Uv and ostreopsis

[jdpeters]

I nearly had it beat but I think I’m having problems with lyngbya Cyanobacteria. I’m having a hard time keeping nutrients up and today I didn’t test but corals look ticked and ostreopsis is back off to the races.

I’m thinking a 3 day blackout is my first step but I’m afraid of losing all my live stock again. I nearly hate this system, I’ve never struggled like this. Never doing barebottom and dry dead rock again.

I've done blackouts for ostreopsis but not a big fan as they just come back and it stresses out the corals that are trying to survive. Just crank up the UV flow and eventually you'll win out. Might take a few months. I had mine beat for several weeks then dialed my flow down - big mistake. It was months before I touched flow again but never had dinos again.

Once I had my breakout under control I had cyano and then a massive GHA breakout. Dinos really mess with balance of your tank. Just keep at it. I never added nitrate/phosphates as it mine never bottomed out, but it's not a bad idea.

I had a 2" sand bed and still had all these issues so...who knows.

And yeah, I feed your pain. Closest I came to throwing in the towel was during this period.

This gives me some hope. It’s so frustrating, my last two systems I set up ignorantly and didn’t have a fraction of the problems I’ve had with this one. The biggest difference honestly is I started both the of the last systems with store bought live rock. I had ugly phases but nothing to this extent.

I have the flow lower on my pump for the uv that is directly in the display but I can turn it up. I assumed since it knocked the Dino’s back so fast and aggressively that I was over it completely. I honestly thought I would be taking it offline.

The lyngbya isn’t super out of control, I’m wondering if I keep at manual removal that I will eventually end up with balance. I’m a little concerned that it’s irritating one coral in particular but there’s no way to be sure.

Yesterday I noticed a large single polyp of dragon soul goniastrea that was previously doing REALLY good was shrunken up. It’s a super beautiful piece and was incredibly puffy. I might try changing my carbon sooner. Fortunately it’s still sending all the tentacles.
I have a BIG box coming from tidal gardens soon, I really want to receive it

 

[jdpeters]

Sometimes it can take awhile. I’ve had three rounds of Dino’s now. Nutrients didn’t drop on the last two rounds but they just came back. Eventually your tank will find its balance and a replacement to outcompete the Dino’s. Just keep up with the Uv and manual removal. If you want to speed it up do a blackout. Even a day will help. 3 days my tank was bare of all Dino’s and everything. But expect something to replace Dino’s! One round had cyano after and this last I now have GHA running ramped.

Thank you for responding with this. This makes a lot of sense. Once I started aggressively manually removing the Dino’s every day and made a massive dent the lyngbya cyano started to get a footing. Thankfully it’s more aesthetically annoying than harmful I believe currently. I’m confused if I should continue to try to get my nutrients not reading zero or not.

GHA started showing its head for the first time, it’s ticking off a paly.

Any thoughts on Microbacter 7?

 

[Quietman]

You have to remember that Ostreopsis is toxic. I lost all but one coral during my outbreak and recovery. I also tried other stuff before getting the UV filter when I should've had it all along. (I'll never have a tank without one and I recommend to anyone more than a small nano to have one on hand). You're doing great with your outbreak.

Once you have dinos I'm not sure they ever go away. At least for months if you keep UV up. It wouldn't surprise me at all if I turned off my UV to see them show back up in a few weeks though even though it's been years now.

Love my Tidal Gardens delivery days.

 

[Quietman]

I used Microbacter 7 religiously then off and on. Never saw a difference when I stopped or started. Won't buy it (or really any bio additives) again. People do see good results and if it works for them who am I to say it's doesn't work at all. I just never saw any effect from any of that stuff over good husbandry and design. Also I realized that the ocean has countless bacteria, protozoa, prions, etc. The stuff they sell in bottles is only the stuff they can grow commercially. I doubt the two are anywhere close to the same.

I think the better solution is live rock from ocean. Which is what I'll do next tank. It's expensive but man, losing all but one of your corals and two fish is heartbreaking and costly. The biggest success difference I hear is real live rock from the floor of the ocean over dry (even if it's advertised as 'bacterially active' or some such).

Also, hear ya on the failure. I think reef keeping is like motorcycling. It's not if you're going to crash, it's when. You maybe lucky the first few times, but eventually the odds will catch up. Keeping a piece of ocean inside a glass box just isn't a natural thing and nature will humble our hubris. Still doing it though. Love the hobby.

