Newbie with Dinos - Plan critique?

trophyhimbo

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Definitely thinking have a pretty bad dinoflagellate outbreak on the top of my Marco rocks after watching/reading about more examples and pictures. I had been assuming it was just a lot of brown algae... Guessing it's because I only had one or two fish in 40g, was lightly feeding, doing weekly water changes, and Hydra LEDs were on full blast for 10 hrs/day. Microscope should arrive tomorrow to confirm and identify species.

Starting parameters: 0.04ppm phosphate and 0.8ppm nitrate (A couple weeks ago this was holding steady at 8ppm...).
Tank finished initial ammonia cycle about 5-6 weeks ago.

Plan of attack:
  1. Manually trim the growth back as much as possible and blast rocks with turkey baster.
  2. Fully cover tank in foil to black out for 72 hours and raise temperature to 82F over the course of 3 days.
  3. Alternately dose Brightwell Microbacter7 and Dr. Tim's Eco-Balance probiotic bacteria during/after blackout (depends on shipping) to aid in biodiversity.
  4. Copepods are currently all over my glass, but I can dose another bottle of Algae Barn Galaxy pods if recommended.
  5. Dino X treatment if previous steps have not made a dent.
  6. Purchase UV sterilizer and install if previous methods did not work.
  7. I don't know... chuck live rock in there and see what happens??
Additional attack notes:
  • No water changes and no removing filter balls or filter sock. I do not own a skimmer or UV.
  • Eheim autofeeder dispensing pellets every 12 hours as if feeding 2 fish.
  • Carbon is on hand to remove residual Dino X post-treatment if necessary.
  • Current inhabitants: No corals or fish are present in the system. Invertebrates include snails, a hermit crab, a fire shrimp, and a tiger conch. Dragon's Breath macroalgae is in display.
Questions:
  • Any additional plan recommendations or a change in operational order?
  • Do you guys think I can/should be more aggressive since there are no corals or fish? Should I just go straight to Dino X?
  • Should I throw in carbon during this process to remove any potential toxicity issues or will that only hurt trying to accumulate more nutrients?
  • Assuming this resolves, do I just keep my temperature at 82F forever or is the hope that other organisms will have established to outcompete the dinos so they do not arise again at 78F?
Thank you!
 
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trophyhimbo

trophyhimbo

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it's still one month old. Don't do anything tank is maturing.
why are u full blasting the light when u have no coral.

SLOW DOWN
Sounds like just the uglies starting

clean what you can keep everything stable

Ha, thanks for the reality check. I can do nothing... however I am still curious about identifying what is growing in there!

Lights were on because I put some decorative macroalgae there and I also wanted the copepods and recent invertebrate additions to flourish. Just re-checked my program and lights were actually at 50%, but perhaps I could have gotten away with even less light.

Yesterday the cardinalfish died mysteriously and I realized I may have been mistaking a ton of dino growth for algae. Thought this may pose a toxicity problem, so figured I had to solve the dino problem so that the inverts did not also die.

Sounds like I am overthinking this issue... I will continue to observe and just feed some ghost fish.
 

Dburr1014

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Ha, thanks for the reality check. I can do nothing... however I am still curious about identifying what is growing in there!

Lights were on because I put some decorative macroalgae there and I also wanted the copepods and recent invertebrate additions to flourish. Just re-checked my program and lights were actually at 50%, but perhaps I could have gotten away with even less light.

Yesterday the cardinalfish died mysteriously and I realized I may have been mistaking a ton of dino growth for algae. Thought this may pose a toxicity problem, so figured I had to solve the dino problem so that the inverts did not also die.

Sounds like I am overthinking this issue... I will continue to observe and just feed some ghost fish.
Need that microscope.
This will tell you how to proceed.
Can't help you until then.
 

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