Dinos On My Cheato?

[NS Mike D]

I think I know the solution, but let's see if I can save the cheato.

I did have a long battle with dinos and other stuff. I cleaned out my HOB and saved as much cheato as possible, but not nearly sufficient to keep my NO3 and PO4 where I want it. So I have hoping I could grow the mass large enough to do another trim to discard the reddish growth that is happening on the outer edge of the cheato ball.


So this is what is left of my cheato

Dinos? Cyano? Other

and a close up

 

[sixty_reefer]

It does looks a bit like dinos, what’s your current parameters?

 

[JustMe2Mc]

I have the exact same issue!

 

[sixty_reefer]

I have the exact same issue!

What’s your parameters mate?

 

[JustMe2Mc]

Noticed the brown slime and brown sludge in the top of my fuge.

I have a 125g DT mixed reef.
55g diy sump. In the room behind DT, i have a 40b fuge. Water that drains from DT enters skimmer/sock chamber of sump. Small pump carries water to 40b fuge. Fuge drains back to skimmer chamber.

Alk 9.2-9.4 redsea
Cal 390
Mag 1480
Ph 8.1 apex
Phos .09 hanna ulr
No3 2ppm nyos

I dose brs cal/alk. Drip 1 gallon brs kalk in 2 days. Dose fritz monster 460 10ml every sat after my weekly 10-20g water change. I use reef crystals. Make my own ro/di. 0tds.

I havent added anything to the tank in well over 9 months. Only harvest cheato for lfs.

 

[NS Mike D]

I did have dinos. I ripped apart the tank (another story). This is the redo.

After starting the thread, I knew what I had to do. I pulled the mass once again and trimmed off as much of that stuff as possible.

I ended up with a clean (i think) golf ball sized mass.

Since I have fish, I know that my rip clean wasn't going to fully removed every dino. But. since I was able to remove all noticeable signs (rocks were bleached sand was replaced adn sumps were rip cleaned) my current process is to diligently watch for re-invasion and aggressively physically remove. Which is what I have done with this case. I clean the snd bed with my weekly water changes. Keeping the dinos from achieving any critical mass while good bacteria and good husbandry does the rest.

I have a second sump (under the display) and recently replaced the light. The cheato in that sump is dark green free of invaders and when it is large enough to start harvesting, I'll use it to repopulate the HOB sump.

 

[NS Mike D]

Noticed the brown slime and brown sludge in the top of my fuge.

I have a 125g DT mixed reef.
55g diy sump. In the room behind DT, i have a 40b fuge. Water that drains from DT enters skimmer/sock chamber of sump. Small pump carries water to 40b fuge. Fuge drains back to skimmer chamber.

Alk 9.2-9.4 redsea
Cal 390
Mag 1480
Ph 8.1 apex
Phos .09 hanna ulr
No3 2ppm nyos

I dose brs cal/alk. Drip 1 gallon brs kalk in 2 days. Dose fritz monster 460 10ml every sat after my weekly 10-20g water change. I use reef crystals. Make my own ro/di. 0tds.

I havent added anything to the tank in well over 9 months. Only harvest cheato for lfs.

don't wait. remove that and place in bowl of rodi. (you can use tap of you don't have rodi, the cheato will be ok).

remove the junk. rinse and repeat. Take your time and make sure it's all gone. The cheato will grow back.

No better cure for invaders than physical bulk removal from the tank

 

[SMSREEF]

Edited.

 

[dwest]

Noticed the brown slime and brown sludge in the top of my fuge.

I have a 125g DT mixed reef.
55g diy sump. In the room behind DT, i have a 40b fuge. Water that drains from DT enters skimmer/sock chamber of sump. Small pump carries water to 40b fuge. Fuge drains back to skimmer chamber.

Alk 9.2-9.4 redsea
Cal 390
Mag 1480
Ph 8.1 apex
Phos .09 hanna ulr
No3 2ppm nyos

I dose brs cal/alk. Drip 1 gallon brs kalk in 2 days. Dose fritz monster 460 10ml every sat after my weekly 10-20g water change. I use reef crystals. Make my own ro/di. 0tds.

I havent added anything to the tank in well over 9 months. Only harvest cheato for lfs.

Ostreopsis dinos.

 

[lilgrounchuck]

What's the flow like through the HOB? If you can't increase it to keep things from sticking in there, maybe grabbing the chaeto ball when you do water changes and swishing it out in the old tank water will help keep it in check. If nothing else, it'll get rid of whatever else gets stuck in the chaeto.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Noticed the brown slime and brown sludge in the top of my fuge.

I have a 125g DT mixed reef.
55g diy sump. In the room behind DT, i have a 40b fuge. Water that drains from DT enters skimmer/sock chamber of sump. Small pump carries water to 40b fuge. Fuge drains back to skimmer chamber.

Alk 9.2-9.4 redsea
Cal 390
Mag 1480
Ph 8.1 apex
Phos .09 hanna ulr
No3 2ppm nyos

I dose brs cal/alk. Drip 1 gallon brs kalk in 2 days. Dose fritz monster 460 10ml every sat after my weekly 10-20g water change. I use reef crystals. Make my own ro/di. 0tds.

I havent added anything to the tank in well over 9 months. Only harvest cheato for lfs.

Your nutrients look in balance, did you check your ro for silica? This would be the next obvious step for me. Dinoflagellates do thrive in high silica environment also.

 

[sixty_reefer]

I did have dinos. I ripped apart the tank (another story). This is the redo.

After starting the thread, I knew what I had to do. I pulled the mass once again and trimmed off as much of that stuff as possible.

I ended up with a clean (i think) golf ball sized mass.

Since I have fish, I know that my rip clean wasn't going to fully removed every dino. But. since I was able to remove all noticeable signs (rocks were bleached sand was replaced adn sumps were rip cleaned) my current process is to diligently watch for re-invasion and aggressively physically remove. Which is what I have done with this case. I clean the snd bed with my weekly water changes. Keeping the dinos from achieving any critical mass while good bacteria and good husbandry does the rest.

I have a second sump (under the display) and recently replaced the light. The cheato in that sump is dark green free of invaders and when it is large enough to start harvesting, I'll use it to repopulate the HOB sump.

Am not a fan of this method as it’s a hit and miss imo. The Obvious reason to have dinoflagellates is wend no3 or po4 hits zero if none of the above then normally it will be caused by silica in the RO as they don’t show on a TDS meter, you have to test them separately on its own test kit or via ICP as it’s more precise.

 

[Dinodanger]

I think I know the solution, but let's see if I can save the cheato.

I did have a long battle with dinos and other stuff. I cleaned out my HOB and saved as much cheato as possible, but not nearly sufficient to keep my NO3 and PO4 where I want it. So I have hoping I could grow the mass large enough to do another trim to discard the reddish growth that is happening on the outer edge of the cheato ball.


So this is what is left of my cheato

Dinos? Cyano? Other

and a close up

Replace the Chaeto and raise nitrates above 5ppm add wasteaway and or mb7(to your fuge) and that should solve it within 2months

 

[Dinodanger]

Replace the Chaeto and raise nitrates above 5ppm add wasteaway and or mb7(to your fuge) and that should solve it within 2months

Would be helpful to also do a 3-4 day black out on the fuge dosing bacteria on the first day of black out

 

[JustMe2Mc]

I was harvesting for lfs. Not anymore. Last bucket i gave them was in January. Noticed the dino last week.

 

[JustMe2Mc]

Ostreopsis dinos.

Is this the type that uv will kill?

 

[dwest]

Is this the type that uv will kill?

Yep.