Cuprisorb for dinoflagellets??

[Mark SF]

But you noted that you have an RO system fed from a well (presumably whole-house). If that's the case, all you need is a DI unit to hook to the faucet, and you'll get water that you can have confidence in.

API, for example, makes a convenient standalone DI resin unit that comes with a faucet adapter and is only $40. If you wanted to assemble it yourself, you could probably buy the housing, plumbing parts and resin from BRS for about the same money, but be able to refill the cartridge yourself when exhausted.

Was thinking the same thing. Spectra Pure makes a Max-Cap DI system that includes a silica removal filter as well as the DI. Sounds like you are mixing your own salt anyway.

-Mark

 

[natas]

But I have obtained a giant bottle of water glass and some silica-related testing kits. I'm going to try some experiments shortly. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Let me know if you would like to stop by my place and take some samples of the dino I have to experiment with. They are almost gone, but I expect them to still be in the tank for another week or two at the rate they are dying.

 

[shred5]

Was thinking the same thing. Spectra Pure makes a Max-Cap DI system that includes a silica removal filter as well as the DI. Sounds like you are mixing your own salt anyway.

-Mark

When I first got dinos I added a rental r/o system but after I bit I moved up too a Kent hi-s system, which uses basically the same d/i resins as the spectra pure silca cart... I may have even used the spectra pure silica buster d/i carts as a replacement since I like spectrapure over other brands. I dont ever remember that making a difference. If I remember correctly it may have got worse. The more I did to improve water quality the worse they got.


Again this was a long time ago.. I had kept that aquarium for years and all I did was improve water quality and as I did improve they kept getting worse.. This tank had been set up for years before they hit too.. At one point they had got so bad that I could skim them off the top of the water with a net. It was insane and they stunk so bad. Fought them for like 5 years always living in the same place. After that never had a issue with them.. I would occasionally see them during cycle or times of neglect but been dino free for probably 15 -20 years now..

They are the worst.

 

[Squidmotron]

Let me know if you would like to stop by my place and take some samples of the dino I have to experiment with. They are almost gone, but I expect them to still be in the tank for another week or two at the rate they are dying.

They are almost gone? And is this what you attributed to Cuprisorb?

 

[Squidmotron]

My 4 day "lights out" experiment is complete. Dinos back to nearly full strength within 24 hours. All GFO changed in the interim.

Silicates measured. I am not measuring much in the way of silicates. If the "pink somoa" sand I added introduced silicates, it wasn't much or they were consumed immediately. Could something else in the sand have fueled dinos?

At what silicate level might I expect a diatom bloom to be noticeable in a reef tank?

I ask because I may try dosing silicates soon.

..

I have a question, though...after lights were back on I noticed that there were little white strands (strings?) everywhere that had bloomed in the dark. All over the glass and everything. In spots where algae might normally bloom in the light. They are small to the naked eye. It would be hard for me to take a picture of them. Any clue what those might be? Bacteria bloom, maybe? I dunno. I lack the knowledge. I wonder if THAT means something.

 

[natas]

Yup Cuprisorb is the only thing I have changed the past 3 weeks.

 

[shred5]

My 4 day "lights out" experiment is complete. Dinos back to nearly full strength within 24 hours. All GFO changed in the interim.

Silicates measured. I am not measuring much in the way of silicates. If the "pink somoa" sand I added introduced silicates, it wasn't much or they were consumed immediately. Could something else in the sand have fueled dinos?

At what silicate level might I expect a diatom bloom to be noticeable in a reef tank?

I ask because I may try dosing silicates soon.

..

I have a question, though...after lights were back on I noticed that there were little white strands (strings?) everywhere that had bloomed in the dark. All over the glass and everything. In spots where algae might normally bloom in the light. They are small to the naked eye. It would be hard for me to take a picture of them. Any clue what those might be? Bacteria bloom, maybe? I dunno. I lack the knowledge. I wonder if THAT means something.

Well it could be like phosphates and even though they measure low the algae is consuming them and giving you a false reading..

I just aint sure silicates have anything to do with it..

But anything is worth a try..

So did this start after adding the sand?

 

[Squidmotron]

Well it could be like phosphates and even though they measure low the algae is consuming them and giving you a false reading..

I just aint sure silicates have anything to do with it..

But anything is worth a try..

So did this start after adding the sand?

Phosphates I have done to death. Never measured any with 3 different testing methods even after pushing dinos back to the brink with a 10 day lights out program.

You can always say "the algae is consuming them" but it's not useful information because it gives me no real instructions on what to do or not do. I have doubled, tripled, quadrupled inorganic phosphate extraction while curbing feeding blindly guessing that phosphates were getting eaten by dinos and only really succeeding in killing coral. The same with trying to remove organics by stepping up carbon/protein skimmer. It just doesn't appear to kill them before it kills coral.

The only time I've been dino free I was really overfeeding and had green film algae starting to come back. This is what I may try again if I become truly concerned.

As far as the dinos starting after the sand? Nope. I had dinos slowly starting to creep back in my tank, but it was always pretty manageable. In basically a couple of small spots. I was not even stressed out. They weren't growing past a certain point. But I became curious as to why they were not appearing in my refugium and added some sand in there. Within hours after doing that, snotty long bubbly dinos were everywhere in both the refugium and the main display tank. That's what got me thinking outside the box a bit. To tell you the truth, they are not even that bad now. They are just triple what they were before the sand.

