Need Help please

[Reefgirl79]

Hi Everyone,

I am new to R2R. I have had my tanks for almost 4yrs now.

I am having an issue. I know I have dino's in my 25g lagoon. They appeared last week. They aren't covering everything yet because I am manually sucking them out every day with a turkey baster.

They are affecting things though. My euphyllia and styllo aren't opening, all else seems to be ok still.


I have some macro in the display, use purigen, activated carbon, and floss only. RODI water with 0 tds, usually water changes weekly to every 2 weeks.

My phos is at 0 and nitrates are 2. Very low and perfect for dino's.

Now I have been doing a ton of reading and watching videos...that has started getting confusing.

Since my system is so low in nutrients, I believe a lack of nutrients and biodiversity is the cause.

I have read 2 target methods that have worked for getting these jerks back into a dormant state.

1. Phosphate and nitrate dosing with UV sterilizer, no waterchanges, carbon use to reduce toxins.


2. adding microbacter7, pods, phyto to add biodiversity to out compete the dino, while doing no waterchanges and running carbon only.


I need some help deciding which method to start with. can anyone help, please.

I attached some pics of my microscope shots. Still not sure which strain it is. It gets better at night, minimal when lights come on and gets worse as the lights are on longer.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Welcome to reef2reef @Reefgirl79!

Some basics first.

How old is your tank?

What is your source water?

What's your water parameters?

 

[Reefgirl79]

Welcome to reef2reef @Reefgirl79!

Some basics first.

How old is your tank?

What is your source water?

What's your water parameters?

thank you for the welcome.


My tank is 4 years old

I make my own RODI water with 0 tds - 5 stage spectrapure

params

1.026
78 degrees
Alk 8.7
ca 440
nitrate 2
phos 0
ph 8.2
mag 1400

 

[Flippers4pups]

Okay do you dose anything?

 

[Reefgirl79]

I dose esv bionic for alk and ca.

I used to use Fuel.

Reef roids 1-2 times a week, pellet food daily for fish, 1 time a week frozen mysis.

That's it.

 

[Gareth elliott]

It is dinos, there is a huge dino sticky that might help with species as i have no idea [emoji23].

But the uv plus no3 and po4 is how i handled mine, i also dosed silicate. And bought a bag o bugs from garf once my nutrients once my nutrients were stable. After you are steadily above zero test nutrients weekly, i didn’t and spent the next 3 months fighting different algae.

Most likely no nutrients is why the corals look unhappy toxic dinos are not commonly experienced in the hobby, we get ugly ones.

I used NaNo3 for nitrate and KHPO4 for phosphate.
You can use a planted tank calculator NaNO3 will have a nearly identical dose to KNO3. Will save you about $20 buying an aquarium additive.
For silica used Sodium Silicate(same chemical as that package that came with your sneakers)

 

[Reefgirl79]

It is dinos, there is a huge dino sticky that might help with species as i have no idea [emoji23].

But the uv plus no3 and po4 is how i handled mine, i also dosed silicate. And bought a bag o bugs from garf once my nutrients once my nutrients were stable. After you are steadily above zero test nutrients weekly, i didn’t and spent the next 3 months fighting different algae.

Most likely no nutrients is why the corals look unhappy toxic dinos are not commonly experienced in the hobby, we get ugly ones.

I used NaNo3 for nitrate and KHPO4 for phosphate.
You can use a planted tank calculator NaNO3 will have a nearly identical dose to KNO3. Will save you about $20 buying an aquarium additive.
For silica used Sodium Silicate(same chemical as that package that came with your sneakers)

I'm in canada so some stuff is harder to get here.

I was considering going a natural route of adding pods, phyto, and microbacter7 since lack biodiversity and nutrients is usually a cause.

I've been trying to identify them as well which is difficult, so many look the same. Lol