Randy's Tank and Learn Thread

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I quick ordered 3 x 11 w uv sterilizers that are the hanging bulb types. They may not last long, but hanging them in the brutes seems safe and easy, and best, they can arrive tomorrow.

https://a.co/d/2v78plW
I’m going to leave the refugium lights off tonight.

I’ll keep dosing ammonia.

Ordered sodium silicate solution for delivery tomorrow. Not the best purity, but is probably ok.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

It’s okay. We can fix it.

The first step is getting the nutrients up.

If you are dosing organic carbon, amino acids, or even phyto, stop for now.

Get an ID to be sure.

If they are ostreopsis, a UV will work wonders. It’s only temporary until your tank establishes.

What’s the total volume in gallons?

Thanks. Probably around 200 gallons. Phyto is the only thing on that list dosed. I certainly can stop it for a bit. The rationale is to get nutrients up?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Skimming through the posts here, you might take a look at the display lights and decrease them a bit so you can get a handle on what's happening.
I'd address the problematic fuge asap...deep clean and decrease light intensity/duration.

Thanks. :)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

When I see dinos, I like to drape a piece of filter floss over a powerhead(in a high light area) and dump some skimmate back into water. The dinos seem to be attracted to the floss very quickly. Rinse it at least once a day, twice is better. Once collection starts slowing down(a week or 2), start blowing off rocks/ sand. Very gratifying to see how much you get out and starts working instantly. Not much to lose trying...

Thanks. :)

 

[rtparty]

Thanks. Probably around 200 gallons. Phyto is the only thing on that list dosed. I certainly can stop it for a bit. The rationale is to get nutrients up?

Yes. More N and P.

This is why in my Proof of Concept thread I talked about dosing N and P every day no matter what the kits say. I would be dosing 10-15ml a day of ammonia on 200g. I would also dose .02ppm of phosphate daily right now.

Can you turn the lights off for a couple days? Give the good guys some time to fight off the bad guys?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Yes. More N and P.

This is why in my Proof of Concept thread I talked about dosing N and P every day no matter what the kits say. I would be dosing 10-15ml a day of ammonia on 200g. I would also dose .02ppm of phosphate daily right now.

Can you turn the lights off for a couple days? Give the good guys some time to fight off the bad guys?

Well, they turn off in a few min, but tomorrow corals arrive. Aussie elegance, Fiji yellow leather, cali tort, and green leather.

I can certainly keep lights off till then, but I don’t want to stress these shipped corals more than necessary.

 

[Reefering1]

The filter floss will instantly keep it off the corals. Hang a piece in high flow/ light, you will see it working within minutes

 

[Miami Reef]

The rationale is to get nutrients up?

The rational is to limit extra organics that dinos can feast on. It’s just my opinion. I like to keep the water very low in organics when I’m battling dinos.

The goal is to get green algaes (film, etc) dominating the surfaces. Ensure PO4 is always above 0.10ppm. There is a hypothesis from Jda that elevated phosphate has a growth limiting effect. Whether it’s true or not, I don’t know, but it can never hurt and can provide a buffer:

There are no shortage of studies that show slightly elevated phosphates benefit dinos. There are a few that show that as po4 grows, then dinos are growth-limited, including the one that I linked above. I would not expect a tank with super high phosphates to have a dino issue.

The only reason that I can think of is to grow-limit (high side) dinos and you do not have any.

 

[Miami Reef]

I added some dry rocks to my tank about a month ago.

Now it has some green films, diatoms, and even some coralline forming. My tank used to have dinos years ago, but now I’ve built such strong competition that even new dry rocks never get them.

I have a UPS and FedEX account to overnight ship anywhere. They don’t charge me much. Do you want this bad boy? It costs me nothing. I can even throw in some rubble of aged microfauna that have strong coralline growth.

 

[jonelder68]

When I started to get Dino’s and other uglies I ran a marineland magnum polishing canister filter. Can even run it as a diatom filter. Would manually remove everything I could Dino’s, ugly algae’s, etc. Run the filter for few days and boom gone. Along with a healthy helping of cuc. I think all the other brown snot algae’s etc was stripping what nutrients there were and causing the Dino’s. Once I stripped most everything clean it didn’t really seem to come back.

