Tank Beginning to Crash - Dinos, Cyano, Hair Algae?

[prcardinal91]

I have a 150 mixed reef that I transferred from a 75 about 2 months ago. Everything was going great with great growth then I had a hair algae outbreak. I started to dose Vibrant 2 weeks ago and now my tank is completely over taken by hair algae and cyano and possibly dinos. I dont even know if its possible to have all three, but my nitrates and phosphates bottomed out after the first week of vibrant so I began dosing nitrates and phosphates. My alk consumption stopped today and spiked from 8.8 to 9.5 indicating that my corals are no longer growing.

I am going to perform a large water change in the next hour or so as soo nas water is up to temp. Many of my corals are bleaching RAPIDLY and zoas are now closing. Maybe toxic dinos? What ever is in the tank is growing extremely quick. The rack in the picture was taken out and cleaned this morning.

The strings of whatever is growing grew about 8 inches today. I run UV also.

Params -
Salinity - 1.026
temp 78.5
stable alk at 8.8 for 2 months - now 9.4
calcium 420
mg 1300
nitrates 10
phosphates .03

Any help with identifying what this looks like?

Downward spiral is happening FAST in front of me.

 

[prcardinal91]

Another pic of what looks like hair algae covered in cyano or dinos

 

[Dan_P]

Possibly dinoflagellates. @taricha?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Dino has begun. Lets keep the fight simple:
Prepare by starting with a water change and blow this stuff loose with a turkey baster and siphon up loose particles.
Turn lights off (at least white and run blue at 10-15%) for 5 days and at night dose 1ml of hydrogen peroxide per 10 gallons for all 5 nights. If you dont have light dependent coral- turn all lights off.
During the day dose 1ml of liquid bacteria (such as bacter 7) per 10 gallons.
Clean filters daily and DO NOT FEED CORAL FOODS OR ADD NOPOX as it is food for dinos.
Day 5,, you can start with blue lights - ramping up and work your white lights up slowly

 

[prcardinal91]

ok, if my corals are looking meek should i be worried about ditching the lights on them for 5 days?

 

[vetteguy53081]

ok, if my corals are looking meek should i be worried about ditching the lights on them for 5 days?

Blow stuff off with s baster and net then start treatment

 

[prcardinal91]

Ok I will plan to do blue light at 10 percent. Have you ever done this method before? I have never had the pleasure of dealing g with dinos

 

[taricha]

yeah. It's GHA covered by dinos.
(UV should be part of whatever treatment)

 

[jcdeng]

Your corals are doing bad because of the alk spike, not the dino/cyano/ha, unless they are visibly covering your corals.

First off, vibrant is known to cause cyano, reason unknow but just from many many user reviews after using it. Secondly since you just upgraded your tank this might be a mini cycle/new tank syndrome.

I would first blow off the stuff and suction all the large pieces while doing a large WC, this can get rid of majority of the nasty stuff and correct your alk. And I would add a UV sterilizer with pump directly from your DT and not the sump, it can be move to filter the sump water after you have taken care of this problem. (BRS mentioned they had success this way battling dinos in one of their more recent videos, "fix your sand")

Slow and steady wins the race in this hobby. GL!

 

[prcardinal91]

My UV is currently running closed loop on my display. I bought some Dr Tim's bacteria products after doing some research. Came across these links.

https://elegantcorals.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/65232970_1058036854395643_2307032019369984000_n.jpg

https://elegantcorals.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/48418660_1991029504327029_980128162765602816_n.png

I did a 25 gallon change and got rid of as much nasty as I could with the siphon. Dinos, Cyano, and GHA all smothering corals. The tank consumption has been consistently 70 ml a day BRS 2 part soda ash. 8.8 alk every day. Then I noticed the corals looking worse, so I checked alk and it was rising so I cut my dosing schedule and am monitoring it to keep it at 8.8.

Anyone have luck dosing Ocean Magik for dinos? I am also using Red Sea AB+ aminos. Should I stop this while I try to treat the dinos?

 

[prcardinal91]

Also wanted to thank all that replied!

 

[prcardinal91]

ostreopsis dinos confirmed under microscope. Toxic to tank inhabitants

 

[websurfer]

bummer!!!

Hopefully you can beat them ... wishing you the best of luck
Where you able to track down a cause for these or just came out of the blue?

Still new to the hobby however I have seen a ton of post about these being one of the worst to deal with .

 

[prcardinal91]

Nutrients were bottomed out for too long, tank is a new transfer so the biome is not balanced yet. Dinos just had the opportunity to bloom.

Don't under estimate the power of refugiums to drop nutrients!

 

[sanzz18]

My tank is a year old now, I had ostreopsis around the 3-4 month mark. What really wiped them out is installing the UV sterilizer at a proper flow rate. Have the pump taking from the display tank and emptying back into it. Ostreopsis goes right into the water column at night. Mine were wiped out in 3-4 days. Not a single trace. They never have been back either. Now cyano has started lol

 

[Brian_68]

This is tough to see how quickly it is happening. That alk spike would not do that damage as it is not that significant from 8.8 to 9.5. The issue seems to be related to Vibrant started a couple weeks ago, sometimes it destroys the tank, bottoming nutrients too quickly as did yours then everything else cascades. A few threads on here showing both success with vibrant and just the opposite ruining a tank.

 

[prcardinal91]

Yes, the coral issues were directly related to low nutrients and the toxins the dinos were putting out.

I knocked the dinos back quite significantly with a 5 day blue only 10 percent light schedule and peroxide dosing at night. Lots of carbon to absorb any toxins, changing socks every 2 days. UV 55 watt plumbed to display 150 gph pump. Bacteria added, phyto dosing, only running the skimmer 20 hrs a day and the fuge 5 hrs a night. not cleaning the glass for a while.

Currently, my lights are ramped back up to regular intensity. I am dosing nitrate and phosphate to keep my levels up until things really balance out. The vibrant bottomed out nutrient levels, opened the door for dinos to take hold and corals suffered significantly. The dosing pump is back on now and the tank is consuming normal amounts of alk and calcium. I still have some dinos but they are diminishing each day. I lost a birdsnest colony in the whirlwind. Not the worst thing that could have happened