20g AIO DIY Peninsula

[I'm Batman]

I don’t get it, I’ve been feeding frozen 3 times a day, dosing enough NeoPhos to get 30ppb and then 0ppb Po4 the next day, over feeding, feeding 5 times a day, dosing nitrates, dosing OceanMagik, feeding some more - and the Dino’s still take hold... last time I thought it was protein skimmer, ocean magik and microbacter m7 that beat em... this time nothing seems to work... hate to be a bummer, but dang man c’mon. 
 

It’s only a matter of a few weeks before they take over every surface available and smother my corals out. *sad face*, *oh no what do I do face*

[I'm Batman]

Thought my Kryponite Candy Canes we’re dying off (lost a bunch last Nov. - got smothered out by the Dino’s)

 

Seems like they’re doing the opposite and branching more heads. Everything looks much happier with the NeoPhos dosing. Much much happier 😀

[I'm Batman]

Starting to get some brown and green algae too..

 

 

[I'm Batman]

Full tank shot 12/5/20

[I'm Batman]

So this is really amazing, while examining my dino infested rock work, I stumbled upon two probably 1/8” frogspawn heads growing from a skeleton that have been dead for about two years now!! Seriously Saltwater organisms never cease to amaze me! Two years??? 

 

I can’t believe it. This happened years ago with one that fell behind rockwork but it started to regenerate from the same spot the head used to be. This is creating completely new branches!

This is the old skeleton - it died and I just left it on the rock hoping it would come back at some point...polyps are on the bottom left.

 

Tried to get a good magnifying glimpse...

 

Hard to see, but even if you were half blind, you can see there’s something there. 
 

 

[I'm Batman]

@mcarroll Saw you had commented on a post years ago about this. 

[mcarroll]

Way cool!!

[I'm Batman]

Whammin’ Watermelon Zoa’s growing new polyps! 
 

 

[I'm Batman]

The dinoflagellates are taking full swing on the tank despite 50ppb PO4, nitrates still between 2-5ppm. Wife went a little crazy on corals for Christmas after watching me snag some up on sale. Got some JF and TSA signature pieces. I couple WWC in there too. 
 

The collection looked so cool as the lights were ramping down for the evening I took a quick photo with the 15k Orphek Filter.

 

JF Beach Bum is blinging in the right behind the candy canes. 

 

[mcarroll]

On 12/27/2020 at 9:08 PM, I'm Batman said:

50ppb PO4, nitrates still between 2-5ppm

That's only 0.05 ppm...halfway to the minimum level needed in your circumstance.  (Don't forget to do that conversion to ppm!)   

 

I'd say double your nitrate levels as well for good measure.

 

You're allowing the bloom to dominate as long as you leave nutrient levels below these targets.  👍

 

If you haven't identified the type of dino's you have, or for more guidance on how to proceed check out this thread:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dinoflagellates-–-are-you-tired-of-battling-altogether.293318/

 

(Focus on the first post before you get too deep into the rest of the thread.  It's long.)

[I'm Batman]

14 minutes ago, mcarroll said:

That's only 0.05 ppm...halfway to the minimum level needed in your circumstance.  (Don't forget to do that conversion to ppm!)   

 

I'd say double your nitrate levels as well for good measure.

 

You're allowing the bloom to dominate as long as you leave nutrient levels below these targets.  👍

 

If you haven't identified the type of dino's you have, or for more guidance on how to proceed check out this thread:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dinoflagellates-–-are-you-tired-of-battling-altogether.293318/

 

(Focus on the first post before you get too deep into the rest of the thread.  It's long.)

Are you sure 50ppb is only 0.05 ppm. 
 

I’m showing I’m at 0.153 According to the chart you provided 

 

 

[farkwar]

Is there a delete entire post button

 

I am missing?

