Brown / Red stringy algae... dinos?

[darkrabbit]

Hi all, I feel like I might have dinos but can't be sure. Wanted to see what people thought before I start treatment (and try to figure out what to do).

My nitrates have always been low / 0, and my phosphates are as well (0.02). I am trying to bring them up, especially nitrates, through feeding more.

I have a fuge with chaeto (60% full anyway, I recently pulled some out). I usually have to throw away a huge ball every 2-3 weeks.

There may have been a few potential causes:

- My RO membrane may be shot. I am hitting 2ppm out of the RODI unit and my DI resin is almost used up. Problem is it got used up FAST which makes me think the RO membrane is done. I am wondering if there are silicates entering the water and causing this.
- I recently moved a rock from one side of my tank to the other. My diamond goby lived under that rock and i think it REALLY ticked him off. He's been digging up all the sand in the front of my tank and no question he's stirred some nasty things up.

Anyway, any thoughts?

FYI in 3 weeks I am moving my tank to a new house, so I might have an opportunity to deal with this quite aggressively. But my birds nest is starting to lose flesh, and I think in 3 weeks he may be gone :/ I may not have that kind of time to do something.

 

[Reefer5640]

Yeah looks like Dino’s to me. You’ll need a microscope to tell for certain what exactly you’re dealing with. Can you get your hands on a microscope?

 

[darkrabbit]

Yeah looks like Dino’s to me. You’ll need a microscope to tell for certain what exactly you’re dealing with. Can you get your hands on a microscope?

I don't have one but I can pick one up from Amazon pretty cheap, have it tomorrow or next day.

So I cleaned / flushed my fuge out as it had it in there too and rinsed my chaeto, which was about a 6-8g water change (it's a Reefer 250, 55g display). I perform auto water changes @ 1 gallon per day as well.

I completely dumped all my saltwater and RODI water I have in brute buckets, changed my DI resin and RO membrane, and am now filling both with 0 TDS water. So that part is dealt with.

I keep basting my corals and rocks but I might do another 10g water change tomorrow while basting, suck out what I can, clean the pumps.

In the meantime I'll read that dino thread as well.

I also might speed up my tank move. We take possession of our next house Nov 1 so it's an opportunity to flush the entire tank anyway since I have to move it.

-J

 

[Reefer5640]

Does it seem to come right back after you clean it out?

 

[Reefer5640]

If it is Dino’s, they feed off certain trace elements in new salt water so doing water changes could make matters worse. That’s if it is Dino’s, and I’m pretty sure it is but can never really be certain until you check under a microscope

 

[darkrabbit]

If it is Dino’s, they feed off certain trace elements in new salt water so doing water changes could make matters worse. That’s if it is Dino’s, and I’m pretty sure it is but can never really be certain until you check under a microscope

When I clean they seem to come back shortly after.

Shame about the trace elements, I dose trace elements and did those water changes lol. Oops.

I got my microscope today! I will check tonight, post pics if I can.

-J

 

[darkrabbit]

Interesting little things.. so I collected some of the suspected dino strings and they all got mixed into the small container of water, I could barely see them at all. I left the container alone for a few hours, came back and they had all gathered back up together into a little dino cloud.

I gathered up some of them up from the cloud, put them on a slide. This is 400x magnification:

So I THINK they are Ostreopsis but I really can't be sure, would love some help with the ID.

-J

 

[vetteguy53081]

Yup- Dino
Prepare for a water change and blow this stuff loose with a turkey baster and siphon up loose particles.
Turn lights off for 5 days and st night dose 1ml of hydrogen peroxide per 10 gallons for all 5 nights
During the day dose 1ml of liquid bacteria (such as bacter 7) per 10 gallons.
Clean filters daily and DO NOT FEED CORAL FOODS OR ADD NOPOX as it is food for dinos.
Day 5,, you can start with blue lights and work your white lights up slowly

 

[darkrabbit]

Video:

 

[darkrabbit]

Yup- Dino
Prepare for a water change and blow this stuff loose with a turkey baster and siphon up loose particles.
Turn lights off for 5 days and st night dose 1ml of hydrogen peroxide per 10 gallons for all 5 nights
During the day dose 1ml of liquid bacteria (such as bacter 7) per 10 gallons.
Clean filters daily and DO NOT FEED CORAL FOODS OR ADD NOPOX as it is food for dinos.
Day 5,, you can start with blue lights and work your white lights up slowly

- So blow off with a turkey baster, siphon... any guidance on % water change or just whatever it takes to get the stuff off?
- Is a 5 day lights off routine going to significantly impact my livestock? Chaeto?
- Does hydrogen peroxide work? I've heard different in other threads... Im not too worried about the hydrogen peroxide, I've done that before with cyano, I just want to be sure it's okay to do.
- I'll go get Microbacter7 today or tomorrow.
- I don't have filter socks... I COULD try to jury-rig something up.... should I? My filtration is chaeto, GAC and a skimmer.

Seems like a solid plan though...

-J

 

[vetteguy53081]

- So blow off with a turkey baster, siphon... any guidance on % water change or just whatever it takes to get the stuff off?
- Is a 5 day lights off routine going to significantly impact my livestock? Chaeto?
- Does hydrogen peroxide work? I've heard different in other threads... Im not too worried about the hydrogen peroxide, I've done that before with cyano, I just want to be sure it's okay to do.
- I'll go get Microbacter7 today or tomorrow.
- I don't have filter socks... I COULD try to jury-rig something up.... should I? My filtration is chaeto, GAC and a skimmer.

Seems like a solid plan though...

