My minimalistic 180g SPS tank

[codydemmel4]

Back from vacation? How is the tank doing?

not till Saturday, can only hope it is doing good haha

 

[codydemmel4]

just got back from vacation and everything looks good but seems like I am getting dinos now. Also alk rose to 8 so I am taking it offline for tonight and measuring it again tomorrow.

 

[Pife]

Wow. At least everything is doing good.

 

[codydemmel4]

Wow. At least everything is doing good.

Yes I am happy about that. I am going on vacation again next Sunday for another week so I will be nervous again. I am going to take some pictures of the algae tomorrow when the lights come on. I am concerned about it a little because it is growing on some of the corals so it is concerning.

When I blow it off it comes back on the same part within 30 minutes.

 

[codydemmel4]

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Not sure what is going on but ever since I have gone on vacation, I have dino problems which are getting very annoying and now are going ontop some of the tips of my SPS like pictured above.

Just tested my water:

Nitrate are between 4-8
Phosphates are 0.03
Alk is 7
Calc is 430


I would not be worried if it was just on the sand, glass and rock but now it is growing on some of the tips of the corals. Do you guys just suggest I do nothing but blow it off as much as possible and hope my filter socks get it all? That is what I am doing now.

Still only using a skimmer and cheato, with the nutrient levels low. I do not want to add GFO, etc

As soon as I blow it off the tips of the coral, it legit is back on it within 5 minutes every single time.

 

[happyhourhero]

Did your spectrum shift on your lights?

 

[codydemmel4]

Did your spectrum shift on your lights?

It did around a month ago, switched 2 coral plus with 2 blue plus so nothing really big.

 

[reefmutt]

Is your RO up to date?

 

[codydemmel4]

Is your RO up to date?

Yes just replaced all of that recently and added another carbon and DI. TDS is 0 coming out.





Here is a picture of what it looks like on the wall before I blow it off

 

[Ucantwin]

It definitely looks like dino but hard to be sure without a microscope. If you can not get rid of it by doing other methods, you might want to consider peroxide dosing. I know it sounds scary but not much to worry about and usually knocks Dino away.

 

[codydemmel4]

It definitely looks like dino but hard to be sure without a microscope. If you can not get rid of it by doing other methods, you might want to consider peroxide dosing. I know it sounds scary but not much to worry about and usually knocks Dino away.

I will have to look into it. Since I am going on vacation on Sunday, I am probably just going to try to blast as much as possible till then and see how bad it is when I get back. Unless I learn a quick method that can get rid of it in a couple days then I would love to do that before vacation

 

[codydemmel4]

So I think I am going to juts continue what I am doing, which is blasting everything as much as possible to get all the dinos to hopefully stay in the filter socks. Replace the filter socks as soon as they look like theyre about to overflow.

I am also thinking of lowering my main lighting period (sunpower 8x80w) to only 6 hours a day from today till I get back from vacation on July 2nd. Or don't you think lowering the main lighting will help? It just seems like that is the only time I notice them on the frags. After the T5s go off, I can blow them off the frags and they will not come back till the T5 comes on the next day. I look in my tank eveyr morning before work to see the PE with nights out as I think that is a great indicator of how healthy/happy everything is and they always have the polyps out on the tips where the dinos are with the lights on. Then as soon as the T5s come on, the polyps on some tips go in and the dinos go on the tips.

 

[reefmutt]

I don't see a downside to lowering lighting period while you're away..
Can you add a bit more diffused flow?

 

[codydemmel4]

I don't see a downside to lowering lighting period while you're away..
Can you add a bit more diffused flow?

I could but the weird thing is that the dinos are growing in the areas that have the most flow so I am not sure if that would help at all and I am hesitant to change flow as all the corals are doing great besides the 2-3 that have a little dinos on the tips but great PE everywhere else and great PE when lights are out.

 

[Rakie]

Had dinos, beat it, came back because I thought it was done. Effectively, beat dinos twice. Here's the basics, in not the best order (sorry, it's late!). Do as many of these things as possible, because they can and will destroy your entire tank if you don't do a complete assault.

