Dino(?) outbreak, looking for help

[Simon_K]

Hey everyone, first time poster here, let me know if theres anything missing.


I seem to have an outbreak of dinos.

Here's a video:

And photos below:

My water stats have been stable for a few weeks now, with the following parameters:

alkalinity 7.5
salinity 1.026

ph 8.15
phosphates <0.03 (im using salifert test, its hard to distinguish the white from light blue)
temperature 25C
calcium 490
Nitrates usually near 0
magnesium 1620


Aquarium started 3 months ago, had a massive salinity drop (ended up at 1.012) after 1 month and have since recovered and at 1.026-1.029.

Stock:
- Bicolor blenny
- jawfish
- 2x clownfish
- 2x turbo snails
- 1x bumblebee snail
- 2x spiny shell snail
- 1x banded trochus snail
- 3/4x blue legged hermit crabs
- 1x Black Leg Hermit Crab

Aquarium Details:
- Ciano Aqua 80 - 80 x 30 x 41,5 cm, 71Litres - https://ciano.pt/en/produto/aqua-80/
- around 10kg of live rock
- Light - Vipar Spectra 165W www.amazon.com/VIPARSPECTRA-Control-Dimmable-Aquarium-Spectrum/dp/B07SHR6HW1
- photo period - 12 hours of blue lights (80%) and during that 6.5 hours of white lights (30%)
- external filter - EHEIM classic 250 (2213)

Filter media:
- coarse foam
- JBL BionitratEx
- JBL Micromec
- JBL PhosEx
- JBL Symec Filter wool


What i do:
daily
- scrub the algae from the glass with the magnet scrub
- remove the skimmate (usually every other day)

weekly
- dose of Fauna Marine Bacto Blend
- 20% water change with RO water and red sea salt
- scoop up any poop and uneaten food
- remove and clean the wavemakers, heater and the filter pipes from the algae
- thoroughly clean the skimmer cup (Tunze Comline® DOC Skimmer 9004)

every 4~6weeks:
- clean the canister filter

 

[Pdash]

I had something similar right after my cycle, I don't think its dinos. If I were you I would buy a cheap microscope off amazon (100-200x magnification is fine) to confirm if it's dinos or not. I'd also use potassium nitrate to get your nitrates up to around 5, keeping in mind this might drive phosphate down so you want to keep phosphate around at least .05 imo. If you are using nitrate reducing media, maybe remove half of it. Finally add more herbivores (if it isn't dinos), if your snails/hermits eat it right now with no ill effects then probably not dinos, and you can add more. I think it's some kind of brown cyano that thrives in very low nitrates. Once you start to see green algae, congrats you won, keep up the good work without getting over run by hair algae, isn't reefing fun? lol

 

[Simon_K]

Hey @Pdash thanks for that! I'm curious, as a new aquarist it strikes me as weird that i should increase my nitrate and phosphate - everywhere i read, those 2 should be kept at 0. What would be the purpose of raising both? Would it not be bad for my fish and inverts?

 

[Pdash]

I'm pretty sure your type of algae is able to take advantage of low Nitrogen, relative to more desirable types of algae like green flim algae and coralline algae. It's rare these days for people to advocate for zero nutrients, seems to lead too often to dinoflagellates and other weird algae blooms. It's much easier to deal with various green algae via herbivores. And if you run at zero/zero you will starve your corals.

 

[dwest]

I'm pretty sure your type of algae is able to take advantage of low Nitrogen, relative to more desirable types of algae like green flim algae and coralline algae. It's rare these days for people to advocate for zero nutrients, seems to lead too often to dinoflagellates and other weird algae blooms. It's much easier to deal with various green algae via herbivores. And if you run at zero/zero you will starve your corals.

Agree with @Pdash

Get that microscope then post a video to get help with ID if you need it. Allow your nitrates and phosphates to become measurable. I’m not sure what all that media does, but I bet at least one removes phosphates. I’d quit running any media except GAC.

 

[Simon_K]

Ah perfect, I get it now. Thank you so much for this, my knowledge is still very basic.

What would be a reliable guide to optimal values for a FOWLR aquarium that I want to eventually (once its stable) get some corals ?

I've been following this guide :

https://www.liveaquaria.com/article/223/?aid=223

And using the Suggested Reef levels, even though its a FOWLR. Is that a mistake? Should i stick to FOWLR levels until i get a coral?

 

[Simon_K]

I forgot to mention - i bought a UV sterilizer Eheim Reeflex UV 350, just got it delivered, hopefully this will help with the bacteria/algae issues

 

[Bret Brinkmann]

Most people here will say keep nitrates at least 5.0ppm and phosphates between 0.05 and 0.1 ppm. I see a lot of people go much higher with nitrates without any side effects but too low of either will promote weird algae blooms and bottoming them out will cause a dino bloom. You can go higher with the phosphates but there us no real advantage and tends to promote gha blooms.

Corals get some of there color from the symbiotic zooxanthelae algae, along with other symbiotic creatures, which like all algae require phosphates and nitrates to live. So having no nutrients will starve the zooxanthelae which will result in eventual coral death most likely.

It looks like you have some kind of green hair algae with a touch of either cyano or dinos. Microscope pictures can determine which.