Dinos???
- Thread starter tjbrownie
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Sand looks as if it could be, the rocks a mixture of algae too maybe.
Looks a new tank, have you turned on all the equipment at the start, such as skimmer, filter roll etc. you could have taken too many nutrients out of such a young system.
If dinos, you need to remove as many as possible, scrub rocks and vacuum sand, add nutrients, and a uv if you can.
Looks a new tank, have you turned on all the equipment at the start, such as skimmer, filter roll etc. you could have taken too many nutrients out of such a young system.
If dinos, you need to remove as many as possible, scrub rocks and vacuum sand, add nutrients, and a uv if you can.
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tjbrownie
Active Member
It’s about 3 months old yes and I was trying to lower my phosphate via GFO and accidentally left it it too long, plus my skimmer was pulling up hecka nutrients after I fixed its depth.I took GFO out and am gonna be doing a major clean up tonight since my tank probably isn’t able to run uv
sfin52
So many pedestrians so little time
To clean I like to use a 5 micron sock. Suck out the dinos return the water to dt. A 5micron sick will catch the dinos.
Smoke-Town
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2 years ago I got dinos that lasted a year. Same exact way. Running gfo on a new system bottoming out phosphates.
Here's what I'd do.
Add neophos daily and check po4 daily. Just trying to get po4 to read anything so other algae/bacteria can compete with the dinos.
Make sure nitrates are higher than phosphates.
Blast rocks with baster or holding a powerhead every day to keep that stuff suspended in the water column so the skimmer can get it. Add a floculant like kz snow right after you blast everything off the rocks.
To remove it from sand use gravel vacuum into filter sock into sump or shovel out heavy spots with spoon or something.
Keep water changes on the light side. Id do around 10 percent a month. You want to keep nutrients in there.
A UV will save you a lot of headache if you buy a good one sized for your tank. It's worth every penny imo.
Add bacteria. Bacteria is on everything. Add stuff. Bottle bacterias are a start... but you need more than that. I'd buy a handful of cheap frags and spread them through the tank... I personally would not dip them. Whatever is on those frags, is better then dinos. You'll have to decide on your own comfortable risk levels there, but the more microfauna the better. The corals may be smothered by dinos and die due to lack of nutrients so just cheap frags. I prefer branching lps and zoas. Those seem to come with the most pests... which are soldiers in this fight.
Here's what I'd do.
Add neophos daily and check po4 daily. Just trying to get po4 to read anything so other algae/bacteria can compete with the dinos.
Make sure nitrates are higher than phosphates.
Blast rocks with baster or holding a powerhead every day to keep that stuff suspended in the water column so the skimmer can get it. Add a floculant like kz snow right after you blast everything off the rocks.
To remove it from sand use gravel vacuum into filter sock into sump or shovel out heavy spots with spoon or something.
Keep water changes on the light side. Id do around 10 percent a month. You want to keep nutrients in there.
A UV will save you a lot of headache if you buy a good one sized for your tank. It's worth every penny imo.
Add bacteria. Bacteria is on everything. Add stuff. Bottle bacterias are a start... but you need more than that. I'd buy a handful of cheap frags and spread them through the tank... I personally would not dip them. Whatever is on those frags, is better then dinos. You'll have to decide on your own comfortable risk levels there, but the more microfauna the better. The corals may be smothered by dinos and die due to lack of nutrients so just cheap frags. I prefer branching lps and zoas. Those seem to come with the most pests... which are soldiers in this fight.
UV does not help all types of dinos. It's mainly the best treatment for Ostreopsis and Coolia. There really isn't anything about a tank that keeps you from being able to run a UV for dinos.
It certainly looks like dinos but getting a sample under the microscope is the only way to know for sure (and to know what type/what treatment is needed.
Some dinos are toxic but it's not palytoxin. Ostreopsis is the most toxic followed in order by Coolia, Prorocentrum, Small Cell Amphidinium and Large Cell Amphidinium (which is for all purposes non toxic).
Reefbuds
Valuable Member
I would definitely lay off the Vibrant. Brought nothing but trouble for me in the past. Usually dinos spring up from low nutes. I would just dose phosphates and nitrates until you get them above 0. Should dissipate within a week or so after keeping those nutes up.
Smoke-Town
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Some species do. If you get a microscope with 1,000x magnification you can identify species but it's not that important to do, but microscopes are fun for reef tanks so I recommend it anyway. The easy way to tell if you have toxic dinos is your snails will start dieing first and falling off glass more often.
