What do I do!

[Scooter90254]

I’ve officially had it with Dinos for the second time in the last 5 years.

My new tank is 13 months old and for the last 5 months I’ve been battling Dino’s.

They even survived a move to my new house.

We are settled in now and the plan was to start an upgrade to an in wall build that will be plumbed to a fish room “currently a closet”. Something I’ve always wanted to do.

But after the last couple of weeks trying to raise Nutrients I now have Cyano and Dino’s thicket then ever. Haha. All I can do is laugh at this point. I’m really considering just tearing it down.

I’ve dealt with all kinds of pests in the past. Been reefing on and off since 2004 so I’m no quitter.

That being said Dino’s has me on the ropes.

At this point my corals are all about toast. I’m willing to try anything at this point.

 

[Raege]

Hang in there let’s shine the bat signal #reefsquad
List up as much info as you can water parameters tank size etc as well as what you have tried to do so far. The guys and gals here with more exp. than I can help you out

 

[Brad Miller]

Good news is....we can help you !
This is a very easy fix, but will take patience and time....not chemicals
Also post pics under white lights
Your husbandry routine
Water change amount and frequency
Topping off with what kind of water
What salt mix your using
What and how many of each of your clean up crew members
Logs, record keeping
All test results that you are currently testing for

 

[Seminoles76]

Scooter. Remember Rocky got up in the 14th round and took Apollo’s soul. You gotta take the soul of the Dino’s

Now go get yourself a cheap Jaebo UV and punch they Dino’s to the body. To the body.

In all seriousness, if you don’t get some insight after posting numbers and what not I’d try a UV if your still in the fight.

Hope you get it sorted out.

 

[jsker]

What kind of lights are you running?

 

[cracker]

Can I assume the info that will come can help with HA, generally speaking ?
Scooter, Thanks for posting this !

 

[Ron Reefman]

Hang in there let’s shine the bat signal #reefsquad
List up as much info as you can water parameters tank size etc as well as what you have tried to do so far. The guys and gals here with more exp. than I can help you out

Perfect suggestion Raege. Scooter, it may seem like a long post, but the more info you share, the more the Reef Squad has to work with.

I have had Dinos once before and I didn't have much help. I tried a lot of different things to resolve the problem. It took a couple months to resolve the problem and I can't even point to exactly what I did that made a difference because I was doing 2 or 3 or 4 things at once! And now, 45 years later I have a new and different tank and I'm just starting to have a Dino issue again. So we can try fighting this together.

I'm sure others on the Reef Squad and regular members here at R2R will offer us both some worthwhile suggestions.

Hang in there!

 

[brandon429]

What’s your tank volume/gallons

 

[Scooter90254]

Thanks for the responses;

Info:
40g Breeder Drilled with glass holes setup.
29g sump
Vertex 150 Skimmer
32" SB reef light Timer
Jeboa PP8
1 Hydro

Top Off:
Tunze With Kalwasser

IO Salt
10 Gallon/week water changes until I started chasing the Dino's

Livestock
2 Clown Fish
4 Green Chromis

CC
6 Hermits
Probably 15 mixed snails
Pepp Shrimp
Coral Banded Shimp

Assorted LPS/Zoas none of them are doing well.
Few Monti and Digi's just start to bleach.

 

[Scooter90254]

History so far:

Tank was started with DRY rock. FYI.

Tank was running great for 6 months. Normal Diatoms and a little HA outbreak that all cleared up. Coral were doing great and growing. I generally feed light and believe in heavy nutrient export.

Right around the beginning of November I started to see a little bit of Dino's. I had them before and scared to death of getting them again. Sure enough I check with a Microscope and they're dinos. At this point they weren't bad but the next week I was gone for a 10 day trip. Fish were only fed a few times during the trip. When I got back they were in full bloom.

First attempt was to just stay patient and consistent with my feeding and husbandry. Over the next few weeks they proceeded to get worse.
Then I tried a 3 day blackout that seemed to knock them back a little but they came right back.
At that point I stopped doing water changes as they seem to be consistently worse after a water change.
Been running a UV sterilizer for about a month now with no help.
Added a new piece of well established liverock and MB7 - Nothing.
Started feeding heavy and turned off the skimmer about 3 weeks ago. Finally have measurable Nitrate (Salifert) still zero Phosphate. Getting some green Cyano now and Dinos are literally covering everything if I don't blow them off.

