After chemiclean Dino or more cyano

JsLevine

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I had what appeared to be cyano on my sand bed and after a few months of undetectable, nitrates and siphoning out cyano every week I decided to try Chemi clean. It appeared to work very well and then two days later an outbreak of what I think are Dinos appeared.

I did a nitrate test and went from 0 nitrate to 23 ppm over night I would assume this is the die off of the cyano and me not exporting it when it died off. I turned my schedule up on my refugium and now see nitrates at 17.5.

My question is did I beat the cyano and now I have something else or did I just let the cyano bounce back because I did not get rid of the nutrients left behind.

The tank is 6 months old it was put together from a small tank that made it to 4 months before I decided I wanted to go slightly bigger and basically restarted the ugly stage. In other words this is my first year of reefing

I have a refugium that is doing well and a slightly oversized skimmer and a 25w uv sterilizer on a redsea 170

Current parameters
Nitrates 17.5
Phosphates 0.01
Alk 8.5
Calc 425
Mag 1400

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Can’t say without a microscope but it seems to be the normal trend any more… Dino’s after using chemiclean… it’s wiping the good and bad bacteria out then comes new problems.
 
well fair enough I would assume don’t use it again and probably just keep up with cleaning and dosing beneficial bacteria
 
well fair enough I would assume don’t use it again and probably just keep up with cleaning and dosing beneficial bacteria
I'm chasing my tail on one tank now after using flux for gha and chemiclean for cyano. Its been going on for about a year. Its a smaller tank and the only reason I haven't just started it over is because despite all the ups and downs my frags are really talking off.
 
I'm chasing my tail on one tank now after using flux for gha and chemiclean for cyano. Its been going on for about a year. Its a smaller tank and the only reason I haven't just started it over is because despite all the ups and downs my frags are really talking off.
I would say being in my first year of reefing I’m not doing to bad with the corals I just wish the magic hammer of chemiclean worked lol. Because to just have a pure white sand bed again would go a long way.
 

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I would say being in my first year of reefing I’m not doing to bad with the corals I just wish the magic hammer of chemiclean worked lol. Because to just have a pure white sand bed again would go a long way.
It does look like some Dino’s I’d say run a uv if you have one and dose some silicates to create a diatom bloom and starve them out..
 
I would say being in my first year of reefing I’m not doing to bad with the corals I just wish the magic hammer of chemiclean worked lol. Because to just have a pure white sand bed again would go a long way.
Tank does look good except the sand. I love the look of sand but gave up and went bare bottom on all the tanks. I don't know how some folks keep nice white sand. Mine always looked nasty so I gave up on sand. The tank I'm having trouble with now was actually doing well until I added sand so I could keep a blue haddoni that I wanted. My troubles started when I added the sand. Now I have a nasty looking tank and beautiful blue haddoni that has taken up residence in the back behind rocks so it's barely visible. :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:
 
Tank does look good except the sand. I love the look of sand but gave up and went bare bottom on all the tanks. I don't know how some folks keep nice white sand. Mine always looked nasty so I gave up on sand. The tank I'm having trouble with now was actually doing well until I added sand so I could keep a blue haddoni that I wanted. My troubles started when I added the sand. Now I have a nasty looking tank and beautiful blue haddoni that has taken up residence in the back behind rocks so it's barely visible. :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:
Bacteria and carbon dosing works great! Diamond bar keeps it flipped and shiny white also. I do nothing to clean my sand ever lol..
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It does look like some Dino’s I’d say run a uv if you have one and dose some silicates to create a diatom bloom and starve them out..
so you are saying if I does silicates I will get the diatoms that free swim in the water with the lights out. Let them take over and then uv zap them?
 
so you are saying if I does silicates I will get the diatoms that free swim in the water with the lights out. Let them take over and then uv zap them?
Does your sand bed clean up at night and get dirtier through out the day as the lights are on? If so then a uv will zap the Dino’s.. dosing silicates to introduce diatoms makes the Dino’s compete for food and the diatoms normally win… it easy to get rid of diatoms by stopping the silicate source.
 
