Turf scrubber and dinoflagellate

reefpizza · Feb 23, 2021

Hi there,

i'm coming from a "bottom down" nutrient situation, bring then no3 and po4 back up (dosing it), no3 with success at 10 now, but for po4 always see 0.00/0.01 no matter how much i dose, i also feed a lot the fish 4 tangs, 4 chromis, 1 anthias and 2 clown, long story short, i had cyano and threated with chemiclean, decision based on the fact that some of them was growing over some corals (used in past and always had success) then 5 days later i see something that seem dino (i'm going to take some sample today for microscope ID) now i know my system is unblanced, i'm thinking also about that the po4 don't rise because are used by the cyano/dino situation. The tank is 4 months old and i have corals in it coming from a crasched tank (heavy metals) now i'm going to start dosing phyto for some biodiversity and i was wonder if an algae scrubber could help the situation providing competiotion to the dino or maybe is just a bad idea that is going to put back down to zero all my nutrients and help the dino? I want to find a natural balance so i don't wanna use any "fast" solution (see chemiclean mystake up here).

I know it's a bad situation

Hope someone can argue with me and find the best path togheter!

ReefPig · Feb 23, 2021

I was fighting dino's for a good six months, tried all the usual stuff, UV, bacteria, daily scrubbing, phyto etc, the thing which turned the corner for me was aggressively running an algae reactor (12 hours+).
I did this still in combination with UV and daily scrubbing, but within a couple of weeks it cleared up, I'm now 3 months clean.

For sure cyano in particular sucks up PO4, and can feel like you're chasing your tail trying to raise it.

I found Dr Tims Refresh and Waste-Away did a great job at getting rid of cyano, I'm not a fan of chemiclean unless the situation is really bad.

The thing is, when you have dinos or cyano, when you suddenly get rid of one, the other will take over. Fixing the issue quickly will just move from one to the other.

reefpizza · Feb 23, 2021

ReefPig_UK said:
I was fighting dino's for a good six months, tried all the usual stuff, UV, bacteria, daily scrubbing, phyto etc, the thing which turned the corner for me was aggressively running an algae reactor (12 hours+).
I did this still in combination with UV and daily scrubbing, but within a couple of weeks it cleared up, I'm now 3 months clean.

For sure cyano in particular sucks up PO4, and can feel like you're chasing your tail trying to raise it.

I found Dr Tims Refresh and Waste-Away did a great job at getting rid of cyano, I'm not a fan of chemiclean unless the situation is really bad.

The thing is, when you have dinos or cyano, when you suddenly get rid of one, the other will take over. Fixing the issue quickly will just move from one to the other.

Yeah exactly, that's the point, as you said i don't wanna chase my tail

So i was wondering, i'm already in an unbalanced situation, if i plug the turf scrubber what can be worst?
My only tough is about the corals (sps) and the option of loosing them for too low nutrients regime.

ReefPig · Feb 23, 2021

reefpizza said:
Yeah exactly, that's the point, as you said i don't wanna chase my tail
So i was wondering, i'm already in an unbalanced situation, if i plug the turf scrubber what can be worst?
My only tough is about the corals (sps) and the option of loosing them for too low nutrients regime.

I spent a long time worrying about my corals, and granted they mostly survived, but I wish I had worried less and just sorted the issue sooner.

In truth, when your doing anything to resolve dino's, it will have an impact on your corals.
Many of mine turned brown or dull, even now, 3 months later, they're just starting to colour up, but it's going to be a LONG journey before they're back to how they looked.

Deep · Feb 23, 2021

reefpizza said:
Hi there,

i'm coming from a "bottom down" nutrient situation, bring then no3 and po4 back up (dosing it), no3 with success at 10 now, but for po4 always see 0.00/0.01 no matter how much i dose, i also feed a lot the fish 4 tangs, 4 chromis, 1 anthias and 2 clown, long story short, i had cyano and threated with chemiclean, decision based on the fact that some of them was growing over some corals (used in past and always had success) then 5 days later i see something that seem dino (i'm going to take some sample today for microscope ID) now i know my system is unblanced, i'm thinking also about that the po4 don't rise because are used by the cyano/dino situation. The tank is 4 months old and i have corals in it coming from a crasched tank (heavy metals) now i'm going to start dosing phyto for some biodiversity and i was wonder if an algae scrubber could help the situation providing competiotion to the dino or maybe is just a bad idea that is going to put back down to zero all my nutrients and help the dino? I want to find a natural balance so i don't wanna use any "fast" solution (see chemiclean mystake up here).

I know it's a bad situation
Hope someone can argue with me and find the best path togheter!

You need to start dosing Phosphates first so you can bring your levels up to close to 0.1. That should help with the Dinos/Cyano situation as well.
What are you feeding your fish ? Different food have different levels of phosphates so try changing what you feed. Find pellet food with a relatively high phosphates content.

reefpizza · Feb 23, 2021

Deep said:
You need to start dosing Phosphates first so you can bring your levels up to close to 0.1. That should help with the Dinos/Cyano situation as well.
What are you feeding your fish ? Different food have different levels of phosphates so try changing what you feed. Find pellet food with a relatively high phosphates content.

I already dose po4 with no results

Deep · Feb 23, 2021

reefpizza said:
I already dose po4 with no results

Yes it can also be binding to substrate. You can safely up your dosing until you have measurable residual levels.

reefpizza · Feb 23, 2021

I'm afraid to fuel up just the cyano/dino guys i have stoppedo dosing for 48 hours right now, just for check if something calm down a bit

taricha · Feb 24, 2021

reefpizza said:
now i'm going to start dosing phyto for some biodiversity and i was wonder if an algae scrubber could help the situation providing competiotion to the dino or maybe is just a bad idea

I like the idea. Algae scrubber is a good conservative tool for nutrient lowering that competes well with dinos, and often dinos will preferentially colonize the scrubber itself, making them an easy daily export.

reefpizza · Feb 25, 2021

taricha said:
I like the idea. Algae scrubber is a good conservative tool for nutrient lowering that competes well with dinos, and often dinos will preferentially colonize the scrubber itself, making them an easy daily export.

I'll give it a try, right now i'm dosing bacter clean m and yeast for dirt/clean up the tank

The dino ID is ostreopsis

reefpizza · Mar 1, 2021

Plugged in the scrubber, the dino situation seem regressing, using uvc in sump and keeping dosing BacterCleanM + yeast, sps seems happy! Also i find the clarisea so dirt in the morning, hope to solve soon!
(the kc/ca/mg consumption raised a lot in 4 days) ((never had mg consumption so far

)