Can dinos kill a diamond goby?

[2Wheelsonly]

I am still perplexed at my diamond goby that died...I noticed my tank sand which is normally very white and clean started turning brown. The first thing I did was check to see if my goby stopped sifting which he did...acted odd just kinda sat out in the open not moving much and eventally died.

I think I may have dinos but its very hard to tell.

Tank is coming up on 3 years old, established lots of SPS, flow, lights.

5 nitrates and undetectable phosphates.

No GFO, No GAC, No carbon dosing. Just a calc reactor and skimmer; water changes around once per month (5%).

Sand has large patches of brown, I think it's a mix but looks more like sprinkled cinnamon blasts away very easy and mats in some spots. No stringy slimy strands but it does vanish at night. Nothing on the rocks, brown dusting on glass ever 2-3 days.

I don't know how to get rid of it and the dino thread is a complete frustrating mess of contradicting information that tells me we as a hobby have no idea how to beat it. The thread makes me angry reading it.

I'm going to live with it since my corals are fine, my concern...can it kill fish? Mainly my goby that puts sand in it's mouth.

 

[Artillerydrill]

I am still perplexed at my diamond goby that died...I noticed my tank sand which is normally very white and clean started turning brown. The first thing I did was check to see if my goby stopped sifting which he did...acted odd just kinda sat out in the open not moving much and eventally died.

I think I may have dinos but its very hard to tell.

Tank is coming up on 3 years old, established lots of SPS, flow, lights.

5 nitrates and undetectable phosphates.

No GFO, No GAC, No carbon dosing. Just a calc reactor and skimmer; water changes around once per month (5%).

Sand has large patches of brown, I think it's a mix but looks more like sprinkled cinnamon blasts away very easy and mats in some spots. No stringy slimy strands but it does vanish at night. Nothing on the rocks, brown dusting on glass ever 2-3 days.

I don't know how to get rid of it and the dino thread is a complete frustrating mess of contradicting information that tells me we as a hobby have no idea how to beat it. The thread makes me angry reading it.

I'm going to live with it since my corals are fine, my concern...can it kill fish? Mainly my goby that puts sand in it's mouth.

In my experience no, I’ve had a diamond goby sifting dino infested sand for four months but I’m sure other people will say it depends on the strand of dino

 

[ncaldwell]

Here is a pic of my dinos at their worst and no problems with 2 yellow headed sleeper gobies. Also no judging, it's a sensitive subject

 

[shred5]

I do not see dinos at all. Cyano maybe.

 

[ncaldwell]

It was definitely dinos covering my sand bed and all my rock. Checked it at the lab. I was keeping it at bay by turning the sand over twice daily and changing out filter floss several times a day. On top of UV and skimmer

 

[2Wheelsonly]

Did it eventually just go away?

 

[rockskimmerflow]

I am still perplexed at my diamond goby that died...I noticed my tank sand which is normally very white and clean started turning brown. The first thing I did was check to see if my goby stopped sifting which he did...acted odd just kinda sat out in the open not moving much and eventally died.

I think I may have dinos but its very hard to tell.

Tank is coming up on 3 years old, established lots of SPS, flow, lights.

5 nitrates and undetectable phosphates.

No GFO, No GAC, No carbon dosing. Just a calc reactor and skimmer; water changes around once per month (5%).

Sand has large patches of brown, I think it's a mix but looks more like sprinkled cinnamon blasts away very easy and mats in some spots. No stringy slimy strands but it does vanish at night. Nothing on the rocks, brown dusting on glass ever 2-3 days.

I don't know how to get rid of it and the dino thread is a complete frustrating mess of contradicting information that tells me we as a hobby have no idea how to beat it. The thread makes me angry reading it.

I'm going to live with it since my corals are fine, my concern...can it kill fish? Mainly my goby that puts sand in it's mouth.

I am not sure whether or not a diamond goby could be killed by dinos, but having ridded double digit tanks of dino, some horrendous blooms, I've seen zero fish mortality as a result of massive dino populations. Not saying it isn't possible, just have never seen a fish go down from too much dino in a tank.

From what you listed in the post, the undetectable phosphate sticks out to me. I've never beaten dinos in any customer tanks without having nitrate and phosphate both detectable for a sustained period of time. And for what it's worth in almost all cases I've come into with tanks undergoing dino blooms the nitrate and phos is basically zero in many cases and sometimes just 0 phos with a bit of nitrate. Having detectable nitrates puts you off to an easier start, so just get those phosphates up by making your fish fat and some external liquid supplement if feeding your fish a bit heavy doesn't cut it. I've had success using both external supplementation as well as just an moderate increase in food input by the customer.

Also, as a total aside to the dino talk, I do not find diamond gobies very suitable for reefs in many cases. This may be controversial as I know people have kept them long term, but unless you have a massive sandbed in the tank or are able to supplement it's diet successfully I find that most end up slowly starving over the course of months and years in some cases. Not sure how long you had yours, but if it was less than 6 months and it wasn't eating anything other than sifting your sand it may have simply starved. If that's not the case then disregard the aforementioned. I don't think the dinos did it, but it's hard to say anything for certain.

 

[ncaldwell]

Almost, I've been fighting it for about a year but I refuse to start over. Also both of his points above are spot on. Mine started when my N0P0X got out of control and bottomed out my phosphates and nitrates. It's gotten better since raising them, gone away a few times for a while but sneaks back in every now and again. The fix that has worked for me is adding a bunch of live rubble rock to the sump and adding different kinds of bottled bacteria every couple days. UV sterilizer made a big impact on it spreading quickly. 72 hour blackouts and increased water flow did nothing. Granted this is all speculation because it depends heavily on the type of dinos you have. The dino thread is a jumbled mess of info but it's worth a read

 

[2Wheelsonly]

I’m contemplating getting a trio of Bartlett Anthias which would require me to at least feed frozen food once per day. My assumption this would help raise phosphate levels. I know there’s some because I do have pockets of green hair algae near my return jets but that’s the only place it seems to grow.

I’m going to assume that maybe I’ve had this for quite a while now it’s just that my diamond goby for the past eight months was keeping the sandbed clean, he was one heck of a worker