LOSING IT! All opinions welcome!

[Bob Lauson]

First, went to Amazon and bought a $12 microscope. After an hour I went back to check the coffee filtered sample and, amazingly, I saw the dinos (pic below). The test suggested I would see them after 15 minutes but it jus took a little longer. Shout out to my wife who said just let it stand longer.

This glass was crystal clear after 15 minutes!

 

[cymbyldesign]

Hey curious as to what kind of flow you have in the tank, what do you have for powerheads?

 

[Bob Lauson]

I have two Neptune WAV's for the general flow in the tank. My feed pump circulates around 500 gph in my 180 gallon display tank.

 

[cymbyldesign]

I would try and up the amount of flow you have, not so much tank turnover but possibly add more powerheads or turn up the Wav pumps

 

[cymbyldesign]

Every few days use a turkey baster to blow off your rocks, if you see clouds of detritus coming off you might not have enough flow in the tank causing pockets to build up, eventually causing major algae blooms..

 

[WSC]

I added 6 emeralds to my tank & have never seen one eat even one bubble algae.

 

[specialk]

I didn't read the posts in between your first one and here, but I wanted to let you know Vibrant fixed a bad bubble algae issue for me at the first of the year. If you decide to use it just be sure you are removing all the dead algae. I didn't pay enough attention to my fuge and the next thing I knew all the algae in there had melted. I wound up with some cyano for a bit after that, but I haven't seen another bubble yet.

Yah I think I am going to do another water change (doing it today and this will be my 2nd this week, @ 20% water change) and then I am going to take the rock out and start cleaning it and hitting it with some peroxide at the reccomendation of many here. Then I am going to go from there .. after I get a lot of this off that I can myself ... then I am going to hit it with some vibrant and kill what other bubbles I have left in there as there will sure to be some that I simply cant get to because they are wedged in between sps corals and other stuff.

 

[specialk]

Every few days use a turkey baster to blow off your rocks, if you see clouds of detritus coming off you might not have enough flow in the tank causing pockets to build up, eventually causing major algae blooms..

I am def seeing clouds of nasty blowing off the rocks when I do that .. so I am also looking at that exact issue. I have 2 jaebos at each end of the tank, about 75% of the way up, and then on the one end I have a smaller jaebo that sits in the back corner and blows towards the center ... but I am thinking with a 6 foot long tank I could use some more water movement?

I guess my question is how much is too much?

 

[cymbyldesign]

I am def seeing clouds of nasty blowing off the rocks when I do that .. so I am also looking at that exact issue. I have 2 jaebos at each end of the tank, about 75% of the way up, and then on the one end I have a smaller jaebo that sits in the back corner and blows towards the center ... but I am thinking with a 6 foot long tank I could use some more water movement?

I guess my question is how much is too much?

I don’t think too much is ever an issue, I would look at a couple mp40s or maybe a couple gyre pumps, that would be my first move after some water changes and rock cleaning

 

[specialk]

So I am going to keep posting here and letting you know how things are going and I am going to get an education on this as I go ... always learning in this super cheap hobby!

Just did my 2nd water change and tested before I did the change.

Some points:

* I dosed brightwell aquatics NeoPhos days ago ... the next day got a reading 0f 0.02 (which is what it should have been based on what I dosed) ... today my reading --> 0.00.

I am obviously going to keep testing every single day here so I can figure out EXACTLY what my tank is using per day, but does that sound normal that a tank is using 0.02 of P04 everyday?

* Also, I have some rocks in the sump and along with my chaeto. The rocks in there, and I have some pretty big ones in there, have ZERO issues with them. They look fine. So this is a bit confusing to me as the water is all the same obviously so shouldn't they have the same issues as all the other rocks in the tank? The one difference is the lighting obviously and I am guessing this is why they do not. I have some sort of bluw florescent 10 inch light with reflectors on it hanging over the fuge that I light at night (opposite my tank lights being on) ... so I am assuming that the lighting is the main reason these rocks are not the same correct?

 

[specialk]

Also here are some above tank shots

 

[Bob Lauson]

This glass was crystal clear after 15 minutes!

So if I believe I have dinos and not diatoms based on the coffee filter test above, everything I have read would suggest the dinos would be toxic to snails. However my turbo snails leave nice clean rock behind them as they move across them. Confused .

 

[rtparty]

So if I believe I have dinos and not diatoms based on the coffee filter test above, everything I have read would suggest the dinos would be toxic to snails. However my turbo snails leave nice clean rock behind them as they move across them. Confused .

Dinos CAN be toxic but not always. Mine are not toxic as none of my snails have died thus far

 

[specialk]

So just got my red sea nitrate test kit

Nitrate testing around 0.20 - 0.25

Everything else has been holding steady at:
Cal - 430
Alk - 9.0
P04 - 0.03

Have NOT started using ny chemicals in the tank yet. Going to 1st get these #'s steady and then pull some rock out and clean them.