Randy's Tank and Learn Thread

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

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.

Many of the astreas died. Might be the dinos, shipping, or the mantis and whelk(s). There are hermits and the sand is kept fairly clean by cucumbers, etc.

Do cuc do much for dinos? I have a one spot foxface on order that will keep green algae down, as will the yellow tang.
I have 7 trochus coming tomorrow with my tsa order.

 

[jonelder68]

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Many of the astreas died. Might be the dinos, shipping, or the mantis and whelk(s). There are hermits and the sand is kept fairly clean by cucumbers, etc.

Do cuc do much for dinos? I have a one spot foxface on order that will keep green algae down, as will the yellow tang.
I have 7 trochus coming tomorrow with my tsa order.

From what I understand some Dino’s are toxic to cuc and some isn’t. Seems what I had/have that seems identical to yours (though unless we compare scope slides can’t confirm) wasn’t toxic. I had no algae and still don’t but the cuc defiantly devoured it. Maybe because no algae they had no choice? But they ate it very quickly. My Pom Pom fuge section has it and I just added 2 turbos and they’re making quick work of it as well.

 

[jonelder68]

Pods love it as well look at all them on the glass. The brown strands is something else I believe currently. Maybe another form of Dino’s? But still a brown snot/goop. Or possibly it’s so light now that it’s not matting it down. The pods even cover the floating scum I get every now and then.

 

[DHill6]

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.

Florida Ceriths from Reef Cleaners are hard workers. I’ve had one for over 4 years and still going strong.

 

[Reefer1978]

Many of the astreas died. Might be the dinos, shipping, or the mantis and whelk(s). There are hermits and the sand is kept fairly clean by cucumbers, etc.

Do cuc do much for dinos? I have a one spot foxface on order that will keep green algae down, as will the yellow tang.
I have 7 trochus coming tomorrow with my tsa order.

Dino's are toxic (some more, some less, stringy type very toxic), CUC will die from them.

 

[jonelder68]

Dino's are toxic (some more, some less, stringy type very toxic), CUC will die from them.

That’s what I was told and never seemed to loose any. I also was told it’s possibly just a type of brown slime algae that appears like Dino’s but isn’t. Was told only way to confirm was with an image under microscope. Thought I had a forum about mine here on R2R but can’t seem to find it.

 

[rishma]

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

I am quite surprised you have dinos but agree that’s what it looks like to me. You started with live rock and sand and the rocks were covered in life. You dosed to ensure nitrate and phosphate. I really don’t get it. You did the things that I thought prevent dinos. I guess I don’t understand dinos. I never had them for the first 20+ years of reefing and now they are ubiquitous. I don’t get it.

I look forward to watching you beat them.

 

[rtparty]

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

Correct, no corals

 

[Mickey]

Thanks, folks. Still cannot get it to work on my phone, but on an pc it did. I ordered 2 of the sponge sample packs and a number of different macroalgae types. Some will go in one or both refugia and some maybe in the display. :)

Just curious if these might help pull particulates out of the water. I too don't use mechanical filtration but see lots of particulates in the water.

 

[rps3287]

Many of the astreas died. Might be the dinos, shipping, or the mantis and whelk(s). There are hermits and the sand is kept fairly clean by cucumbers, etc.

Do cuc do much for dinos? I have a one spot foxface on order that will keep green algae down, as will the yellow tang.
I have 7 trochus coming tomorrow with my tsa order.

Hey Randy! Just responded to your post on BRS about the red Goni . I’m local and I have a microscope and I’ve gotten pretty good at ID’ing/treating Dinos in my tank over the past few years. Happy to help in the fight! I would invest more in pods than traditional CUC for the Dinos, and not the tig pods sold in most LFS for feeding mandarins. Tisbe are known Dino-eaters and are available through a lot of online retailers and I’ve read/seen video of rotifers eating dinos too. Let’s get it ID’ed though and start from there! Sent you a DM.

 

[rps3287]

Just curious if these might help pull particulates out of the water. I too don't use mechanical filtration but see lots of particulates in the water.

