Supplement opinions...

[czieler]

Thanks...I'll check out the articles. Like I said...I purchased the ocean's blend (about two weeks ago) ... I honestly haven't started a regular dosing of it though...because it says to dose before lights are on in the morning..and I always forget...I need to tape a note on my coffee maker

 

[robwsup]

Carol,
Have we talked about nudibranchs or sundial snails in the shop? This sounds like you have a predator, as both of these cause zoanthids to shrivel up and melt away. Do you have any palythoa in the tank? They are the large polyp zoanthus. The nudibranchs don't attack these.

Come in some time, and I'll show you what the nudibranchs look like. We can always find some on a new colony. I'll show you what the eggs look like, and how to get rid of both, pretty easy.

John,
Can you find me any threads stating that Prodibio has affected Zoanthids? I've not heard of this.

 

[czieler]

Hey Rob..we talked about Nudibranches a lot in the past when I was first finding them in my 65 gal ... I haven't seen any in either of my tanks in the last few months...... so I don't think thats it.... plus the first thing I tried was rinsing them all several times ...

The brown ones were palythoa ( I think...those are the ones that have longer skirts and eat shrimp..right? ) ... those aren't opening at all anymore either...the others were the ones from the soloman islands...

I don't think I have any sundial snails in there...I have an astrea..but its always on the glass...however I just did the Ph check and it's low. Inbetween 7.8 and 8.0 ... so I just added a dose of the Part 2 of the oceans blend for that..I'll give that a shot and see if things look better in a day or two....then monitor it more closely. I guess I should have checked it sooner, lesson learned.

Re the prodibio...does it take a while for the bioptim and biodigest to kick in? Maybe I just jumped the gun because the red slime was so bad in there.....someone up top said they thought it took a few months for the bacteria to establish itself.

 

[sea devil]

Rob, no threads that I know of. I relayed what I had a couple of users tell me that they had lost zoos & leathers. I'm neither pro or con on this product. It wasn't meant as a "dis" All I can do is listen to people who use it. These affects may have been from something else.I'm like a lot of other folks, I'm letting others expermint & post their findings, then I'll form my own opinion.

 

[joseph]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7292153#post7292153 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by czieler

Re the prodibio...does it take a while for the bioptim and biodigest to kick in? Maybe I just jumped the gun because the red slime was so bad in there.....someone up top said they thought it took a few months for the bacteria to establish itself.

Apparrently Bio-Digest is 9 different bacterial strains that colonize at different rates requiring at least 15 days to become productive.

Quote From Prodibio -
The cleaning by the organic waste digestion is favored by the presence of 9 strains, in optimal proportions, of hétérotrophics bacteria.
BIO DIGEST is particularly efficient the 2 weeks that follow its application. Bacterial multiplication speeds, different according to strains, allow to preserve these optimal purification proportions 15 days. If one wants to accelerate the process of purification it is not necessary to overdose but to near utilizations.

 

[czieler]

Eh...I most likely jumped the gun...I dosed with Red Slime killer in the middle of week three because I was running all over trying to get my mom an appointment for surgery ( Orange Park is impossible to get appointments with doctors in..we ended up sending her to Indiana) ...and couldn't keep up with blowing the slime off everything every day. I used the rest of it the prodibio..but at that point..all the slime was dead already...

On a separate note... is it good to take water from my 65 and put it in the 46 during a water change ( in addition to new water ) ... or would there be no benefit in doing this?

 

[floridareefs]

Weel if thats the case, the prohibio affects zooanthids, I will never use that stuff as I love my zoos

 

[czieler]

I actually think it was the low PH... not the prodibio. I'll see over the next couple of days if they zoos open back up.

What makes the PH go low though?

 

[joseph]

I would advise against using the red slime remover. Red slime algae is cyanobacteria and it grows because the conditions for it are favorable in your tank, most likely high nutrients and low flow in certain areas. Without the proper nutrients the cyano would not be able to grow. Sure using the red slime remover may kill the cyano but what happens to it then? All of the nutrients that it was was using to grow and had contained within its cells are now released back into your water column as the cyano dies. Red slime remover is only a band-aid solution and does not treat the problem at the root cause. Eliminate the excess nutrients and increase the flow where the cyano was growing and you will likely eliminate the cyano. Treat the cause of the problem not the symptom. The best solution for removing red cyano, IMO, is to let it grow into thick sheets which can easily be removed with a 6-10 foot long piece of 1/2"-5/8" vinyl tubing and a bucket and siphon it out. After siphoning out the cyano start an aggressive water change schedule to eliminate the nutrients that is feeding the cyano. Are you using RO/DI water? If so do your filters need changing?

Somehow I don't think that prodibio has anything to do with your zoanthids dieing. I have been dosing prodibio for almost two months now and all of my zoanthids have steadily grown and I have not lost a single polyp since starting prodibio. This is just my experience, yours may be different. The only thing that has died since using prodibio has been most of my macro algae.

I'm willing to bet that you have low alkalinity along with your low ph. Read this article to better understand the relationship between ph and alkalinity -
The Relationship Between Alkalinity and pH.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/may2002/chem.htm

There can be many causes to low ph. A common cause is excessive amounts of carbon dioxide which turns into carbonic acic when in your aquarium and can lower your ph. Decaying nutrients in your tank can also create acids that can lower ph. Low ph can be caused by many other things as well. Read this article to learn more -
Low pH: Causes and Cures
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-09/rhf/index.htm

Buy a salifert alkalinity test kit and post your results. Get your alk and ph stable and then you can eliminate that from your list of possible problems and can then further diagnose your situation.

HTH.

 

[czieler]

I'm guessing the red slime build up was most likely because I didn't have enough flow...but I purchased a new maxi jet a few days after dosing with the red slime remover to fix that situation.

Will read the articles...thanks!

 

[robwsup]

The Red Slime remover can not be used with Prodibio. It will kill some of the bacteria in it.

 

[czieler]

Well...my brown zoos are starting to open back up.

I think I had several issues going on in here.

1. My heater seemed to go a little wacko...I had the water set at 77-78 degrees for a long time...and noticed that it was suddenly at 81. So I turned it down...and I'm probably going to get one with a built in thermometer this week..as I have one just floating in the tank now.

2. ph was off... this is fixed now. Still not sure what caused this.... but will be keeping a closer eye on it.

3. I took the biowheel out. Rob told me the biowheel will use oxygen in the system. This is the only thing I had on here that isn't on my 65 gallon when I had this setup on there. Also, I had been turning the air off on my skimmer at night because the skimmer was too loud and I couldn't sleep with it on. I put an air regulator on there and now its working with the air turned on..but much quieter..and the skimmer still has good foam in it. So I'm thinking the turning the air off at nite and the biowheel might have been causing some issues.

I also did a 30% water change this week as opposed to my regular 10%