karimwassef
Active member
Wow... The thought of cultivating diatoms. Sounds desperate, but pick your poison...
Do diatoms irritate corals? Do they have natural predators?
Do diatoms irritate corals? Do they have natural predators?
Dinoflagellates.
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StrangeDejavu
Member
Based on what I was just reading, protists and snails mainly. "Pick your poison" seems to be accurate as this article I just ran across said diatoms, when attacked by copepods, release chemicals that warn other diatoms to bolster their defense. They also begin releasing aldahydes which inhibited copepod eggs from hatching. The article suggested that in large enough quantities, they even begin disrupting the food chain. Since biodiversity seems to be an important role in the fight, it would probably be counterproductive.
matt_97055
New member
So I have now realized I am fighting dino's. Here are some pics of them. I am going to try to increase my copo pod population and see if that will help.
sent from a Samsung note 4
sent from a Samsung note 4
StrangeDejavu
Member
I have no doubt my addition of copepods as well as my daily dosing of Microbacter7 and phytoplankton helped greatly in my fight. What bit of dinos were left after my 6 day blackout slowly receded as my copepod population grew. I'm now seeing pods and spirorbid worms everywhere, as a result of the phytoplankton dosing. Best of luck!
Matt, looks like prorocentrum dinos would be my guess. Hadn't seen very many with that kind. Would you post some tank pics to show where and how they grow?
Seen some posts lately about brown dusting on sand after dinos that turns out to be diatoms.
I get the same in my tank at the moment. Every once in a while I check the scope to confirm it's diatoms. Then I place my conch into the area. (I need to re scape so he can get to all parts of my sand bed - he won't go over rocks)
This is what it looked like 15 minutes after I put him on the brown dusting area. You can see he cleaned a white halo around himself.
Seen some posts lately about brown dusting on sand after dinos that turns out to be diatoms.
I get the same in my tank at the moment. Every once in a while I check the scope to confirm it's diatoms. Then I place my conch into the area. (I need to re scape so he can get to all parts of my sand bed - he won't go over rocks)
This is what it looked like 15 minutes after I put him on the brown dusting area. You can see he cleaned a white halo around himself.
Optimus_Prime
New member
Hi everyone
I've been reading this very long and somewhat informative (most of the stuff, I can't comprehend, lol) thread and I'm proud to say that, I am at page 75 out of 375 pages. 300 more to go!
Anywho, I to, have dinos and have been battling this demon for about 2 months going on 3! I finally said, after dealing with scrubbing the coral plugs, rocks, powerheads, basically what ever was in the frag tanks. I have 2 frag tanks, 40 gals each with both tanks plumbed to one 40gal sump.
I finally said, there's gotta be a better way to clean or get rid of all this crap. That's when I turned to this thread, hence I'm only at page 75. At page 75, my head is spinning from all the info, how much more when I get to the last post! Anyway, I started to do the 3% peroxide deal. Started first dose on May 25, so it's been 17 days. First 14 days, dosed the 1ml per 10gals. For me, I just simply dosed 10ml, as I too, am skeptical about this. Nothing really happened the first 14 days. As I kept reading this thread, I read somewhere that they doubled the dose of peroxide. So, being desperate, as we all/most of us are, I also, doubled the dose, to 20ml per day. That being said, this morning as I usually do, had my coffee in front of my frag tanks and I noticed that there weren't as much bubbles suspended by brown nasty snot! Hmmm, something just might be working. Whatever it is, I'll take it! Hopefully, by continuing this process, I'd be able to keep this demon at bay. I know I can't totally eradicate this crap but if I can't see, that's good enough! I was also, about to dose skimmate! Yup, yall read what I'm talking about in the earlier posts. Since, I am 300 pages back from all of you, I really don't know how the outcome was except for the one person, can't remember his name, that initially did it. He also posted a pic of him pouring it in. I'll get to more reactions as I keep reading.
Was going to start the skimmate dose but my sidekick cleaned out the collection cup last night. Will try tomorrow in hopes it'll assist in this demonic eradication.
