Stumped... Thought I was doing it all right.....

[ooja3k]

So i have a massive bacteria / cyano-sih outbreak.

Grows back almost instantly, covering my sps to the point where they are starting to loose tissue where the "stringy stuff" is always wrapped around.

At first I thought it was the tissue slowly peeling off the corals, but I have found that is not the situation.

The rocks, sand, and corals are covered!

I blast the stuff of the SPS once a day to help keep them healthy...

Here is a little background.

I started the tank in June, and started off dosin MB7 and running Vertex biopellets in a TLF reactor.

I was also dosing aminos when I started adding acros due to the risk of ulns and shocking then at first addition.

Corals started coloring up really well, really well. Then all of a sudden, patches of cyano / bacteria type stuff started appearing in little, low flow areas. So I cut back on aminos. Kept coming, so I took my bio pellets offline as I heard they can lead to problems like this.

So for the last 2 weeks I have had the reactor offline (removed from the tank) feeding lightly, and making sure my alk is right on (it spiked low to 5ish, slowly bringing it back up...)

I am contemplating dosing vodka instead of solid carbon dosing, but I am worried about making the situation worse.

Parameters are:

Alk 7.5
Calc 450
Mag 1250
Nitrate 0 (Merck)
Phos 0 (Hanna)
Ph 8.5

Thanks in advance for help!

 

[ooja3k]

 

[tkeracer619]

dinoflagellates.

I am sorry, you have a battle ahead of you.

There are a lot of threads and articles on how to deal with it but this is the bacteria that makes people quit the hobby.

You need to raise your ph. A lot of people start using kalkwasser and raise the the ph to 8.5.

Stop doing water changes and check your RO. Now is a good time to change all the filters and di.

I had a battle with it last year. Took me over 6 months to finally get rid of it.

It will kill snails so don't add any more.

 

[nikon187]

def dinos, not cyanobacteria

 

[ooja3k]

Yeah this is what I figured it was...

My ph is already 8.5 so I think that is helping me a bit...

I have covered the tank now and plan on blacking it out for 72 hours. After that I will do a large water change, and after a week or so repeat the process.

Does this sound like it will work?

From what I have read, blacking out the tank, and large water changes seem to help...


Thanks again all!

 

[allsps40]

I would stop dosing the MB7 it does the same thing as the pellets do so you are using to methods of ULNS on one tank. I think you make be over fueling the bacteria and that is causing the cyano. Stop dosing the AAs until you get the problem in check to as this will fuel bacteria growth. I would dose red slime remover and you will most likely need to do it 2-3 times over a week or 2. Cyano issues are common when carbon dosing. I still some in my fuge and I stopped vodka dosing almost 2 weeks ago.

 

[shifty51008]

i don't think blacking out the tank work with dino's but it does with canyo.

I think I read also where raiseing you mag up to 1500 will help also.

 

[divewsharks]

I would stop dosing the MB7 it does the same thing as the pellets do so you are using to methods of ULNS on one tank. I think you make be over fueling the bacteria and that is causing the cyano. Stop dosing the AAs until you get the problem in check to as this will fuel bacteria growth. I would dose red slime remover and you will most likely need to do it 2-3 times over a week or 2. Cyano issues are common when carbon dosing. I still some in my fuge and I stopped vodka dosing almost 2 weeks ago.

not cyano, so red slime remover wouldn't work.

 

[SleepyJ]

I had dinos. I researched it extensively and decided to get a TLP Phosban reactor; a lot of what I read said that dinos were due to high phosphates and that most tests do not accurately read them. Within 3 months of hooking up the Phosban reactor, the dinos were gone. Just to be sure, I also changed all the filters in my RO/DI to make sure I stopped any additions of phosphates. Good luck.

 

[tkeracer619]

Blacking the tank out most certainly does help. It won't fix it but it alone but it will hurt it.

I would not do the water change. These feed off of new salt additions.

The only water I would change would be what I removed from daily sucking them out. I used a 1/4 tube so as not to suck out a whole lot of water at any given time.

If your already at 8.5 go to 8.6 ph

Stop dosing everything other then kh, ca, and mag.

 

[Kieth71]

I agree with everything said.I had a battle with this nasty stuff as well.High ph a few blackouts and also mechanical filtering ie filter socks or sponge in your sump that you can change or rinse out often was what allowed me to get past this stuff.I also ran gfo and dripped kalk at night.The other thing i did was add a silica buster to my ro unit di resin mix.It is basically adding 1/3 strong anion d/i resin then the rest is the regular di resin mix.I actually tried so much stuff i am not sure what dealt the final blow to it.-Kieth

 

[camp]

I had this happen to me. I had blacked out the tank for six days,raised mag up,and ph. I
had tried for shorter days with no lights,but only helped a little. Had no problems after that.

 

[reefgeezer]

You may just have a bacterial bloom due to excessive frwee carbon. Stop the MB7, do a pretty large water change, turn the lights out for 24 hours and then run them only a couple hours a day until the stringy stuff is gone. This should help whether its dinos or just excessive bacteria from carbon dosing. FYI - I got about the same results when I tried MB7 withour biopellets. Not a fan.

 

[ooja3k]

You may just have a bacterial bloom due to excessive frwee carbon. Stop the MB7, do a pretty large water change, turn the lights out for 24 hours and then run them only a couple hours a day until the stringy stuff is gone. This should help whether its dinos or just excessive bacteria from carbon dosing. FYI - I got about the same results when I tried MB7 withour biopellets. Not a fan.

This is the scenario I thought about as well.

The outbreak occurred around the time I doubled the amount of vertex bio-pellets in the tlf reactor. I had started for 2 months at a half dose, then doubled it to the full dose.

I feel like I should hook up a small amount of pellets again, or dose vodka to help ensure there are no lingering phosphates or nitrates...

 

[wickedfish]

Highlandreefer pull out the knowledge this stuff is making me second guess my staying power in this hobby. I see the corals just getting smothered the more flow it gets the more they seem to spread. Siphoning isn't helping, scrubbing then siphoning makes it worse. I took out all the carbon sources except my pellets probably gonna pull this and maybe just run gfo. I will pick up kalkwrasser tomorrow to drip this stuff to raise my ph. I tried 3 days lights out it was dormant but not dead. This stuff seems to feed off of sugars or something related to carbon. I know it enjoys the new led's and thats what has triggered the explosion of this dino.

What should I do? My plan of action is shortened light schedule lessen the white leds. Also drip the kalk tomorrow. Feed very little. Cant skim because I thought it was red slime and medicated the red slime remover from blue vet rx, I am an idiot. Cant skim because this causes a foam nightmare. This is probably compounding the nutrient issue. I had read in one Highland reefer threads that a diatom filter could help. How do they work? They look intimidating. Is it in sump?
This din stuff is no joke! Someone tell me I wont lose my sps, that would be really sad since 80% of my stuff had already encrusted on rocks, I finally have good PE and color, what a disaster. I have no idea where this stuff came from but I know its been there for a month or so dormant. But I think I fueled it with better par and more carbon dosing via carbon reactor, and vodka since my nitrates were high 2 weeks ago. As soon as I lowered the Nitrates and phosphates this crud started its reign.