Also about the pods. Yes. I forgot to mention that. Definitely add lots of pods. If you do, I'd skip out on the sand vacuum as you'll be sucking out all those pricey pods you just put in because they'll be eating those dinos in the sand.
And microbacter7 is good. So is Dr tims one and only. And I think aquaforrest has a more complex bacterial seeding bottle now. I don't know much about it but them and a couple other companies are starting to step the bacterial game up which is big for reefing future if they get it right.
Keep that vibrant far away. In a closet where no one can reach it... that stuff is not effective at all against dinos and will actually help it... that is a pesticide that will kill everything and allow the dinos to more easily take over everything.
a.t.t.r
Well-Known Member
Vibrant is not bacteria (it is the same as algaefix) and will actually do the opposite of what you need. It will destroy all micro flora allowing the Dino’s to take right back over once you stop it’s use.
a.t.t.r
Well-Known Member
Vibrant is not bacteria (it is the same as algaefix) and will actually do the opposite of what you need. It will destroy all micro flora allowing the Dino’s to take right back over once you stop it’s use.
Smoke-Town
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Frogspawn, Duncan's, hammers, torches. Bubbles. Those can all be expensive so look for the real basic ones as there is a 50/50 they could die during this battle.
And as saltyhog said... every tank can benefit from a UV. No reason not to get one other then the expense of them. And yes not all species of dino leave the rocks and sand into the water column at night to be sterilized by the uv and skimmed out... but that's why you use the baster to blast everything into the water... then the uv can get them. Just takes a little more work than the species that do it themselves. You can tell early in the morning when you look at the tank and it's still dark... does the sand and rock look clean or still covered in dinos... often peopl3 end up with multiple species as I did. Half went up into water column, half didn't. I made them all go into water column
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tjbrownie
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Makes sense, what type of uv would you recommend for an AIO tank then? Testing my nutrients last night I was at .23 phosphate and around 15ppm nitrate. When I used the GFO it was at .50. And I’m going to buy some pods and bacteria. Is there any benefit to getting phytoplankton with the pods. When my lights are off the sand looks clean but I’ll have to double check that tomorrow morning. I’ll stop the vibrant dosing and build up the biological side of everything. Any link to a uv sterilizer compatible with AIO would be greatly appreciated.
Smoke-Town
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.23 is high for phosphates. Especially if you have dinos. Its a good number for now though since you want another type of something to utilise the po4. Don't dose more phosphates then. But still I'd monitor that they don't bottom out to zero as when the dunos get going they'll suck them all up first.
As far as uv... depends on how many gallons your tank is. The general rule of thumb is 1 watt per 3 gallons of water. More never hurts. Less could render it ineffective. But a little less is fine. So if you have a 45 gallon aio, 15 watts is fine as 15x3=45
Brand wise... I use 2. I use an 80 watt Aqua UV on a 160 and that made a big difference on that tank which never had dinos but had a lot of bad ich... and that's only 1 watt for every 2 gallons, as opposed to the recommended 3 gallons. Worked well nonetheless.
On my 80 gallons tank that had/has the dinos, I used this lifeguard aquatics 25 watt and it greatly helped get them totally under control.
As far as the aquaforest goes, I'm not that familiar with them, I just know they've been working on some solutions for biome seeding, so if they have one that says it's for seeding dry sand or rocks, that's the one... although I doubt any of them would be bad. You might have to reach out to them or find people or threads that discuss them.
As far as uv... depends on how many gallons your tank is. The general rule of thumb is 1 watt per 3 gallons of water. More never hurts. Less could render it ineffective. But a little less is fine. So if you have a 45 gallon aio, 15 watts is fine as 15x3=45
Brand wise... I use 2. I use an 80 watt Aqua UV on a 160 and that made a big difference on that tank which never had dinos but had a lot of bad ich... and that's only 1 watt for every 2 gallons, as opposed to the recommended 3 gallons. Worked well nonetheless.
On my 80 gallons tank that had/has the dinos, I used this lifeguard aquatics 25 watt and it greatly helped get them totally under control.
As far as the aquaforest goes, I'm not that familiar with them, I just know they've been working on some solutions for biome seeding, so if they have one that says it's for seeding dry sand or rocks, that's the one... although I doubt any of them would be bad. You might have to reach out to them or find people or threads that discuss them.
Please get a microscopic ID before you spend money on a UV unit. LCA and SCA (and Prorocentrum IMO) can not be eliminated by trying to blow them in to the water column for UV to kill. They retreat in to the deeper part of the sand bed at night.
