My humble SPS journey - Shallow 80g
- Thread starter joshky
- Start date
DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
Hi Josh, sorry to hear that you are struggling with dinoflagellates. I am curious if you started your tank with proper live rocks or dead rocks?
Cheers
Bulent
Cheers
Bulent
joshky
Acros & Wrasses
Thanks guys, the blackout has been pretty effective and I'm pleased; I just hope that it doesn't come back or at least is better controlled with the peroxide.
I started with mostly live rock, I helped break my brothers tank down and continued to use his rock since it was established and my main concern was stability since I was starting a new tank with fish and SPS. As time went on I changed my aquascape and didn't like the limiting factor of using just that rock so I used some dry, I believe I'm at a ratio of like 60 live 40 dry currently. Anyways I'm sure there's some po4 leaching, I'm just going to have to keep an eye on it and maybe start dosing nitrates if peroxide doesn't work.
I started with mostly live rock, I helped break my brothers tank down and continued to use his rock since it was established and my main concern was stability since I was starting a new tank with fish and SPS. As time went on I changed my aquascape and didn't like the limiting factor of using just that rock so I used some dry, I believe I'm at a ratio of like 60 live 40 dry currently. Anyways I'm sure there's some po4 leaching, I'm just going to have to keep an eye on it and maybe start dosing nitrates if peroxide doesn't work.
joshky
Acros & Wrasses
I'm still hanging in there guys, still battling dinos and we just moved so things have been pretty crazy. I don't know what I'm going to do, I'm really close to buying an absurdly priced UV sterilizer, so if anyone has any other suggestions I'm open to ideas. I've tried raising PH with Kalk, blackouts, h2o2 dosing up to 30ml per 10g a day, vinegar dosing etc. so far to no avail. My acros are all doing pretty bad, mostly browned out now and it's kind of got me feeling like a failure, I've never had this much trouble in the past with something and I really don't like throwing money at problems because I'm really not well off to be doing so.
markalot
...
Oh man, sorry to hear this. I understand UV sterilizers work if you get one properly sized for the tank. Hope you can pull it out!
Patrick Cox
Active member
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
bobssecrtsn
New member
Dang I'm sorry for the Dino's. And it also has come that i Might also have it... Can you take a picture of what your dealing with? Mine seems to have like a circle type base on the glass, and then brown strings coming out..
reefwiser
New member
that can be a struggle especially when you have corals in the tank. I had to take in corals form a club member who got Dion so bad that he shut down the tank to clean it and start over. The poor corals where a mess it took 4 months of pampering but they are looking great now in my tank.
Electrobes
Montipora type guy
I know this isn't much of an answer but if I had the same situation here's what I would do:
- Before water change, I would cut the pumps and brush off a rock or two.
- During the water change, I would siphon out the brushed rock gunk, and what you can off the sand bed. I would not attempt all rocks or all sand.. Just what a regular water change will allow.
- I don't recommend using GAC or GFO right now unless you are already using it. If you are I would consider changing out for new material.. Especially if the are about 3-4 weeks old.
- As much as I'd like to suggest a carbon dosing regimen, I worry about the touchy way your tank is being right now. I can't accurately predict how your tank will react. I also use a bit of an odd form of carbon dosing (Vinegar + BioDigest).
- Its a pain but you may need to test your water once every three days or so.. Just to document your (most likely) highly variable parameters, especially if you siphon out stuff during water changes.
HTH!
- Before water change, I would cut the pumps and brush off a rock or two.
- During the water change, I would siphon out the brushed rock gunk, and what you can off the sand bed. I would not attempt all rocks or all sand.. Just what a regular water change will allow.
- I don't recommend using GAC or GFO right now unless you are already using it. If you are I would consider changing out for new material.. Especially if the are about 3-4 weeks old.
- As much as I'd like to suggest a carbon dosing regimen, I worry about the touchy way your tank is being right now. I can't accurately predict how your tank will react. I also use a bit of an odd form of carbon dosing (Vinegar + BioDigest).
- Its a pain but you may need to test your water once every three days or so.. Just to document your (most likely) highly variable parameters, especially if you siphon out stuff during water changes.
HTH!
plyle02
Active member
Wow Matt,
I see you have updated the journal quite a bit since I last visited
The tank looks outstanding in the FTS, really shows how clean and vibrant the tank has become. And as usual, thanks for the documentation... Have you been doing water changes with the probiotic reef salts?
