Creating a bubble algae problem to get rid of dinos

[Springroll]

I'm thinking of popping this bubble algae that I have in my tank in hopes of it out competing the dinos that I have been trying to get rid of. I'm at the point where I dont have any money for a UV system and I don't want to use any temporary fixes. If this seems like a bad idea I will probably continue with it, unless the bubble and dinos can coexist with no competition. If anyone has done this or something like it, I would like to know how it went. My reason for this is that these green bubbles look alot better than dinos, and they can be eaten by some inverts.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Popping the bubble doesn't spread spores. That's an old time hobby tale. It won't spread fast enough to put compete the dinos. Most likely, you end up with some of both in your tank.

Post some parameter, a tank shot under whites. If you can get to a microscope, ID the dinos and post it also.

You can get on the path but you need to know the type of dino present.

But you can pop the bubble if you want. I like dosing bacteria loaded coral snow after turkey basting stuff off of the rocks to help keep them at bay until you do win. This is diy and cheap, less than $30. It won't win on its own most likely. But It helps keep them in check.

 

[Springroll]

0.0 nitrates and phosphate
7.7 alk
1.026 salinity
Skimmer is off
But my diy anoxic filter is still in. Unsure if it's working as intended and if I should remove it.

 

[Uncle99]

I’d first check the nitrate and phosphate levels to ensure they are available and stable. If not, put them that way.

Second, I’d check salinity and Alk, again, on the mark and stable.

Third, I would dose some live phyto and bacteria, every 2nd day.

Fourth I would suck out the Dino’s into a sock every day, then return that water to the DT.

1st, 2nd and 3rd create an environment that favors good algae and bacterium populations, the true tank cleaners.

4th limits the Dino population until the good guy stuff outcompetes those nasty Dino’s.

 

[Uncle99]

0.0 nitrates and phosphate
7.7 alk
1.026 salinity
Skimmer is off
But my diy anoxic filter is still in. Unsure if it's working as intended and if I should remove it.

Zero in either or both favors Dino’s and Cyanos.
Bump them to Nitrate 10ppm and phosphate 0.01ppm and keep them stable around that mark.

When water chemistry is rock solid and in the normal running ranges, all the bad guys get outperformed by the stuff you want.

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Zero in either or both favors Dino’s and Cyanos.
Bump them to Nitrate 10ppm and phosphate 0.01ppm and keep them stable around that mark.

When water chemistry is rock solid and in the normal running ranges, all the bad guys get outperformed by the stuff you want.

.01ppm seems too hard to keep stable. .1ppm seems more reasonably attainable to me, and most coral are fine with these levels. Maybe some sensitive SPS wouldn’t like? Not sure.

 

[saltyhog]

I'm thinking of popping this bubble algae that I have in my tank in hopes of it out competing the dinos that I have been trying to get rid of. I'm at the point where I dont have any money for a UV system and I don't want to use any temporary fixes. If this seems like a bad idea I will probably continue with it, unless the bubble and dinos can coexist with no competition. If anyone has done this or something like it, I would like to know how it went. My reason for this is that these green bubbles look alot better than dinos, and they can be eaten by some inverts.

Dinos get along quite well with macroalgae. Even if popping bubble algae made it spread(it doesn't) it wouldn't help your dino problem.

What type of dino do you have? Not all types respond to UV anyway. The first step to getting rid of them is finding a microscope you can use to 1. make sure it is dinos, and 2. see what type it is.

Agree NO3 of 10, PO4 of 0.1 (not 0.01) is a good goal. A little less is also fine while keeping the ratio the same.

 

[ReeferHD]

i have amphidinium dinos at the moment, been fighting them for about a year and a half, recently i started dosing LOTS of silica, without touching the sand or doing big water changes, the dinos are slowly but surely disappearing, i'm getting diatoms, hair algae and cyano on the sand now, my next move is going to be getting lots of conchs to eat the diatoms.

