Dinos with high nutrients?? Please help!

jack3103 · Jul 4, 2024

Hey guys, I’ve been battling this algae for a few weeks now! Phosphate used to be at around 1ppm however I’ve brought that down now to a stable 0.25ppm. Nitrates have been sat between 10-20ppm. Which makes no sense as from what I’ve read the general consensus is that Dino’s is from low nutrients? It started as cyano months ago and has now gone to this. I need all the advice I can get! I’ve done 2, 3 day blackouts which have helped massively but with a few days it’s back already! I’m currently dosing MB7 and ordered pods, phyto and to tigers to see if those will help. It’s only a 10 gallon nano so a UV sterilizer might not be an option. Any advice is appreciated!

Tank is just over 1 year old

Cousteau666 · Jul 4, 2024

Uv and phytoplankton should knock it out. No guarantees, but I faced the exact problem and beat it with the following:

Phytoplankton

AIO UV filter

Cousteau666 · Jul 4, 2024

Additionally, I added a single red mangrove. It's helped keep the nutrients controlled as I tend to feed heavily in my small tank.

jack3103 · Jul 4, 2024

Cousteau666 said:
Uv and phytoplankton should knock it out. No guarantees, but I faced the exact problem and beat it with the following:

Phytoplankton

AIO UV filter

Yeah this seems to be common fix. Only issue is trying to get a UV sterilizer for such a small tank, and with a HOB filter, could be difficult… Would something like a ‘Green machine’ fish ‘r’ fun internal UV sterilizer be an option? I probably wouldn’t run it all the time, maybe would take it out once this issue has passed and see how I get on without it

NanoNana · Jul 4, 2024

What size tank? I put GKM 9 volt in my 24 cube. Because of my rock work it’s a little big to go in an attractive spot. Aquatop has some lower profile units with their own pump that should be comparable. I’m actually going to switch out to one of theirs because of tank fit and see how well it works. But the GKM 9 cleaned the dickens out of my water. I thought my tank was clear before my bloom. I was wrong.

jack3103 · Jul 4, 2024

NanoNana said:
What size tank? I put GKM 9 volt in my 24 cube. Because of my rock work it’s a little big to go in an attractive spot. Aquatop has some lower profile units with their own pump that should be comparable. I’m actually going to switch out to one of theirs because of tank fit and see how well it works. But the GKM 9 cleaned the dickens out of my water. I thought my tank was clear before my bloom. I was wrong.

Ahhh sounds good. I’ve only got a 10 gallon so there’s not much extra room, that’s why I was a bit wary of using a UV sterilizer. I’ll check out the Aquatop units and see what they have to offer!

Cousteau666 · Jul 4, 2024

UV sterilization is a function of energy applied vs flow. The ideal scenario would be a high energy output and slow moving water. I have no way to tell if this unit you sent satisfies both of those conditions well enough to fix your problem. I also can not see the price.

Using a small reactor pump, I fed a tube to this unit leading from the second compartment, and let it slowly gravity feed back into the same sump compartment It was suspended behind the aquarium on the wall.

NanoNana · Jul 4, 2024

The aquatop nano is like 2.5 inches by 7 inches and can mount sideways so would be okay size wise. It’s a 5 watt bulb so should be sufficient wattage for a 10. The GMK nano is just 3 watts iirc and much bulkier.

NanoNana · Jul 4, 2024

Cousteau666 said:
UV sterilization is a function of energy applied vs flow. The ideal scenario would be a high energy output and slow moving water. I have no way to tell if this unit you sent satisfies both of those conditions well enough to fix your problem. I also can not see the price.

Using a small reactor pump, I fed a tube to this unit leading from the second compartment, and let it slowly gravity feed back into the same sump compartment It was suspended behind the aquarium on the wall.

GMK supposedly tunes the internal pump for maximum exposure to light. My bloom in the column was bad enough that I was concerned for the fish. It cleared the tank in 36 hours. I like your set up. I just didn’t have room for another pump. Lol

Ziggy17 · Jul 4, 2024

UV will only kill Ostreopsis/coolia. You have to take a water sample from the sandbed and look under a microscope to know what Dino you have. Once you know the Dino you have, you can plan to defeat it. Black outs do nothing to get rid of them.

Have a read below.

Cousteau666 · Jul 4, 2024

NanoNana said:
GMK supposedly tunes the internal pump for maximum exposure to light. My bloom in the column was bad enough that I was concerned for the fish. It cleared the tank in 36 hours. I like your set up. I just didn’t have room for another pump. Lol

Oh interesting, that bloom sounds like it was bad bad. Well that certainly seems worth a try or OP then.

And thank you. I actually had to throw my media reactor to the side and make room as it was also a *Wrestle Mania* kind of crowded in there beforehand.

dwest · Jul 4, 2024

I agree to scope them first for an ID. If you end up using a UV, then I think a green killing machine is a good choice.

jack3103 · Jul 4, 2024

dwest said:
I agree to scope them first for an ID. If you end up using a UV, then I think a green killing machine is a good choice.

Yeah I think that might be a good start. Do you know if a cheap small pocket microscope might work well enough? Don’t want to spend a lot if I’m gonna use it once lol. Yeah green killing machine seems to be one of the most compact I have access to in the UK

jack3103 · Jul 4, 2024

NanoNana said:
The aquatop nano is like 2.5 inches by 7 inches and can mount sideways so would be okay size wise. It’s a 5 watt bulb so should be sufficient wattage for a 10. The GMK nano is just 3 watts iirc and much bulkier.

Would be perfect but I can’t find one in the UK sadly, green killing machine might be the next best thing!

NanoNana · Jul 4, 2024

jack3103 said:
Would be perfect but I can’t find one in the UK sadly, green killing machine might be the next best thing!

Their nano one might be enough for your ten. Its smaller at least.

Ziggy17 · Jul 4, 2024

jack3103 said:
Yeah I think that might be a good start. Do you know if a cheap small pocket microscope might work well enough? Don’t want to spend a lot if I’m gonna use it once lol. Yeah green killing machine seems to be one of the most compact I have access to in the UK

You can use a kids microscope. As long as it magnifies to 400x. That’s the min number to get an ID. 600-800x is better.

jack3103 · Jul 4, 2024

NanoNana said:
Their nano one might be enough for your ten. Its smaller at least.

yeah might be worth a shot!

jack3103 · Jul 4, 2024

Ziggy17 said:
You can use a kids microscope. As long as it magnifies to 400x. That’s the min number to get an ID. 600-800x is better.

Awesome, I’ll order one today and use it tomorrow to hopefully give me a better idea and a start point

dwest · Jul 4, 2024

jack3103 said:
Yeah I think that might be a good start. Do you know if a cheap small pocket microscope might work well enough? Don’t want to spend a lot if I’m gonna use it once lol. Yeah green killing machine seems to be one of the most compact I have access to in the UK

I don’t know the specs but I bought a $12 microscope from Amazon in 2018 that worked for me. I’m guessing that would be $20-$30 now.

Edit, yep $20