 

[jdpeters]

You have to remember that Ostreopsis is toxic. I lost all but one coral during my outbreak and recovery. I also tried other stuff before getting the UV filter when I should've had it all along. (I'll never have a tank without one and I recommend to anyone more than a small nano to have one on hand). You're doing great with your outbreak.

Once you have dinos I'm not sure they ever go away. At least for months if you keep UV up. It wouldn't surprise me at all if I turned off my UV to see them show back up in a few weeks though even though it's been years now.

Love my Tidal Gardens delivery days.

Thank you for responding with this. My wife is generally happy to listen to me fret but I need to expand my audience lol.

I travel for work and when I got home the other reason the lyngbya really popped off, not to plague level proportions but the entire tank changed. Next day when the lights peaked I had tiny bubbles everywhere. Yesterday I was thinking I was making my way out of the hobby lol. Today both are still present but way more subdued. Not sure what triggered that mini event.

When the tank was young I had ostreopsis bubbles covering EVERYTHING. I thought it was pearling hair algae. After all my fish and snails dropped dead and I started seeing flesh peel off my corals I quickly learned what I was dealing with. Honestly last time I set a reef up I used good cycled live rock from a LFS and I think largely people were still doing that. I don’t think just 10 years ago Dino’s were as prevalent.

I changed out my carbon today and used a bit extra. I have it passively running on a manifold.

I hit the free shipping threshold with only 10 pieces so I got some nice economical sps. Also included in that is a frogspawn and a purple tipped hammer. My children will be enamored with some movement in the tank.

 

[jonelder68]

Thank you for responding with this. This makes a lot of sense. Once I started aggressively manually removing the Dino’s every day and made a massive dent the lyngbya cyano started to get a footing. Thankfully it’s more aesthetically annoying than harmful I believe currently. I’m confused if I should continue to try to get my nutrients not reading zero or not.

GHA started showing its head for the first time, it’s ticking off a paly.

Any thoughts on Microbacter 7?

So when Dino’s are removed/die off all those nutrients will release into the water. That’s what causes your cyano probably. After the cyano will be GHA. It will cover everything like the Dino’s. But much easier to deal with. Manual removal for a while until the cuc can keep up or get more cuc. I did a heavy cleaning of my GHA Saturday and it’s slowly less and less. It’s not fun with all these battles but eventually your tank will find its equilibrium. Right now it’s same as my new tank and just tipping from one to the other. GHA should be the last hopefully though .

 

[jdpeters]

I used Microbacter 7 religiously then off and on. Never saw a difference when I stopped or started. Won't buy it (or really any bio additives) again. People do see good results and if it works for them who am I to say it's doesn't work at all. I just never saw any effect from any of that stuff over good husbandry and design. Also I realized that the ocean has countless bacteria, protozoa, prions, etc. The stuff they sell in bottles is only the stuff they can grow commercially. I doubt the two are anywhere close to the same.

I think the better solution is live rock from ocean. Which is what I'll do next tank. It's expensive but man, losing all but one of your corals and two fish is heartbreaking and costly. The biggest success difference I hear is real live rock from the floor of the ocean over dry (even if it's advertised as 'bacterially active' or some such).

Also, hear ya on the failure. I think reef keeping is like motorcycling. It's not if you're going to crash, it's when. You maybe lucky the first few times, but eventually the odds will catch up. Keeping a piece of ocean inside a glass box just isn't a natural thing and nature will humble our hubris. Still doing it though. Love the hobby.

I have deep skepticism but of course own an obligatory bottle of it. Hard to duplicate the diversity of the ocean. I’ve had 20 pounds of TBS sand in the tank for nearly 6 weeks now. I was hoping for an instant and massive improvement but it didn’t quite work that way. I’m willing to bet that if I hadn’t added it on the course this system was headed that I’d of had a tear down by this point. The amount of amphipods and copepods I have crawling in this system is WILD

I’ve had a similar thought lately that I will be spending the money upfront if I was ever to start from scratch and buy at least the sand and potentially rock. The money and heart ache I would have offset would fully justify the cost. I suspect that I’d be bursting this 40b at the seams in no time.

Honestly my goal at this point it to learn more, become successful with this system and over grow it to the point for an imminent upgrade.I build the whole system from scratch and of course have a list of things I’d do differently

 

[jdpeters]

Thank you for responding with this. This makes a lot of sense. Once I started aggressively manually removing the Dino’s every day and made a massive dent the lyngbya cyano started to get a footing. Thankfully it’s more aesthetically annoying than harmful I believe currently. I’m confused if I should continue to try to get my nutrients not reading zero or not.