 

[saltyhog]

i have amphidinium dinos at the moment, been fighting them for about a year and a half, recently i started dosing LOTS of silica, without touching the sand or doing big water changes, the dinos are slowly but surely disappearing, i'm getting diatoms, hair algae and cyano on the sand now, my next move is going to be getting lots of conchs to eat the diatoms.

Once the dinos are gone you can just stop dosing silicate and the diatoms will slowly go away. If you get conchs, just have a plan of what to do with them once the diatoms are gone. I would be a little concerned with removing the diatoms too quickly.

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Once the dinos are gone you can just stop dosing silicate and the diatoms will slowly go away. If you get conchs, just have a plan of what to do with them once the diatoms are gone. I would be a little concerned with removing the diatoms too quickly.

Unfortunately this was not true for me Saltyhog. I've tried twice now to remove Silica.

360g tank
First time I was dosing 7ml/day, I pulled back to 0ml/day over about 2 weeks. Dinos came back with vengeance

Second time I got up to dosing 15ml/day for few weeks. It seems like I needed more this time to get the dinos to go away. Pulled back more slowly this time, pulled back to around 7ml/day over 3 weeks, and they came back.

Now I've been dosing 15ml/day for 1.5 months. The diatoms are doing ok, but dinos still there mixed in. Increasing dose to 20ml/day now to see what happens.

I've got a sort of theory that as you dose Silica, because sponges grow so much more, you have to dose more over time to feed the larger sponges which are competing with diatoms. Generally with most things, if you dose or feed some organisms, as they grow, they need more dose/feed.

Anyways my point is, I would NOT drop Silica right away, yes Diatoms will starve, but dinos may come back. @taricha doesn't recommend quickly removing Silica either, and he is one of the most knowledgeable on dinos.

 

[saltyhog]

Unfortunately this was not true for me Saltyhog. I've tried twice now to remove Silica.

360g tank
First time I was dosing 7ml/day, I pulled back to 0ml/day over about 2 weeks. Dinos came back with vengeance

Second time I got up to dosing 15ml/day for few weeks. It seems like I needed more this time to get the dinos to go away. Pulled back more slowly this time, pulled back to around 7ml/day over 3 weeks, and they came back.

Now I've been dosing 15ml/day for 1.5 months. The diatoms are doing ok, but dinos still there mixed in. Increasing dose to 20ml/day now to see what happens.

I've got a sort of theory that as you dose Silica, because sponges grow so much more, you have to dose more over time to feed the larger sponges which are competing with diatoms. Generally with most things, if you dose or feed some organisms, as they grow, they need more dose/feed.

Anyways my point is, I would NOT drop Silica right away, yes Diatoms will starve, but dinos may come back. @taricha doesn't recommend quickly removing Silica either, and he is one of the most knowledgeable on dinos.

I definitely agree not to remove silicate quickly. I was referring to stopping dosing and letting it slowly go down. Your experience is pretty unusual IME if your silicate levels plummeted quickly after stopping dosing. When you say you were dosing 15ml/ day were you referring to dosing SpongExcel or water glass. That could be the difference in experiences. If you were dosing that much water glass your silicate level would have been upwards of 15-30 ppm in the tank. That should not have plummeted quickly.

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

I definitely agree not to remove silicate quickly. I was referring to stopping dosing and letting it slowly go down. Your experience is pretty unusual IME if your silicate levels plummeted quickly after stopping dosing. When you say you were dosing 15ml/ day were you referring to dosing SpongExcel or water glass. That could be the difference in experiences. If you were dosing that much water glass your silicate level would have been upwards of 15-30 ppm in the tank. That should not have plummeted quickly.

I’m dosing SpongExcel currently, but ordered water glass now so will switch to that.

What you’re recommending, dosing 2ppm per day, wouldn’t that result in buildup up to 20-50ppm over just a month?

Have you tried doing that and stopping and having success with Dino’s not coming back?

 

[saltyhog]

I’m dosing SpongExcel currently, but ordered water glass now so will switch to that.

What you’re recommending, dosing 2ppm per day, wouldn’t that result in buildup up to 20-50ppm over just a month?

