The Fire Swamp's 50g SCA Starfire Cube- 🔥🐊. Upgrade Coming Soon

[ECLS Reefer]

Just now, Humblefish said:

If the concentration of velvet dinospores in the water column is high, they can kill a fish within 24 hours. The parasites attack the gills first, and the fish’s immune response causes excess mucous to build up in the gills. This unwittingly makes it more difficult for the fish to breathe, and sometimes the fish dies due to asphyxiation before white dots on the body ever shows.

Yeah there’s never been any spots on any of the fish at all. They’ve just been dead, found almost like they died right before I found them, every time.

[Humblefish]

Just now, Dirté Sanchez said:

Yeah there’s never been any spots on any of the fish at all. They’ve just been dead, found almost like they died right before I found them, every time.

There’s a good chance velvet is active in your tank. The established fish have acquired immunity (which is not always permanent), but the new fish have not.

[ECLS Reefer]

10 minutes ago, Humblefish said:

There’s a good chance velvet is active in your tank. The established fish have acquired immunity (which is not always permanent), but the new fish have not.

How do I fix that? How can I ever add fish successfully again??

[Snow_Phoenix]

2 hours ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

How do I fix that? How can I ever add fish successfully again??

If I'm not mistaken, you'll have to remove all the current fish and let the display go fallow for a certain period of time (not sure, best check with Humblefish first). I'd temporarily hold off getting any fish for the moment though.

 

Very sorry to hear about the losses. 😞 

[mcarroll]

12 hours ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

Just as a summary, the tank is now 7 months old. Here's the run down:

 

SCA Starfire 50g cube with 18g sump

Started (4/16/19)

 

Equipment: 

Reef Octopus OCT-MF300B media reactor

Highgrow 36W Deep red 660nm grow light bulb

Jebao 4 channel dose pump with 4 dosing chambers (Seachem RF 1 & 2, Seachem Iodide, Brightwell Aquatics Magnesion)

 

Filter Media: 

1/4 cup Kolar labs GFO high capacity

1/4 cup Seachem carbon

Chaeto

Caulerpa

 

Inverts/corals:

Electric blue hermit crab x2

Halloween hermit crab x2

Dwarf blue hermit crab x?

Dwarf red hermit crab x?

Red pistol shrimp x1

Bumble bee snails x?

Trochus snails x?

Cerith snail x?

Nassarius snail x?

Conch snail x?

Margarita snails x?

Emerald crabs x handful

In sump: conch snail, emerald crabs, gulf rock crab, margarita snails

 

BRISTLE WORMS- not sure that there are any

 

Star polyp x 2 (one split into two sections thanks to hermits, so there’s three-ish)

Palys x1 (nebula)

Hairy mushroom x1 (all on one big rock)

Hammer x 1 (suffering)

Torch x2-3 (suffering)

Montipora x3

Zoa x large colony

Sun coral x1

Red and white gorgonian x1

Orange and white gorgonian x1

Goniopora x2

Alveopora x1

Acropora x2

RFA x 6

Bubble tip anemone x1

I left in all the summary points that I see a problem with or have issues or questions about.   I removed the images for space, but I commented about them below.

 

Roughly as you brought the points up, here we go....

 

Your nutrient levels are fine where they are and have been....and fine even if they were higher. 

 

You really should IMO disable the refugium and GFO and stop trying to control nutrients on the back end like that.  If nutrient control is important at all (very debatable) then it HAS to be done on the front end by (e.g.) limiting fish and thus the quantity of food that will get put into the tank every day.

 

That advice goes for any tank....double for any relatively new tank....and triple for a tank that has had a dino outbreak within the scope of memory.

 

Specific gravity was kinda all over the place over the period of time you posted numbers for....and 1.029 is pretty dang high, definitely enough to tweak some things, corals included.   

 

Your mineral test levels would go high along with overall salinity, so ignore  or take with a grain of salt (get it? 🤣) any test results for ca, alk and mg from when salinity was off.   As far as this is concerned, IMO you have a BIG salinity issue not an alkalinity issue or anything else.   (Your brother was chasing a ghost.)

 

That cleanup crew is no good.....WAY overboard on scavengers and almost no algae specialists.  This may account for your lack of bristleworms.

