Need confirmation of Dinos

[Timbo13]

For about 2-3 weeks now I've been battling what I thought was a really stubborn case of cyano. I'm now starting to think it's dinos after doing more research. My reasons for thinking this are:
1. It disappears at night and returns in the morning.
2. It traps air bubbles.
3. When I tried to move it off the sand bed it just clumped together and regrouped the next day.
4. It's heavy. I cant move the sand bed around and siphon it out. It's heavier than the sand (it sticks together)
Could I get some confirmation (I don't have a microscope) that I am dealing with dinos before doing a blackout and dosing hydrogen peroxide.

I'll be moving all my inverts and fish to my 9 gallon quarantine I set up when I dose.

Thank you

 

[Timbo13]

Ok. I've taken out the chemipure blue form chamber 1. All I have now is filter floss and ceramic rings to clean the water. I added more Seachem Pristine this morning. Haven't noticed it doing anything yet. I'll move the CUC to my quarantine tank and leave the fish to build up nutrients. I'll leave the lights off for a few days. Only ambient light will be getting in the tank.
I'll report back in a few days for help if need be. I don't really want to invest in a UV sterilizer. I hope this works.

 

[qhduong]

Looks like cyano to me. Tried chemiclean yet?

 

[Timbo13]

No, I haven't. I'm not sure I could get it in Japan. If you think it's cyano I'll try and order some online and see if it helps. My phosphates are 0 and nitrates are really low. I though cyano was due to excess nutrients?
Thanks

 

[Idoc]

For about 2-3 weeks now I've been battling what I thought was a really stubborn case of cyano. I'm now starting to think it's dinos after doing more research. My reasons for thinking this are:
1. It disappears at night and returns in the morning.
2. It traps air bubbles.
3. When I tried to move it off the sand bed it just clumped together and regrouped the next day.
4. It's heavy. I cant move the sand bed around and siphon it out. It's heavier than the sand (it sticks together)
Could I get some confirmation (I don't have a microscope) that I am dealing with dinos before doing a blackout and dosing hydrogen peroxide.

I'll be moving all my inverts and fish to my 9 gallon quarantine I set up when I dose.

Thank you

All 4 of your points also could be cyano... and it looks like cyano in the pics. But, i have found that dinos and cyano do mat up together.

 

[Timbo13]

All 4 of your points also could be cyano... and it looks like cyano in the pics. But, i have found that dinos and cyano do mat up together.

Cheers. I'll put the chemipure back in then. I've lowered my lighting schedule and upped my water changes to 20% a week but haven't seen any change. If anything it's been getting worse. I'll try and order some chemiclean.
Thank you

 

[zalick]

My bet is dinos. Disappearing at night.

Take a turkey baster and suck some up, then squirt in a coffee filter into a cup.. The water will look clear. If it's dinos, you'll see clumps of them after a few minutes in the cup.

 

[Idoc]

Cheers. I'll put the chemipure back in then. I've lowered my lighting schedule and upped my water changes to 20% a week but haven't seen any change. If anything it's been getting worse. I'll try and order some chemiclean.
Thank you

You'll want to check your nitrate and phosphate levels as well. If those are out of balance, or fluctuating a lot, cyano seems to thrive. Dinos will thrive in low nutrients.

 

[qhduong]

Yeah try the coffee filter test. There's also a test using h2o2 for cyano you can try.

 

[Timbo13]

Phosphates are 0, nitrates are almost 0. Red Sea test. Here's the results from the coffee filter test. Water is 100% clear (assuming I did the test properly). The pictures of the sandbed where taken 30 minutes apart. One after I turned the lights off for 30 minutes. What do you think?

 

[zalick]

So to confirm - you sucked up some of the dino/cyano/unknown and squirted it in to the coffee filter. Then the filtered water in the glass is totally clear now? Look straight down on it.

If it's totally clear, it's not dinos. I believe that test is pretty conclusive.


Those new pics looks more like cyano.

Increased flow tends to help with that.

 

[Timbo13]

Looks clear to me. Thank you. I'll order some chemiclean and hope that does the trick.
Thanks to everyone for their quick help!!

 

[zalick]

Looks clear to me. Thank you. I'll order some chemiclean and hope that does the trick.
Thanks to everyone for their quick help!!

Good luck!

Cyano can smother stuff quick but I've always found it pretty easy to beat.

 

[qhduong]

Yeah looks like cyano. So cyano has 2 type, one of them chemiclean won't work. For that, just dose h2o2 to tank.