Dino Wars

[Keko21]

Haha I hope number 6 is right. There's just a gap for me between 5 and 6. Diatoms starve and then _______ take it's place (in the absence or presence of x,y,z) is my (age old) question. Keep us posted though if you would because it would help shine some light.

If I am understanding your question correctly nothing takes the diatoms place. You hope the diatoms kill the dinos. Then you let the diatoms die, they starve when the silicates run out. Pods and phyto can speed that up a bit, but its not like you need a constant combatant for the dinos because they are already dead.

 

[TokenReefer]

nothing takes the diatoms place

Oh but something does. Whether you can see it with the naked eye is another story I was sort of just thinking out loud here. I just rarely come across outcomes of these types of threads...maybe I need to dig more

 

[Keko21]

So i dosed silica 3 days ago to bring levels up to .42ppm, but im not seeing any diatom growth, anyone know how long that should take? Should i crank my whites up a little bit?

 

[bvanfish]

Randy said for me I have 25 gallon to dose 125 drops 1x a week I am using spongexcel. That would bring me up to 1ppm silicate. I was dosing daily 20-25 drops but I stopped and may try the large dose now

 

[xabo]

Some info I found:

We recommend dosing waterglass to initiate a diatom bloom for certain types of dinos. Other
silicate options can be very expensive in the long run, such as dosing Brightwell’s SpongExcel (it
generally takes a large volume to hit the 2‐3ppm sweet spot).

o Recommend 36 ‐ 41% liquid sodium silicate (Waterglass)
o For the above concentration, we recommend dosing 0.1mL per 15 gallons (55 liters) of tank volume for 1ppm of silicate.

o Aim for 2‐3ppm.
o For example, on a tank that’s 60 gallons:
o 60 gallons / 15 gallons = 4
o 4 x 0.1mL = 0.4mL ‐ This gives you the dosage to get to 1ppm silicate
o 0.4mL x 2= 0.8mL – this amount should give you 2ppm silicate

Do not directly dose waterglass into the aquarium as it generally just turns into a solid. It should be
mixed in with around 250ml of RO water and given a good shake, then poured slowly into a high
flow area (return pump area / wave maker).

 

[Keko21]

The game is afoot!!! Diatoms starting to bloom!

 

[Keko21]

Ok so diatom bloom is in full swing and the dinos definitely look weaker. New issue is that i now have red cyano.

should i dose chemiclean now for the cyano or will that affect my diatoms?

 

[Keko21]

Diatoms seem to be winning the war. Yhe only dinos and can see right now (lights are just about off) is one small patch in the back corner.

but man did these diatoms come in thick!!! Look at the layer on my sand! Is this possibly another algae other than diatoms? Whatever it is it’s winning!

 

[Keko21]

I am losing hard core… i started getting cyano and dosed chemiclean which seams to have only made things worse….
Im seriously getting ready to drop the dino x hammer here…

i never had anything on the rocks before now its out of control.

 

[Keko21]

Tried:
- Dr tims refresh and waste away with blackouts: no effect.
- blackouts with H202- no effect
- tried to grow diatoms and got cyano instead.
- dosed chemiclean and everything just got worse

 

[thedon986]

Sorry if I would have seen these posts I would have said don't dose the chemiclean and wait out the cyano. You want the cyano, at least for a while as it also competes with dinos. Maybe see if you can get the diatoms and cyano going again? Or a 3 day blackout to at least try and reset a bit?

 

[bvanfish]

If you keep up diatoms / cyanonfor a while it will out compete the dinos right? So after a while then you can get rid of those much easier?
That is my take on it

 

[ggNoRe]

I'm in a similar boat. Chemiclean definitely made my dinoflagellates worse. I've also tried a miriad of other methods to no avail. Currently I'm attempting the nothing but stability approach. I'm simply sitting back and seeing if they sort themselves out over time. Keep me updated hopefully we find something that works.

 

[bvanfish]

Another thing I’ve tried the last day is on my screen lid I’ve got cardboard tapped to cover only the problem areas of the sand. This allowed everything else to get the light it needed but my sand is pearly white all day. I’m wondering if over a few weeks with everything else this will help battle them back? No idea

 

[Keko21]

OK. New plan:
- Put activated carbon in the media basket to get chemi-clean out.
- Brush the rocks and get the gunk off
- Clean the glass, powerheads, returns
-Syphon as much out as I can and 20% water change- Yes it may feed them but as I understand it amphidinium can store nutrients anyway and my N03 is already at 5ppm and Phos is .04ppm. So I cant imagine it will make things worse than they already are....I hope.....
- FULL REPLACEMENT OF SAND WITH NEW LIVE SAND- this will also introduce new silica to facilitate a new diatom bloom.
- Dose MB7 right after sand change and wait 3 days with lights off (not a full black out)
- Drop the Dino x hammer- *pray for me* - I only have LPS and softies so fingers crossed.
- Following Dino x treatment and removal through carbon ramp up lights from 15% blue gradually to regular schedule
- Another water change pending parameters

LETS GO!

 

[ggNoRe]

 

[Keko21]

That….that …took some effort…

 

[tbullis]

I am starting my battle as well. Ordered some sponge power,gonna pick up some more pods and phyto from TSA tomorrow.

I'm not worried about diatoms,honestly. Acro's are fine,color and PE are grest but the tank looks like trash.

How were the pods and phyto from tsa?

 

[Keko21]

Update:
Things are looking good so far. I am starting to see some growth in the new sand bed and will be looking under a microscope tonight to determine if dinos are trying to make a comeback or if it's just diatom growth from the new sand.

Either way, I am going to dose more spongexcel to get diatoms popping incase it is a resurgence of the dinos, because if it is they are certainly at their weakest right now.

I am also dosing MB7 Daily (2-3 capfuls for a 90 gal system).

20,000+ copepods coming in later this week. (already put two small bottles of tige pods for my mandarin since a lot got removed in the rip clean).

Ocean magik will also continue to be part of the regimen.

I think I definitely have this thing on the run and just need to snuff it out.

 

[bvanfish]

Update:
Things are looking good so far. I am starting to see some growth in the new sand bed and will be looking under a microscope tonight to determine if dinos are trying to make a comeback or if it's just diatom growth from the new sand.

Either way, I am going to dose more spongexcel to get diatoms popping incase it is a resurgence of the dinos, because if it is they are certainly at their weakest right now.

I am also dosing MB7 Daily (2-3 capfuls for a 90 gal system).

20,000+ copepods coming in later this week. (already put two small bottles of tige pods for my mandarin since a lot got removed in the rip clean).

Ocean magik will also continue to be part of the regimen.

I think I definitely have this thing on the run and just need to snuff it out.

Good to see its going well, I am going to hesitantly say I am dino free, have done 2 wate changes with no bubbles or signs of dinos.

The spongexcel MB7 pods and dosing tons of phyto from many different sources I think were the killers. You got this!