Dino strikes back

[Tuffloud1]

I fought dinos for 2 weeks and won. What I did was raised temp to 78-80, raised nitrates to 30, phosphate to 0.5. (yes 0.5)

After few days, other algaes started to grow on glass/rocks and dinos started to retreat.

Did you have Acro colonies through all this?

 

[Tony616]

Yes acros sps LPS all survived

 

[Tony616]

I was slowly raising po4 from 0.03 to 0.15 and it wasnt working. I got so frustrated and dump half bottle of trisodium phosphate mix and po4 shot to 0.5.

The next day I see other algae started to grow and dinos start to fade

 

[Tuffloud1]

Yes acros sps LPS all survived

So you brought PO4 up that high over 2 weeks? What was it normally at? I’m typically at NO3 - 25 and PO4 - .06.

 

[schuby]

Which test kit did you use? Easy to read?

Think it was salifert. Shades of blue. Easy to tell it wasn't zero. Seems like it was 2-3ppm.

 

[Tony616]

So you brought PO4 up that high over 2 weeks? What was it normally at? I’m typically at NO3 - 25 and PO4 - .06.

Yes it was at 0.03 when dino started to take over. The first week I dosed po4 to 0.15. It didn't help. Second week I took it up to 0.5 and added UV. Dino started to go away.

 

[lost66]

Microscope seems best path as op doesn't seem to have done that yet

I did use an microscope as I stated in the first post. My issue was identified as dino by people who seems to have a knowledge about this topic. I sent water sample for ICP analysis, both from DT and RODI for ICP

DT

RODI

 

[Seaspirit]

I’m a veterinarian so I have a microscope. To identify what the red stuff is on my sandbed, do I just take some and put it on a slide and look at it? Are there guides for what to look for? Can I distinguish cyano from dinos that way?

 

[thedon986]

Cyano will look very different than dinos. It will look like strands of hair usually with ribs, kind of like a ring shank nail. Dinos will look like a round single cell organism and usually will move on their own. Depending on their shape and “beak” will help you narrow down the type. There is a very good PDF identification guide floating around R2R you can search for. In my experience, cyano is much more bright blood red and my amph dinos have been more rust colored.