-J

Siphon enough to get rid of as much as you can. Bacteria- as soon as you can. Continue filtration and clean skimmer cup daily
Peroxide works well and safe

 

[moz71]

Hey I have the same stuff in my tank and just posted the other day and recommendation was UV so I bought the Green Killing machine at petco 24v version for my 125 gallon. Wow! dramatically reduced and hoping it will be all gone by tomorrow just been running 3 days now.

 

[darkrabbit]

Siphon enough to get rid of as much as you can. Bacteria- as soon as you can. Continue filtration and clean skimmer cup daily
Peroxide works well and safe

Ok. Water change done, 15gal about. Got what I could. You mentioned lights out for 5 days... was it lights out or black out? I am doing a black out at the moment.

I couldn't get Microbacter7 so I am using Microbacter StartXLM... same stuff I think, generally (bacteria).

Hey I have the same stuff in my tank and just posted the other day and recommendation was UV so I bought the Green Killing machine at petco 24v version for my 125 gallon. Wow! dramatically reduced and hoping it will be all gone by tomorrow just been running 3 days now.

Nice! Yeah I may need to try that if this doesn't work. I really hate the idea of doing the black out, I don't know what will happen to my corals, but we'll see I guess. I don't have a ton of time on my hands, so if there's a way ti UV nuke them I'd do it.

My tank params now are:

Nitrate: ~1 (probably less, API test kits suck)
Phosphate: 0.05
Alk: 8.9

That's all I've measured so far.

All blacked out. A concern now is oxygenation but the sump is still churning water, has lots of air, skimmer is running, etc. It's not a totally sealed system... thinking I should be ok..

 

[vetteguy53081]

Ok. Water change done, 15gal about. Got what I could. You mentioned lights out for 5 days... was it lights out or black out? I am doing a black out at the moment.

I couldn't get Microbacter7 so I am using Microbacter StartXLM... same stuff I think, generally (bacteria).



Nice! Yeah I may need to try that if this doesn't work. I really hate the idea of doing the black out, I don't know what will happen to my corals, but we'll see I guess. I don't have a ton of time on my hands, so if there's a way ti UV nuke them I'd do it.

My tank params now are:

Nitrate: ~1 (probably less, API test kits suck)
Phosphate: 0.05
Alk: 8.9

That's all I've measured so far.

All blacked out. A concern now is oxygenation but the sump is still churning water, has lots of air, skimmer is running, etc. It's not a totally sealed system... thinking I should be ok..

Black out is best. For corals you cAN run blues at 15%

 

[vetteguy53081]

Bacter XLM excellent stuff

 

[darkrabbit]

Black out is best. For corals you cAN run blues at 15%

Yeah in my situation I can't expose the lights without exposing the tank to the light in the room so... won't work.

Oh well let's see what happens. Thanks!

 

[darkrabbit]

Hey I have the same stuff in my tank and just posted the other day and recommendation was UV so I bought the Green Killing machine at petco 24v version for my 125 gallon. Wow! dramatically reduced and hoping it will be all gone by tomorrow just been running 3 days now.

I checked your thread and I can get that UV sterilizer through Amazon in one day. It's under a different brand for us Canadians but it's the same thing.


Nice to have a backup plan if this stuff comes back! Maybe a UV sterilizer wouldn't be a bad idea anyway...

 

[moz71]

I checked your thread and I can get that UV sterilizer through Amazon in one day. It's under a different brand for us Canadians but it's the same thing.


Nice to have a backup plan if this stuff comes back! Maybe a UV sterilizer wouldn't be a bad idea anyway...

Yes and I am liking the uv as back up and now planning to run in sump somehow more consistently. My water and sand has never looked so clean. The Dino’s did not return to sand Today and I only seeing a very super light dusting g on some rocks. Hopefully tomorrow will be 100 percent clean. Btw I was turning basting the rocks once a day at end of day to keep them suspended. Seems to be working like a charm

 

[moz71]

Surely meant turkey basting the rocks

 

[darkrabbit]

Update: 11/2

Tank has been blacked out for 3 days, dosing H2O2 and startXLM, both 6.5mL / day (I have a ~70 gallon system).

I tested some params this AM:

Alk: 9.2 - so looks like corals are still consuming alk because I didnt stop dosing.
Phosphate: .04 - alright. thought it would be higher.

Nitrate: 30ppm - what the???? I can't tell if it was 30 but it was not LESS than this. The API kit is hard to read but the vial was a dark orange as opposed to the yellow it had been. The API is not a great kit, but it's consistent. If it's orange, there's a LOT of nitrates.

Calc: 570ppm - again, what the??? Last read was 430 a week ago. Now I don't necessarily trust the test because this is a new Red Sea reagent bottle and the bottle had some precipitation in it. But still..

I was not expecting nitrate to spike like that, so I took the covers off the tank. Something must have died or.. I don't know. But that's getting way too high for my liking.

So checked the tank and everyone is alive. EveryTHING is alive too, except the dinos. I can't seem to see any. There might be a BIT of stringy stuff in one spot, but to be honest I can't tell if that's dinos or not. I don't think so... When I put the lights on (morning startup routine only, blues), the corals ALL started to open up. The zoas especially. Beautiful.

I don't know why the nitrate spiked like that. I've been feeding the fish pellets and mysis but that's it.

For next steps I am not sure what to do... I turned my fuge light back on to let my chaeto start to chomp on those nitrates. I am thinking I'll keep my T5s off today at least and turn all the whites off on my LEDs. Re-acclimate the tank a bit. But if I have killed 90% of these buggers I am thinking of picking up a UV sterilizer and letting it do the rest. OR if they come back, to do another black out and this time keep it to 5 days, seriously reducing the amount I feed.

I'll give the tank 2-3 more hours and check to see if anything shows up on the birds nest. That's the first place dinos will be.