GHA started showing its head for the first time, it’s ticking off a paly.

Any thoughts on Microbacter 7?

So when Dino’s are removed/die off all those nutrients will release into the water. That’s what causes your cyano probably. After the cyano will be GHA. It will cover everything like the Dino’s. But much easier to deal with. Manual removal for a while until the cuc can keep up or get more cuc. I did a heavy cleaning of my GHA Saturday and it’s slowly less and less. It’s not fun with all these battles but eventually your tank will find its equilibrium. Right now it’s same as my new tank and just tipping from one to the other. GHA should be the last hopefully though .

Thank you for saying that. I’m actually seeing my first signs of GHA, system is less than 11 months old. About half way in it got a NUKED and basically had to do a restart. I just fill the ato for like 2 months and had the lights off.

 

[jdpeters]

Sometimes it can take awhile. I’ve had three rounds of Dino’s now. Nutrients didn’t drop on the last two rounds but they just came back. Eventually your tank will find its balance and a replacement to outcompete the Dino’s. Just keep up with the Uv and manual removal. If you want to speed it up do a blackout. Even a day will help. 3 days my tank was bare of all Dino’s and everything. But expect something to replace Dino’s! One round had cyano after and this last I now have GHA running ramped.

Any idea how long you went without changing water? All for reef is really keeping my parameters straight but it’s been over a month since I’ve done a WC and I’m getting the itch to do one. Something is irritating a beautiful dragon soul goniastrea.

 

[jonelder68]

Any idea how long you went without changing water? All for reef is really keeping my parameters straight but it’s been over a month since I’ve done a WC and I’m getting the itch to do one. Something is irritating a beautiful dragon soul goniastrea.

Ya I would do whenever you feel the need to.

 

[jdpeters]

Any idea how long you went without changing water? All for reef is really keeping my parameters straight but it’s been over a month since I’ve done a WC and I’m getting the itch to do one. Something is irritating a beautiful dragon soul goniastrea.

Ya I would do whenever you feel the need to.

Whenever my wife gives me that same advice I think very thoroughly before I take action lol

 

[jdpeters]

Thank you for responding with this. This makes a lot of sense. Once I started aggressively manually removing the Dino’s every day and made a massive dent the lyngbya cyano started to get a footing. Thankfully it’s more aesthetically annoying than harmful I believe currently. I’m confused if I should continue to try to get my nutrients not reading zero or not.

GHA started showing its head for the first time, it’s ticking off a paly.

Any thoughts on Microbacter 7?

So when Dino’s are removed/die off all those nutrients will release into the water. That’s what causes your cyano probably. After the cyano will be GHA. It will cover everything like the Dino’s. But much easier to deal with. Manual removal for a while until the cuc can keep up or get more cuc. I did a heavy cleaning of my GHA Saturday and it’s slowly less and less. It’s not fun with all these battles but eventually your tank will find its equilibrium. Right now it’s same as my new tank and just tipping from one to the other. GHA should be the last hopefully though .

Hope I’m on my way. Dino’s is 95 percent contained and now I got I think brown diatom or possibly cyano on sand bed along with some weird hair algae on sand bed. Doing a WC today and siphoning sand. Hopefully I’m heading to stability

 

[jonelder68]

Hope I’m on my way. Dino’s is 95 percent contained and now I got I think brown diatom or possibly cyano on sand bed along with some weird hair algae on sand bed. Doing a WC today and siphoning sand. Hopefully I’m heading to stability

Glad to hear

I’m still in the GHA stage for last month. Ordered some more cuc as my wrasses have killed off most my cuc. Got a whitetail bristletooth and diamond goby in QT. Hopefully this combo will help. It’s slowing down anyways. Hopefully about to the balancing point.

 

[Quietman]

You might want to consider some copepods/amphipods now if you don't have them already. Supposed to help keep everything in check once your main problem is knocked and prevents the next thing in line from taking over.

 

[jonelder68]

You might want to consider some copepods/amphipods now if you don't have them already. Supposed to help keep everything in check once your main problem is knocked and prevents the next thing in line from taking over.

I add some every other month or so. Bottle of pods and phyto. No real difference. My DT probably gets ravaged of them by my Anthias and other fish. Definitely have a bunch in my fuges considering I have 45 gallons of fuge for 105 total water volume.