 

I would remove all the conchs and hermit crabs, bumble bees and Nassarius....perhaps leave two or three at most.

 

Add to the Margarite's and Ceriths to balance out the number of scavengers you remove.  You can add anything herbivorous.....Turbo, Trochus, Astrea, Nerites...or more of what you have.

 

Start pulling out that algae by hand before it gets any more established.  It's already way too big for most CUC and even most fish.

 

 

8 hours ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

So I left on vacation for a week with two healthy lyretail anthias, two disbars, the two clowns, a small YWG, the YTD, and the starry blenny. Came back to no lyretails and somewhat sickly looking disbars. The goby getting beat up by the shrimp is a one-off I think, and the other fish look okay. 
 

BUT. During the month of November I mysteriously lost two different types of angels in 24 hours each, one tang, and the yellow coris wrasse that had always been healthy died, as well as a leopard that had been active and eating well. A replacement yellow coris died in 24 hours too. Established fish have fared well, but I can’t add anything new without it dying in 24 hours. 
 

[....]

As for toxins, we don’t burn candles anywhere near the tank. The cleaning is done biweekly and they know not to spray anything near the tank. I don’t use scented oils in the house either. As for dinos, I have gone back and forth about some growth in the sump. There’s none in the DT, but in the sump there is a purple slime type algae growth that comes and goes depending on amount of light given to the macro. And in the DT there is green hair like algae but I’m no expert and I’m not positive if it’s truly GHA or briopsis. 

 

Holy moly that was a lot of fish....a lot of big fish too.   IMO look no further than stocking density (in a very new tank to boot) for the source of your fish problems. 

 

Your HVAC will push toxic vapors around the house just like it pushes cooking smells or cigarette smoke.....I'd lose the candle habit or go totally unscented if you have any suspicion at all this may be related.   (IMO, as noted alread, we have bigger fish to fry.....get it?  🤣)

 

7 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

I think you were overstocked for a 50-gallon cube, there were a lot of fish that you just listed both that recently died or that are still in the tank.

Agreed.

 

7 hours ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

When you clean the sand, how do you go about it, in simple terms? I siphon it every water change but obviously it isn’t enough. 
 

As for the fish, most of them were within the stated minimums, and I calculated potential max size against the fish per gallon rule, although everyone has their opinion about how many fish inch per gallon. Even if half per, I stayed within the max range. The tangs I knew would outgrow the tank; I just wanted help with algae growth. I didn’t have all those fish at the same time by the way. 

With the amount of scavengers you have, there should be little or no need for you to do anything to the sand bed!

 

I'm not aware of any widely agreed upon standard for fish stocking density within the hobby.   Any numbers I've heard thrown around over the years have been lopsided toward overstocking.

 

In aquaculture they stock on a basis of mass (or weight) of fish per gallon, and there are some pretty well established guidelines.   Not many of our ornamental fish have known masses though, so the computation is effectively impossible....today at least.  (I've found data for Yellow Tangs and not much else, surprisingly.)  

 

3 hours ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

I posted a couple of pictures up above- the concern about dinos versus cyano- I cant tell very well and I have no microscope like some. Wouldn’t know what I was looking for if I did. 
 

three of the fish did come through a prolonged QT for possible velvet/ich. The other three have shown no signs of stress  though, and I thought anthias are susceptible fish to bad stuff? The LFS that double tested  my water the other day said it was shock of some time for them to die in 24hours. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I would definitely not add any more fish until the overall state of the tank has totally turned around and I wouldn't expect that for months, potentially.   Salinity spikes are tough for things that aren't adapted to them.   I would consider adding one or two new corals to have a new benchmark to look at for signs of progress (or trouble) in addition to the state of your existing corals.

 

If you stop trying to deplete dissolved nutrients, a dino outbreak should be almost impossible.  If you have any level of suspicion about one, take a sample of it in a vial with some tank water, shake it vigorously to homogenize it, then leave the sample for a while under lights to see if any of the algae recombines into any kind of a mass.  Only dino's will do that.

 

....and if you DON'T find that it's dino's then stop worrying (about nutrients and about algae!) -- you just have normal algae for a tank this age.  👍

[ECLS Reefer]

3 hours ago, mcarroll said:

I left in all the summary points that I see a problem with or have issues or questions about.   I removed the images for space, but I commented about them below.