Side note: I do not know the kind of dino strain I may have, as there are many. I do not have a microscope, I wish I did. So, I don't know if I have a strain that is tolerable to the many different ways of eradication or one of the weaker ones, if you will. Hopefully the weaker one and I say this seriously, only because my snails are walking all over it. Not sure if they are eating it. My crabs too, are all over it and which seems they are eating it. None have died, not one. My 2 yellow tangs, 2 blue tangs, yellow wrasse, melly wrasse, 2 chromis and a lawnmower blenny eats that crap and none have died, yet. The LMB eats that sh!t up like no other. His belly is so fat, he can hardly hold himself up, sways side to side.
We shall see...
I was going to run skimmerless, also but then remembered that I need skimmate to dose skimmate.
Good luck everyone!
I'll update as things progress.
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk
I've been reading this very long and somewhat informative (most of the stuff, I can't comprehend, lol) thread and I'm proud to say that, I am at page 75 out of 375 pages. 300 more to go!
Anywho, I to, have dinos and have been battling this demon for about 2 months going on 3! I finally said, after dealing with scrubbing the coral plugs, rocks, powerheads, basically what ever was in the frag tanks. I have 2 frag tanks, 40 gals each with both tanks plumbed to one 40gal sump.
I finally said, there's gotta be a better way to clean or get rid of all this crap. That's when I turned to this thread, hence I'm only at page 75. At page 75, my head is spinning from all the info, how much more when I get to the last post! Anyway, I started to do the 3% peroxide deal. Started first dose on May 25, so it's been 17 days. First 14 days, dosed the 1ml per 10gals. For me, I just simply dosed 10ml, as I too, am skeptical about this. Nothing really happened the first 14 days. As I kept reading this thread, I read somewhere that they doubled the dose of peroxide. So, being desperate, as we all/most of us are, I also, doubled the dose, to 20ml per day. That being said, this morning as I usually do, had my coffee in front of my frag tanks and I noticed that there weren't as much bubbles suspended by brown nasty snot! Hmmm, something just might be working. Whatever it is, I'll take it! Hopefully, by continuing this process, I'd be able to keep this demon at bay. I know I can't totally eradicate this crap but if I can't see, that's good enough! I was also, about to dose skimmate! Yup, yall read what I'm talking about in the earlier posts. Since, I am 300 pages back from all of you, I really don't know how the outcome was except for the one person, can't remember his name, that initially did it. He also posted a pic of him pouring it in. I'll get to more reactions as I keep reading.
Was going to start the skimmate dose but my sidekick cleaned out the collection cup last night. Will try tomorrow in hopes it'll assist in this demonic eradication.
Side note: I do not know the kind of dino strain I may have, as there are many. I do not have a microscope, I wish I did. So, I don't know if I have a strain that is tolerable to the many different ways of eradication or one of the weaker ones, if you will. Hopefully the weaker one and I say this seriously, only because my snails are walking all over it. Not sure if they are eating it. My crabs too, are all over it and which seems they are eating it. None have died, not one. My 2 yellow tangs, 2 blue tangs, yellow wrasse, melly wrasse, 2 chromis and a lawnmower blenny eats that crap and none have died, yet. The LMB eats that sh!t up like no other. His belly is so fat, he can hardly hold himself up, sways side to side.
We shall see...
I was going to run skimmerless, also but then remembered that I need skimmate to dose skimmate.
Good luck everyone!
I'll update as things progress.
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk
matt_97055
New member
It's growing everywhere! LolMatt, looks like prorocentrum dinos would be my guess. Hadn't seen very many with that kind. Would you post some tank pics to show where and how they grow?
Seen some posts lately about brown dusting on sand after dinos that turns out to be diatoms.
I get the same in my tank at the moment. Every once in a while I check the scope to confirm it's diatoms. Then I place my conch into the area. (I need to re scape so he can get to all parts of my sand bed - he won't go over rocks)
This is what it looked like 15 minutes after I put him on the brown dusting area. You can see he cleaned a white halo around himself.
sent from a Samsung note 4
mannyhernz
Member
Well guys...caught the dinos again...this is frustrating. Dont even know where or how they came back..started off with a little dusting then 2 days later full on dinos. Shet.
