Dark Side of the Lagoon

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

11 hours ago, Clown79 said:

Well things have gotten pretty sh&$ty with my tank.

 

 

I did my normal weekly waterchange and testing.  2 days later went away to a coral show overnight. Came back to all my euphyllia being shrunk up as well as my stylo. All else was fine. noticed some web like stringy stuff on my rocks...

 

Did tests, everything was pretty normal besides low nitrate.

Did a waterchange next day and things didn't improve.

 

Started looking into this further.....

 

I have Dino's, I believe its Ostreopsis, which of course one of the worst and most toxic.

 

I am becoming too knowledgeable of Dino's from all the reading I have been doing and these jerks are resilient.

 

I believe mine is from lack of nutrients and biodiversity. I had no algae in my tank besides dragons breath which was where the dino's started and continued to flourish in. So I have removed the macro algae because trying to suck out the dino's was impossible.

 

My nitrates use to sit at 7 and my phos was religiously always 0 so I stopped testing. Purchased a Hanna ULR and sure enough 0. My nitrates had dropped to about 1-2ppm.

 

Now they are 0.

 

Ostreopsis loves ULN and thrive in these conditions so I am employing the dirty and natural method. 

 

I am not doing waterchanges because new water feeds dino's

 

No amino acids or vitamins, dino's love them too.

 

I tried peroxide - bad mistake. It does nothing for this strain of Dino's, if anything they got worse because peroxide can kill off some beneficial bacteria which essentially is killing off Dino competitor.

 

No blackouts, they are just bandaids for most dino strains and come back with lights on.

 

What I am doing

 

- I purchased a cheap microscope to determine the strain. Thank you @Tamberav for the suggestion.

 

- Changing filter floss every other day when it is full

 

- changing carbon weekly to reduce toxins

 

- reduced photo period to 7 hrs and reduced the percentage to about 65% for RB, B, V, UV. W 10% 9 ( this keeps dino's at bay)

 

- only dosing ALK and CA

 

- introduced 24oz of copepods, 16oz of rotifers, dosing phytoplankton ( these are the major competitors of dino's)

 

- in the evening when dino's are at their worse,  I am sucking up the dino's with a turkey baster, I run the water through a filter sock which is filled with 2 pieces of floss. The water is  then returned to the tank because I do not want to add new water to the tank besides FW top up.

 

- I am not blowing the dino off because that spreads them. This works if you can use Marine Snow, filter sock and skimmer. Otherwise, my dino's seemed to spread when I blew them off the rock.

 

- i am also feeding heavily to try to increase nutrients as I can't dose nitrates - potassium nitrate is banned in CA.

 

I am also wearing eyewear, a mask, armpit length gloves, and keep window open just to be safe because this stuff can be toxic.

 

Any floss or removed items are thrown in a garbage bag and disposed of. My kitchen sink and counters are thoroughly sanitized using cleaner with bleach (bleach kills dino)

 

there is no sharing of anything between my tanks to prevent any chance of spreading.

 

so far I have only lost a conch and my gorg which was smothered in the dino's.

 

my euphyllia are reacting the worst. They are closing up more everyday and a few are receding. My one blasto is now acting up which is a shame because it was growing a ton of new heads.

 

My plate, acans, monti are fine. My rics are not as open as normal but so far ok.

 

My worst fear is losing everything but most of all my plate which is very unique. My fish as well.

 

i am trying to stay positive but i know this battle is a crap shoot to beat.

 

i luckily will have the new pico contest to keep my spirits up!

 

Oh no, sorry to hear . I wish you the best at beating it..fingers crossed you can over come it.

[Clown79]

3 hours ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

Oh no, sorry to hear . I wish you the best at beating it..fingers crossed you can over come it.

thank you so much. i will keep everyone posted. 

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

2 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

thank you so much. i will keep everyone posted. 

Thanks, I'd love to know how this turns out. Knowledge is power or so they say. Do you think something like fluzocole (or however it's spelled) would work for dinos? I works pretty good on gha and bryopis.

[Clown79]

13 minutes ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

Thanks, I'd love to know how this turns out. Knowledge is power or so they say. Do you think something like fluzocole (or however it's spelled) would work for dinos? I works pretty good on gha and bryopis.

no not really.

 

Dino treatment is really due to cause and for many its ULN or none existing nutrients. finiding out what dino's you have really is important for treatment.

 

main competitors are pods, phyto, and other algae.

no waterchanges or feeding them with vitamins or amino's.

 

I am definitely keeping up with this situation because it's so important to know what I have done and if it can help anyone else, thats a bonus!

 

 

I have a tank lying around so if things go downhill, I will qt my fav corals to prevent loss.

 

 

 

[burtbollinger]

7 hours ago, Clown79 said:

no not really.

 

Dino treatment is really due to cause and for many its ULN or none existing nutrients. finiding out what dino's you have really is important for treatment.

