This is dinos, isn't it?

StormShacer

StormShacer

New member
Hey ive been keeping 75 gal. tank for about 5 months now. And over the past month this stuff has started appearing. The algea has the bubbles on it so i know it's eaither Dinos or Calothrix. Thing is this algea is long and wavy, over the course of a day it will grow multi-inch long strands that dissapear at the end of the day (light goes out or one of the fish hits it and they fly away) and their almost compleatly gone for the night but then they regrow in the day. =/ So what kind of algea is this and how do you guys suggest i go about fixing this?

Oh, and i just checked the parameters...

Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate are all 0
The pH is around 7.8 and its never been that low before

i have a phosband media bag going in my sump and the skimmer is currently off because its producing microbubbles. (im getting a sock or something to fix this in the next few days)

Heres a few pics

9gc6mf.jpg


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i have a rock of glove polyps. Thats all the coral in my tank, i aim to add live rock and turn the tank into a reef over the summer
4kbvrs.jpg




There is some turf algea on this rock i believe but im not very concerned about that
e0r0j5.jpg



Thanks for reading because im starting to get stressed about this nuisance
 
Unfortunately, that does look like dino. I have a small population of a rather rare strain of dino (looked at by a microbiologist) that rears its head now and then. And now that I've restarted my reef, and has no other microbial or algal competitors, it's blooming. I'm on my second dose of Fauna Marin Ultra Algae X and it seems to affecting the dino. Bulk Reef Supply has some and it has rid many people's tanks of the pest.
 
Yeah, its looks like dino. Your rocks and sand are leaching phosphate. Just keep running GFO and do water changes and siphon up what you can everyday. You don't need to test for phosphate, 'cause it will be inaccurate. As long as you see the algae, you have phosphate.
 
Well keep me updated because im very eager to get rid of this thing. My research says its super hard to get rid of =/

Do you know if that product is safe for fish and inverts?
 
wonderz said:
Yeah, its looks like dino. Your rocks and sand are leaching phosphate. Just keep running GFO and do water changes and siphon up what you can everyday. You don't need to test for phosphate, 'cause it will be inaccurate. As long as you see the algae, you have phosphate.
Click to expand...

I'm going to respectfully qualify what Wonderz wrote: avoid water changes while you have a dino bloom. They feed on whatever trace elements are in salt mixes and so adding fresh seawater only feeds the bloom.

Some have had success with 3 day blackouts and a daily dose 1ml per gallon of 3% hydrogen peroxide.
 
Potsy said:
I'm going to respectfully qualify what Wonderz wrote: avoid water changes while you have a dino bloom. They feed on whatever trace elements are in salt mixes and so adding fresh seawater only feeds the bloom.

Some have had success with 3 day blackouts and a daily dose 1ml per gallon of 3% hydrogen peroxide.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the second opinion. I have hear others said that no change helps as well. I think siphoning up what you can everyday helps and eventually everything it will be a little bit less until its gone. Assuming you are running GFO or have some other way of exporting your phosphate more than what you put in. Yeah, when i say water change, I didn't mean do like 50% water change, more like water change when you siphon up the dino to replace the water.
 
Thanks for your input guys! And like i said i have a phosban media bag in my sump. it's been there for a few weeks maybe.

i have heard to not do any water changes but when the dinos first bloomed about a month ago it had already been a month since my last water change so its now been about 2 months since the last water change. Also a few weeks there was some cyno so i added a little chemipure to get rid of it. That stuff calls for a waterchange after the treatment and i havn't done it yet because of the dynos.

The reason i think i have all this algea is because in the begining i was using tap water and then adding dechlorinators to it so it wouldn't be harmful, but the water still had trace elements like silicate in it and that's what has fed all this algea, but that's just a theory. i have been using distilled water for top off water for the past few weeks now.
 
I would crank up the export. Siphon the sand, perform small water changes, keep the skimmer clean, run GFO aggressively and in a few weeks you should be ahead of the problem. Double check your water source. RO/DI should be your first choice. Topping off with Kalk is a good long term move that many employ for stability. Good luck.
 
wonderz said:
Yeah, when i say water change, I didn't mean do like 50% water change, more like water change when you siphon up the dino to replace the water.
Click to expand...

