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kinetic Red Sea Reefer 170


kinetic

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4 hours ago, kinetic said:

What kind of sand are you using (more specifically, how large are the grains)? I'm using Tropic Eden Mesoflakes and they stay put at 20% gyre power. They shift back at 30%, but no sandstorms. You may need larger sand grains. (Grains? Is that the right way to explain them?). My other trick is I point the gyre up towards the surface, so it bounces off the surface first, then the front of the glass. This helps disperse flow a bit more before it hits the sand. I currently run my gyre on random mode, from 10% to 20% with random pause intervals. Then twice a day, I run backwards (once in the afternoon, once at night) just to get junk unstuck from the mesh guards and to help with flow behind the rock structure.

 

The Gyre is great. I've had a lot of different water movers in the past, and the gyre is my favorite. It's slick because it's on the back wall and has a great spread out flow. I don't need much power to get nice even flow throughout the tank.

 

I just leave my Hydra's settings as is. I control my White Balance and Tint with my camera or my iPhone (I use Manual camera iOS app to adjust white balance while taking a photo, and take a RAW photo, then edit on the Priime iOS app). I work professionally in the commercial photography industry, and have developed some of the best photo editing tools on iOS and macOS (Priime.com), so I really understand how to work white balance and tint. Try using the warmest setting on your iPhone by using something like Manual camera, then use a RAW editor to warm it up even more and adjust the tint to get rid of the purples. You can go even more extreme by modifying the individual color channels to shift hue a bit.

 

Well now I’m definitly going to have to try that using my buddy's old Gyre. My concern was it wasn’t going to produce enough random flow. 

 

And wow, thanks for the tip. I couldn’t believe how selecting ‘dramatic warm’ on the standard iPhone camera made the photo better! If I understand you correctly, you use the Manual Camera app to take the photo (adjusting the white balance) and then your Priime app to edit? 

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57 minutes ago, Admonition said:

 

Well now I’m definitly going to have to try that using my buddy's old Gyre. My concern was it wasn’t going to produce enough random flow. 

 

And wow, thanks for the tip. I couldn’t believe how selecting ‘dramatic warm’ on the standard iPhone camera made the photo better! If I understand you correctly, you use the Manual Camera app to take the photo (adjusting the white balance) and then your Priime app to edit? 

I’m sure you’ll get a response from the OP but yeah, I took the advice of shooting raw with the manual camera and post editing in priime. Way better results than I was getting with the aquarium camera app.

You should try it!

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7 hours ago, gone_PHiSHin said:

have you ever used ProCam?  i was thinking about paying the 5 bucks for that...Manual Camera 2 is only 3 though

Yup, ProCam is pretty good too. I find Manual Camera being a little more "modern" in their design, and simpler for just white balance control. ProCam does a whole bunch of other stuff, like interval shooting and all that (which is cool). You'd be fine with either for controlling white balance and shooting RAW. RAW by the way just stores more data per pixel than a normal linear image (JPG, PNG, etc). In a RAW photo, you can imagine each pixel actually being a superpixel, holding a matrix of about 6x6 of data. Apps that can edit RAW (like Priime) works with each pixel's superpixel to bring out all the detail / dynamic range / white balance that was captured initially. You're still limited at some point by the hardware (camera) that's taking it, but the iPhone sensor is already pretty good.

3 hours ago, Admonition said:

 

Well now I’m definitly going to have to try that using my buddy's old Gyre. My concern was it wasn’t going to produce enough random flow. 

 

And wow, thanks for the tip. I couldn’t believe how selecting ‘dramatic warm’ on the standard iPhone camera made the photo better! If I understand you correctly, you use the Manual Camera app to take the photo (adjusting the white balance) and then your Priime app to edit? 

Gyres are great! I like how the flow is really spread out rather than a stream. My anemones seem to like that a lot more (and others have noted the same), though who really knows how they feel. I also feel like I need less flow to more more water. "random" and "turbulence" are ways to mix up the water for offgassing and other strange scientific things like that. It also helps with dead spots since flow is all over. With a gyre, you sort of get the water moving as one mass, getting turbulent/random when hitting the rock and corals. I also run my gyre backwards a bit, so that'll move the water in the other direction. And last thing, my return now has a Y split for two random flow generators from Vivid Aquatic Creations. They're kind of busted (I can elaborate more later), but I somehow fixed them so they're usable. That helps mix things up a bit.

