Moved LR, hello Dinos! need help

[FishN00b83]

I didn't see a fish for a while so I decided to go looking for it. I moved a bunch of LR around and the fish comes swims out. great so it wasn't dead! a few days later I now see dinos and cyno all over the place.

My first thought was to do a water change and turn up the skimmer, but reading more about them, that's the worst thing to do? I've read that a blackout would help, but maybe not get rid of them. what would be the best way to start tackling this?

 

[Dhelseth]

Stirring up the sand bed probably caused a mini cycle to happen. check your parameters often, water change as needed, wait it out.

 

[oscarinw]

+1 on water changes. You basically stirred up dissolved organics previously locked on the sandbed. It should all go back to normal eventually

 

[FishN00b83]

hmm I guess I'll do a normal water change tomorrow. I thought from what I read it would make it worse

 

[FishN00b83]

I did a normal water change and decided to do a 4 day blackout. I turned up the skimmer and still have the fuge light one at night. tomorrow will be the last day so I'm hoping everything is back to normal when the lights go on Wednesday.

 

[nlgill13]

dino is probably not going to go away from having your lights out. What i have found that works well against dinos is taking a turkey baster with fresh water in it and spraying it directly on the dino. They tend to desolve from the rock float up to the water surface where you can clean them out.

I also had success with the turkey baster method using tank water and spraying the dino.

 

[FishN00b83]

yeah from what I've read they're a pain to get rid of. I'm trying to get my nitrates under control. I can't get them under 20, I've tried everything. I did a 50g water change, turned up the skimmer, left the fuge light on 2 extra hours and cut feeding to twice a day. I then did another 20g water change and turned the lights off for 4 days. hopefully everything looks better tomorrow.

 

[aaronlong]

yeah from what I've read they're a pain to get rid of. I'm trying to get my nitrates under control. I can't get them under 20, I've tried everything. I did a 50g water change, turned up the skimmer, left the fuge light on 2 extra hours and cut feeding to twice a day. I then did another 20g water change and turned the lights off for 4 days. hopefully everything looks better tomorrow.

Are you sure it's dyno? Do you have a picture of it? I had something that I fought for months that I thought I would never get rid of. I would siphon is off of the rocks and within about 3 days it was back. I even tried the black out method for 3 days, and it came back. I was told that dyno doesn't siphon off easily. The stuff I had was real snotty feeling and came off with ease, it just kept coming back almost instantly. A couple people told me that it was more than likely Calothrix, not dyno. They look similar. I would take a plastic rod and attach 1/4 airline tubing to it and use it to siphon once or twice a week. Finally I decided to try and chemically remove it. I got the API Marine AlgaeFix and before I used it, i siphoned it out once more. I haven't had any problems with it since. I had also noticed that my chaeto wasn't growing at all (I assume because whatever it was consumed everything before the chaeto could). Anyways I switched to Caulerpa. It took off great. My water has never been so perfect now. I also cut back on my feedings as well. But I went from once a day to once every other day, not counting dried seaweed that I feed my tangs twice a week.

So try to siphon it off and see how easily it comes off. You may have the same stuff I did. Here's a pic...

 

[FishN00b83]

Moved LR, hello Dinos! need help

oof that looks nasty. the stuff I had the other day looked similar, but had a lot of bubbles in it.

I turn the lights back on tomorrow morning, so I'll see what happens. the airline tubing idea is a good one, I never thought if that. I've been trying to use the hose I use for water changes and the flow is way to fast. if it comes back I'll definitely give that a go.

I'm trying not to use any chemicals in the tank anymore. I had a prazipro nightmare recently and I told myself I wouldn't put anymore chemicals in the tank.

 

[aaronlong]

oof that looks nasty. the stuff I had the other day looked similar, but had a lot of bubbles in it.

I turn the lights back on tomorrow morning, so I'll see what happens. the airline tubing idea is a good one, I never thought if that. I've been trying to use the hose I use for water changes and the flow is way to fast. if it comes back I'll definitely give that a go.

I'm trying not to use any chemicals in the tank anymore. I had a prazipro nightmare recently and I told myself I wouldn't put anymore chemicals in the tank.

Lol don't let that pic fool you. There's a lot more bubbles than you can really see in that pic. And it was all over my tank. I lost a couple of corals because of it overwhelming them. I was very hesitant to put chemicals in my tank also. But after about 4 months of fighting it my only options left were either chemicals or removing every bit of the rock, which I didn't want to do at all. The API stuff is reef and invert safe so I figured I'd try it as opposed to removing and manually cleaning all of my rock with hopes that I got it all. I used the stuff for 1 week as directed and it was gone. It says to keep using it weekly but i wanted to fix what was causing it instead. I dosed it one time about a week later and haven't used it or seen any signs of that stuff since.

