What’s killing all my inverts

[MyFirstCar]

About a week ago did a tank clean, trimmed back some corals, scraped the glass (I'd had to leave it for 2 weeks), and did a water change.

Woke up the next day and everything was covered in this brown algae. Thought it would die down, but it's still around and it seems to have killed all my snails, and some of my crabs. Fish seem fine though. My Xenia and GSP won't open, but my hammers and gonis look ok. Any ideas what this might be, and how to deal with it?

I've been doing 20% water changes every 2 days, and running a huge bag of carbon for the week. My skimmer is also pulling out a ton of gunk.

Nitrates around 1, phos 0.02-0.04, salinity 34ppt, temp 78, using RODI

^graveyard of dead snails

 

[Reef Hub]

Looks like a case of Dino’s. Time to pull out the microscope. A lot of Dino’s are toxic so if the inverts eat them they’ll likely die.

 

[Formulator]

Dinoflagellates. It is toxic to inverts and will take some effort to eradicate. Typically it comes when your nutrients bottom out, especially phosphate. So I’m guessing you had reduced feeding while you were gone and your nutrients were low, then your water change zeroed them out.

Increased flow and getting nutrients back up will help and sometimes that’s all that is needed. If stubborn, you may need to install UV, consider black-out period, or dose silicates.

Here is a nice article:
Dino Treatment Guide

 

[Uncle99]

Get those nutrients out of the basement.
Dose them up.

 

[MyFirstCar]

Good to know! I'll start getting the nutrients up

 

[MyFirstCar]

Thanks all, my urchin isn't dead yet, should I isolate him and put him on Nori until this is under control?

 

[Formulator]

Thanks all, my urchin isn't dead yet, should I isolate him and put him on Nori until this is under control?

Yes, I would. Since you are losing other inverts, you already know you have the toxic variety of dino and urchins are susceptible as well.

 

[visioned]

two facebook groups that can be of help during this:

Dinoflagellates Support Group

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Mack's Reef... Dinoflagellates Support Group

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people will recommend you get scope, even a kid/toy one is fine, so as long as it has 400x magnification. this one is a great if you're on a budget. if you don't want to buy a scope, hit up the people at your LFS. they may have one or at least know someone who does. you'll pull a sample and post a photo of your slide then people will help ID what type of dino you have. you gotta get an confirm ID. it's so easily overlooked; you need to know what type of dino it is to know what you're fighting. each type of dino (there's about 6 or 7) has different methods of control.

do your upmost best to keep po4 stable. stop doing water changes. stop cleaning the glass. give the biome a chance to get a leg up with more surface area.

as mentioned, look into silicate dosing, you'd do this to force a diatom bloom to outpace the dino. pizza diatom is friend.

oh and, buckle up. this is one of those 'make or break' moments in reefing.

 

[Formulator]

oh and, buckle up. this is one of those 'make or break' moments in reefing.

Lol, I was trying not to scare them. But yes, they can be a major pain. However, I’ve also had some disappear on their own rather quietly just by getting nutrients back up and increasing flow for a bit. So maybe they will get lucky!

 

[visioned]

Lol, I was trying not to scare them. But yes, they can be a major pain. However, I’ve also had some disappear on their own rather quietly just by getting nutrients back up and increasing flow for a bit. So maybe they will get lucky!

yikes lol. i'm not trying to scare anyone! i just mean... it might take a little while for this to resolve itself! (and to be prepared that it's not an overnight thing)

 

[MyFirstCar]

Looks like I'm in for a bit of a ride. 2 years into this tank I was hoping this was behind me haha.

 

[Formulator]

Looks like I'm in for a bit of a ride. 2 years into this tank I was hoping this was behind me haha.

 

[visioned]

Looks like I'm in for a bit of a ride. 2 years into this tank I was hoping this was behind me haha.

you got it bro. don't be discouraged. anyone can get dinos at anytime.

they exist in every body of water. they're classified as a protist, and have long been here before the existence of anyone, or anything. they're excellent survivors.

i don't mean to dino-nerd everyone out here, but as with anything in this hobby, there is endless knowledge and learning to be had. dino is actually quite fascinating when you do some research...

 

[MyFirstCar]

you got it bro. don't be discouraged. anyone can get dinos at anytime.

they exist in every body of water. they're classified as a protist, and have long been here before the existence of anyone, or anything. they're excellent survivors.

i don't mean to dino-nerd everyone out here, but as with anything in this hobby, there is endless knowledge and learning to be had. dino is actually quite fascinating when you do some research...

Yeah, that's how I'm trying to look at this. More of a "what an interesting thing that has happened to this ecosystem in a box" vs "oh god everything is dying"

 

[MyFirstCar]

Well, looks like I've added bacterial bloom to the mix. I fed heavy the least couple days to try and get nutrients up before my dosing stuff came in, and woke up this morning to a cloudy tank.

Interestingly, seems to have strongly affected my pH (ignore salinity it's still breaking in)

 

[Formulator]

Get that water moving as much as possible and put an airstone in if you have one. The pH drop tells me there is a lot of oxygen consumption and the bacteria could starve out your fish of oxygen.

 

[MyFirstCar]

Get that water moving as much as possible and put an airstone in if you have one. The pH drop tells me there is a lot of oxygen consumption and the bacteria could starve out your fish of oxygen.

Skimmer is still running, and a powerhead aimed at the surface

 

[MyFirstCar]

Resurrecting this old thread, with a combination of pods, phyto, nutrients and removal, I think I'm out of the woods! Rocks are clear, and nothing has been growing back for a week now.

But now I have this other thing, it's black, and grows out of the light. Crumbles when you touch it. Any ideas?

Also, as a fun side note, found my first byropsis near my return today, so it looks like we're out of the frying pan and into the fire.