Which to nuke first...Dinos, Algae, or Cyano?

[Siberwulf]

Ok, so I'm pretty sure I have all three going on:

• Dinos - I see them on the sand and rocks, they go away at night. They seem to move if you blow them off, but never go away per se.
• Cyano - These are some local patches of pink stuff, which is relatively new
• Algae - Duh, it's there.

Here's my approach, I think:

1. Remove as much algae as possible.
2. Nuke the Dinos next. I've done this once, and I can do it again. I've used a H2O2 dose, blackout, etc. And it's worked for the Osteo.
3. Come back to see what's left of the Cyano, and maybe hit it with Chemiclean again. I did this once, and it worked pretty well.

Does this make sense?

So I've had Algae, Dinos and Cyano before (never at the same time). I want to hypothesize what went wrong though:

1. I think my GFO Reactor stopped absorbing...I didn't change the media as much as I should have. This lead to an increase in PO4.
2. I didn't notice this, because algae was starting to grow slowly.
3. Extra algae dropped my NO3 down to zero, which caused Dinos to resurface
4. I boosted NO3 to fight the dinos, which then led to a cyano bloom.

I plan to install UV to help out, and probably keep a better eye on nutrients. Wish me luck.

 

[rtparty]

All signs point to an imbalanced system and you can’t nuke one without nuking other beneficial items and always keeping that imbalance going.

I would suck out what you can with a water change and add a bunch of pods to start. Let the tank mature and find its balance.

 

[Siberwulf]

All signs point to an imbalanced system and you can’t nuke one without nuking other beneficial items and always keeping that imbalance going.

I would suck out what you can with a water change and add a bunch of pods to start. Let the tank mature and find its balance.

It sure does feel imbalanced right now. I had things going pretty well until about a month or two ago. I had a really, really nasty outbreak of both Bubble Algae and Aiptasia. I ended up doing a round of AlgaeFix to nuke the Bubble Algae, which worked in conjunction with my Green Emeralds. My Filefish finally picked off all the Aiptasia. I recently did add some pods to the mix (two jars) but they don't seem to be doing much at all, if anything.

 

[ReefGeezer]

All signs point to an imbalanced system and you can’t nuke one without nuking other beneficial items and always keeping that imbalance going.

I would suck out what you can with a water change and add a bunch of pods to start. Let the tank mature and find its balance.

I agree. If you have a skimmer, possibly some carbon dosing. Using the DIY coral snow and MB7 employed by @SunnyX might help without doing harm to the balance.

 

[rtparty]

It sure does feel imbalanced right now. I had things going pretty well until about a month or two ago. I had a really, really nasty outbreak of both Bubble Algae and Aiptasia. I ended up doing a round of AlgaeFix to nuke the Bubble Algae, which worked in conjunction with my Green Emeralds. My Filefish finally picked off all the Aiptasia. I recently did add some pods to the mix (two jars) but they don't seem to be doing much at all, if anything.

AlgaeFix. I totally understand using it especially with bubble algae but that very likely was the cause of all issues. It is an algaecide after all and hurts the balance within a system

 

[Siberwulf]

AlgaeFix. I totally understand using it especially with bubble algae but that very likely was the cause of all issues. It is an algaecide after all and hurts the balance within a system

That tracks, timeline wise. So what's the best course to fix things here? I've seen Dinos pop up when nutrients are super low. But if I raise them, it'll fuel the cyano and algae. How do you fix all three at once?

 

[bvanfish]

I don’t know if You can at once. I’m a noob so grain of salt. But maybe you could do a systematic approach to one that would help the others. Like figure out what Dinos you have first then treat for it. Then go down the line.

if they disappear you may have ostreopis Dino and if you run uv you may be able to do it without using a “nuke”. Add some phyto, pods, power heads, and then test nutrients daily with a bag of carbon and see how things go?

I guess I am more for not using chemicals / nukes unless it’s absolutely last resort and even then I think I’d wait it out. But it seems when you try to do to much in this game it messes it up more. So I’d pick one and solve for it and I think it’ll not only help take on the others but may even reduce the chance of making even more go south. Just my .02

 

[lauraofthereef]

Don't buy a UV, doesn't do much, waste of money in most cases, and usually the wrong wattage, (plus can act as a heater of the watts it runs at, which most people forget about). Pods won't do anything either. Buying stuff usually doesn't help, just complicates things more. Sometimes patience is the best option.

