smartin
New Member
Hello Everyone, I am new here so please be gentle. Just to give you a little background of me and my reef tank. I have been reef keeping since 2005 but took a very long break from the hobby after a Stealth heater exploded in my tank and nuked it. I think it was around 2010 when I upgraded from a 30G to a 75G very low tech softy tank. The tank thrived and was something I was very proud of. Around 2013 I had a Stealth heater explode in the tank hours before I was leaving town for a funeral. I did get the heater out of the tank and a spare in to maintain the temp before leaving. When I returned home the tank was a milky mess. The fish were mostly OK but almost all of my corals where melting away. In the end my GBTA and some Palys survived. The tank has run on autopilot for the last 8 years with a few unsuccessful attempts to revive it.
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In August of this year I decided I wanted to try again and I am determined to get it right this time. When I started to get back to it, the tank was full of aiptasia and cyano. I replaced my old Halides with 2 ViparSpectra 165W LEDs, I did 2, 50% water changes making sure to syphon as much cyano out as I could. I started testing my parameters and dosing 2 part to get things back to acceptable numbers. I also removed any live rock that didn't have corals on it, let it bake in the sun for a few days, rinsed it and added it back to the tank. This was to get rid of what aiptasia I could.
The tank started looking better but still had some cyano and a ton of aiptasia. I decided to add a couple of leathers, some zoanthids and a hammer. I also added a few peppermint shrimp to help with the aiptasia. The corals all looked good and seemed to be adjusting well. Then the dinoflagellates started. I now have dinos on the sand, rock and corals along with some cyano on the sand and rocks as well. The dinos are irritating the leathers but they are managing. It is also irritation the zoanthids to the point they hardly open and are starting to shrink in size. Last night I put the dinos under a microscope, it appears to be ostreopsis dinoflagellates. My LFS suggested I increase feedings to deal with the dinos since my N and P are 0. They also suggested to dose chimiclean to deal with the cyano. I am afraid killing the cyano will just feed the dinos though and the coral was doing better with the cyano than it is with the dinos.
Can anyone help me figure out how to beat these dinoflagellates, cyano and aiptasia. I would also take any suggestions on catching a Clarkii Clown without pulling all the rock out.
Tank Info:
75G not drilled tank
2 X HOB filters with polyfil that I change out daily for mechanical filtration. I also run carbon in them from time to time.
4 X powerheads, 2 on each side for flow.
2 X 165W ViparSpectra LEDs set to 40% CH1 Blue, 10% CH2 White. Ch1 on for 12 hours, CH2 for 10.
Inhabitants
Clarkii Clown
Coral Beauty
Blue/Yellow Damsel
6 or 7 GBTAs
Palys
Hammer
Several Various Leathers
Clean up crew, 12 hermits 12 astrea, 10 cerith snails and a brittle star.
Parameters
Temp: 78
SG: 1.026
PH: 8
KH: 10.2
Cal: 400
Mag: 1410
Nitrate: 0
Phosphate: 0
I use 0 TDS RO/DI for top off.
Thanks for any help or suggestions.
.
In August of this year I decided I wanted to try again and I am determined to get it right this time. When I started to get back to it, the tank was full of aiptasia and cyano. I replaced my old Halides with 2 ViparSpectra 165W LEDs, I did 2, 50% water changes making sure to syphon as much cyano out as I could. I started testing my parameters and dosing 2 part to get things back to acceptable numbers. I also removed any live rock that didn't have corals on it, let it bake in the sun for a few days, rinsed it and added it back to the tank. This was to get rid of what aiptasia I could.
The tank started looking better but still had some cyano and a ton of aiptasia. I decided to add a couple of leathers, some zoanthids and a hammer. I also added a few peppermint shrimp to help with the aiptasia. The corals all looked good and seemed to be adjusting well. Then the dinoflagellates started. I now have dinos on the sand, rock and corals along with some cyano on the sand and rocks as well. The dinos are irritating the leathers but they are managing. It is also irritation the zoanthids to the point they hardly open and are starting to shrink in size. Last night I put the dinos under a microscope, it appears to be ostreopsis dinoflagellates. My LFS suggested I increase feedings to deal with the dinos since my N and P are 0. They also suggested to dose chimiclean to deal with the cyano. I am afraid killing the cyano will just feed the dinos though and the coral was doing better with the cyano than it is with the dinos.
Can anyone help me figure out how to beat these dinoflagellates, cyano and aiptasia. I would also take any suggestions on catching a Clarkii Clown without pulling all the rock out.
Tank Info:
75G not drilled tank
2 X HOB filters with polyfil that I change out daily for mechanical filtration. I also run carbon in them from time to time.
4 X powerheads, 2 on each side for flow.
2 X 165W ViparSpectra LEDs set to 40% CH1 Blue, 10% CH2 White. Ch1 on for 12 hours, CH2 for 10.
Inhabitants
Clarkii Clown
Coral Beauty
Blue/Yellow Damsel
6 or 7 GBTAs
Palys
Hammer
Several Various Leathers
Clean up crew, 12 hermits 12 astrea, 10 cerith snails and a brittle star.
Parameters
Temp: 78
SG: 1.026
PH: 8
KH: 10.2
Cal: 400
Mag: 1410
Nitrate: 0
Phosphate: 0
I use 0 TDS RO/DI for top off.
Thanks for any help or suggestions.