 

[mcarroll]

Eek....I had an incorrect conversion.  🤷‍♂️  (best to report in ppm for everyone's benefit anyway since it's de facto standard...to this end Hanna finally even has a model that will read in ppm)

 

≥0.10 ppm is fine, as mentioned tho, so: 👍

 

At the very end of November you reported that PO4 levels were still crashing to zero.

 

Is the current level you reported actually stable?  How long has PO4 been consistently ≥0.10 ppm?

 

How far into info on the linked dino thread have you gotten already?

[I'm Batman]

1 hour ago, mcarroll said:

Is the current level you reported actually stable?  How long has PO4 been consistently ≥0.10 ppm?

 

How far into info on the linked dino thread have you gotten already?

I wouldn’t say it’s stable, it goes up and down, but I’m definitely at a point where I’m not 0 the next day. I was at .05ppm dosing 1ml 2x a day for a few weeks then upped to 1.5ml 2x a day. Been feeding twice a day and after over reefroid spot and broadcasting.

 

Sunday night I was at .15ppm at 9p.

At 9am yesterday I was at .14ppm and tested again last night and was at .11. 

Dosed 1/2ml this morning after testing .08 and will test here tonight after a feeding. 
 

I’m finally getting to what I believe is a balance. I have a 2 zoas on a shell that have been just those two for the last 24 months or so, just popped a new polyp this morning.

 

Monti’s are less white at the tips so hopefully at some point I can find a balance and get them growing again.

 

As far as dino research, I’ve read probably 100 hours of posts and marine biology journals, so I’m pretty far through... everybody’s got them this time a year it seems... 

[mcarroll]

1 hour ago, I'm Batman said:

Monti’s are less white at the tips so hopefully at some point I can find a balance and get them growing again.

Indeed your corals will get there!  (FWIW, with replete nutrients available (especially phosphates), it seems possible to have fast growth and tissue covering the tips.)

 

1 hour ago, I'm Batman said:

As far as dino research, I’ve read probably 100 hours of posts and marine biology journals, so I’m pretty far through...

Have you identified the type of dino your tank is hosting yet?

[I'm Batman]

Yes you guys should follow this thread more... thought you knew who “I’m Batman” was.

 

Matt- Ostreopsis here, I’ll get the microscope back if I need to prove it, and maybe they can change after time but that’s what I have had and this time around seems the same behavior. Builds up on rock and sand during the day and at night viewing everything appears as normal...

[I'm Batman]

Scroll up and go to page 5 to look at my candy cane trumpets last month.... look at them now, dying like crazy... so frustrating...

 

[mcarroll]

2 hours ago, I'm Batman said:

On top of the other issues, it looks like they are getting clobbered by your Clownfish.  Maybe or maybe not a big deal under more idea conditions, but the corals have already been challenged recently.  Damage might be hard or time consuming...or even impossible to heal from....and if it's being re-inflicted periodically...I imagine that could look like like this.

[I'm Batman]

30 minutes ago, mcarroll said:

it looks like they are getting clobbered by your Clownfish.

You know, that was a concern of mine early last year. He moved into the candy canes around May and they weren't affected... the clown also smothers into them with love all hours of the day since then - with no ill effects. They've been growing and multiplying like crazy up until last week. With the added phosphates, they were fluffier and happier than they have ever been.

 

I think this is caused from a nitrate spike possibly from a few snails that died this week and my alk has dropped from 9.5 dKH to 6.5 dKH (wife surprised me with 2 coral packs for Christmas) and have been slowly working on getting it back up.

 

The alk drop and raised nitrates are the only thing I can attribute the tissue loss too, the clown probably doesn't help. I'm open to chat about it at always.

[I'm Batman]

And here’s the end of the 3rd month battle of Dino’s. Nitrates at 10ppm, Po4 at 0.100ppm and they don’t care. I’ve stopped scraping the glass hoping some biodiversity will take hold. Ugh...

 

zoas are all smothered out and my monti’s are taking a beating again. Literally everything was going great and then BOOM!! Last week of November the Dino’s take off like clockwork two years in a row...