 

2 hours ago, Andreww said:

I’m sure you’ll get a response from the OP but yeah, I took the advice of shooting raw with the manual camera and post editing in priime. Way better results than I was getting with the aquarium camera app.

You should try it!

I don't know much about the aquarium camera app, but I'm guessing it just tries to adjust for white balance. Most camera apps assume you're in more neutral lighting conditions, or lighting conditions MOST people are exposed to (sunlight, the usual indoor artificial lighting), and adjust white balance accordingly. For our aquarium lights, the spectrum is everywhere depending on how you set it up. So it's just best to set the white balance and tint (if you can) manually. Using RAW helps a lot for post processing your white balance even more.

 

Also, just so I don't get in trouble: full disclosure, I am one of the founders of Priime and I work on it 12 - 20 hours a day, even weekends. I truly believe the product is more advanced, powerful, and faster than what's available for those who want to be a little more deliberate with their photos. I know this because I grew up a photographer and my best friends are some of the world's actual best (they shoot for nike, apple, paypal, audi, vogue, you name it), and with their input as well, we created this app for them... and even my mom uses it. OK, so go get my app ;)

 

Now back to my tank:

I was cleaning the glass just now, and must have spooked my orchid dottybacks, because a GIGANTIC ball of eggs floated up from under the rocks, probably about a golfball size! Unfortunately it landed right on the mouth of my magnifica, who quickly ate it. Hah! I guess that answers my question as to whether or not my orchids were paired up. I saw the female just now, she is finally not CRAZY fat. The male, however, sucked at keeping the eggs safe!

 

I'll try to see if I can save the next ball and give it over to someone who has a breeding setup nearby.

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10 hours ago, kinetic said:

What kind of sand are you using (more specifically, how large are the grains)? I'm using Tropic Eden Mesoflakes and they stay put at 20% gyre power. They shift back at 30%, but no sandstorms. You may need larger sand grains. (Grains? Is that the right way to explain them?). My other trick is I point the gyre up towards the surface, so it bounces off the surface first, then the front of the glass. This helps disperse flow a bit more before it hits the sand. I currently run my gyre on random mode, from 10% to 20% with random pause intervals. Then twice a day, I run backwards (once in the afternoon, once at night) just to get junk unstuck from the mesh guards and to help with flow behind the rock structure.

 

The Gyre is great. I've had a lot of different water movers in the past, and the gyre is my favorite. It's slick because it's on the back wall and has a great spread out flow. I don't need much power to get nice even flow throughout the tank.

 

I just leave my Hydra's settings as is. I control my White Balance and Tint with my camera or my iPhone (I use Manual camera iOS app to adjust white balance while taking a photo, and take a RAW photo, then edit on the Priime iOS app). I work professionally in the commercial photography industry, and have developed some of the best photo editing tools on iOS and macOS (Priime.com), so I really understand how to work white balance and tint. Try using the warmest setting on your iPhone by using something like Manual camera, then use a RAW editor to warm it up even more and adjust the tint to get rid of the purples. You can go even more extreme by modifying the individual color channels to shift hue a bit.

I might have to upgrade the sand indeed. Currently I am using CaribSea special grade which is between 1-2 mm (yours is 2,7 mm). Its not like the sand is whirling around, just at the end of the day it is shifted away from the front glass to the point bare bottom is visible. 

 

That happens even at 20% with the flow pointed on water surface 

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thanks for the photography info.  i have no problem buying a fellow nano-reefer's app for a few bucks!  

 

the whole reason i don't have a build thread is because i can't take a picture of my tank that is worth a damn.

 

i'll get Manual Camera 2 and Priime later today and start playing with them.  just know i'll probably be hitting you up with questions!

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Thanks for the photography tips, Just got the 8 plus so I’m eager to play with the camera. I’ll definitely check out your app too :)

 

I also can’t believe your dottys are breeding already that’s amazing! Is there any interesting pair behavior or do they just kind of chill in there own areas and ignore each other?

