Randy's Tank and Learn Thread

[Reefer1978]

Ok, but I was planning to dose silicate anyway, for sponges. I never had any dinos in my last tank and dosed silicate for years for sponges.

Dinos dominated the hobby after you closed your previous tank.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Maybe I should lower the light intensity back to where it was a few weeks ago, at least for a while. . I’m just worried about some of the corals there now and coming tomorrow.

I reset them to 15% for now.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Dinos dominated the hobby after you closed your previous tank.

Yes, I know. I attributed a lot of that to dry rock starts.

I wasn’t saying that it prevented dinos in my tank. I’m just explaining g it is a planned dosing material, even without any dinos.

 

[Reefer1978]

Yes, I know. I attributed a lot of that to dry rock starts.

No, it's reefers and stores spreading the joy.

 

[jonelder68]

Sorry only photo I can find of it. Blue light right before lights off. But you can see all the air bubbles trapped and looked just like yours. I did an order of cuc through reef cleaners and then manual removal with the marineland canister filter while scrapping etc. I just get light spots on the glass but the sand/rock is all spotless. Now the fuge I can’t control. But I’m going to remove the whelks and stone crabs so can add cuc to the fuge to keep it away like DT.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

No, it's reefers and stores spreading the joy.

I was thinking it might have been from my own ocean collection of macroalgae. Maybe I can look back at pictures and see if I had any before anything else, but my recollection is I may have had the beginnings in the refugium.

 

[FishLvR]

My dino was stringy. Like really stringy and responded immediately to UV and black out of just over night. So by tomorrow I bet it will be like it never happened. Massive water change incoming. In the scope left no guessing what it was. How it's going to come off the rocks where it was glued is beyond me. I wish the urchin would try a bite.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Sorry only photo I can find of it. Blue light right before lights off. But you can see all the air bubbles trapped and looked just like yours. I did an order of cuc through reef cleaners and then manual removal with the marineland canister filter while scrapping etc. I just get light spots on the glass but the sand/rock is all spotless. Now the fuge I can’t control. But I’m going to remove the whelks and stone crabs so can add cuc to the fuge to keep it away like DT.

Thanks. Manual removal is certainly an option.

Is scraping the glass and sending it loose a bad idea?

 

[jonelder68]

Thanks. Manual removal is certainly an option.

Is scraping the glass and sending it loose a bad idea?

Yes seemed to spread like wildfire when I scraped. Then I saw some video of one of the reefing guys saying he runs these marineland canister filters whenever he scrapes/cleans and finds it a must to remove all the fine particles and all. After my experience I 100% believe it.

 

[jonelder68]

I also ordered reef cleaners 55 gallon cuc for my 60 gallon. Seemed like a lot of cuc! Added a conch and 5-6 trochus extra as well. But with them and 1 heavy manual removal it was pretty much gone in 1-2 weeks following.

 

[jonelder68]

My nutrients are still zero nitrate and .02 phosphate. Been doing your ammonia dosing though. So not certain it’s nutrient related.

 

[rtparty]

Without a doubt, you can not prevent dinos of every kind from entering our systems. No one is “spreading” them around

They are some of the oldest life forms we know of. They can obviously survive the worst of the worst.

Randy, I was also going to suggest cutting the lights down for a little bit. I think running the tank with no lights for a month may be a key contributor in my “Proof of Concept” setup. Coincidentally, my new setup will have run with no lights for at least a month as well before turning the lights on

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

My dino was stringy. Like really stringy and responded immediately to UV and black out of just over night. So by tomorrow I bet it will be like it never happened. Massive water change incoming. In the scope left no guessing what it was. How it's going to come off the rocks where it was glued is beyond me. I wish the urchin would try a bite.

So it is still on the rocks?

 

[jonelder68]

Without a doubt, you can not prevent dinos of every kind from entering our systems. No one is “spreading” them around

They are some of the oldest life forms we know of. They can obviously survive the worst of the worst.

Randy, I was also going to suggest cutting the lights down for a little bit. I think running the tank with no lights for a month may be a key contributor in my “Proof of Concept” setup. Coincidentally, my new setup will have run with no lights for at least a month as well before turning the lights on

I cycled/seeded all DT macro rock with TSB base live rock for 2-3 months no light. I’m not a firm believer so far in lighting being the issue. Eventually lights will be on and Dino’s or whatever it is me and Randy seem to be dealing with just comes back once lights are back on. It’s just delaying it in my opinion.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Without a doubt, you can not prevent dinos of every kind from entering our systems. No one is “spreading” them around

They are some of the oldest life forms we know of. They can obviously survive the worst of the worst.

