New Tank, possibly Dinos

[mikeytrw]

Hello.

I suspect my 2 month old tank has the early onset of Dinos. I had Diatoms once my tank completed cycle but then the stringy brown stuff appeared.

It doesn't look like most of the Dinos pictures that I see, there is no real 'snot' visible, only the hairy stringy stuff on the sandbed and occasionally visible on the rock scape.

It does appear to dissipate during the night but not completely. My filter socks in the morning have a lot of brown crap in them that smells like seaweed.

I have a microscope arriving later today that I hope will allow me to inspect further.

Parameters:

Ammonia - 0 (Red Sea)
Nitrite - 0 (Red Sea)
Nitrate - 0.0 (Hanna HR)
Phosphate - 0.07 (Hanna)
Alkalinity - 7.7 (Hanna)
Salinity - 32.9ppt (currently slowly adjusting this towards 34ppt through salt in ATO)

Current livestock:

2 small clowns, a pistol shrimp and 5 corals (Duncan, 3 tiny chalice frags and a small red goniapora).

My current plan:

- change filter socks every morning
- run skimmer overnight (the bio load is so small the skimmer doesn't pull much out)
- dose Microbacter7 daily as per instructions
- increase nitrates through dosing to about 1-2ppm and hold there.
- dosed a bunch of copepods, although the've all disappeared.

Am planning to do the above for 2-3 weeks and assess. Should I be doing anything else at this stage?

I'd like to avoid a blackout as my corals are quite new to the tank and I'm still getting lighting and flow to their liking.

My next escalation is UV, and possibly inducing a diatom bloom with silicate dosing - assuming it's confirmed Dinos.

Thank you for any help and suggestions.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hello.

I suspect my 2 month old tank has the early onset of Dinos. I had Diatoms once my tank completed cycle but then the stringy brown stuff appeared.

It doesn't look like most of the Dinos pictures that I see, there is no real 'snot' visible, only the hairy stringy stuff on the sandbed and occasionally visible on the rock scape.

It does appear to dissipate during the night but not completely. My filter socks in the morning have a lot of brown crap in them that smells like seaweed.

I have a microscope arriving later today that I hope will allow me to inspect further.

Parameters:

Ammonia - 0 (Red Sea)
Nitrite - 0 (Red Sea)
Nitrate - 0.0 (Hanna HR)
Phosphate - 0.07 (Hanna)
Alkalinity - 7.7 (Hanna)
Salinity - 32.9ppt (currently slowly adjusting this towards 34ppt through salt in ATO)

Current livestock:

2 small clowns, a pistol shrimp and 5 corals (Duncan, 3 tiny chalice frags and a small red goniapora).

My current plan:

- change filter socks every morning
- run skimmer overnight (the bio load is so small the skimmer doesn't pull much out)
- dose Microbacter7 daily as per instructions
- increase nitrates through dosing to about 1-2ppm and hold there.
- dosed a bunch of copepods, although the've all disappeared.

Am planning to do the above for 2-3 weeks and assess. Should I be doing anything else at this stage?

I'd like to avoid a blackout as my corals are quite new to the tank and I'm still getting lighting and flow to their liking.

My next escalation is UV, and possibly inducing a diatom bloom with silicate dosing - assuming it's confirmed Dinos.

Thank you for any help and suggestions.

Diatoms and often associated with silicates in newer sand and rock
In time will diminish
Some reefers don’t like the appearance
You can siphon as needed, reduce white light intensity and add a few snails such as cerith, astrea, nassarius and a few blue leg carribean hermits

 

[blaxsun]

While a UV will always help in general, it may not do a lot at this stage. Still, it's definitely something to look at in the future.

What @vetteguy53081 suggested. A small conch or two is also very effective for keeping the sand bed clean. Ring cowries (must be gold ring cowries) have also been effective in combating dinos and other types of algae in systems at my LFS, and they personallly do a bang-up job with my tank.

 

[mikeytrw]

Thank you! I'm so relieved that it's diatoms and not dinos.

I thought that the stringyness of them meant that they could be dinos. I will lower my white light intensity and wait for it to pass.

I missed the snails on my livestock list, they loved the original diatoms when it was just dusty brown coating but seem to be avoiding this stuff, don't see them on the substrate very often.

 

[Jekyl]

Just make sure to get your nutrients up. No need to keep them so low. Will prevent issues in the future.

 

[mikeytrw]

Just make sure to get your nutrients up. No need to keep them so low. Will prevent issues in the future.

I'm actually trying...I've been feeding like mad and not really running the skimmer at all. I'll dose it up to 1-2ppm and try hold it there.

 

[LiveFreeAndReef]

Stop running the skimmer, there's really no need for it in the first place since the tank is so lightly stocked and it's just stripping what little nutrients you have in the tank out.

 

[Lavey29]

I'm actually trying...I've been feeding like mad and not really running the skimmer at all. I'll dose it up to 1-2ppm and try hold it there.

5 to 10....5 fine without coral 10 better when you get coral.

 

[LiveFreeAndReef]

5 to 10....5 fine without coral 10 better when you get coral.

I'm in the 10-20 club lol I agree that 1-2 is too low, corals like nutrients

 

[mikeytrw]

10-20 it is!

 

[Lavey29]

I'm in the 10-20 club lol I agree that 1-2 is too low, corals like nutrients

For sure if you are heavily stocked with corals. I was at 20 for some months but now with the fuge doing well it has settled at 10 maybe 12 between water changes.

 

[Lavey29]

10-20 it is!

That's when you have a fair amount of coral. For a new tank going through ugly phases and still developing biodiversity try to maintain 5 so you don't over feed algae. After about 4 months and you start adding initial corals like softs and LPS then you will want 10 at least for their nutrition. This can be achieved as others mentioned, feeding more. Less skimming, less water changes or dosing.

 

[Lavey29]

...

 

[mikeytrw]

I've just looked with a microscope, deffo looks like diatoms. Not dinos. Thanks for all your help.