Is your stuff short? Or does it just keep getting longer? And how does it compare in color to mine?

 

[FishN00b83]

it hasn't gotten longer then maybe an inch, but the color is similar.

 

[aaronlong]

it hasn't gotten longer then maybe an inch, but the color is similar.

Well that doesn't help much...lol. From what I've been told, dyno stays pretty short, and it's also much darker than the golden brown stuff I had. So it's hard to say for sure what it is. If the lights out method doesn't work, or even if it does and that stuff is dead everywhere, siphon every bit you possibly can out of it. I would continue after with regular 20% water changes. You may also cut feeding back more also.

 

[bob1435]

I learned a trick from MHG here on RC. Worked for both of my tanks.



turkey baste daily
Use one dose of Chemi clean (As directed...skimmer off then two big water changes after 48 hrs)
run carbon 24/7 after the chemi clean
Start dosing daily Phol's (Zeovit)Coral Snow mixed with Zeobak or MB7
Keep cleaning daily and it will all be gone in a week or two...

 

[FishN00b83]

I learned a trick from MHG here on RC. Worked for both of my tanks.







turkey baste daily

Use one dose of Chemi clean (As directed...skimmer off then two big water changes after 48 hrs)

run carbon 24/7 after the chemi clean

Start dosing daily Phol's (Zeovit)Coral Snow mixed with Zeobak or MB7

Keep cleaning daily and it will all be gone in a week or two...

interesting..what does the coral snow have to do with the dinos? I hate doing huge water changes, I have a 125 w/ a 40 sump. big water changes = HUGE PITA

 

[FishN00b83]

Well that doesn't help much...lol. From what I've been told, dyno stays pretty short, and it's also much darker than the golden brown stuff I had. So it's hard to say for sure what it is. If the lights out method doesn't work, or even if it does and that stuff is dead everywhere, siphon every bit you possibly can out of it. I would continue after with regular 20% water changes. You may also cut feeding back more also.

yeah I'm hoping everything works out tomorrow. if not I'm definitely trying the airtubing suggestion. I planned on doing another 20g water change tomorrow with getting all the left over crap out. I haven't seen anything with the lights off, maybe the skimmer pulled most of it. the cheato is growing strong too so I'm hoping everything is getting worked out.

 

[aaronlong]

yeah I'm hoping everything works out tomorrow. if not I'm definitely trying the airtubing suggestion. I planned on doing another 20g water change tomorrow with getting all the left over crap out. I haven't seen anything with the lights off, maybe the skimmer pulled most of it. the cheato is growing strong too so I'm hoping everything is getting worked out.

I was doing small water changes about once or twice a week. Every time I would siphon the stuff out I'd lose about 10 gallons. I have a 125 as well. Do you run reactors? I have two, I run carbon in one and GFO in the second. I added them when this problem first popped up, and they slowed it down but it just kept growing back. Hopefully your's gets resolved a lot easier than mine did. In the end (short of removing all rocks), the only thing that cured mine was the API stuff.

 

[FishN00b83]

I'm not running any reactors, I'm trying to avoid them. maybe I can't?

 

[aaronlong]

I'm not running any reactors, I'm trying to avoid them. maybe I can't?

Phosphates and nitrates are major causes of algae blooms. You don't have to run two like I am, but I would highly recommend running at least one for GFO. A single chamber reactor costs around $40 without media. Just add GFO and change it out every couple of months or so. You can always run carbon in a sock or something but GFO is too fine to use in a sock. You want the water to flow slowly through GFO. You'll also need a small power head to push the water through the reactor. Any small one that you can connect a hose to will work, as very little flow goes through it. Read up on them. You can also pick up a dual chamber reactor and run GFO in one and carbon in the second. Or the other option is to just mix GFO and Carbon in the same chamber. Lots of people do it. Only downfall is that you're running half of the GFO that you should, and the Carbon lasts longer than GFO. Something you should definitely consider though.

 

[FishN00b83]

doesn't the GFO compete with the cheato in the refugium?

 

[aaronlong]

doesn't the GFO compete with the cheato in the refugium?

Not necessarily. I have my sump set up with a skimmer in the first chamber, refugium in the second (largest) chamber, and the power head for my reactors in the return side right where the water flows in. So in theory, anything that makes it past the fuge goes through the reactors next. So water returning to the display is completely cleaned. I'd like to think that my reactors only take out what's leftover if that makes sense. I did have a problem with my chaeto, however that was even before I added the reactors. With the reactors, the caulerpa that i changed to isn't struggling at all...