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15 hours ago, Waldo said:

I might have to upgrade the sand indeed. Currently I am using CaribSea special grade which is between 1-2 mm (yours is 2,7 mm). Its not like the sand is whirling around, just at the end of the day it is shifted away from the front glass to the point bare bottom is visible. 

 

That happens even at 20% with the flow pointed on water surface 

Ah yes! 1-2mm is really small. What you can do is get Reef Flakes (larger than meso) and put a layer on top of your current sand. That'll help keep it down. Though if you can manage it, I would siphon out what you can of your current sand during water changes, then eventually put a layer of reef flakes on top. I may get a layer of reef flakes on my meso so I can turn up my gyre to 30% and use the OSC gyre setting!

 

8 hours ago, gone_PHiSHin said:

thanks for the photography info.  i have no problem buying a fellow nano-reefer's app for a few bucks!  

 

the whole reason i don't have a build thread is because i can't take a picture of my tank that is worth a damn.

 

i'll get Manual Camera 2 and Priime later today and start playing with them.  just know i'll probably be hitting you up with questions!

Photos go a long way! Feel free to shoot me questions anytime =)

 

32 minutes ago, jesseatam said:

Thanks for the photography tips, Just got the 8 plus so I’m eager to play with the camera. I’ll definitely check out your app too :)

 

I also can’t believe your dottys are breeding already that’s amazing! Is there any interesting pair behavior or do they just kind of chill in there own areas and ignore each other?

Thanks for checking out the app! Means so much!

 

I was impressed they had eggs already too. The only pair behavior I saw was that they weren't trying to kill each other, and they would explore the tank together. Otherwise they had close burrows near one another. I noticed recently that they kept investigating the corners of the tank. I had an isolation box with my Sailfin Blenny in it, and they tried to take over it by both going into it and spinning around inside (the top was open, but the blenny never left). 

 

Whenever one is swimming about, the other would join. It happens occasionally, and I wonder if it was because they were looking for a better "nest." I've seen them to like lower flow caves that are smooth (like a plant ceramic pot) or even a porcelain cup. I guess the spot they decided on was less than ideal, hence losing the packet. I'm thinking of putting a small container in the tank that doesn't look ugly to see if they'll take to it. A local clownfish breeder said they would take the eggs, so even better if I can pull the eggs out and give them a chance to survive and live.

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On 26. 1. 2018 at 1:15 AM, kinetic said:

Ah yes! 1-2mm is really small. What you can do is get Reef Flakes (larger than meso) and put a layer on top of your current sand. That'll help keep it down. Though if you can manage it, I would siphon out what you can of your current sand during water changes, then eventually put a layer of reef flakes on top. I may get a layer of reef flakes on my meso so I can turn up my gyre to 30% and use the OSC gyre setting!

Just to update everyone in case someone would be facing the same issue with flying sand + gyre combo ... based on the recommendation I have completely changed the sandbed (currently using ATI fiji white sand 2-3 mm) and I am happy to say that gyre can be turned up to 40-50% (or can use both of the presets) without any issues.

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5 hours ago, Waldo said:

Just to update everyone in case someone would be facing the same issue with flying sand + gyre combo ... based on the recommendation I have completely changed the sandbed (currently using ATI fiji white sand 2-3 mm) and I am happy to say that gyre can be turned up to 40-50% (or can use both of the presets) without any issues.

That's awesome! How are you pointing the gyre?

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  • 2 weeks later...

All my SPS were doing really great, especially after consistent doses of Alk/Ca, but then dinoflagellates.

 

The dinoflagellates came in strong, and have now killed all my SPS. My BTAs are suffering a bit as well. The whole tank has been brown. I've been battling the dinos by dosing NO3/PO4, but it has just made it worse. Lately, I tried using DinoX doses. I'm on my second dose (day 4), and after some manual removal, the tank is starting to recover. You can't even see the BTAs as they're totally shriveled up.

 

Day 0:

26309153358_845d1c4700_b.jpg

 

Day 4 (today after manual removal):

38447127050_772826c098_b.jpg

 

Super ugly and unfortunate. I'm crossing my fingers I can rid the tank of dinos soon and get back to growing SPS.