 

[jdpeters]

Hope I’m on my way. Dino’s is 95 percent contained and now I got I think brown diatom or possibly cyano on sand bed along with some weird hair algae on sand bed. Doing a WC today and siphoning sand. Hopefully I’m heading to stability

Glad to hear

I’m still in the GHA stage for last month. Ordered some more cuc as my wrasses have killed off most my cuc. Got a whitetail bristletooth and diamond goby in QT. Hopefully this combo will help. It’s slowing down anyways. Hopefully about to the balancing point.

Wish you luck. This system is cursed. I have some sort of hair algae taking over the sand bed, some sort of brown algae that is on the sand bed that ebb and flows and Dino’s worsened after two consecutive weekly water changes.

I noticed the pump for the UV in tank was a bit clogged up yesterday after my WC so I cleaned that up and bumped the flow up. I’m probably going back to not WC.
I still have some sort of fluffy algae that I believe is lyngbya that I have to manage. It’s not completely out of control. I just blow it off every other day normally but yesterday I had an idea to use a fine net to capture particles.
Some of my corals are starting to take off so I’m going to keep trudging along, maybe? lol I was looking at pictures my last system. I remember it looked pretty jagged at one point in time and before I tore it down it was flourishing. I added 20 pounds of TBS live sand 2+ months ago, hoping that maybe I will hit an equilibrium?

 

[jdpeters]

You might want to consider some copepods/amphipods now if you don't have them already. Supposed to help keep everything in check once your main problem is knocked and prevents the next thing in line from taking over.

I’m screwed this tank is a disaster lol. I have some sort of larger amphipod that is incredibly prolific, once the lights are off every inch is crawling. Post holidays I’d like to start adding some but currently I’m retail fasting til after Christmas

 

[jonelder68]

Wish you luck. This system is cursed. I have some sort of hair algae taking over the sand bed, some sort of brown algae that is on the sand bed that ebb and flows and Dino’s worsened after two consecutive weekly water changes.

I noticed the pump for the UV in tank was a bit clogged up yesterday after my WC so I cleaned that up and bumped the flow up. I’m probably going back to not WC.
I still have some sort of fluffy algae that I believe is lyngbya that I have to manage. It’s not completely out of control. I just blow it off every other day normally but yesterday I had an idea to use a fine net to capture particles.
Some of my corals are starting to take off so I’m going to keep trudging along, maybe? lol I was looking at pictures my last system. I remember it looked pretty jagged at one point in time and before I tore it down it was flourishing. I added 20 pounds of TBS live sand 2+ months ago, hoping that maybe I will hit an equilibrium?

Hair algae is a good sign! Means it’s taking the Dino’s place. I just got my reefcleaners restock cuc order and they’re taking care of the GHA. Also got a whitetail bristletooth in QT along with a diamond goby to clean up if still present when there done going through QT.

 

[jdpeters]

Wish you luck. This system is cursed. I have some sort of hair algae taking over the sand bed, some sort of brown algae that is on the sand bed that ebb and flows and Dino’s worsened after two consecutive weekly water changes.

I noticed the pump for the UV in tank was a bit clogged up yesterday after my WC so I cleaned that up and bumped the flow up. I’m probably going back to not WC.
I still have some sort of fluffy algae that I believe is lyngbya that I have to manage. It’s not completely out of control. I just blow it off every other day normally but yesterday I had an idea to use a fine net to capture particles.
Some of my corals are starting to take off so I’m going to keep trudging along, maybe? lol I was looking at pictures my last system. I remember it looked pretty jagged at one point in time and before I tore it down it was flourishing. I added 20 pounds of TBS live sand 2+ months ago, hoping that maybe I will hit an equilibrium?

Hair algae is a good sign! Means it’s taking the Dino’s place. I just got my reefcleaners restock cuc order and they’re taking care of the GHA. Also got a whitetail bristletooth in QT along with a diamond goby to clean up if still present when there done going through QT.

I sure hope so.
Any idea on the longevity of astrea snails? Post holidays I want to beef back up a bit. I need a few turbos and a small army of nassarius. I’m considering a sand sifting goby potentially, my sand bed is basically wide open and needs a bit of agitation if my neon dottyback won’t be a huge dick.

 

[jonelder68]

I have killer melanurus wrasses so none of my cuc last long another reason why I’m trying a diamond goby for the sand. The nassarius are the wrasses favorite to mess with. Luckily they leave my two conchs alone.

The best by far at the GHA is my tuxedo urchin. He’s a beast!