Tests:
78 Degrees
1.026
PH runs around 7.9 Little low for me.
Alk 9.5
Calcium 425
Magnesium 1350 Dosed BRS last week.

I'm game to try just about anything at this point. Corals are really suffering anyway.
I work on tank shots with White lights when I get home.

 

[Scooter90254]

Few pictures

 

[Neoalchemist]

Which uv are you running (wattage?) And at what flow rate. Also is the uv being fed from the display or the sump. This behaves more like ostreopsis with the growing over the corals. So an OVERSIZED uv sterilizer of at least 1 watt for every 3 gallons will be your best friend. It needs to be running to and from the display (intake close to the infection), and the flow rate should be moderate to slow 200 to 300 gph (this can take some tuning to acheave the right flow but it will be like night and day when you do). Dial in the the correct uv then perform a big manual removal session and get those nutrients up and in balance (especially po4) and you should see a huge improvement almost overnight.

 

[BeejReef]

Scooter. Remember Rocky got up in the 14th round and took Apollo’s soul. You gotta take the soul of the Dino’s

Now go get yourself a cheap Jaebo UV and punch they Dino’s to the body. To the body.

In all seriousness, if you don’t get some insight after posting numbers and what not I’d try a UV if your still in the fight.

Hope you get it sorted out.

Yes, stick with the body, then knock his block off. You're gonna eat lightning and crap thunder

 

[Scooter90254]

Which uv are you running (wattage?) And at what flow rate. Also is the uv being fed from the display or the sump. This behaves more like ostreopsis with the growing over the corals. So an OVERSIZED uv sterilizer of at least 1 watt for every 3 gallons will be your best friend. It needs to be running to and from the display (intake close to the infection), and the flow rate should be moderate to slow 200 to 300 gph (this can take some tuning to acheave the right flow but it will be like night and day when you do). Dial in the the correct uv then perform a big manual removal session and get those nutrients up and in balance (especially po4) and you should see a huge improvement almost overnight.

Thanks Neoalchemist,

I only have a 9w UV sterilizer. I could order a 24V if we really think that will help. That being said this one doesn't seem to really help at all.

 

[resortez]

Have you tested your RO water? You mentioned that it would get worse after a water change, that would raise the question of where is your RO coming from & is it contaminated. Do you buy or make the RO water? Also, the first post mentions that you tried to raise nutrient levels for a couple of weeks & ended up with cyano. It would help to know how you went about raising those nutrient levels.

 

[Neoalchemist]

Thanks Neoalchemist,

I only have a 9w UV sterilizer. I could order a 24V if we really think that will help. That being said this one doesn't seem to really help at all.

What size tank and what surfaces are the dinos primarily growing on and are they much thinner in the morning and thicker in the afternoon/evening?

 

[Scooter90254]

Have you tested your RO water? You mentioned that it would get worse after a water change, that would raise the question of where is your RO coming from & is it contaminated. Do you buy or make the RO water? Also, the first post mentions that you tried to raise nutrient levels for a couple of weeks & ended up with cyano. It would help to know how you went about raising those nutrient levels.

RO is 0-1 TDS from BRS RODI system.

Simply feeding heavy to raise nutrients. I was considering dosing but now I'm holding off and waiting to see what happens with the Cyano.

 

[resortez]

Ok. Without parameter readings, I can only figure that there’s some type of nutrient that is not being extracted from the tank that will end up giving you that cyano & d. Could be a silicate in the water colum, a dead spot in the tank where nutrients are collecting to just simply unattended chemical or mechanical filter media. I would start going through every stage of your filtration system & give attention to areas that have not been worked on, like any socks, sponges, carbon, pumps from skimmers to reactors, until you make your way back to the DT. Then give your whole sand bed a good cleaning, if you have sand. That means moving aside the aquascape to get to those hard to reach spots where excess nutrients tend to collect. Good luck.

 

[Neoalchemist]

What size tank and what surfaces are the dinos primarily growing on and are they much thinner in the morning and thicker in the afternoon/evening?

^^^

 

[Scooter90254]

Not a bad call to go through everything. I started today but will take me a couple days to clean everything.

Dino’s to seem to diminish at night but I wouldn’t say significantly. The attach primarily to the glass and frag rack. Some in the rocks.

This is a bare bottom tank. No cyano or Dino’s in the bottom.

I turned the slimmer back on this weekend and blew all the Cyano off and it seems to be going away. Back to just Dino’s.

FTS tonight.

Frag rack covered in Dino’s.