As someone who's dealt with this horror definatley listen to the no-waterchange advice. Every time I thought the Dino's looked under control and did a water change they seemed to love it. They really need to be almost gone before considering the wc. What I did was to clamp a filter sock in my sump and siphon off as much as I could into the sock so I didn't need to replenish the water. I also used a large red Solo cup with holes poked in the bottom and filled with filter floss held over the tank. I then used a turkey baster to suck it up and spit it out into the cup to be filtered out. It worked great and I didn't need replenish any water. The thing about Dino's is they are exceptionally good at competing in a low nutrient environs so even GFO starving out the PO4 and a low nitrates don't neccesarily seems to phase them. Once they settle in they are a beast to beat so don't give them whatever they need in fresh salt water until they are beaten back into submission...
 
Since you have no corals definitely do the hydrogen peroxide treatment I had a bad outbreak on my frag tank when I started it and H2o2 wiped it out in a week do a search on Rc for it its 1ml per something gallon lol.. And as stated don't do any water changes till after the treatment . certain coral are sensitive to hydrogen peroxide but my tank was darn near full when I did it with no negative effects whatsoever..

And FWIW my levels were testing near perfect when I had the outbreak little to no rock in tank and bare bottom (sand in fuge) so I'm not too sure on the leaching comment either.. That's just my experience but it's been over a year and not a single string ever came back. I use hydrogen peroxide for a lot of things in my tank.. It will wipe out that other algae as well with a spot treatment out of water.. I think the thread is called the pico algae pest challenge or something along those lines.. You won't regret it..
 
Recommend you read Randy H-Farley's treatise on Dino's before jumping in to a random rx. Export and increasing the pH appears critical. Love the Kalk! Good luck.
 
I wouldn't listen to the leaching advice either. Dinos can use many food sources. Keep in mind that vthe zooxanthelea in coral tissue is a dinoflagatte and they don't thrive on phosphate.

Physically remove what you can by some of the above methods. Black out the tank for threee days, then run a reduced 4 hour light cycle for a week. If they start to com back you may want to try treating with peroxide before corals go in. This can actually be done with corals also but may be risky. Do a search for hydrogen peroxide, peroxide, dinos etc. on here you will find many answers.

Take the less stressful appeoach first. Dino's need light. One more thing It is better to take advice from someone who has successfully beat them rather than (like alot of posters around here) someone who doesn't even own a tank.
 
Osteoclast said:
Recommend you read Randy H-Farley's treatise on Dino's before jumping in to a random rx. Export and increasing the pH appears critical. Love the Kalk! Good luck.
Click to expand...

Randy's info is excellent. I will try to post a link to it. Keep in mind keeping the ph at or above 8.5 only works for certain species of dino. It may be difficult for a less experienced, heck any hobbyist to accomplish this.
 
Gonna throw in my 2 cents.... I also disagree with the leaching phosphates. Although I do recommend to syphen the sand regularly to avoid strange algae outbreaks....

Here is what I tried and failed. And also what worked very well....


Blackout helped but once the lights were back so was the Dino....
Water changes did nothing.
Stepping up the GFO did nothing.


Here is what worked.
Scrape daily
Blow it off with the turkey baster daily
Change filter socks an hour later. Daily
Run good carbon.
Dose about 5ml of zeovit coral snow with either mb7 or zeobak in it (mix them together for several minutes before dosing)
Continue until it is gone. Took about a month on my 60 cube....

Dose again at the first sign of bubbles...


It has been a year and has never returned. I dose coral snow maybe once every 2 weeks and zeobak weekly....
 
Reduce available nutrients in the water. These include nitrate and especially phosphate.
Click to expand...
Quote from http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-11/rhf/

Here's my theory: The dino is living off phosphate. Since he posted he used tap water in the beginning, the phosphate from tap water was absorbed by the rocks and sand. And now that he using RODI, the phosphate level in the water column is lower than phosphate level in the rocks and sand, so the rocks and sand is leaching phosphate. It is just osmosis. Anyways, that's just what I thought.

Either way, tons of good suggestions in this thread, and the article from reefkeeping by Randy is a good read.
 
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