Sent from my LGLS990 using Tapatalk
Sent from my LGLS990 using Tapatalk
Thanks. Snotty mats on sand and rocks. Looks like more in higher flow areas?
Rereading your earlier posts, you did Heavy feeding + 3 day blackout + live phyto + pods?
In my tank, as the dinos in the sand disappeared, the amount of biodiversity in the sand went through the roof. Now without dinos, the sand has less critters - as though part of the sandbed bio-explosion was due to the availability of dinos as a food source. Now they've been gone for a while, my sandbed is less alive. I've wondered if this makes me susceptible to another dino sandbed episode.
Any chance your pods population is now gone and the dinos are thriving without the grazers?
Also, you mentioned after your dinos left being annoyed by GHA, what if anything did you end up doing to curb the GHA?
mannyhernz
Member
I see allot of pods still left. They are eveywhere in the display. Also have them in the fuge area.
I did go through the bad GHA but when i introduced more chaeto and some phsguard it subsided. What i did notice is that my chaeto ball started shrinking after dinos appeared. Why would that be?
Sent from my LGLS990 using Tapatalk
matt_97055
New member
Yes it's in high flow areas too. It has started to loose it's color and thin out a bit. I hoping it's starting to die off.
sent from a Samsung note 4
sent from a Samsung note 4
karimwassef
Active member
I think it's important to understand this. Causes for relapse or maybe a mistaken remission are key to better understanding these protist's abilities.
So, we think that the infection starts with very clean conditions without normal algae and a decimated biodiversity. Younger immature systems are the most susceptible... ULNS for example, excessive continuous heavy skimming, no feeding, Lanthanun Chloride, use of algaecides, chemicals that kill the biofauna, dead rock missing the normal host of bacteria and pods, etc...
For a previously clean system to go back your require an offset in the biological balance and negligence usually creates a bias towards an algae tank, not a dino tank. It should take active effort to get sick again.
What did you do/not do for the weeks before it came back?
karimwassef
Active member
I'm facing a different issue. I have cyano due to my tank being exposed to the elements and absorbing mountains of insects. I also have a very hungry tank so cutting back on feeding is a problem.
Since dinos usually come with Cyano, I wonder if anyone has tried killing the cyano and measure the impact on dinos.
I've never used chemicals in my tank, except Lanthanum and that precipitated my Dino infestation... So I'm hesitant to go there again.
However, due to the excess cyano in my sump and the unknown black algae (cyano+??) in my DT, I'm using chemiclean to break up the cyano and the resulting red slime. I hope it'll break up the black algae too.
I'm turning my monster skimmer on 24/7 but at a low height to avoid overflows. I'm also turning my UV off... Here we go...
Since dinos usually come with Cyano, I wonder if anyone has tried killing the cyano and measure the impact on dinos.
I've never used chemicals in my tank, except Lanthanum and that precipitated my Dino infestation... So I'm hesitant to go there again.
However, due to the excess cyano in my sump and the unknown black algae (cyano+??) in my DT, I'm using chemiclean to break up the cyano and the resulting red slime. I hope it'll break up the black algae too.
I'm turning my monster skimmer on 24/7 but at a low height to avoid overflows. I'm also turning my UV off... Here we go...
StrangeDejavu
Member
Just thought i'd post an update. It's been 2 weeks since the blackout. Over the course of those two weeks, I very slowly went from blues at 1% up to full spectrum 17000K at 50% for 3 hours a day. I plan on bumping it up to 4 hours per day next week. I stopped phyto dosing as it started smelling really foul, but I will continue dosing Microbacter7 after each water change.
I also came home with 5 frags yesterday. Everything appears to be happy in my tank so far, to my relief. I'm still reluctant to celebrate, but I am feeling cautiously optimistic. I'll post another update in the future as to whether the blackout/biobomb method stuck long term.