Have you tried doing that and stopping and having success with Dino’s not coming back?

Yes, many times with people on a dino forum I moderate. I personally had a level of 5 ppm with no issues dosing 2ppm. Different tanks will consume it at different levels. Have seen levels up to over 200 ppm on ICP with no untoward affects....other than a bit longer diatom bloom after the dinos resolved.

If you're concerned you can do an ICP after about a month of dosing and adjust as needed.

 

[jmichaelh7]

Why not run a UV plumbed straight into the tank ? This method is proven !

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Why not run a UV plumbed straight into the tank ? This method is proven !

I have 120w UV, it didn’t seem to make much difference for me. I have it off now as tank seems to be finding a balance, and Dino’s maybe slowly receding with just silica dosing, but we’ll see. This battle is always up and down. I have on and off at least 3 species of Dino. LCA, Prococentrum, and one species that is either SCA and/or Crysophytes. Only thing that seems to work is continued Silica dosing. I turned off my UV because I was running Chemiclean for Cyano because it was smothering too much stuff. After that Dino’s seemed to improve oddly, and I had to wonder if UV was possibly slowing diatoms? Has anyone thought about or discussed if UV has major impact on diatoms?

 

[jmichaelh7]

I have 120w UV, it didn’t seem to make much difference for me. I have it off now as tank seems to be finding a balance, and Dino’s maybe slowly receding with just silica dosing, but we’ll see. This battle is always up and down. I have on and off at least 3 species of Dino. LCA, Prococentrum, and one species that is either SCA and/or Crysophytes. Only thing that seems to work is continued Silica dosing. I turned off my UV because I was running Chemiclean for Cyano because it was smothering too much stuff. After that Dino’s seemed to improve oddly, and I had to wonder if UV was possibly slowing diatoms? Has anyone thought about or discussed if UV has major impact on diatoms?

Running chemiclean on top of the other issues … too much going on brother

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Why not run a UV plumbed straight into the tank ? This method is proven !

UV also only works for some species. The ones that go into water column at night.

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Having dinos + enduced diatoms + cyano all matting together was nightmare and worst the tanks looked in a long time. I tried to not use chemiclean as long as possible but it was starting to create mat’s that were smothering coral and had Dino’s in them also. Once I used chemiclean, everything has been improving actually.

I bought over 20 species of snails, limpets, conches, starfish, etc to try to solve the cyano naturally. No improvements.

You get a lot of different opinions on chemiclean. The main issue people have with it is that if you use it, many people get dinos immediately after. I already have multiple species of dinos, so I figured I have nothing to lose, and I’m glad I did it so far. Diatoms + dinos which are kept under control and toxicity lowered from silica dosing are much easier to deal with and look much better than big thick mats of all 3 combined. Corals are doing great finally. Coralline growing again.

Running chemiclean on top of the other issues … too much going on brother

 

[jmichaelh7]

Having dinos + enduced diatoms + cyano all matting together was nightmare and worst the tanks looked in a long time. I tried to not use chemiclean as long as possible but it was starting to create mat’s that were smothering coral and had Dino’s in them also. Once I used chemiclean, everything has been improving actually.

I bought over 20 species of snails, limpets, conches, starfish, etc to try to solve the cyano naturally. No improvements.

You get a lot of different opinions on chemiclean. The main issue people have with it is that if you use it, many people get dinos immediately after. I already have multiple species of dinos, so I figured I have nothing to lose, and I’m glad I did it so far. Diatoms + dinos which are kept under control and toxicity lowered from silica dosing are much easier to deal with and look much better than big thick mats of all 3 combined. Corals are doing great finally. Coralline growing again.

Good to hear things are coming back to normal I was gonna say when do you plan on restarting lol ..

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Good to hear things are coming back to normal I was gonna say when do you plan on restarting lol ..

Lol restarting whole tank? I love my tank, and while dinos have been a really annoying issue for over a year now, I've learned to manage them at least. Maybe someday I'll beat them lol.