Dealing with dinos

[DEL 707]

I have 56l tank that is 9 weeks old.
I've been dealing with a dino problem which has been increasingly worse. It started as few small patches on the sand, but now it's thicker and becoming more noticeable on the rockwork as well.

My setup is -

• 56l Tank
• 7-8kg of dry rock
• AI Nero 3
• AI Blade Coral Grow 21"
• Fluval 107 Canister Filter (I've removed half the sponges and replaced them with seachem biomedia and carbon)

Stock is -

• Yellow Clown Goby
• Tailspot Blenny
• 2 x Fireshrimp
• 2 x Red Leg Hermit Crab
• 1 x Trochus Snail
• 1 x Nassarius Snail

For corals, I only have 2 small colonies of GSP. I keep them on small rocks on the sand to stop them spreading.

I feed twice a day. Morning and evening. I've tried various products, but they only seem to eat brine shrimp. *Occasionaly* the blenny will eat some Seaweed Extreme.

I was doing 25% water changes every week, because of it being a nano tank with a canister filter. But I've noticed that my nitrates and phosphate have dropped to 0.
This weekend I decided to only do a 10% water change. Before the water change I decided to test, and nitrate and phosphate were both 0.
I'm currently not doing any kind of dosing. But I have added some AF Life Force to see if that would help.
With flow, I have the AI blade at 5000lph on pulse mode, 5 seconds on, 1 second off. The canister is 500lph, so I'm at roughly 100x turnover.

Salinity is 35 ppt. I have a small ATO setup.
I have an Ink Bird that keeps the temperature around 26 °C

I rented a par unit a while back, before the dinos. I currently run the lights at 60%. So the sand bed is receiving about 100par.

I'm thinking about holding off on water changes until I start seeing nitrate and phosphate.

Can anyone give me some advice on how to counter my dino problem?

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have 56l tank that is 9 weeks old.
I've been dealing with a dino problem which has been increasingly worse. It started as few small patches on the sand, but now it's thicker and becoming more noticeable on the rockwork as well.

My setup is -

• 56l Tank
• 7-8kg of dry rock
• AI Nero 3
• AI Blade Coral Grow 21"
• Fluval 107 Canister Filter (I've removed half the sponges and replaced them with seachem biomedia and carbon)

Stock is -

• Yellow Clown Goby
• Tailspot Blenny
• 2 x Fireshrimp
• 2 x Red Leg Hermit Crab
• 1 x Trochus Snail
• 1 x Nassarius Snail

For corals, I only have 2 small colonies of GSP. I keep them on small rocks on the sand to stop them spreading.

I feed twice a day. Morning and evening. I've tried various products, but they only seem to eat brine fish. *Occasionaly* the blenny will eat some Seaweed Extreme.

I was doing 25% water changes every week, because of it being a nano tank with a canister filter. But I've noticed that my nitrates and phosphate have dropped to 0.
This weekend I decided to only do a 10% water change. Before the water change I decided to test, and nitrate and phosphate were both 0.
I'm currently not doing any kind of dosing. But I have added some AF Life Force to see if that would help.
With flow, I have the AI blade at 5000lph on pulse mode, 5 seconds on, 1 second off. The canister is 500lph, so I'm at roughly 100x turnover.

Salinity is 35 ppt. I have a small ATO setup.
I have an Ink Bird that keeps the temperature around 26 °C

I rented a par unit a while back, before the dinos. I currently run the lights at 60%. So the sand bed is receiving about 100par.

I'm thinking about holding off on water changes until I start seeing nitrate and phosphate.

Can anyone give me some advice on how to counter my dino problem?

generally dinos consume phos and Nitrate but I see this as Cyano in lieu of Dino.
What is your phos-nitrate- and ph levels?
Are you using tap water from faucet or RODI water?

 

[Idech]

It looks like cyano to me as well.

 

[bradreef]

Only way to know is to collect a sample and put under a microscope. The best resource is macks dinoflagellates page on Facebook.

 

[Dan_P]

I have 56l tank that is 9 weeks old.
I've been dealing with a dino problem which has been increasingly worse. It started as few small patches on the sand, but now it's thicker and becoming more noticeable on the rockwork as well.

