Dinos or Cyano? Peroxide Test

[Samina]

So I have an outbreak of either cyano or dinos. I have little bubbles all over the tank (rocks, coral, glass, powerheads) and in many places the bubbles will have like a brownish mucusy stem.

I do not have a microscope to get a ID off of so I did the hydrogen peroxide test. I siphoned up some of the gunk and filled the container with 100mL of tank water. And put in 5mL of 3% peroxide. None of the brownish stuff clumped together but there was only a bit of bubbles on the surface. But almost all of the gunk ended up floating to the surface. So does this mean that it is cyano? The reason I ask is because there was not a huge amount of bubbles generated. Thanks for the input.

 

[Samina]

Anyone?

 

[Maritimer]

It sounds like dinos to me, but as I've never had 'em, #reefsquad - any thoughts?

~Bruce

 

[Crabs McJones]

Would need some pictures to get a better idea.

So I have an outbreak of either cyano or dinos. I have little bubbles all over the tank (rocks, coral, glass, powerheads) and in many places the bubbles will have like a brownish mucusy stem.

I do not have a microscope to get a ID off of so I did the hydrogen peroxide test. I siphoned up some of the gunk and filled the container with 100mL of tank water. And put in 5mL of 3% peroxide. None of the brownish stuff clumped together but there was only a bit of bubbles on the surface. But almost all of the gunk ended up floating to the surface. So does this mean that it is cyano? The reason I ask is because there was not a huge amount of bubbles generated. Thanks for the input.

It sounds like dinos to me, but as I've never had 'em, #reefsquad - any thoughts?

~Bruce

 

[Samina]

That’s what I’m afraid of but it seems like it to me as well.

 

[Diesel]

How are your corals.
Can you drop some test results here as well

 

[reeferfoxx]

Looks and sounds like dinos to me. Water parameters will be a deciding factor of either zero po4 or zero no3. Sometimes the snotty dinos will give zeros for both N and P.

Eliminate any nutrient reduction medias or reactors. Whatever the limiting factor is is what you need to dose and keep stable. That will help.

 

[Samina]

SG 1.024
Temp 72deg
pH 8.0
Nitrate 10ppm
Phos .10ppm
Ca 440ppm
dKH 8.4

 

[brandon429]

The size of your tank matters in how easy it is to fix your invasion, not the species which is interesting. Hope you have something 50 gal out below?

 

[Samina]

Thanks. There is some GHA and a bit of what def looks like cyano. It’s the areas that are like in the pic that is throwing me off and making me question if there’s also dinos.
I am running a bit of phosban, purigen, and activates carbon (all in media bags). Should I take it all offline even though my nutrients are definitely still available?
I do not have a sump. I have a AC 110 I modded into a fuge with Chaeto mainly for pods and have the media bags in there. Aside from that, I have a HOB Reef Octopus skimmer. I have some macros in the display as well but I have never had an ULNS. Feed rinsed mysis cubes twice a day. Tank is a bit over a year old. 55g, 5 h. erectus, 2 Bengais, green Chromis.

 

[Samina]

And corals seem to be doing fine in all honesty. All are extended and even look good. Not slimy or closed up. I have mainly softies and gorgs in the tank.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Thanks. There is some GHA and a bit of what def looks like cyano. It’s the areas that are like in the pic that is throwing me off and making me question if there’s also dinos.
I am running a bit of phosban, purigen, and activates carbon (all in media bags). Should I take it all offline even though my nutrients are definitely still available?
I do not have a sump. I have a AC 110 I modded into a fuge with Chaeto mainly for pods and have the media bags in there. Aside from that, I have a HOB Reef Octopus skimmer. I have some macros in the display as well but I have never had an ULNS. Feed rinsed mysis cubes twice a day. Tank is a bit over a year old. 55g, 5 h. erectus, 2 Bengais, green Chromis.

You are running GFO and have po4 of 0.10? What are you using to test po4?

 

[brandon429]

A fifty is right at the breakpoint where it's not terrible work to take it apart, rinse the sandbed, clean off algae and kill it off the rocks, all before sundown.

Take out current water and hold it for reuse after manual cleaning. Put back together a skip cycle, perfectly clean tank. It's amazing to opt out of a weeks long invasion sequence where all actions subject corals to sustained parameter changes in hopes of addressing a bad hitchhiker. I always advocate tank cleaning, it produces uninvaded systems at the cost of work.

It's so powerful to rob the system of the invader first, then apply all the nutrient steps you are about to solely as growback prevention, not as killer and removal and growback prevention.

 

[reefwiser]

Dino’s just killed my last bit of them a week after installing a UV filter.
Green Killing Machine Internal 9 Watt UV Sterilizer with Power Head https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001KP9B2W?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf

Watched it kill Dino’s daily my filter floss everyday got less and less brown everyday. Today not little bubbles where there use to be bubbles.

 

[Samina]

You are running GFO and have po4 of 0.10? What are you using to test po4?

Yes, I use a salifert test kit. The color is pretty hard to tell but I think it looks like .10ppm

Before I was running GFO, results were at .50ppm

 

[reeferfoxx]

Yes, I use a salifert test kit. The color is pretty hard to tell but I think it looks like .10ppm

Before I was running GFO, results were at .50ppm

Ya. definitely difficult to tell. Looks more between 0 and 0.03. Thats why I use the hanna checker. Sometimes round about numbers just dont cut it when weird growths happen.

 

[Samina]

Dino’s just killed my last bit of them a week after installing a UV filter.
Green Killing Machine Internal 9 Watt UV Sterilizer with Power Head https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001KP9B2W?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf

Watched it kill Dino’s daily my filter floss everyday got less and less brown everyday. Today not little bubbles where there use to be bubbles.

That’s so good to hear!! I bet you are so relieved? Does it depend on the strain of dinos when it comes to whether a UV would be effective in terms of elimination? Or would it works on all of the strains?

 

[Samina]

Ya. definitely difficult to tell. Looks more between 0 and 0.03. Thats why I use the hanna checker. Sometimes round about numbers just dont cut it when weird growths happen.

Yea you are right, I do plan on purchasing Hanna checkers, just have not gotten around to do it just yet.
Do you think I should take GFO offline since the color is so faint?

 

[reeferfoxx]

Yea you are right, I do plan on purchasing Hanna checkers, just have not gotten around to do it just yet.
Do you think I should take GFO offline since the color is so faint?

Thats a difficult question since your po4 is sort of up in the air. Personally, I wouldnt run it. If anything try to get more aggressive with the chaeto if nutrients are the issue. But, until po4 is more accurately measured, maybe not doing anything for bit is best.

 

[Samina]

Thats a difficult question since your po4 is sort of up in the air. Personally, I wouldnt run it. If anything try to get more aggressive with the chaeto if nutrients are the issue. But, until po4 is more accurately measured, maybe not doing anything for bit is best.

Thanks! I will take it out and see what the next few days to week look like. Appreciate the advice!