Nuisance ID - Including Photos, Parameters and Description

[zachxlutz]

Sorry, I just realized you were also in the other dino thread and I basically repeated the same things here. I'm glad I've had a similar experience with nutrient adjustment and hope others will also give it a try.

No worries, I think it's a good thing to have this information in several different threads in the event someone reads this one and finds a solution, it's worth it.

 

[mcarroll]

Thanks... I'll keep that in mind with regards to adding more fish. Reasoning behind that? Making sure I don't spike nutrient levels by adding more bioload?

Exactly.....you'll naturally have to feed more....a lot more if you're adding multiple new fish all at once. So a bloom could be expected.....best if it's not a bloom of just dino's again. So give "everything else" in the tank a good shot to get re-established.

 

[zachxlutz]

Exactly.....you'll naturally have to feed more....a lot more if you're adding multiple new fish all at once. So a bloom could be expected.....best if it's not a bloom of just dino's again. So give "everything else" in the tank a good shot to get re-established.

Calling @mcarroll and others!!!

Still struggling with what appears to be dinos amongst other things... ugh.

Dinos on the live rock, sand bed, etc:

I brought the phosphate levels up for several weeks by dosing Activate (phosphorus) to a goal of 0.10 from 6/16/17 - 7/13/17. This seemed to solve the dino problem and after I stopped dosing I was able to see that the phosphates were sticking around in the water for longer and longer. I let things get a little slack as I saw other algae patches pop up, namely green hair algae and red wiry turf algae (Gelidium?).

Knowing that the goal of this experiment was to add to the biodiversity of the tank and allow the dinos to be outcompeted, I thought I had reached an equilibrium. I didn't want to continue dosing KNO3/PO4 to the system as the green and red algaes were beginning to grow a little quick for my liking.

Gelidium? + spots of dino, etc:

GHA/Gelidium/Dinos:

I started religiously testing the nutrients again and what do you know... the NO3 levels had bottomed to nothing, zilch, zero. The PO4 levels had held steady at .05-.1. I began dosing KNO3 again and targeting 5-10 ppm. A few days of this and the dosing brought my PO4 levels down again. Basically... I'm back to dosing both KNO3 and PO4 to the tank, I've got dinos, green hair algae and red wiry turf algae.

UGH.

I've got a Kole Tang and a Diamond Goby ready to enter the tank in about 2 weeks, I'm hoping the tang will help with the GHA/Gelidium but at this point, I'm really not positive anything is going to get this tank pristine and clean!

 

[zachxlutz]

Things are not going well. I just got back from a short 5 day trip and the glass, sand, rock and some corals were COVERED in brown slime. I cleaned the glass with the flipper and the water was BROWN BROWN BROWN for a couple of hours. I then tried to gently blow off some of the stringy dinos off of the green birdsnest and wouldn't you know, the green polyps all came off with the dinos. Wonderful.

I've had phosphates (ACTIVATE) on a doser at 2 ml a day and last night the phosphates were at 75 ppb/.23 ppm after 5 or 6 days of no testing due to be out of town. I think I have that rate dialed in. The nitrate dosing is as needed. Both nitrate and phosphate drop to zero if no dosing done.

The goby and the conch are TRYING to keep the sand clean but struggling to keep up. The tang nor the foxface show no interest eating any nuisance algae in the tank. They seem to only go after nori and pellets/mysis.

No help from adding the 10 lbs of GARG grunge, from what I can tell.

I just ordered a magnum polishing filter, diatomaceous earth and a UV sterilizer. Obviously just dosing the nutrients up and manually removing isn't helping.

I'm really not sure where to go from here. I'm extremely disappointed and at wit's end.

@mcarroll @taricha

Does anyone have any thoughts?

 

[zachxlutz]

Here's the tank in all it's sad, sad glory.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Yea. Bummer. Sorry. I'm still not convinced on the whole nutrient balancing thing man. Clearly it's not working.

@reeferfoxx would you take a look at this? I'd scrub , stop dosing anything , do water changes till the cows came home and if it's not mostly gone in a month dose peroxide. But that's me.

@zachxlutz what cal and alk supplements are you using?

 

[zachxlutz]

Yea. Bummer. Sorry. I'm still not convinced on the whole nutrient balancing thing man. Clearly it's not working.

@reeferfoxx would you take a look at this? I'd scrub , stop dosing anything , do water changes till the cows came home and if it's not mostly gone in a month dose peroxide. But that's me.

@zachxlutz what cal and alk supplements are you using?

@saltyfilmfolks I'm dosing BRS 2-part hourly w/ a 10 minute offset between alk and cal. 20ml per day each part. This equals .2 dkh/1.39ppm daily.

Consumption is fairly low in my tank considering the number of corals I have and mostly being SPS/LPS.

Maybe stopping all dosing is the way to go. I'm going to keep the dosing up and give UV/Diatom a shot and see what happens.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Can you tell me about your filtration?

 

[K. Steven]

Did you ID your dinos with a microscope? This looks like the Ostreopsis sp. I had, though not this bad.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Fwiw it doesn't look like dinos to me. At least not now.

 

[K. Steven]

Fwiw it doesn't look like dinos to me. At least not now.

Perhaps, it's tough to tell. I have difficulty distinguishing some dinos from some darker cyanobacteria.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

@saltyfilmfolks I'm dosing BRS 2-part hourly w/ a 10 minute offset between alk and cal. 20ml per day each part. This equals .2 dkh/1.39ppm daily.

Consumption is fairly low in my tank considering the number of corals I have and mostly being SPS/LPS.

Maybe stopping all dosing is the way to go. I'm going to keep the dosing up and give UV/Diatom a shot and see what happens.

Keep up the cal and alk dosing for sure.

Fwiw it doesn't look like dinos to me. At least not now.

A yup.

Fwiw. I asked about cal and alk supplements mainly because once I switched from ESV to TB balling, my algaes are noticeably different despite nutrient levels. (My own personal head scratch)

 

[zachxlutz]

Can you tell me about your filtration?

Yep.

55 gallon sump/refugium. Sometimes use filter socks, mostly just use two small filter pads between sump baffles to reduce micro bubbles from overflow. I clean them as needed.

Coralife Super Skimmer 125 in first chamber(a little underrated but does a great job. I have a larger Skimz but haven't felt the need to replace the Coralife).

Refugium w/ mineral mud, live sand, GARF grunge, chaeto, caulerpa, misc macros. Lighting from a PAR38 horticulture spectrum bulb (It puts out a ton of PAR 1800+ below leds, 600+ maybe 12" down). Throughout this I've experimented with decreasing lighting time of fuge in an effort to allow nutrients to build up in the tank to help increase competition to the dinos, obviously this hasn't helped. Not sure what it's done other than lowering my pH at night time.

Two BRS reactors on manifold, only running carbon, no GFO, previously ran GFO like crazy as well as Vibrant dosed.

I have 2 BRS dosers dosing alk/cal. A Jebao 4 head peristaltic pump used for dosing various things, only dosing 2 ml of phosphate daily currently.

Did you ID your dinos with a microscope? This looks like the Ostreopsis sp. I had, though not this bad.

Previous photos from a 08/25/2017. I'll post new photos soon as I'm concerned the population has shifted. There are a LOT more trapped/created bubbles in the brown goo than what I remember from earlier blooms.

Fwiw it doesn't look like dinos to me. At least not now.

Perhaps, it's tough to tell. I have difficulty distinguishing some dinos from some darker cyanobacteria.

Keep up the cal and alk dosing for sure.


A yup.

Fwiw. I asked about cal and alk supplements mainly because once I switched from ESV to TB balling, my algaes are noticeably different despite nutrient levels. (My own personal head scratch)

See above for dino scope photo. Like I said, I'll post a new photo asap.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Yep.

55 gallon sump/refugium. Sometimes use filter socks, mostly just use two small filter pads between sump baffles to reduce micro bubbles from overflow. I clean them as needed.

Coralife Super Skimmer 125 in first chamber(a little underrated but does a great job. I have a larger Skimz but haven't felt the need to replace the Coralife).

Refugium w/ mineral mud, live sand, GARF grunge, chaeto, caulerpa, misc macros. Lighting from a PAR38 horticulture spectrum bulb (It puts out a ton of PAR 1800+ below leds, 600+ maybe 12" down). Throughout this I've experimented with decreasing lighting time of fuge in an effort to allow nutrients to build up in the tank to help increase competition to the dinos, obviously this hasn't helped. Not sure what it's done other than lowering my pH at night time.

Two BRS reactors on manifold, only running carbon, no GFO, previously ran GFO like crazy as well as Vibrant dosed.

I have 2 BRS dosers dosing alk/cal. A Jebao 4 head peristaltic pump used for dosing various things, only dosing 2 ml of phosphate daily currently.

Previous photos from a 08/25/2017. I'll post new photos soon as I'm concerned the population has shifted. There are a LOT more trapped/created bubbles in the brown goo than what I remember from earlier blooms.

See above for dino scope photo. Like I said, I'll post a new photo asap.

Puzzling! Fwiw I think since you have some cyano in the mix, I would quite literally leave the tank alone. Switch out carbon a little more frequently then normal and leave everything be. In this time, test nutrients, think about lighting, water changes, feeding and anything that could possibly be off.

 

[zachxlutz]

Puzzling! Fwiw I think since you have some cyano in the mix, I would quite literally leave the tank alone. Switch out carbon a little more frequently then normal and leave everything be. In this time, test nutrients, think about lighting, water changes, feeding and anything that could possibly be off.

Thanks for the input!

Here's some updated video and a photo of what I'm dealing with. Well, at least one of the things. Sorry about the **** quality. I should have invested in a better microscope.

Steps to take:

• Decrease organic N/P dosing (nori cut back to every couple of days, only one sheet, etc)
• Inorganic N and P dosing to continue.
• UV to be added tomorrow (36 watt, 120 gallons, 520 gph pump, should i restrict flow?).
• Diatom filter to be added tomorrow.
• Fuge lighting to increase back to 18 hours reverse photoperiod w/ dosing to increase as needed.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Welp, i'll admitt, i was wrong.

 

[zachxlutz]

Did you ID your dinos with a microscope? This looks like the Ostreopsis sp. I had, though not this bad.

Fwiw it doesn't look like dinos to me. At least not now.

Perhaps, it's tough to tell. I have difficulty distinguishing some dinos from some darker cyanobacteria.

Welp, i'll admitt, i was wrong.

I think an ostreopsis ID is winning, atm. I believe ostreopsis will respond best to decreasing my nutrient load, increasing my refugium photoperiod, adding UV sterilization and diatomaceous earth filtering, as needed.

Fingers crossed we solve this issue!

 

[K. Steven]

Here's a video I took of my Ostreopsis sp. to compare. I saw a huge difference when I stopped overfeeding and started dosing PO4.

 

[zachxlutz]

Here's a video I took of my Ostreopsis sp. to compare. I saw a huge difference when I stopped overfeeding and started dosing PO4.

That looks very similar to my situation. I'm hoping I'm on the path to success with this now!

 

[zachxlutz]

Last night we implemented a few new methods for eliminating these dinoflagellates. UV sterilization and diatom filtering.

I hacked the UV system together in an effort to quickly get it up and running. If I see results from it, I'll need to come up with a plan to pull water from the display and run it through the UV unit and return it back to the display without looking like a toddler put it together.

It's a simple setup, 520 gph pump resting on the sandbed running through 3/4" tubing with a ball valve and returning directly to the display. Thoughts on cleaning this up?

This is the Marineland Magnum filter. I put the micron cartridge in it and charged it with 6 tablespoons of diatomaceous earth while running it in RO/DI water in a 5 gallon bucket. I'm not super impressed with this piece of equipment, yet. It was blowing lots of microbubbles and making lots of noise this AM. I'll pull it out tonight and double check everything and see if I can get it running quieter and get the air out of the system.