My setup is -

• 56l Tank
• 7-8kg of dry rock
• AI Nero 3
• AI Blade Coral Grow 21"
• Fluval 107 Canister Filter (I've removed half the sponges and replaced them with seachem biomedia and carbon)

Stock is -

• Yellow Clown Goby
• Tailspot Blenny
• 2 x Fireshrimp
• 2 x Red Leg Hermit Crab
• 1 x Trochus Snail
• 1 x Nassarius Snail

For corals, I only have 2 small colonies of GSP. I keep them on small rocks on the sand to stop them spreading.

I feed twice a day. Morning and evening. I've tried various products, but they only seem to eat brine shrimp. *Occasionaly* the blenny will eat some Seaweed Extreme.

I was doing 25% water changes every week, because of it being a nano tank with a canister filter. But I've noticed that my nitrates and phosphate have dropped to 0.
This weekend I decided to only do a 10% water change. Before the water change I decided to test, and nitrate and phosphate were both 0.
I'm currently not doing any kind of dosing. But I have added some AF Life Force to see if that would help.
With flow, I have the AI blade at 5000lph on pulse mode, 5 seconds on, 1 second off. The canister is 500lph, so I'm at roughly 100x turnover.

Salinity is 35 ppt. I have a small ATO setup.
I have an Ink Bird that keeps the temperature around 26 °C

I rented a par unit a while back, before the dinos. I currently run the lights at 60%. So the sand bed is receiving about 100par.

I'm thinking about holding off on water changes until I start seeing nitrate and phosphate.

Can anyone give me some advice on how to counter my dino problem?

In addition to possibly growing cyanobacteria and dinoflagellates, the rocks appear to be covered in a pale filamentous growth. This sort of thing happens in new aquaria. Nitrogen depletion seems to drive these new systems to this end.

 

[DEL 707]

generally dinos consume phos and Nitrate but I see this as Cyano in lieu of Dino.
What is your phos-nitrate- and ph levels?
Are you using tap water from faucet or RODI water?

Nitrate and phosphate are 0
PH is about 8.0-8.2 and KH is 8-9°dKH
These test were done about 90 minutes after lights out.

I have an RODI unit, I just tested my RO water and it's 0ppm.
I use Red Sea Coral Pro salt.

Only way to know is to collect a sample and put under a microscope. The best resource is macks dinoflagellates page on Facebook.

I really don't want to have to buy a microscope...

Edit - If I have to buy a microscope, can anyone recommend something cheap in the UK?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Nitrate and phosphate are 0
PH is about 8.0-8.2 and KH is 8-9°dKH
These test were done about 90 minutes after lights out.

I have an RODI unit, I just tested my RO water and it's 0ppm.
I use Red Sea Coral Pro salt.



I really don't want to have to buy a microscope...

Edit - If I have to buy a microscope, can anyone recommend something cheap in the UK?

Being you are in UK, do this below which will address both nitrate and Phos. Many universities will microscope for you free of cost.
When we see zero readings, automatically we assume this is the cause but by the time you see zero numbers, its because the dino has consumed the po4 and no3 and are multiplying and in turn many dose no3 and po4 to bring numbers up not realizing they are feeding these flagellates even more.
Its biological deficiencies that are causing the dino structure .
No light is first key followed by the addition of bacteria to overcome the bad bacteria allowing them to thrive
Prepare by starting by blowing this stuff loose with a turkey baster and siphon up loose particles. Turn lights off (at least white and run blue at 10% IF you have light dependant corals such as SPS) for 5 days and at night dose 1ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide per 10 gallons for all 5 nights which works as an oxidizer. If you dont have light dependent coral- turn all lights off. During the day dose 1ml of liquid bacteria (such as micro bacter 7 or XLM) per 10 gallons. Clean filters daily and DO NOT FEED AMINO OR ADD NOPOX which is food for dinos, however you can feed coral, food which will help no3 and po4 to increase. If increasing nutrients, try to keep no3 to about 5 until you are done battling these cells.
Doing a daily siphoning will help greatly But . . . . . Siphoning will reduce nutrients , so siphon the water into/through a filter sock and save the water and return it back to tank. Obviously clean the filter sock each time.
You can feed fish as normal and if doing blackout, ambient light in room will work for them

 

[DEL 707]

Thanks for all the help.

I'm going to buy a microscope. Would something like this 1000x model do the job?

Amazon product

 

[DEL 707]

I got my hands on a microscope.
I pulled a tuft of the algae off my sand and tried taking a few pics.

Do these pictures help identify what I'm dealing with?