If you’re dealing with any of the free-floating strains like ostreo, IMO you need STRONG mechanical filtration (meaning a LOT of flow through a very fine micron filter media) and you need to run it every second that the lights are off. This will drastically reduce the numbers of dinos in your system every night and give your good microorganisms a fighting chance at outcompeting the dinos. I’m also a strong proponent of manual removal via glass scraper and heavy basting of the rocks/problem areas (only while running a powerful water-polishing filter like a DIY DSR “powerfilter” or canister or some other setup that can catch the majority of what you dislodge into the water column). Always a good idea to run some GAC when dealing with Dinos as well!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thanks, everyone. Tank is looking better this AM, but maybe that’s typical of dinos. I’ll see what I can do about mechanical filtration.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Hey Randy! Just responded to your post on BRS about the red Goni . I’m local and I have a microscope and I’ve gotten pretty good at ID’ing/treating Dinos in my tank over the past few years. Happy to help in the fight! I would invest more in pods than traditional CUC for the Dinos, and not the tig pods sold in most LFS for feeding mandarins. Tisbe are known Dino-eaters and are available through a lot of online retailers and I’ve read/seen video of rotifers eating dinos too. Let’s get it ID’ed though and start from there! Sent you a DM.

I was just talking to Mixed Reefer (At Boston Reefers) About getting more pods for my mandarin, so maybe they can do double duty. He has Tisbe and Tigs. Any idea if the Tigs eat dinos? Was planning to get tisbe since they are more mandarin size, but he has more limited supplies of them.

Thanks for the I’d offer. :)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I upped the return pump rate to bring loose dinos to the uv area faster and scraped the side glass to get them out of the display. Going to change my GAC in case any free toxin is around.

 

[rps3287]

I was just talking to Mixed Reefer (At Boston Reefers) About getting more pods for my mandarin, so maybe they can do double duty. He has Tisbe and Tigs. Any idea if the Tigs eat dinos? Was planning to get tisbe since they are more mandarin size, but he has more limited supplies of them.

Thanks for the I’d offer. :)

Tigs, like most other pods, will feed on certain types of dinos but I haven’t seen much actual evidence to support the idea and I suspect their size and color don’t make them the best choice for long term success in a home tank. This is why I view those more as fish food than CUC. I’ve seen more reports of tisbe eating dinos and there’s definitely more evidence of their utility and sustainability in a home reef tank. Just found a recent video from TSA that does a spotlight on tisbe pods, although I don’t think he mentions consuming dinos at all..

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Tigs, like most other pods, will feed on certain types of dinos but I haven’t seen much actual evidence to support the idea and I suspect their size and color don’t make them the best choice for long term success in a home tank. This is why I view those more as fish food than CUC. I’ve seen more reports of tisbe eating dinos and there’s definitely more evidence of their utility and sustainability in a home reef tank. Just found a recent video from TSA that does a spotlight on tisbe pods, although I don’t think he mentions consuming dinos at all..

Thanks. That’s what I’d read about tigs too.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I’ll be picking up a marineland magnum polishing filter from Petco to take out particulates a little later today.

 

[jonelder68]

I’ll be picking up a marineland magnum polishing filter from Petco to take out particulates a little later today.

Order online and pick up to save a few bucks usually. I’d grab an extra filter for it as well. You’ll be cleaning and swapping daily for a while.

 

[jonelder68]

I’ll be picking up a marineland magnum polishing filter from Petco to take out particulates a little later today.

Install filter. Get it going. Scrap/clean everything possible. Catch everything you can with a fish net. Might grab a decent sized one from petco while there. Let filter run all night. Next morning change filter. Repeat.

Small particles add up fast This was 10 hour run time. I think over night helps as well to catch water column Dino’s floating freely.

Hope you have success as I did with this method. Another round of pods added will surely help out as well.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

New Livestock


Lots of new things arrived today. Most I’m happy with, some not so much, and one or two I messed up.

Starting with the good news. Thunderstruck34 actually sent me two Koji wada instead of just the one I bought (thanks!), and he threw in a small frag of a weeping willow leather. All look good, considering the trauma. Here are pictures a half hour after putting them in the tank: