Orange Circles appearing on Rocks

[kamehameha]

I have had two clownfish in my tank for ~2 weeks now and today I noticed some orange-looking circles appear on the rocks, and possibly a bit of orange stuff on the sand. Someone on my original tank thread said looks like dino's, was hoping to hear it was diatoms so I could go snag some hermit crabs.

So now I'm a bit on the worried side. After looking into what Dinos meant I realized I have had two phosphate removing pads in my canister filter since day one and am worried I made a problem. I am planning to remove those pads tonight. What should I do from there? I do have a quarantine tank setup as I had planned to get a new fish tomorrow, I could move my clownfish in there and go a week or two with no lights and no food in the tank. I could also be overreacting lol.

Any help/ideas are welcome and appreciated!

Also forgot to mention, the test strip seems to show no nitrite/nitrates and ammonia is still at 0-5ppm. I assume phosphates are at or near 0 due to the pads in the filter.

 

[T-J]

Step 1 - ditch the test strips and get some individual test kits.
No need for those pads in a brand new tank. IMO, no dosing or anything else should be done while a tank is cycling/starting up. It's hard to tell, but kinda looks like dinos. How old is this tank? You'll want some phosphate and nitrate.

 

[kamehameha]

I ordered a Hanna Phosphate checker and a liquid test kit, but it's not here yet.

It's about 5 weeks old, only had fish in it for just under 2 weeks though. My current filter media is some sponges, then poly-fil, then some seachem matrix then purigen packs and the phosphate remover pads(these are removed now).

 

[Gtinnel]

It does not look like dinos to me it seems to be diatoms. I agree with getting individual tests, and I'd remove any phosphate absorbing media since you don't even really know what your phosphate levels are.

 

[Gtinnel]

Dinos will be more stringy and snotty looking, usually with bubbles stuck in them. This is just the beginning of the ugly stages.

 

[kamehameha]

I very much hope you are right! I do not want to be fighting an uphill battle with this thing. I have already removed the phosphate pads. Hopefully, I haven't removed too much from the water. I am also using RO water so that is probably removing some too. My new test kits are supposed to come in on Friday so if all goes well I'll know those levels then.

 

[Gtinnel]

I very much hope you are right! I do not want to be fighting an uphill battle with this thing. I have already removed the phosphate pads. Hopefully, I haven't removed too much from the water. I am also using RO water so that is probably removing some too. My new test kits are supposed to come in on Friday so if all goes well I'll know those levels then.

Just do a Google image search for dinos and it will be obvious that what you have is not dinos. Unfortunately in the past I have become familiar with dinos because when I first setup my tank I was under the impression that 0 nitrate and phosphate was a good thing.

 

[kamehameha]

Just do a Google image search for dinos and it will be obvious that what you have is not dinos. Unfortunately in the past I have become familiar with dinos because when I first setup my tank I was under the impression that 0 nitrate and phosphate was a good thing.

That was my thinking exactly, coming from freshwater I thought the phosphate pads would be great. Living and learning I suppose.

So I guess I should start looking into some cleaners now. I was planning on getting a shrimp down the road, but for now, just hermits and snails if I can find one that doesn't need help getting back on its feet.

 

[kamehameha]

So from my panic research, I found several people saying hermit crabs and other cleaners won't touch dinos. If that is true, then it's definitely something else. I added 4 crabs today and one of them is having a feast on the rocks! although 2 of them have just stayed on the bottom chasing each other, the smaller of the two seems to just want to be on the big ones back. The 4th one is MIA. I'm not sure how people keep track of all the little snails and crabs.

 

[T-J]

I'm not sure how people keep track of all the little snails and crabs.

We don't.

 

[Gtinnel]

So from my panic research

You have no reason to panic search those aren't dinos.

I'm not sure how people keep track of all the little snails and crabs.

For snails I probably have between 100-500 does that count as keeping track? I use to be able to count around 300 of the small cerith snails on my glass at night.

 

[sfin52]

Dinos will be more stringy and snotty looking, usually with bubbles stuck in them. This is just the beginning of the ugly stages.

Agree

Just do a Google image search for dinos and it will be obvious that what you have is not dinos. Unfortunately in the past I have become familiar with dinos because when I first setup my tank I was under the impression that 0 nitrate and phosphate was a good thing.

Did the same thing lost 90 percent of corals and ended up with a very bad dino problem.

So from my panic research, I found several people saying hermit crabs and other cleaners won't touch dinos. If that is true, then it's definitely something else. I added 4 crabs today and one of them is having a feast on the rocks! although 2 of them have just stayed on the bottom chasing each other, the smaller of the two seems to just want to be on the big ones back. The 4th one is MIA. I'm not sure how people keep track of all the little snails and crabs.

Pods are said to eat some. But its easy enough to fix don't bottom out nutrients. Just increase cuc as algea starts to grow. A healthy reef produces tons of algea. Reefs have a huge amount of herbivores that keep it on check.

 

[kamehameha]

So I got my test kits today and ran them just a while ago. Ammonia is 0, ignore how green it is, it didn't go that color until ~ 15 minutes after reading it.
PH - ~8 - 8.2
Amonnia - 0ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - ~0 - .5ppm
Phosphate: 0.50 ppm

So everything is still good. I'm not sure what a good phosphate level is, some people said .3 others .8 so I guess right in the middle works for me!

 

[T-J]

Phosphate is crazy high.
Most aim for .03-.1

 

[kamehameha]

Phosphate is crazy high.
Most aim for .03-.1

Maybe Ill be throwing those phosphate pads back in there then lol. The last time I checked it though, it was at 0.32

 

[kamehameha]

Phosphate is crazy high.
Most aim for .03-.1

So I decided to double-check what I was doing to be sure I was performing the test correctly. (Reading instructions thoroughly helps) I found out I was not following all of the steps just so. I was tapping the button at the last part of it and got instant readings, but I was supposed to hold the button to start a 3-minute countdown before the reading happened.

Doing it the right way says I have 0.05ppm. I think I will test again tomorrow just to be sure, but because I'm using RO water, that number sounds more correct at least.

 

[jt8791]

I would highly recommend the hr nitrate checker seeing you already have the lr phosphate. I just got both this week and never using a standard test kit again if I can avoid it. I’m going for alkalinity and calcium checkers next, wish they would make a marine magnesium checker. I got tired of playing guess that color pretty quickly.

 

[kamehameha]

I would highly recommend the hr nitrate checker seeing you already have the lr phosphate. I just got both this week and never using a standard test kit again if I can avoid it. I’m going for alkalinity and calcium checkers next, wish they would make a marine magnesium checker. I got tired of playing guess that color pretty quickly.

I think I'm going to just stick with the liquid test kit for that. The Hannah checkers are all $50, that cuts into the fishes and coral budget awful quick lol

 

[olonmv]

I think I'm going to just stick with the liquid test kit for that. The Hannah checkers are all $50, that cuts into the fishes and coral budget awful quick lol

You’ll probably end up goin with Hanna. I thought the same thing as you and now I prefer a digital readout over tryna decipher a color graph. I use the liquid when I feel like I need a second opinion. To be perfectly honest. I use Hanna for calcium, phos, and alk….the rest are liquid test kits but are done less often. I’ll be happy if they ever put out a Hanna magnesium checker.

 

[jeffchapok]

Forget trying to keep those rocks white. Over the next year you're going to have all sorts of ugly, weird stuff growing on them. Just sit back and enjoy the show of nature doing its thing