Randy, I was also going to suggest cutting the lights down for a little bit. I think running the tank with no lights for a month may be a key contributor in my “Proof of Concept” setup. Coincidentally, my new setup will have run with no lights for at least a month as well before turning the lights on

I presume this month also does not have corals in it.

 

[CNDReef]

The trick with the UV is to get the lowest flow rate possible for that uv and I would definitely run it 24/7. If you’re running LEDs only run blues and shorten the photoperiod by 25-50%. Another tool for Dino’s is hydrogen peroxide 3%. You can use it at 1ml per 10g of tank water and I would do it right after lights out to catch the Dino’s in the water column.

 

[jonelder68]

Well for what it’s worth what did it for me was large amount of cuc and heavy manual removal. Think I spent 3-4 hours cleaning on day. Winning ticket was the canister filter. Believe if I started with it in the fuge it might not of spread really. I started tank after seeding 2-3 months dark then with full light intensity after. That’s just what has worked for me. I’d be interested to see how UV would do. Maybe UV with cuc and manual removal? I didn’t want to use UV for the sake of getting the pod population going though.

 

[jonelder68]

Updated stocking list (anticipating arrivals tomorrow, 6/11)

Organism	Date Added	Source	Date Lost
Live Rock	4/16 and 5/15/2025	TBS
Live Sand	4/16/2025	TBS
Fish
Yellow Tang (tank raised)	5/21/2025	Dr Reef
Green Chromis (5)	5/21/2025	Dr Reef
Mandarin Pair (tank raised)	5/21/2025	Dr Reef	one disappeared 5/2025
One spot foxface	coming soon	Dr Reef
Coral
Cali Tort	5/20/2025	dwest	DOA
Green leather	5/20/2025	dwest	disappeared 6/2025
Aussie Elegance	5/20/2025	dwest
Fiji Yellow Leather	5/20/2025	DIYreefer
Large milka stylophora	6/3/2025	CNDReef
Digitata (bubblegum or forest fire)	6/3/2025	CNDReef
WWC slimeball anacopora	6/3/2025	CNDReef
Koji Wada Nephthea	6/11/2025	Thunderstrick34
ORA Cherry Red Goniopora	6/11/2025	Top Shelf
Oregon Blue Tort	6/11/2025	Top Shelf
Red Setosa Montipora	6/11/2025	Top Shelf
Other Inverts
Astrea snails	5/15/2025	TBS
Florida hermits	5/15/2025	TBS
sea cucumbers (2)	5/15/2025	TBS
peppermint shrimp (2)	5/15/2025	TBS
Brittle stars (2)	5/15/2025	TBS
Trochus snails (7)	6/11/2025	Top Shelf
Yellow Ball Sponges (2)	6/11/2025	Gulf Coast Ecosystems
Red Tree Sponge (2)	6/11/2025	Gulf Coast Ecosystems
Purple Sea Fan	6/11/2025	Gulf Coast Ecosystems
Laurencia iridescens macroalgae	6/11/2025	Gulf Coast Ecosystems
Botryocladia macroalgae	6/11/2025	Gulf Coast Ecosystems
Ulva macroalgae	6/11/2025	Gulf Coast Ecosystems
gracilaria macroalgae	6/11/2025	Gulf Coast Ecosystems

How much of each cuc do you have? You might compare to reef cleaners package for your 120 gallon. I bet your way under the amount for the 120 gallon. I think like most algae’s if it’s long they won’t really eat it. Hence the heavy cleaning. I believe it’s still in my DT but they might just keep it eaten fast enough it doesn’t show. They definitely chow down on it though. Blue legs destroyed it on the rocks along with a few turbos. Astreas with trochus keep it to a minimum on the glass. Few short strands here and there. I love the trochus because they can flip back over. My astreas would fall and I’m assuming the gorilla crab got a lot of them. Caught him a few times. But I’ve since finally speared him Reef cleaners is big on ceriths. Not sure how much they contribute as they’re nocturnal but I’d assume a lot as well.

 

[FishLvR]

My dino was stringy. Like really stringy and responded immediately to UV and black out of just over night. So by tomorrow I bet it will be like it never happened. Massive water change incoming. In the scope left no guessing what it was. How it's going to come off the rocks where it was glued is beyond me. I wish the urchin would try a bite.

So it is still on the rocks?

Well just the one rock. It didn't seem like the same dinos but under the scope they were the same. The strings are insane.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The trick with the UV is to get the lowest flow rate possible for that uv and I would definitely run it 24/7. If you’re running LEDs only run blues and shorten the photoperiod by 25-50%. Another tool for Dino’s is hydrogen peroxide 3%. You can use it at 1ml per 10g of tank water and I would do it right after lights out to catch the Dino’s in the water column.

The uv are bare bulbs, not the tub types. They did a good job last time I ran them.

I could run blue primarily, and could shorten the time. I hate that look. lol