
Dosed 40ml neophos
Dosed 50ml pns bac
Fed tank
Dosed 20ml live phyto

6pm
phos 0.5ppm
nitrate - just under 10ppm
dosed 20ml nitrobacter 7
dosed 20 drops sponge excel
dosed 40ml neophos
brought carbon reactor online

11pm
phos a bit higher than 0.5ppm
nitrates 5-10ppm
dosed 40ml neophos
dosed 20ml neonitro
*gunk growing on rocks. blows off easy with a baster. Will baste all rocks on Saturday.
*increased photo period at the advice of my cousin, who's an old school long time reefer

photos from 12/17

 

[Arthur_Dent]

12/18

8:30am Nitrate - just above 10ppm
phosphate - just below 1ppm
Dosed 20ml neophos
* sand looking a bit more green today. pods doing well on glass and sand.

6pm
0.5 Phos (tad higher)
Dosed 20ml nitrobacter 7
Dosed 20drops sponge excel
Dosed 40ml neophos

11pm
Dosed 40ml neophos

12/19
10:30am
Dosed 20ml neophos
Measured immediately after, po4 was at 1ppm

Note - Did not measure Nitrate. Seems the tank is phosphate limited. Going to lit the no3 drop for a few days, measuring daily in the evenings. I believe feeding is keeping no3 up around 10ppm.

*observations - green on rocks spreading. Rock algae is growing. Seems the pods are doing well. All over the sand and glass. Dinos also doing well. Have started growing on rocks aggressively, but blow right off.
* cleaned pumps and found purple, pink and green coralline under the dinos. Nice.
* sand appears slightly less brown, and slightly more green. Going to keep on this path for a while.

I also ordered trisodium phosphate and sodium Nitrate to mix my own solution. The brightwell stuff is expensive and not really customized for my use case. Should be here next week.

Last, I ordered more cleanup crew from reefcleaners.org. Great folks over there. I do suggest supporting them. Customer service is amazing.

6pm
Dosed 20 drops of sponge excel
Dosed 20ml microbacter 7
Dosed 100ml microbacter clean (then will maintenance dose 15ml each day)

11pm
Dosed 20ml neophos

12/20
2pm
Nitrate 5-10 (closer to 10)
Phosphate 0.5
Dosed 20ml neophos
Dosed 20ml neonitro
Fed tank
Live phyto

6pm
Dosed 20 drops sponge excel
Dosed 20ml microbacter 7
Dosed 15 ml nitrobacter clean
Live phyto

11pm
Phosphate 0.25ppm
Dosed 10ml neophos

Going to move down to 0.1ppm phosphate. Green hair algae is growing like weeds.

Grabbed stringy bit flowing off of some of the hair algae in the tank. Although there were definitely amphidinium there, there were several orders of magnitude more diatoms (I think. See pictures)

 

[Arthur_Dent]

12/20

Grabbed stringy bit flowing off of some of the hair algae in the tank. Although there were definitely amphidinium there, there were several orders of magnitude more diatoms (I think. See pictures)

 

[Arthur_Dent]

vid inline:

 

[Arthur_Dent]

12/21
12:30
Phos 0.25
Nitrate 2.5
Dosed 40ml neonitrate
Fed tank
Live phyto

Filter floss full of amphi and diatoms. Changed floss.

Increased light intensity 12.5/25/12.5 on blue channel to encourage algae growth

Targeting at least 5ppm Nitrate and 0.25ppm phosphate. Slowly tapering back.

6pm
Dosed 20 drops sponge excel
Dosed 20ml microbacter 7
Dosed 15ml microbacter clean

11pm
Dosed 20ml neophos
Cleaned glass
Changed floss

12/22

9am
Dropped in a ton of cleanup crew (reef cleaners 75 gallon with hermits)

1pm
0.25 phosphate
Near 10 nitrate
Dosed 20ml neophos.
Dosed 5ml Nitrate
Fed tank
Live phyto

11pm
dosed 20ml phos

Only green algae on glass. Water very clear. Sand less brown that it has been for a long time. (see Pic)

 

[Arthur_Dent]

Well, by lights out, there were snotty strings hanging off the rocks and the tank looked awful. Massively fast film algae growth on the glass.

I haven't seen an indication under the microscope that I have a second species of dino in the tank, but my understanding is that amphidinium don't leave snotty trails. Going to install a small uv tomorrow evening, assuming the rocks look clean again in the morning, and turn the lights back down to 5%, blue only, to see if things improve. I may also consider a four day blackout. Will continue dosing bacteria, Nitrate and phosphate.

Hoping I haven't doomed the cleanup crew I added. Some of the nassarius snails appear doa, but perhaps they just haven't came around yet.

 

[Arthur_Dent]

11/23

Note - rocks were cleaner in the morning.

noon
- phos 0.03ppm (hanna - 11ppb) - salifert looked between 0.03 and 0.1ppm.
- dosed 20ml phos
- fed tank
- live phyto
- most of the inverts I added yesterday appear to be fine (4-5 naussarius didn't make it. 3-4 of the ceriths appear dead, and about 10-15 of the 75 dwarf ceriths are still on the sand)

6pm
20ml MB7
20ml MB clean
50ml PNS live bac
hooked up an inadequate UV sterilizer in the sump. 55w jebao on the way. will install direct to tank once I have it on Sunday.

11pm
Nitrate 5
Phosphate 0.03 (barely)
Dosed 40ml Nitrate and phosphate.
Remeasured. Nitrate up around 10. Phosphate at 0.25.

Turned skimmer back on. Water got really cloudy due to a snail spawning event. Going to leave on overnight to clear things up.

No brown stringy stuff on the rocks tonight with reduced lighting (5% blues only). Anemone didn't like that, but it got over it and opened up toward end of light cycle.

 

[Arthur_Dent]

12/24

11am
Nitrate 25ppm?
Phosphate 0.25ppm (salifert) (hanna says 0.153ppm (50ppb phosphorus))
*note - first time this hasn't gone down significantly overnight. In fact, it may have gone up. Am I winning?

back to 5/5/5 on blues and 0/1/0 on whites today. Ran blues only yesterday all day at 1/1/1. No dosing po4 or no3 (yay!)

other notes
- inverts demolished the algae on the glass last night.
- water was CRYSTAL clear this morning. looked like a milkshake last night.
- sand cleaner than ever.
- I can't believe how effective this tiny, undersized UV has been. real test will be slowly ramping up whites and blues to see if the dinos rebound.

Pics from this morning.

Hopefully this murderous b@stard enjoys his new house, and stops going after the nerites. I think he just wanted a new shell. Luckily, the inverts I bought came with empties.

 

[Arthur_Dent]

Because there was such a dramatic shift as soon as I introduced UV, and started skimming, I decided to triple check everything with a microscope. I dug some of the mess from the back of the tank out an dropped it into a beaker, shook it up, and started looking through the water.

^ The area above looked like a good candidate.

From looking at these, I believe I have found no fewer than 3 other species of dino. That's what I get for not bleaching out all the rock I inherited, I guess.

My attempts to ID them all are below. Thanks to @taricha for the guide posted here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dinoflagellate-identification-guide.671466/

Not 100% sure, but I believe these to be procentrum. Here is a short video at low magnification.

And one at slightly higher mag showing them swimming.

And another, showing a weird corkscrew swimming pattern.

Last but not least, a few stills. Anyone know what the first one is?

The next photo is of one that was swimming tight circles.

Stills of what I believe to be procentrum.