Thinking I have dinos, can someone help me confirm?

torqie

New Member
View Badges
Joined
May 14, 2021
Messages
24
Reaction score
37
Location
Utah
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Hey everyone thanks for taking the time to look at this post. I cycled my tank for a good 6 months before turning the lights on. Everything was going great after I turned the lights on, corals were thriving and growing, coralline algae is growing all over my rocks, fish seem to be happy.

I started to notice my sand changing colors so I started to be more aggressive with my water changes and feeding less.. Looked like it was starting to recede then one day my tank blew up with brown stringy algae.. Not thinking at first I thought I may be dealing with a diatom outbreak, but now with further research, I think I am dealing with a dino outbreak.

It's a 40gal breeder, with a newly setup sump (was a canister before), skimmer, and fug...

Today I started a 72-hour blackout on my tank, any help will be appreciated.

Image from iOS (1).jpg Image from iOS.jpg
 

Aldrinlights

Reeth Huthbandry
View Badges
Joined
Jul 25, 2017
Messages
280
Reaction score
306
Location
Denver
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
It's hard to tell without a microscope. Please also post your tank parameters so we can identify any other imbalance which may be causing this. It seems you are just going through one of those "Phases" though.

Is this stuff producing air bubbles on it?

Does it disappear with the lights off or at night then come back in the day?

Are you dosing anything or overfeeding?

Have you considered adding a UV to your system?
 
OP
OP
torqie

torqie

New Member
View Badges
Joined
May 14, 2021
Messages
24
Reaction score
37
Location
Utah
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Thanks for the quick reply!

No air bubbles. It doesn't fully disappear, but it with the lights on it seems to be more stringy and longer strings. I was overfeeding at the start. I currently have 2 small clowns, a purple dotty back, and a blue damsel for fish and I feed about 1/4 of a cube a couple of times a day.

I was dosing All-For-Reef for a while but I have stopped. I have vibrant on hand, but I am not using it as I have Cheato in my Fug.


I just dropped a bunch of money on the sump equipment. I guess I need to drop more money on a UV
 

Aldrinlights

Reeth Huthbandry
View Badges
Joined
Jul 25, 2017
Messages
280
Reaction score
306
Location
Denver
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Thanks for the quick reply!

No air bubbles. It doesn't fully disappear, but it with the lights on it seems to be more stringy and longer strings. I was overfeeding at the start. I currently have 2 small clowns, a purple dotty back, and a blue damsel for fish and I feed about 1/4 of a cube a couple of times a day.

I was dosing All-For-Reef for a while but I have stopped. I have vibrant on hand, but I am not using it as I have Cheato in my Fug.


I just dropped a bunch of money on the sump equipment. I guess I need to drop more money on a UV
It's good that you're on top of it though. UV will help but isn't an end all cure all once there's a foothold. Manual removal is the best option for you right now. Syphon it out and wipe it off the glass with clean blue shop towels. Vibrant will also knock it out and you could store your chaeto in a bucket for the time being while you dose it.
 

Aldrinlights

Reeth Huthbandry
View Badges
Joined
Jul 25, 2017
Messages
280
Reaction score
306
Location
Denver
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
It's good that you're on top of it though. UV will help but isn't an end all cure all once there's a foothold. Manual removal is the best option for you right now. Syphon it out and wipe it off the glass with clean blue shop towels. Vibrant will also knock it out and you could store your chaeto in a bucket for the time being while you dose it.
And I forgot to mention... Welcome to the forum! Glad you're here. Do some searches here about Dinos and you will learn so much. This forum is the best resource on the web
 
OP
OP
torqie

torqie

New Member
View Badges
Joined
May 14, 2021
Messages
24
Reaction score
37
Location
Utah
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Awesome, thanks for the quick reply again! I will be doing manual removal daily. I have just been using a glass scrubber but last night I noticed a good amount of it on the back glass. I am going to try to remove all of that and the rest with shop towels tonight along with more manual removal with a siphon.

Would you recommend a more aggressive approach with vibrant? Say 1 ml per 10gal 2x a week?

I will test params later tonight too and give you my numbers. Still using the API kit for most of them, starting to get some Hanna colorimeters but unfortunately, I started with the calcium and not phosphate, or nitrate. They will be in my next order.

I have an idea that both my phosphate and nitrate are at 0 with this bloom of dino happening, but I will report back later with the numbers.

Thanks for the welcome, I cant wait to get past this and onto happier reefing. I am a software engineer, so I hope I can help contribute one day by making something to help to community!
 

RobertTheNurse

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
May 3, 2020
Messages
855
Reaction score
707
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Thanks for the quick reply!

No air bubbles. It doesn't fully disappear, but it with the lights on it seems to be more stringy and longer strings. I was overfeeding at the start. I currently have 2 small clowns, a purple dotty back, and a blue damsel for fish and I feed about 1/4 of a cube a couple of times a day.

I was dosing All-For-Reef for a while but I have stopped. I have vibrant on hand, but I am not using it as I have Cheato in my Fug.


I just dropped a bunch of money on the sump equipment. I guess I need to drop more money on a UV
Get a conch man. They are excellent at stirring the sand bed...they eat a lot of algae.
 

Aldrinlights

Reeth Huthbandry
View Badges
Joined
Jul 25, 2017
Messages
280
Reaction score
306
Location
Denver
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Awesome, thanks for the quick reply again! I will be doing manual removal daily. I have just been using a glass scrubber but last night I noticed a good amount of it on the back glass. I am going to try to remove all of that and the rest with shop towels tonight along with more manual removal with a siphon.

Would you recommend a more aggressive approach with vibrant? Say 1 ml per 10gal 2x a week?

I will test params later tonight too and give you my numbers. Still using the API kit for most of them, starting to get some Hanna colorimeters but unfortunately, I started with the calcium and not phosphate, or nitrate. They will be in my next order.

I have an idea that both my phosphate and nitrate are at 0 with this bloom of dino happening, but I will report back later with the numbers.

Thanks for the welcome, I cant wait to get past this and onto happier reefing. I am a software engineer, so I hope I can help contribute one day by making something to help to community!
I have seen a lot of Vibrant forums saying to just double the dose and have had no problems. It's always something that needs to be carefully managed as once you kill one thing, something else has to uptake the nutrient export. Just keep up with the good care and you'll get there. It's a fun hobby but it can also be frustrating. Don't give up. Hopefully you are also running a skimmer. It helps a ton
 

dvgyfresh

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 9, 2020
Messages
4,132
Reaction score
9,830
Location
SoCal
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Awesome, thanks for the quick reply again! I will be doing manual removal daily. I have just been using a glass scrubber but last night I noticed a good amount of it on the back glass. I am going to try to remove all of that and the rest with shop towels tonight along with more manual removal with a siphon.

Would you recommend a more aggressive approach with vibrant? Say 1 ml per 10gal 2x a week?

I will test params later tonight too and give you my numbers. Still using the API kit for most of them, starting to get some Hanna colorimeters but unfortunately, I started with the calcium and not phosphate, or nitrate. They will be in my next order.

I have an idea that both my phosphate and nitrate are at 0 with this bloom of dino happening, but I will report back later with the numbers.

Thanks for the welcome, I cant wait to get past this and onto happier reefing. I am a software engineer, so I hope I can help contribute one day by making something to help to community!
Do not use vibrant would be my advice , you are essentially restarting your tank , and the Dino’s will come right back with no competition. Dino’s thrive in low nutrient/non contested areas (glass , new rocks, ect) there’s a 1000 page post in the nuisance algae forum , I would start there lol sorry dinosnsuck ! But you can get rid of them , best to get a microscope to ID for clear instructions
 
OP
OP
torqie

torqie

New Member
View Badges
Joined
May 14, 2021
Messages
24
Reaction score
37
Location
Utah
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I just
I have seen a lot of Vibrant forums saying to just double the dose and have had no problems. It's always something that needs to be carefully managed as once you kill one thing, something else has to uptake the nutrient export. Just keep up with the good care and you'll get there. It's a fun hobby but it can also be frustrating. Don't give up. Hopefully you are also running a skimmer. It helps a ton

I just got a skimmer a few days ago so its still breaking in, but we will get there.
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

  • I currently have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 67 37.6%
  • Not currently, but I have had feather dusters in my tank in the past.

    Votes: 59 33.1%
  • I have not had feather dusters, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 25 14.0%
  • I have no plans to have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 27 15.2%
  • Other.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
Back
Top