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5 hours ago, kinetic said:

All my SPS were doing really great, especially after consistent doses of Alk/Ca, but then dinoflagellates.

 

The dinoflagellates came in strong, and have now killed all my SPS. My BTAs are suffering a bit as well. The whole tank has been brown. I've been battling the dinos by dosing NO3/PO4, but it has just made it worse. Lately, I tried using DinoX doses. I'm on my second dose (day 4), and after some manual removal, the tank is starting to recover. You can't even see the BTAs as they're totally shriveled up.

 

Day 0:

26309153358_845d1c4700_b.jpg

 

Day 4 (today after manual removal):

38447127050_772826c098_b.jpg

 

Super ugly and unfortunate. I'm crossing my fingers I can rid the tank of dinos soon and get back to growing SPS.

Damn I’m sorry you lost all your SPS, how exactly did the dinoflagellates kill them? Good to see that everything seems to be improving though.

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I wonder if anyone has ever done a study to see if tanks started with predominately dry rock are more prone to Dino outbreaks (this has been my anecdotal experience)? 

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I’ve found that when a tank is too clean, 0 NO3 and 0 PO4 is when dinos rear their ugly head.  When I had my Biocube running, I fought a minor GHA outbreak with GFO and Vibrant.  Nutrients went to 0 and GHA died off.  However, with an almost sterile tank and no other algae to outcompete them, the dinos thrived.  In my new set up, I plan to feed my fish heavily, skim and run an ATS...  no chemicals.  Hopefully, keeping NO3 and PO4 detectable and more importantly in balance in combination with running an ATS will keep the dinos at bay.

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12 hours ago, kinetic said:

All my SPS were doing really great, especially after consistent doses of Alk/Ca, but then dinoflagellates.

 

The dinoflagellates came in strong, and have now killed all my SPS. My BTAs are suffering a bit as well. The whole tank has been brown. I've been battling the dinos by dosing NO3/PO4, but it has just made it worse. Lately, I tried using DinoX doses. I'm on my second dose (day 4), and after some manual removal, the tank is starting to recover. You can't even see the BTAs as they're totally shriveled up.

 

Super ugly and unfortunate. I'm crossing my fingers I can rid the tank of dinos soon and get back to growing SPS.

Kinetic, You're based in the Bay Area too right? 

I wonder if this is a coincidence or maybe there something in the water for us, because this counts for 3. 
I'm in south Berkley/Rockridge area and had some serious Dino/Diatom bloom recently as well and its the same case with Felicia whose also in Berkley. 

 

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18 hours ago, jesseatam said:

Damn I’m sorry you lost all your SPS, how exactly did the dinoflagellates kill them? Good to see that everything seems to be improving though.

Dinos basically cover the entire sps colony. Eventually it starves them out, or in my case they RTN'd. I kept blowing off the dinos with a baster, but one day they just came out as white skeletons =(

 

17 hours ago, William said:

I wonder if anyone has ever done a study to see if tanks started with predominately dry rock are more prone to Dino outbreaks (this has been my anecdotal experience)? 

They have, it's not related. It's due to the fact that dinos do well in low NO3/PO4 systems, and algae does not. Therefore it outcompetes algae and blooms.

 

16 hours ago, Water Dog said:

I’ve found that when a tank is too clean, 0 NO3 and 0 PO4 is when dinos rear their ugly head.  When I had my Biocube running, I fought a minor GHA outbreak with GFO and Vibrant.  Nutrients went to 0 and GHA died off.  However, with an almost sterile tank and no other algae to outcompete them, the dinos thrived.  In my new set up, I plan to feed my fish heavily, skim and run an ATS...  no chemicals.  Hopefully, keeping NO3 and PO4 detectable and more importantly in balance in combination with running an ATS will keep the dinos at bay.

Yeah exactly. I was always at undetectable NO3/PO4, so it was bound to happen I guess. After using DinoX, I will be constantly dosing Sodium Nitrate and Trisodium Phosphate (food grade versions). I bought a whole new Neptune DOS just to do this.