 

Roughly as you brought the points up, here we go....

 

Your nutrient levels are fine where they are and have been....and fine even if they were higher. 

 

You really should IMO disable the refugium and GFO and stop trying to control nutrients on the back end like that.  If nutrient control is important at all (very debatable) then it HAS to be done on the front end by (e.g.) limiting fish and thus the quantity of food that will get put into the tank every day.

 

That advice goes for any tank....double for any relatively new tank....and triple for a tank that has had a dino outbreak within the scope of memory.

 

Specific gravity was kinda all over the place over the period of time you posted numbers for....and 1.029 is pretty dang high, definitely enough to tweak some things, corals included.   

 

Your mineral test levels would go high along with overall salinity, so ignore  or take with a grain of salt (get it? 🤣) any test results for ca, alk and mg from when salinity was off.   As far as this is concerned, IMO you have a BIG salinity issue not an alkalinity issue or anything else.   (Your brother was chasing a ghost.)

 

That cleanup crew is no good.....WAY overboard on scavengers and almost no algae specialists.  This may account for your lack of bristleworms.

 

I would remove all the conchs and hermit crabs, bumble bees and Nassarius....perhaps leave two or three at most.

 

Add to the Margarite's and Ceriths to balance out the number of scavengers you remove.  You can add anything herbivorous.....Turbo, Trochus, Astrea, Nerites...or more of what you have.

 

Start pulling out that algae by hand before it gets any more established.  It's already way too big for most CUC and even most fish.

 

 

 

Holy moly that was a lot of fish....a lot of big fish too.   IMO look no further than stocking density (in a very new tank to boot) for the source of your fish problems. 

 

Your HVAC will push toxic vapors around the house just like it pushes cooking smells or cigarette smoke.....I'd lose the candle habit or go totally unscented if you have any suspicion at all this may be related.   (IMO, as noted alread, we have bigger fish to fry.....get it?  🤣)

 

Agreed.

 

With the amount of scavengers you have, there should be little or no need for you to do anything to the sand bed!

 

I'm not aware of any widely agreed upon standard for fish stocking density within the hobby.   Any numbers I've heard thrown around over the years have been lopsided toward overstocking.

 

In aquaculture they stock on a basis of mass (or weight) of fish per gallon, and there are some pretty well established guidelines.   Not many of our ornamental fish have known masses though, so the computation is effectively impossible....today at least.  (I've found data for Yellow Tangs and not much else, surprisingly.)  

 

I would definitely not add any more fish until the overall state of the tank has totally turned around and I wouldn't expect that for months, potentially.   Salinity spikes are tough for things that aren't adapted to them.   I would consider adding one or two new corals to have a new benchmark to look at for signs of progress (or trouble) in addition to the state of your existing corals.

 

If you stop trying to deplete dissolved nutrients, a dino outbreak should be almost impossible.  If you have any level of suspicion about one, take a sample of it in a vial with some tank water, shake it vigorously to homogenize it, then leave the sample for a while under lights to see if any of the algae recombines into any kind of a mass.  Only dino's will do that.

 

....and if you DON'T find that it's dino's then stop worrying (about nutrients and about algae!) -- you just have normal algae for a tank this age.  👍

I'm not that worried about needing more fish anytime soon, though I miss my wrasses. They're my favorite fish group. But, no point in attempting anything unsafe for all at the moment. 

 

The salinity issues are related to my skimmer and the rate at which the filter floss gunks up. I change it when I see a high water level drop in the affected sump chamber, which is at least twice a week. But up until a few days ago my skimmer has been a huge PITA and wouldn't stabilize out or give the ATO time to replace appropriately. So I have been manually correcting the salinity swings. 

 

I did remove the media reactor and depleted media last night and replaced it with just a bag of carbon. I'll have to test the purple slime stuff tonight when I get home, though I feel like it acts more like cyano than how I've seen dinos spoken of. The slime appears with more light time and disappears when I give shorter sump light runs. It tends to only be in areas affected by a light source as well.

 

I haven't had to burn a candle in months, though we did have a couple of fires in the fireplace...