My fuge will get a scum similar to your picture every few weeks. I run the filter in the fuge for 1-2 days to clean it out. I love this filter :)

Might work for you. But regardless I highly recommend having one for when needed. Only con is it plugs up pretty quick. Usually a day or two. Spare filters for a quick swap while the others are cleaned and drying out.

 

[Pod_01]

The rational is to limit extra organics that dinos can feast on. It’s just my opinion. I like to keep the water very low in organics when I’m battling dinos.

The goal is to get green algaes (film, etc) dominating the surfaces. Ensure PO4 is always above 0.10ppm. There is a hypothesis from Jda that elevated phosphate has a growth limiting effect. Whether it’s true or not, I don’t know, but it can never hurt and can provide a buffer:

That is interesting, last time I had pleasure of dealing with Dino’s:

My phosphate was:

I have to say Dino’s are the most perplexing creatures.

FWIW my Dino problem disappeared when I restarted dosing TM A and K trace elements and I reduced my light intensity by 20%.

 

[rishma]

I was thinking there was something odd about that scum, but dinos had not dawned on me. That fits.

It’s disappointing for sure, but I think you’ll get this sorted quickly. You are starting a step ahead with a an infinite number of potential competitors introduced with your rock and sand. You have phosphate levels. You’ll add nitrate, silicate, and UV.

I would cut the lights as long as you can. I usually have very low lights for a day or two when I introduce corals because I think it helps with stress. This might be completely wrong, but I can at least confirm it has not negatively impacted them. It will give your UV a head start, time to boost nitrate, etc.

I think this battle will be over quickly.

 

[rishma]

I have to say Dino’s are the most perplexing creatures.

FWIW my Dino problem disappeared when I restarted dosing TM A and K trace elements and I reduced my light intensity by 20%.

Perplexing is right! There is little consensus on the prerequisites, causes, treatments and cures. I remember others being adamant about NOT dosing trace elements or even changing water because it adds trace. Experiences seem to range from variable to contradictory.

 

[pledosophy]

Refugium Lighting

Looks like I need to change my refugium lighting setup. :)

What bulb are you using? There are some that are completely incased and waterproof that might help you out.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

What bulb are you using? There are some that are completely incased and waterproof that might help you out.

They are Sansa grow bulbs. The glass pieces are working well to keep them dry. :)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

First Corals Arrive!

We are 5 days after the second batch of live rock arrived. Corals from dwest (tort, green leather and Aussie elegance) and diyreefer (yellow Fiji leather) arrived in good shape today. These guys did a good job packing up these free corals and paid for shipping, so kudos to them!

The corals from dwest came in close to tank temp and salinity and needed little acclimation. The Yellow Leather was also close to tank salinity but about 3 deg F lower than the tank so I gave it a bit of time to equilibrate in a tank water/shipping water mix.

The yellow leather was on a post and slotted perfectly into an opening in the live rock where it won’t go anywhere.

The little Aussie elegance seems to have shipped super well and is already opening up a bit after just a few minutes in the tank. I was warned it is barely more dense than the water, so I should put it on the sand, hemmed in by rock. I had a perfect spot on the right side and it seems happy so far. It looks like it is on rock, but its base is in sand.

The little green leather frag is the size of my thumb nail at the moment, so I thought it too small to rubber band to a rock. I placed it in a hole and place a dead rock next to it over a corner to keep it from popping out. It’s the little grey glob in the center of the picture below.

Finally, the frag that I fretted over mounting. As a newb in mounting, I’m sure I handled it too much and used too much epoxy, but it seems to be nicely in place and I’m hoping for the best!

Big thank you again to these guys for sending these corals!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I’m leaving the lights mostly off today to acclimate the corals and deal with possible dinos. There are hardly any visible dinos in the display, but I don’t want to up the lights until I get silicate later today to hopefully allow diatoms to out compete them.

I’ve been keeping up ammonia and phosphate dosing. Nitrate arrives tomorrow.

UV lamps arrive later today, and I left the refugium lights off last night and will for one more night.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Yellow leather is starting to open up its polyps:

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Aussie elegance continues to do fine:

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

Aussie elegance continues to do fine:

Elegance sometimes get a little ticked in a new environment. Don't be alarmed if it gets upset and looks like death lol. Almost everyone of mine had done that. I don't know why lol. I can only assume how they adjust. Bloating, lost tentacles, white string, complete retraction lol. They come back just fine on there own.

I am not saying this will happen but just in case lol.