 

main competitors are pods, phyto, and other algae.

no waterchanges or feeding them with vitamins or amino's.

 

I am definitely keeping up with this situation because it's so important to know what I have done and if it can help anyone else, thats a bonus!

 

 

I have a tank lying around so if things go downhill, I will qt my fav corals to prevent loss.

 

 

 

Thank you for documenting and for the clear explanations...pulling for you and your tank.

 

any thoughts of pulling the sand bed?

[JBM]

Why wait for things to go really downhill? Set up the qt now, then you can go as radical as you need to with your dt

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

8 hours ago, Clown79 said:

no not really.

 

Dino treatment is really due to cause and for many its ULN or none existing nutrients. finiding out what dino's you have really is important for treatment.

 

main competitors are pods, phyto, and other algae.

no waterchanges or feeding them with vitamins or amino's.

 

I am definitely keeping up with this situation because it's so important to know what I have done and if it can help anyone else, thats a bonus!

 

 

I have a tank lying around so if things go downhill, I will qt my fav corals to prevent loss.

 

 

 

That's really interesting, I'm gonna be checking in and to see your progress

[Clown79]

I just added a crap ton of pods/rotifers and removing all the sand at this time would be counterproductive when i am already seeing improvement.

 

It's literally throwing away  a $140

 

My qt is small and would be used in emergency for a few corals only. No fish.

 

Going radical will not happen for me because I simply won't do bleach dosing or antibiotic dosing in my dt, if it gets that bad the tank will be broken down, a full out system cleaning and complete new start up would need to be done.

 

 

Everything i have read has said not to make drastic changes or too many changes during dino's. 

Small changes at a time and give the system a chance because doing radical things doesn't prevent their return, finding the cause and correcting it puts them back into a dormant stage

 

[vlangel]

2 hours ago, Clown79 said:

I just added a crap ton of pods/rotifers and removing all the sand at this time would be counterproductive when i am already seeing improvement.

 

It's literally throwing away  a $140

 

My qt is small and would be used in emergency for a few corals only. No fish.

 

Going radical will not happen for me because I simply won't do bleach dosing or antibiotic dosing in my dt, if it gets that bad the tank will be broken down, a full out system cleaning and complete new start up would need to be done.

 

 

Everything i have read has said not to make drastic changes or too many changes during dino's. 

Small changes at a time and give the system a chance because doing radical things doesn't prevent their return, finding the cause and correcting it puts them back into a dormant stage

 

I agree with you clown.  I think adding the pods/rotifer is a good move.  If you have a local marine club, I would try to get some sand samples from other tank owners to diversify your sandbed.  If you are not opposed to macro algae, maybe add some to outcompete.

[Clown79]

6 hours ago, vlangel said:

I agree with you clown.  I think adding the pods/rotifer is a good move.  If you have a local marine club, I would try to get some sand samples from other tank owners to diversify your sandbed.  If you are not opposed to macro algae, maybe add some to outcompete.

No marine clubs, just fw. Unfortunately.

 

So far the pods and lighting change have already taken down the amount, so I'm pleased with that.

Keeping my fingers crossed😁

 

I will see if I can get sand from someone I trust cause my 10g doesn't have enough to take from it.

[burtbollinger]

hows the fight going?

[Clown79]

Been meaning to update my journal but things got hectic for a bit.

 

Things have improved greatly. 

 

I started noticing a decrease in dino's when my phos reached above 0.04.  My nitrates took longer to increase. 

After daily (sometimes twice a day) reef roid feedings and every other day phyto dosing, my nitrates creeped slowly to 2.

 

I stopped removing the dino's because every day I saw less and less. As my nutrients increased, my corals looked better as well.

 

By the time my phos reached 0.10 and nitrates 5, dino's haven't been detected under microscope, so they are back in dormant form. 

 

Things look great. My corals have never looked better.

 

Since dino's can come back at any time, I am being very careful.

 

I will be changing my routine on this tank.

 

I am considering harvesting pods so that there is always a healthy population to add to the tank 

 

I plan to do less waterchanges and smaller ones.

 

I have reduced my phyto dosing to 2 times a week and reef roids are the same.

 

Unfortunately, yesterday I noticed a patch of my stylo all white. I then noticed this weird slime on it. I checked under microscope and I did locate something but had a hard time finding what it is.

 

Today 3/4's of the stylo had no flesh and checked under microscope and there were alot of the same organisms.

 

Someone advised me that it's RTN from a pallister parasite. 

I removed the remaining stylo and checked under microscope again and I could not find any of the parasite once the stylo was removed.

 

It's a real shame, the stylo was finally growing and looking great.

[FISHnChix]

Didnt know you where battling dinos but the tank is sure looking sexy again!!! Keep up the good work! 😊

[Clown79]

31 minutes ago, FISHnChix said:

Didnt know you where battling dinos but the tank is sure looking sexy again!!! Keep up the good work! 😊

Thanks!