 

I'm not actively trying to drive down my nitrates levels, but to keep the phosphates within a reasonable level. I'm hoping the macro will do that for me- I want to be a media-less system if possible. I'd already changed my feeding habits to no pellets at all and mixing up multiple items diluted in saltwater to feed that tank twice per day for the anthias and the Evo once per day. The nitrates since have actually stabilized to be almost always 25-30 and no more. 

 

I need to beef up my alage eaters I agree. The inverts with question marks are because I don't know the exact number anymore, and it's probably very low to none. Ceriths by the tens though - those come out at night for counting. At least 4 emeralds and three pincushions but maybe only two margaritas left. Need more of those. Pretty sure the little crabs are Almost all gone leaving very very few of them, along with two and two for Halloween and electric blues which are all very large. So yeah, the CUC needs some addressing. 

 

I didn't realize the salinity wags the chemistry dog so to speak! That makes sense though because the elements were all up when the salinity was high. Thanks for pointing that out! 

[ECLS Reefer]

So in studying pictures of dinos and cyano, I guess I would lean towards there being dinos in the sump. I know the picture above didn’t clearly show what I can see with my own eyes, but I’m pretty sure the snot and bubbles are present in there. So if that is the case, what’s the best way to clean the sump out of the dinos? Because there are none in the DT (yet). 
 

I run the refugium light for about 12 hours at night. There are hermits and snails down there to stir things. 

[seabass]

18 minutes ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

what’s the best way to clean the sump out of the dinos? Because there are none in the DT (yet).  I run the refugium light for about 12 hours at night.

I would wait for the dinos to congregate in the sump (maybe after the light has been on for 10 hours).  Then I'd shut off the return to trap the dinos in the sump.  You can then clean out the sump.  Note that freshwater will kill dinos.

 

21 minutes ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

I guess I would lean towards there being dinos in the sump.

If dinos, the prevailing theory would suggest no water changes (some reasons given for this has been further starvation of competitors, a negative reaction of the dinos due to lower nutrient levels, or even replenishment of trace elements that dinos can utilize).

[ECLS Reefer]

5 minutes ago, seabass said:

I would wait for the dinos to congregate in the sump (maybe after the light has been on for 10 hours).  Then I'd shut off the return to trap the dinos in the sump.  You can then clean out the sump.  Note that freshwater will kill dinos.

 

If dinos, the prevailing theory would suggest no water changes (some reasons given for this has been further starvation of competitors, a negative reaction of the dinos due to lower nutrient levels, or even replenishment of trace elements that dinos can utilize).

Lord god I’m so confused at this point. Im

not where I can get a better picture until I get home tonight. This is what I have. There ARE bubbles in this. It DOES occasionally stream upward in the flow of the sump chamber it’s in. I haven’t seen the bubbles in the strings as in some of the pictures I’ve seen, but there’s definitely bubbles in there. If it’s truly dinos I would think that explains a lot toward things dying mysteriously. And I’ve been given to understand that dinos appear in low phos, low nitrates systems. 
 

So if I DONT change water, I should change floss frequently, remove the purple stuff frequently and have carbon? What else am I missing? This is why I need a reef babysitter for myself so they can draw instructions in crayon and talk to me like a simple child so I get it on the first run 🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️
 

 

[seabass]

39 minutes ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

There ARE bubbles in this. It DOES occasionally stream upward in the flow of the sump chamber it’s in.

This can still be cyano.  The bubbles are just a byproduct of photosynthesis.  To identify, you should perform the test that @mcarroll suggested.

 

41 minutes ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

So if I DONT change water, I should change floss frequently, remove the purple stuff frequently and have carbon?

Floss won't likely remove dinos from the water column.  Fresh activated carbon can remove the toxicity.  However, we are not yet sure of it being dinos.

[seabass]

Nutrients are often blamed for cyano; however, I feel that it's primarily a result of organics (could be organics in the sand bed or even dissolved organics in the water).

[mitten_reef]

If dino thrives in low nutrients environment as most often suggested, this system is far from that.  @mcarroll, what would you think of that riddle?  

 

Manual removal of any of the red stuff during water change.  get a slightly smaller python thingy, so you're not sucking out water too fast without being able to better clean the sand (if that's what I understood your earlier response correctly)  

 

managing nutrient is different from making your system devoid of nutrient.  we should be aiming for a better balance.  i know you said the N+P are steady now, but they're steady with hair algae and cyano flourishing - no bueno.  