 

11 hours ago, RustyRocket said:

Kinetic, You're based in the Bay Area too right? 

I wonder if this is a coincidence or maybe there something in the water for us, because this counts for 3. 
I'm in south Berkley/Rockridge area and had some serious Dino/Diatom bloom recently as well and its the same case with Felicia whose also in Berkley. 

 

I'm in the bay area yup. I know a lot of others in the bay area, but more all over the world. I don't think it's just us, I think there's a huge outbreak in general. Not really sure why. I used to run a ULNS and never heard about dinos before (I took a 5+ year break) and now I'm back and EVERYONE seems to be getting it. My RO/DI is still 22 TDS in, and 0 TDS out. Though of course who knows, maybe something else is sneaking in?

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  • 3 weeks later...

Update, Day 23 of Dinos battle:

  • Dinos are still growing and killing.
  • Lost: conch, all SPS except Digitata, one turbo snail, and Geometric Pygmy hawkfish yesterday

Every 2 days, I manually remove as many dinos as possible with a 20% water change (siphoning sand, blasting dinos off rocks).

 

When dosing NO3/PO4 I would develop a 1/4" mat of dinos over EVERYTHING within 12 hours. Algae was still being overcome and dinos were thriving. I decided to go the other direction and try to kill all dinos with DinoX.

 

I am now trying to remove all nutrients from the system using NoPoX, lightening up feeding, no more U.V. to allow bacteria to grow from NoPoX, and continue the water changes. No more dosing NO3/PO4.

 

This has kept the dinos down to a minimum, but after a week of not removing dinos, the mat develops again. If I keep removing every 2 days, it seems to only have a small dusting, but never truly disappears.

 

I ordered a microscope (cheap one) to see if I can get a better identification. I've already tried everything for all types of dinos, but at least this way I'll know for sure.

 

I'm pretty close to shutting down this tank. Yes, it seems silly, but it's not if you consider the 2-3 hours of labor every 2 days only to have a completely brown tank after 12 hours and everything dying. Let's see what I'm up against with the microscope. If I've been doing everything I can to defeat the type I have, then I will shut down. There is no endgame. If the identification reveals something else, with a potential to defeat it, I'll keep fighting.

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thanks tons for heads up, dino distress threads are amazing learning platforms and there are steps still left to be applied with each of the common approaches in my opinion, this thread has not exhausted all options.

 

 

 

 

you can see from dino threads that in today's world you have two recommended takes that seem polar opposites: one is the direct kill method- manual removal, UV, some use dosers like DinoX, Peroxide, blackouts, all with reported intermittent successes on the big dino threads...this approach isn't nutrients based its war based, and upon topical read here a siphoning of the bed is not the same as removing it in triage (just before tank takedown, this repository should be evaluated/removed) or deep cleaning it to cloudlessness like we would do in a real rip cleaning event thread. Im not sure you've exhausted all of option 1 yet, its been a series of partials so far. A rip cleaner has not gotten a hold of this tank yet, so option one can't be ruled out. Before you take this tank down, do whats in this thread below and be able to pass a drop test of the substrate grabbed from the deepest levels after you are rip cleaned. Rinse your rocks of the scourge carefully outside the tank using saltwater over the sink, rinse the dino mats away harshly, spray 3% peroxide from a mister bottle over their former spots that you already rinsed away, then rinse off that peroxide.

 

work around target corals carefully, peroxide is to burn cells that we didn't catch in the rinse.

 

 

 

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-official-sand-rinse-thread-aka-one-against-many.230281/#post-2681445   <----this is the most #1 option a tank could get.

 

 

option two is that nutrient tuning you are doing. Its MCarrols preferred method, and you can tell he studies dinos a lot. Its a valid option. It does not cure all dino infestations or you wouldn't be where you are, and option 1 would die out. There are more practitioners of option 1 than there are for option 2, although WHEN option two is tuned just right, and with a kick of luck it seems, they're curing absolutely huge tanks without having to take them apart. option 2 is valid and should be exhausted well before giving up.