I see you have updated the journal quite a bit since I last visited
The tank looks outstanding in the FTS, really shows how clean and vibrant the tank has become. And as usual, thanks for the documentation... Have you been doing water changes with the probiotic reef salts?
joshky
Acros & Wrasses
Thanks everyone.
It seems 95% of dinos has gone and now my tank is just full of cyano, but based on my research cyano and dinos go hand in hand so I'm sure if they get the chance they'll come back. I'm going to try chemiclean next monday so I can give my tank my full attention thereafter since I work weekends. I might add a gyre onto my MP40s, these things aren't as strong as I thought they'd be.
Here are two photos from back when dinos were really strong, I was saving to make a bigger photo update but I haven't had the time so this should give a decent representation.
Yellow Coris Wrasse
Coris venusta turning male
Sorry those photos don't really show the stringyness of the dinos, I've been too busy to document things with the move going on and everything.
I got rid of the Coris venusta for being a jerk and it started to turn male 3 days after obtaining it and the coloration looked too much like dinos as it was so I hated to look at it. :beer:
I also got rid of my Magnificent Foxface and Pink Spotted Watchman Goby, not for any particular reason just to lighten my fish load for now and ultimately to give myself a chance for change in the future.
And lol@Perry, wrong thread bro.
It seems 95% of dinos has gone and now my tank is just full of cyano, but based on my research cyano and dinos go hand in hand so I'm sure if they get the chance they'll come back. I'm going to try chemiclean next monday so I can give my tank my full attention thereafter since I work weekends. I might add a gyre onto my MP40s, these things aren't as strong as I thought they'd be.
Here are two photos from back when dinos were really strong, I was saving to make a bigger photo update but I haven't had the time so this should give a decent representation.
Yellow Coris Wrasse
Coris venusta turning male
Sorry those photos don't really show the stringyness of the dinos, I've been too busy to document things with the move going on and everything.
I got rid of the Coris venusta for being a jerk and it started to turn male 3 days after obtaining it and the coloration looked too much like dinos as it was so I hated to look at it. :beer:
I also got rid of my Magnificent Foxface and Pink Spotted Watchman Goby, not for any particular reason just to lighten my fish load for now and ultimately to give myself a chance for change in the future.
And lol@Perry, wrong thread bro.
Last edited:
Wrangy
Acrotrooper
Sorry to hear about all your issues Josh that's always a huge downer when things go wrong in the tank! I'm glad to hear part of it has gone and I hope that the rest of it goes with the chemiclean too Looking forward to some more nice pics and seeing the tank in full swing again!!
that's always a huge downer when things go wrong in the tank! I'm glad to hear part of it has gone and I hope that the rest of it goes with the chemiclean too Looking forward to some more nice pics and seeing the tank in full swing again!!
plyle02
Active member
Hey Josh,
Hope all is well, oops.... looks like I replied to the wrong thread a few posts back, sorry man! Hearing all of these issues just sucks, but I guess something we all deal with from time to time. Glad you are getting things under control, the wrasses are beautiful
Hope all is well, oops.... looks like I replied to the wrong thread a few posts back, sorry man! Hearing all of these issues just sucks, but I guess something we all deal with from time to time. Glad you are getting things under control, the wrasses are beautiful
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Do you dose a bacterial strain? If not might I suggest the Aquaforest ProBio S and their Coral B. Together those should really help with the cyano - and they are inexpensive. Your tank would only require 3-4 drops per day of the bacteria so you could try 10 ml. The coral b you could dose up to 10 drops per day, so the 50ml might be a better deal.
joshky
Acros & Wrasses
I've been dosing Prodibio Biodigest and Bioptim, but I stopped when the dinos got really bad. I don't know if that was a bad decision or what, but I just figured it wasn't working that well in my system. I want to switch to siporax and give it another go, but maybe I'll switch to the AF instead.
Thanks guys, I hope I'll get it back to looking good soon. If we didn't have bumps along the way it wouldn't be nearly as satisfying when things are looking great.
I would take a few pictures but my tank is a mess, I still haven't had time to put the aquascape back together from being so busy.
Thanks guys, I hope I'll get it back to looking good soon. If we didn't have bumps along the way it wouldn't be nearly as satisfying when things are looking great.
I would take a few pictures but my tank is a mess, I still haven't had time to put the aquascape back together from being so busy.
bobssecrtsn
New member
Just keep hanging in there josh, and always try to have the upper hand, I'm cutting back my lights to 3 hours a day, and cleaning the tank .
Does your Dino grow on the glass?
Does your Dino grow on the glass?
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