 

[Steveb]

Yup Cuprisorb is the only thing I have changed the past 3 weeks.

Any updates?

Also is the resin changing color at all?

What amount are you using vs. # of gallons? If you already covered that just let me know and I will go read through the thread again.

 

[natas]

Yes the resin is changing color. I don't know offhand how much I am using, but I basically went with the recommendation.

Whats interesting now is I don't think I have any dino, but I now have cyano in my sump area. I am ok with this. I am going to continue to run the cuprisorb for a few more weeks until I feel safe that the dino is all gone

 

[Squidmotron]

Yes the resin is changing color. I don't know offhand how much I am using, but I basically went with the recommendation.

Whats interesting now is I don't think I have any dino, but I now have cyano in my sump area. I am ok with this. I am going to continue to run the cuprisorb for a few more weeks until I feel safe that the dino is all gone

Very very interesting.

If you don't mind, I have a couple questions.

1) How much Cuprisorb are you using? The exact recommended amount for your tank size or more or less? Did you say it was in a cannister filter (can't remember)?
2) Are you also doing lights out periods or is the recession of dinos happening with full lights on?
3) Do you have a refugium with plants? If so, what is happening to them while you are running Curpisorb? Are they dying back at all?
4) Are you also running phosphate reducers?
5) What is your feeding schedule? Every day?
6) What do you guess the Cuprisorb is sucking up that dinos need? Iron?
7) Do you have the variety of dinos that start on the sand bed? How deep is your display sand bed? Do you stir it a lot?

Thank you very much for humoring me here.

 

[natas]

I am using the recommended amount. I put mine in a little mesh baggie in my sump in an area with Flow.

I stopped lights out so they went away with my full lighting schedule.

I do have a refugium with chaeto in it. Growth doesn't seems to be affected.

I just started dosing carbon again. So Chaeto and carbon dosing have me setting at 0.02 phosphate as of yesterday. I will let you know if the carbon dosing brings the Dino back. I intend to get rid of Chaeto eventually.

I give the tangs nori everyday and my auto feeder feeds the tank once a day with pellets. So I would say my feeding is low to medium. I also started dosing amino acids again since Dino is gone. Again trying to see if it comes back from any of my normal tank task.

If I had to guess it would be iron that cuprisorb got rid of and depleted which slowed down and killed off dino. I say this because I had a pump that was rusting. Once I discovered this I realized the Dino showed itself a few weeks after adding the pump.

Yes the Dino I have start on the sand bed and mostly live there. I do see them on the rocks sometimes but if I am being 100% honest about that I would have to say I am not sure if it has ever lightly coated my rocks. Unfortunately I am color blind so if this stuff was on my rock it would have to be thick and containing bubbles or stringy for me to see. I can say when it was at its strongest it was very thick on the sandbed, stringy and tons of bubbles by midday. In the morning it would look like a bad case of diatom.

The Dino to my eyes is brown, the wife described it as a rust color. What I have in my sump is purple to my eyes so I am very confident that what I now have is cyano....and I am so happy to have that issue instead of Dino.

 

[Squidmotron]

Your dinos sound exactly like mine.

For the past 10 days I have been maintaining higher than 0 silicate levels with the occasional addition of small amounts of water glass (verified finite levels by silicate test kit). I had read a couple of studies which suggested that diatoms might outcompete many species of planktonic dinoflagellates for the same nutrients if there are abundant silicates present. Unfortunately, I just wound up with both so far. Looking under a microscope is really interesting. Millions of dinos and the occasional interesting diatom structure.

It could be that this is not enough time for enough diatoms to bloom, but my dinos have no reached dangerous levels anyway, so I can't afford to carry on this particular experiment indefinitely. The zoas near the bottom of the tank are closing up. This is closest to the highest concentration of dinos.

..

So, what the hell. I will now try the curprisorb thing. I put some bags in various places as well as about half the requisite amount an amount in a filter.

We will see how the curprisorb works.

Mine will not be a pure experiment though. I have to shut the lights off for a few days. It's too dangerous otherwise, at this point.

 

[Wills612]

First day trying the Cuprisorb as well.

 

[Steveb]

Must be a party LOL.... wish I wasn't invited... I'm on day 2.

 

[Joe0813]

im going to try some cuprisorb too and see what happens.. all my cheato has died off because of the algae blooms so hopefully this works and i can restock my fuge

 

[Squidmotron]

I upped my refugium lighting period from opposite tank to 24 hours and all my caulerpa is now covered with Dinos.

Guess there is something that outcompetes caulerpa after all.

 

[Joe0813]

I thought you were supposed to have the fuge light on 24hrs with caulerpa so it does go "sexual"

 

[Steveb]

Must be a party LOL.... wish I wasn't invited... I'm on day 2.

All I'm getting right now are flat sheets on the acrylic frag rack and back wall with bubbles at the end of the photo period with on occasional vertical string with a bubble.

I have not tried anything yet other than cuprisorb, oh I did turn off my white LED's so only running 450nm blue at the moment.

 

[Squidmotron]

I thought you were supposed to have the fuge light on 24hrs with caulerpa so it does go "sexual"

Some people think that. I think they're fine with a normal plant light schedule and haven't gotten stressed in all the years I've had it.

I've had it run on 24 cycles before, though. Just grows faster and takes more nutrients. But normally that's not an issue and it doesn't seem to take the nutrients that dinos need, for some reason.