 

 boosting or negating nutrients (Randy Holmes Farley has one of the earliest dino articles online we can see, it mentions removing not boosting phosphate, and it mentions ph controls as early war options) is option two... and some hallmarks of option two are:  they always involve leaving the target massed inside the tank, waiting for an external action or balance to slowly tip the scales in favor of recession. They don't allow for water changes, or for targeted removal of the dinos as they say that systemic upset will only cause more dinos.

 

 

 

and in that, you have a choice to make. These are mutually opposing systems you are using, turning off UV is not what I'd do, but its part of the number 2 approach.

 

I practice only option 1 and when you feel you have tried all there is for option 2 we should run a number 1 the right way.

 

if you have that truly mean of a strain of dinos where a standard rip cleaning and a couple calc'd doses of peroxide wont kill it, then we'll rip clean and only set back up the system with full UV, completely blacked out, and peroxide for three days. Those arrangements have not been done and are quite possible hail Mary's to be caught ive done it before.

 

 

post pics of your tank recent if you can, as it sits, no light adjustment. Im looking for heavy white vs blue lighting. for matted invasions of any type, even cyano, blue up those white systems as a hedge. id open with that volley here.  The fact you are ready to shut this tank down means you have a strain that people want the most information about. we should work this current tank really well, Im not sure its possible to have a nano reef that commands the keeper although Ive heard stories in the old west about such badmen. after we run the best rip clean ever done on the planet, THEN reinstate #2 mode. start #2 from a truly clean palette

 

plus, we got places like ALGEN that sell pods in bottles man! we can reseed your tank, in the mass-less condition, with little pod monsters. Id feel horrible if we could not save your tank but then again I can't recall ever losing one if given full access, at least so far. post pics for sure

 

 

#2 proponents are always going to state you need to hold course/wait longer. That's something you'll have to eval/ no easy answer here. I still claim that to rip clean and buy some pods and then jack the N and P isn't a derailment of their approach, its just a clean start for it. Imagine if all the competitors that #2 proponents hope to employ have only 1/100th of all the cells to contend with. Allow us one or two complete rip cleans max...nobody promises a one off event cures weeks and months of lead-up target growth; however you can see from my example thread we're taking cyano challenge tanks and simply forcing them clean, and collecting after pics, and that's my best offer for you here. it will either work or we'll go down valiantly with the first documented noncompliant in those 11 pages.

 

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dinoflagellates-–-are-you-tired-of-battling-altogether.293318/page-163#post-4505421  <-----that's the best #2 option thread I know of, so that both sides are well covered here. I actually do not have a huge dino challenge in my thread above, taking applicants :)

 

we'd do the work right here at nr.com, that's just for reading/preps and Ill link this thread there whether the outcome is good or bad.

 

if you want to get mean here, I recommend get another uv and run two once we begin the real battle after #2 has ran its course/allotted time for this tank. Amazon sellers by and large allow returns for items that don't wow, less stocking fees, and any UV that doesn't help us seal the deal in about two weeks aint wowing. Don't buy a UV correctly sized for your tank! buy an oversized one for clear reasons. we'll take it offline when done and it'll be worth keeping in the closet if it helps our clinch win here. That's only an option, to spend more on UV...easy to recommend when not my cash ~ the majority of weight I put into the rip clean; the UV is icing but in every dino thread Ive ever posted in, I said UV was worth $ if it was sized right and for sure posters -even on the #2 thread- directly report over and over that UV helped them, its not a waste of time.

 

 if you want to get serious on a number 1 mode ill put my full web time into it highest priority. whatever your strain is, that's the one people need the most data

b

 

ps on the UV I wasn't using hyperbole

part of the reason my 75 gallon never acted up in the nineties is because I was running my grandmother's ten thousand gallon pond UV sterilizer on it, she didn't want it anymore after trying it on her koi pond. learned to love oversized uv in 1998 and never looked back, as far as number 1 options go. oversized UV is a total cheat and not required, but as cheats go its shockingly awesome. Ill claim down right lethal to targets, when installed after a true deep clean.

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Increase your nitrate using KNO3, aim for around 10-15. I would also reccomend keeping your PH above 8.3 utilizing a co2 scrubbing media on your slimmer Intake (soda-lime). Increase your flow as much as possible,/!: manually remove large mats. 