I had the exact same thing happen to me. I dosed chemiclean on a 4 month old tank and it got rid of the cyano just fine, but then I noticed dinos took over. I ran my UV, dosed silicates and iron, and turned my heat up to 82. I also made sure my nutrients weren't bottoming out. I also manually siphoned out as much as a could every few days so that it didnt overrun my tank. It went away in about a month.
 
Bacteria and carbon dosing works great! Diamond bar keeps it flipped and shiny white also. I do nothing to clean my sand ever lol..
IMG_3076.jpeg
Bacto balance, MB 7 and zeobac works great in my dining room tank but does squat in the problem tank with the sand. Been adding it close to a year. I've been removing the sand but tank still looks bad. I'm about to move the coral and fish out to another tank and close that one up. I have too many tanks running anyways. There's a fine line between work and pleasure and I'm teetering lol
 
Bacteria and carbon dosing works great! Diamond bar keeps it flipped and shiny white also. I do nothing to clean my sand ever lol..
IMG_3076.jpeg
Bacto balance, MB 7 and zeobac works great in my dining room tank but does squat in the problem tank with the sand. Been adding it close to a year. I've been removing the sand but tank still looks bad. I'm about to move the coral and fish out to another tank and close that one up. I have too many tanks running anyways. There's a fine line between work and pleasure and I'm teetering lol
 
Bacto balance, MB 7 and zeobac works great in my dining room tank but does squat in the problem tank with the sand. Been adding it close to a year. I've been removing the sand but tank still looks bad. I'm about to move the coral and fish out to another tank and close that one up. I have too many tanks running anyways. There's a fine line between work and pleasure and I'm teetering lol
Is your sand brownish color? If so that means to back off the zeobak I’ve noticed that’s one side effect with it if you dose to much.. I add about 20 drops a week in 300 gallons
 
Ive seen too many times after use of chemiclean, Dino emerges. Its likely due to imbalances and biological deficiencies created by the chemiclean or a drop in Nitrate and phosphate. We then assume this is the cause but by the time you see zero numbers, its because the dino has consumed the po4 and no3 and are multiplying and in turn many dose no3 and po4 to bring numbers up not realizing they are feeding these flagellates even more.
Adding NoPox and aminos to the tank will further feed dino and if doing so, stop for now
 
Bacteria and carbon dosing works great! Diamond bar keeps it flipped and shiny white also. I do nothing to clean my sand ever lol..
IMG_3076.jpeg
@Troylee Stunning tank and sand! What sand did you use in your setup? That is amongst the nicest sand beds I have seen!
 
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Tank does look good except the sand. I love the look of sand but gave up and went bare bottom on all the tanks. I don't know how some folks keep nice white sand. Mine always looked nasty so I gave up on sand. The tank I'm having trouble with now was actually doing well until I added sand so I could keep a blue haddoni that I wanted. My troubles started when I added the sand. Now I have a nasty looking tank and beautiful blue haddoni that has taken up residence in the back behind rocks so it's barely visible. :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:
Thinking of getting diamond goby we will see
 
Is your sand brownish color? If so that means to back off the zeobak I’ve noticed that’s one side effect with it if you dose to much.. I add about 20 drops a week in 300 gallons
No brown really. Its just been a roller coaster of gha - cyano, rinse and repeat. I just started the zeobac a couple months or so ago. I'm using 6 drops a week (3 drops x2) so it could be too much. I think I'm being punished for screwing with things when I shouldn't have. The tank was doing great then I decided to change out the rock work and later added the sand. I probably have a masochistic gene :grinning-face-with-sweat:

EDIT: @Troylee I may reach out to you for info on your methods when I get the new tank stocked if you don't mind? Your tank looks pretty darn nice .
 
Does your sand bed clean up at night and get dirtier through out the day as the lights are on? If so then a uv will zap the Dino’s.. dosing silicates to introduce diatoms makes the Dino’s compete for food and the diatoms normally win… it easy to get rid of diatoms by stopping the silicate source.
Nope they stay there all night I have a uv sterilizer directly plumbed into the return already
 

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