Warning: It will OBLITERATE your SPS. This second time, I almost lost everything. Literally everything.

- Run Carbon, run lots and lots of carbon -- It rids the toxins they create. Get ready to change it frequently.

- DO NOT DO WATER CHANGES -- It's what brought mine back with a vengeance... I jumped the gun and they were back literally overnight, like starting from day 1.

- Dinos once dying will encase themselves in a cyst, which means they very likely WILL come back... (This is why some people never lose their dinos, they can encase themselves for months on end just waiting)

- MANUAL REMOVAL -- Absolutely essential. By itself, this does nothing, but with the advice above, and below, this will help you beat it...

- Filter socks / Floss are great manual removal aids. Don't be afraid to scoop out w/e comes to the surface when blasting the rocks with a turkey baster either.

- Dose bacteria -- I like Dr Tims, and AF pro bio S

- Make sure there's nutrient in the water to feed your algaes / bacterias (some dino species are actually hampered by nutrients)

- Dose h202 in the skimmer line (been awhile -- do some research here! Don't overdose but it's pretty safe)

- LET ALGAE GROW -- This is huge. Algae will outcompete the dinos, so when you see that green stuff growing on the glass, he's your new best friend... You let him grow as much as he wants.

- Bubble -- It really helps with manual removal. Bubbles get stuck on dinos, dinos separate, dinos are taken to filter sock or floss.

All of these things helped. A final last ditch effort for me was this -- Dosing Metronidazol. It works with *some* species of dinos, and worked for me so far.

 

[codydemmel4]

Had dinos, beat it, came back because I thought it was done. Effectively, beat dinos twice. Here's the basics, in not the best order (sorry, it's late!). Do as many of these things as possible, because they can and will destroy your entire tank if you don't do a complete assault.

Warning: It will OBLITERATE your SPS. This second time, I almost lost everything. Literally everything.

- Run Carbon, run lots and lots of carbon -- It rids the toxins they create. Get ready to change it frequently.

- DO NOT DO WATER CHANGES -- It's what brought mine back with a vengeance... I jumped the gun and they were back literally overnight, like starting from day 1.

- Dinos once dying will encase themselves in a cyst, which means they very likely WILL come back... (This is why some people never lose their dinos, they can encase themselves for months on end just waiting)

- MANUAL REMOVAL -- Absolutely essential. By itself, this does nothing, but with the advice above, and below, this will help you beat it...

- Filter socks / Floss are great manual removal aids. Don't be afraid to scoop out w/e comes to the surface when blasting the rocks with a turkey baster either.

- Dose bacteria -- I like Dr Tims, and AF pro bio S

- Make sure there's nutrient in the water to feed your algaes / bacterias (some dino species are actually hampered by nutrients)

- Dose h202 in the skimmer line (been awhile -- do some research here! Don't overdose but it's pretty safe)

- LET ALGAE GROW -- This is huge. Algae will outcompete the dinos, so when you see that green stuff growing on the glass, he's your new best friend... You let him grow as much as he wants.

- Bubble -- It really helps with manual removal. Bubbles get stuck on dinos, dinos separate, dinos are taken to filter sock or floss.

All of these things helped. A final last ditch effort for me was this -- Dosing Metronidazol. It works with *some* species of dinos, and worked for me so far.

Thanks a lot! I will try a lot of these, I am not sure I want to run carbon when I am away from the tank for a week from this Sunday to next Sunday but I am pretty much willing to try everything else as I do not see how it could have a bad effect.

The corals were looking great yesterday and also this morning, some of the best PE I have seen in this tank.

 

[codydemmel4]

still have dinos but the corals are doing great so I am very hesitant to change anything besides to feed more or add some good bacteria to raise phosphates

 

[Pife]

I just kept dosing good bacteria.

 

[codydemmel4]

I just kept dosing good bacteria.

What bacteria did you use? I am still researching on which one to use

 

[reefmutt]

I thinks that a great plan, assuming the dinos don't overrun anything and the corals are happy like you said, they very well may just run themselves out.