 

This has worked for me the few times I have been plagued with Dinos. When doing water changes, I would add KNO3 to the fresh salt water to raise the nitrate to around 10.

 

lastly I would heavily dose bacterial cultures (microbacter 7 was my personal choice) daily at 5-10x the reccomended dosage. 

 

 

 

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

How is the battle with the dinos going?  I'm still fighting them in my tank.  I've done a couple different blackout periods and that keeps them at bay for a while, but then they just come back eventually.  I'm able to keep them somewhat under control with weekly water changes and siphoning them out, but they don't seem to be going away.  I'm about to do my weekly water change and I think I'm going to go ahead and start dosing DinoX finally.  Dinos are such a PITA.

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15 hours ago, kinetic said:

Busted out a 60mm f/2.8 macro lens. My Mocha Davincis are looking a lot more like black davincis.

 

27300394138_bd2af2fd10_b.jpg

 

I miss that lens so much. 

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On 4/1/2018 at 8:51 PM, Felicia said:

How is the battle with the dinos going?  I'm still fighting them in my tank.  I've done a couple different blackout periods and that keeps them at bay for a while, but then they just come back eventually.  I'm able to keep them somewhat under control with weekly water changes and siphoning them out, but they don't seem to be going away.  I'm about to do my weekly water change and I think I'm going to go ahead and start dosing DinoX finally.  Dinos are such a PITA.

Hey Felicia. Sorry to hear they're still coming back. I almost gave up on my tank a few times, but I think I figured out what would work for my tank. Since everyone's systems somehow behave differently, I took a slightly different approach than before. Before I was trying to grow "good" algae to outcompete the dinos, by dosing nitrates and phosphates. That basically boosted green algae, plus even more dinos. So I went the other route. I was dosing NoPoX to increase bacteria that, in theory, would outcompete the dinos. It would also drive my tank insanely close to a UNLS. My thinking is that I'll just start dosing aminos once the dinos seem to be taken care of to feed the corals.

 

So long story short, I was doing NoPox daily, and DinoX every other day. The differences were huge once the bacteria population built up with the NoPox, but the dinos still wouldn't go away. I stopped doing water changes every 2 days, and just kept dosing DinoX every 2 days instead of doing any manual removal. I just couldn't deal with so many water changes and got lazy. Well, fast forward 18 days of no water changes, the dinos went away.

 

My theory of what happened: DinoX was slowly killing off dinos, but also concentrating into my tank over time, making it harder for dinos to fight it off. At the same time, bacteria growth from NoPox totally stripped the water of N and P for the dinos. Right now, my tank is close to having no algae at all. My remaining digitata is probably starving, and hopefully my anemones are OK with just the light for now.

 

Things look good. I have a new Neptune DOS (second one) that I'm going to setup to just constantly dose NoPox and, soon, aminos. Crossing my fingers that once I start dosing amino acids, the dinos don't come back. 

 

Dinos are definitely a PITA. I'd suggest using DinoX for sure. Remove any activated carbon etc., and don't change your water for the duration of the treatment. I think you'll start seeing progress after 10 days. In the meantime, you could probably try to figure out a way to make it sustainable, either trying the ULNS way with NoPox, or trying to see if you can grow algae that can outcompete (hard to do with DinoX also, since that will kill all algae). 

 

On 4/2/2018 at 12:36 PM, Asureef said:

 

I miss that lens so much. 

It's a pretty good one. I'm actually going to sell it. I have an old 105mm Sigma macro lens with f/2.8 at 1:1 magnification. It's not the best, but the Nikon 60mm is so new I can probably get a decent price for it still. I'll probably invest in a newer 105mm at some point in the future =)

 

On 4/2/2018 at 1:21 PM, RustyRocket said:

Also did you manage to get the Angler for your Fuge? I've been looking at picking one up. 

I never did! Battling dinos has really taken me back a bit. I'm probably going to hold off for awhile.

 

On 4/2/2018 at 2:49 PM, Indiana Reefin said:

I love this tank!! 

Those davinci clowns are amazing! 

Thank you! They are quite amazing.

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