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Cyano battle ends - onto a new guest - Dino's...


CAfirstReef

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On 2/22/2018 at 6:22 AM, brandon429 said:

both the enduring cyano and the new dinos invasion can be fixed by handling the entire tank as the issue, not just the invader.

+1

 

Making any algae (or even nutrients) out to be an enemy is the wrong approach.  You made things ideal for the dino's – so you have to make things ideal for the right things now.

 

@CAfirstReefDino's love it when you starve everything around them – they just switch to eating bacteria, start generating mucus and toxins and enjoy all the new real estate you've opened for them.  So stay away from carbon dosing, GFO and every other form of nutrient removal until your tank is mature and can withstand it.  The way to combat nutrients is on the front end – by keeping your livestock levels within what the tank can support.  That means growing your bioload slowly.

 

Everything else you will do is a short term measure that won't amount to anything in the long run if you don't change what led to the problem in the first place:  Starving your tank to kill algae.

 

If you haven't cleaned up the tank, and it needs it, then that's usually job #1.  If the sand bed is too dirty, consider removing it completely....replacing it is optional.

 

If your nutrients don't start to recover after a round or two of intensive cleaning, then you'll have to take some extra steps to shut down the dino bloom.

 

What If It's Not Dino's?

Well if you're not sure, then you need to get sure.  (It's not difficult.)

 

Taking pics through a microscope is the best bet – even a $10 toy microscope works!

 

If you don't have a scope, then do this to confirm if it's dino's:

  • Put a sample in a vial and shake it up into smithereens.
  • Leave the vial under light and see if the smithereens regroup into a snotty mass.
    • YES:  Dino's
    • NO:  Other
  • Add another sample to a vial and top it up with grocery store (3%) peroxide and see if the sample bubbles.
    • YES:  Cyano
    • NO:  Other
  • If your sample fails both tests, then chrysophytes or diatoms are likely.  
  • A co-bloom of cyano AND something else is pretty likely, so be prepared for mixed results. :) 
On 2/26/2018 at 9:22 AM, CAfirstReef said:

I just got a new RO/DI after going on about a year without DI

Diatoms are a much more likely possibility than if you had been running a full RODI this whole time.

 

I would still boost your basic husbandry in all ways possible, and run the tests you are able to in order to find out what's blooming – but I'm curious what difference just having DI on the system will make.

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CAfirstReef

Thanks @mcarroll

 

It's been a busy week, our trip with a 2 year old is proving much more hands on to plan and I haven't had time to do the full scrubbing this weekend as I hoped :(

 

I'll do those tests asap and let you know. (Water change is tomorrow so I'll do it along with that) - How long could it take for them to regroup?

 

I haven't done any dosing for a while now, waiting on this to clear up, good to see I'm on the right path there, however I've thrown in a bag of chemipure blue. Will remove that for now. Only reason I did that was an uneducated guess, because a few of the corals didn't look as happy as they were prior to this rebound outbreak, I'm guessing it was the wrong decision. They don't look any better for having that in for the last 5 days.

 

I have noticed a difference in the "growth and re-growth" of my problem. It has been significantly stunted in the last week and the only change was the RODI water vs just the RO. All my water, including my ato water is now the proper RODI stock as is any saltwater I've made (two 15% changes so far). My water is now testing at 0 TDS consistently from the source, though the resin is already 1.5" yellow.  The "friends" on the back wall of the tank that I managed to siphon off last water change had not grown back to the same extent. I'm still going to pull out the rock step by step, and remove all the growth and do a thorough cleaning, and clean the sand bed, the question is just when now.

 

I don't see any evidence of the cyano in the tank atm, looks like the chemiclean worked as it should for now.

 

I'm cleaning out the filter floss daily/every-other day atm, it's catching a lot, and skimmer is being emptied every other day as well. This need to clean out the floss daily is new, only the last week I've noticed it's dirty by the next day and change it out, previously it would be ok for up to 3-4 days.

Learning all my lessons the hard way of course, no matter the research done beforehand. Nothing like hands on experience.

 

I really appreciate the help from everyone!

 

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