Yes, it's your fault, using chemo to kill your velonia (bubble algae) is most likely what caused the imbalance. No worries, shirt happens in this hobby, especially for beginners, but even for marine biologists.

Velonia is not hard to remove just pop them with tweezers, your crab will do the rest. Also, popping them is fine, ignore the myth that they "release spores when broken", bullshirt, what do you think emerald crabs do when they eat them..?

If the tank is less than a year, or recently nuked like yours, it won't have the correct bacteria strains to handle problems like these. You will have to wait for the bacteria to grow and balance your system, and play God to help the bacteria win. Not much is yet known about bacteria and its place in our aquarium ecosystems, but if you feel the need to buy something to speed up the process a little, I'd recommend looking into some of the Brightwell Microbacter products to add the bacterial diversity to your tank. And don't change much else while adding anything. One thing at a time, or you can't learn what worked for later. Just keep all your nutrient levels and water chemistry as steady as normal, or better.

In an ideal environment, all your problems will fix themselves. Give it a few months and don't worry how it looks. Just make sure the corals aren't covered in algae while you wait for the bacteria to grow and you'll be fine. Hope this helped.

 

[All_talk]

Don't buy a UV, doesn't do much, waste of money in most cases, and usually the wrong wattage, (plus can act as a heater of the watts it runs at, which most people forget about). Pods won't do anything either. Buying stuff usually doesn't help, just complicates things more. Sometimes patience is the best option.

Yes, it's your fault, using chemo to kill your velonia (bubble algae) is most likely what caused the imbalance. No worries, shirt happens in this hobby, especially for beginners, but even for marine biologists.

Velonia is not hard to remove just pop them with tweezers, your crab will do the rest. Also, popping them is fine, ignore the myth that they "release spores when broken", bullshirt, what do you think emerald crabs do when they eat them..?

If the tank is less than a year, or recently nuked like yours, it won't have the correct bacteria strains to handle problems like these. You will have to wait for the bacteria to grow and balance your system, and play God to help the bacteria win. Not much is yet known about bacteria and its place in our aquarium ecosystems, but if you feel the need to buy something to speed up the process a little, I'd recommend looking into some of the Brightwell Microbacter products to add the bacterial diversity to your tank. And don't change much else while adding anything. One thing at a time, or you can't learn what worked for later. Just keep all your nutrient levels and water chemistry as steady as normal, or better.

In an ideal environment, all your problems will fix themselves. Give it a few months and don't worry how it looks. Just make sure the corals aren't covered in algae while you wait for the bacteria to grow and you'll be fine. Hope this helped.

The above is all good advice.

Concentrate on consistency, this mostly means your husbandry, you can't expect the tank to be stable if you keep changing what you are doing to it. Focus on creating an environment that lets corals win over algae, get you alkalinity, calcium and magnesium in a good place, don't sweat the nitrate and phosphate to much, you want more than nothing and less than a lot.

Do regular water changes. Fortify your clean up crew.

And watch this video for some great information on algae control:

 

[Screwgunner]

So I used vibrant and it basically did the same thing. Killed off my algea and cleaned my rock like new again then I got hit like you did . All three . So,I did 3 large water changes . And it was like starting over diatoms first . I took a media bag cut the stitching out of it and made a filter by gluing it to some plastic and putting g it in my sump. Dinos stick to it really good clean it everyday dinos gone. Cyano is going away slowly . No more chemicals. My file fish got killed off by my other fish so aptasia is coming back. Will it ever end ? Got some nudis see how they work if my fish don't eat them too.

 

[JoJosReef]

That tracks, timeline wise. So what's the best course to fix things here? I've seen Dinos pop up when nutrients are super low. But if I raise them, it'll fuel the cyano and algae. How do you fix all three at once?

UV will knock out the dinos if ostreopsis -- try asking locally to borrow one, because could take only a few days. If proro, UV might help. Amphi, nada. If you can clear the dinos with UV, then I would suck out the cyano and simultaneously dump live gulf sand or mud in and mix it with the tank sand--big water change. Add some real gulf live rock as well (or aussie), and that will start the algae clearance. Some manual maintenance on your part to keep things in check and beef up your CUC for the algae. The added bacterial/microfauna diversity will keep the dinos in check (in my experience). I can't say much to cyano because never had it, but I understand flow can help. Good way to help with nutrient management and not disturb "balance" is display macroalgae (again, in my experience). It's a shifting balance that you and your tank adjust to.

That's hard fight, but my best suggestion for "fix all three at once" is to dump a load of gulf live rock/sand into the system. Good luck!