I also came home with 5 frags yesterday. Everything appears to be happy in my tank so far, to my relief. I'm still reluctant to celebrate, but I am feeling cautiously optimistic. I'll post another update in the future as to whether the blackout/biobomb method stuck long term.
karimwassef
Active member
Just thought i'd post an update. It's been 2 weeks since the blackout. Over the course of those two weeks, I very slowly went from blues at 1% up to full spectrum 17000K at 50% for 3 hours a day. I plan on bumping it up to 4 hours per day next week. I stopped phyto dosing as it started smelling really foul, but I will continue dosing Microbacter7 after each water change.
I also came home with 5 frags yesterday. Everything appears to be happy in my tank so far, to my relief. I'm still reluctant to celebrate, but I am feeling cautiously optimistic. I'll post another update in the future as to whether the blackout/biobomb method stuck long term.
Looks great, Strange.
karimwassef
Active member
So for anyone who hasn't tried Chemi-clean (my first)... It was a little nuts!
It literally looks like soap!!!
<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/C5A2FA12-B435-4FA7-A1D2-A7D7718F1AF1_zpsoba8kvsn.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/C5A2FA12-B435-4FA7-A1D2-A7D7718F1AF1_zpsoba8kvsn.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo C5A2FA12-B435-4FA7-A1D2-A7D7718F1AF1_zpsoba8kvsn.jpg"/></a>
<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/62159C78-0222-4394-A17E-0AF315E6C7D6_zpsoj8rl8lw.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/62159C78-0222-4394-A17E-0AF315E6C7D6_zpsoj8rl8lw.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 62159C78-0222-4394-A17E-0AF315E6C7D6_zpsoj8rl8lw.jpg"/></a>
<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/EA6E615A-1B57-46B7-8C10-1C3537FB77FF_zpsrbh2jbnc.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/EA6E615A-1B57-46B7-8C10-1C3537FB77FF_zpsrbh2jbnc.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo EA6E615A-1B57-46B7-8C10-1C3537FB77FF_zpsrbh2jbnc.jpg"/></a>
But my corals look great with polyps out... fish are good too. Now I wait for 48 hours.
I think it's some kind of flocculant?? It has a strong effect on surface tension, I can see that in the way the water looks against the top... like an oil, or a film is making it very smooth and clear until it gets roughed up... then bubbles like crazy.
well - learning together...
It literally looks like soap!!!
<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/C5A2FA12-B435-4FA7-A1D2-A7D7718F1AF1_zpsoba8kvsn.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/C5A2FA12-B435-4FA7-A1D2-A7D7718F1AF1_zpsoba8kvsn.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo C5A2FA12-B435-4FA7-A1D2-A7D7718F1AF1_zpsoba8kvsn.jpg"/></a>
<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/62159C78-0222-4394-A17E-0AF315E6C7D6_zpsoj8rl8lw.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/62159C78-0222-4394-A17E-0AF315E6C7D6_zpsoj8rl8lw.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 62159C78-0222-4394-A17E-0AF315E6C7D6_zpsoj8rl8lw.jpg"/></a>
<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/EA6E615A-1B57-46B7-8C10-1C3537FB77FF_zpsrbh2jbnc.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/EA6E615A-1B57-46B7-8C10-1C3537FB77FF_zpsrbh2jbnc.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo EA6E615A-1B57-46B7-8C10-1C3537FB77FF_zpsrbh2jbnc.jpg"/></a>
But my corals look great with polyps out... fish are good too. Now I wait for 48 hours.
I think it's some kind of flocculant?? It has a strong effect on surface tension, I can see that in the way the water looks against the top... like an oil, or a film is making it very smooth and clear until it gets roughed up... then bubbles like crazy.
well - learning together...
matt_97055
New member
When ever I do chem clear I take the top off my skimmer and open it wide open. My sump will overflow with foam some times. I think it's funny
sent from a Samsung note 4
karimwassef
Active member
I turned my skimmer height down since my skimmer is terrestrial (sits on the ground).
The water/soap bubble level is at about 7 ft instead of the usual 10 ft.
The water/soap bubble level is at about 7 ft instead of the usual 10 ft.