 

Just keeping my fingers crossed. Dino's are not fun:)

 

 

[Clown79]

here are the microscope pics of pallister parasite and the stylo.

 

 

My soon to be qt tank for a new addition. gotta get a nice piece of pvc for the fish.

going to be adding a Starcki Damsel.

[fishfreak0114]

Sorry about the stylo, but everything else certainly looks amazing!

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

11 hours ago, Clown79 said:

Been meaning to update my journal but things got hectic for a bit.

 

Things have improved greatly. 

 

I started noticing a decrease in dino's when my phos reached above 0.04.  My nitrates took longer to increase. 

After daily (sometimes twice a day) reef roid feedings and every other day phyto dosing, my nitrates creeped slowly to 2.

 

I stopped removing the dino's because every day I saw less and less. As my nutrients increased, my corals looked better as well.

 

By the time my phos reached 0.10 and nitrates 5, dino's haven't been detected under microscope, so they are back in dormant form. 

 

Things look great. My corals have never looked better.

 

Since dino's can come back at any time, I am being very careful.

 

I will be changing my routine on this tank.

 

I am considering harvesting pods so that there is always a healthy population to add to the tank 

 

I plan to do less waterchanges and smaller ones.

 

I have reduced my phyto dosing to 2 times a week and reef roids are the same.

 

Unfortunately, yesterday I noticed a patch of my stylo all white. I then noticed this weird slime on it. I checked under microscope and I did locate something but had a hard time finding what it is.

 

Today 3/4's of the stylo had no flesh and checked under microscope and there were alot of the same organisms.

 

Someone advised me that it's RTN from a pallister parasite. 

I removed the remaining stylo and checked under microscope again and I could not find any of the parasite once the stylo was removed.

 

It's a real shame, the stylo was finally growing and looking great.

That's great news Clown! I'm glad it's working out well for you. It's nice to know what can be done if it happens to someone else.

[TomsReef23]

Love the Ric garden, looking amazing! 

[Jazzfish]

Following. Everything in this thread has been so helpful. Will continue to follow!

 

[xthunt]

On 4/24/2019 at 10:00 PM, Clown79 said:

Been meaning to update my journal but things got hectic for a bit.

 

Things have improved greatly. 

 

I started noticing a decrease in dino's when my phos reached above 0.04.  My nitrates took longer to increase. 

After daily (sometimes twice a day) reef roid feedings and every other day phyto dosing, my nitrates creeped slowly to 2.

 

I stopped removing the dino's because every day I saw less and less. As my nutrients increased, my corals looked better as well.

 

By the time my phos reached 0.10 and nitrates 5, dino's haven't been detected under microscope, so they are back in dormant form. 

 

Things look great. My corals have never looked better.

 

Since dino's can come back at any time, I am being very careful.

 

I will be changing my routine on this tank.

 

I am considering harvesting pods so that there is always a healthy population to add to the tank 

 

I plan to do less waterchanges and smaller ones.

 

I have reduced my phyto dosing to 2 times a week and reef roids are the same.

 

Unfortunately, yesterday I noticed a patch of my stylo all white. I then noticed this weird slime on it. I checked under microscope and I did locate something but had a hard time finding what it is.

 

Today 3/4's of the stylo had no flesh and checked under microscope and there were alot of the same organisms.

 

Someone advised me that it's RTN from a pallister parasite. 

I removed the remaining stylo and checked under microscope again and I could not find any of the parasite once the stylo was removed.

 

It's a real shame, the stylo was finally growing and looking great.

 

I notice two Primes on your water reflection. Hows that working out for you? Adjust your settings to compensate?

[Clown79]

3 hours ago, xthunt said:

 

I notice two Primes on your water reflection. Hows that working out for you? Adjust your settings to compensate?

I had to drop the percentages and photo period when I got the dino's. I haven't switched it back because all my corals have never looked better.

 

So definitely 1 prime on a high percentage works, although some of my corals simply would expand.

 

With the 2 I run everything lower and I have better extension and growth.

 

The only things in my tank that respond well to high light are the sps.

 

 

[Jazzfish]

Just delivered my IM 30L yesterday-will set up & transfer this weekend or next. Wondering do you have some kind of cover over the back filtration area-since the net lid does not cover that? How to keep out dust & dirt (and cat hairs) from getting in there. The AIO I have now (this is what I'm upgrading from) has a cover just for that area.

[DaveFason]

Tank is looking stellar. Glad to finally see an update. 

-D

[Clown79]

2 hours ago, DaveFason said:

Tank is looking stellar. Glad to finally see an update. 

-D

Thanks so much. Thankfully, the dino's are gone and not too much was effected badly. 

[debbeach13]

You did a great job documenting the battle against the dino's. We all thank you for your diligence and for sharing.