[Tamberav]

1. That is cyano, not dino IMO. Cyano has bubbles too.

 

2. I would do a water change, at least enough to pull the sand bed. I personally want nothing magnetic in my sand or unknowns regardless if it works for some and not for others, I don't want to be the other.  You can pull the sand bed out over time slowly if you are nervous. I tend to just rip the bandaid off and take all my rock out and pull it. I have done this a lot. The tank will not cycle from a new sand bed, as long as it is added cleanly and you don't disterb a large portion of old sand while everything is still in the tank. 

 

3. No GFO (which I think you stopped). I would run carbon passively in a bag between baffles or in a rock, carbon can be pretty harsh too and I like to run it passive to attempt to reduce its harshness. I would keep using it just to remove any potential toxins. Also passive running means less plugs, less stuff to potentially leak voltage, less stuff to clean ect. 

 

4. I would get more CUC, algae eaters, reef-cleaners has an amazing selection right now.

 

5. Get salinity stable, even if you have to not run floss or run less floss... or run a mesh sock instead. My 25g has this same issue if I don't change floss often enough so if I know I am going to be busy and neglect the tank, I just pull all the floss out and don't run it so at least my salinity is stable. 

 

6. Let Alk come down, when shit goes bad, it is worse at high alk imo. I run my tanks no higher than 9. I let my new 80g go to 5 Alk (extreme I know) without any negative effects on health of coral (just slower growth). I let it drop this far because corals seem to handle changes better at low alk and I moved them all and set up a new tank, so lots of changes. Somewhere 7-9 would be good imo. If you do a larger water change, just buy a salt that runs lower alk like red sea blue bucket. 

 

7. Make sure to be cleaning debris off your rock, turkey baste them with water changes. The algae will trap more debris only fueling their own growth. Your nutrient levels are fine but organics are likely a problem.

 

 

 

 

[ECLS Reefer]

46 minutes ago, seabass said:

This can still be cyano.  The bubbles are just a byproduct of photosynthesis.  To identify, you should perform the test that @mcarroll suggested.

 

I will do this shake test tonight when I get home, see what it shows me. 

 

40 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

If dino thrives in low nutrients environment as most often suggested, this system is far from that.  @mcarroll, what would you think of that riddle?  

 

Manual removal of any of the red stuff during water change.  get a slightly smaller python thingy, so you're not sucking out water too fast without being able to better clean the sand (if that's what I understood your earlier response correctly)  

 

managing nutrient is different from making your system devoid of nutrient.  we should be aiming for a better balance.  i know you said the N+P are steady now, but they're steady with hair algae and cyano flourishing - no bueno.  

I can’t get good gravity angle with a siphon vac from the sump to a bucket. I bought a small hand bilge pump to get the funk out of there, just haven’t used it yet. 

 

20 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

1. That is cyano, not dino IMO. Cyano has bubbles too.

 

2. I would do a water change, at least enough to pull the sand bed. I personally want nothing magnetic in my sand or unknowns regardless if it works for some and not for others, I don't want to be the other.  You can pull the sand bed out over time slowly if you are nervous. I tend to just rip the bandaid off and take all my rock out and pull it. I have done this a lot. The tank will not cycle from a new sand bed, as long as it is added cleanly and you don't disterb a large portion of old sand while everything is still in the tank. 

 

3. No GFO (which I think you stopped). I would run carbon passively in a bag between baffles or in a rock, carbon can be pretty harsh too and I like to run it passive to attempt to reduce its harshness. I would keep using it just to remove any potential toxins. Also passive running means less plugs, less stuff to potentially leak voltage, less stuff to clean ect. 

 

4. I would get more CUC, algae eaters, reef-cleaners has an amazing selection right now.

 

5. Get salinity stable, even if you have to not run floss or run less floss... or run a mesh sock instead. My 25g has this same issue if I don't change floss often enough so if I know I am going to be busy and neglect the tank, I just pull all the floss out and don't run it so at least my salinity is stable. 

 

6. Let Alk come down, when shit goes bad, it is worse at high alk imo. I run my tanks no higher than 9. I let my new 80g go to 5 Alk (extreme I know) without any negative effects on health of coral (just slower growth). I let it drop this far because corals seem to handle changes better at low alk and I moved them all and set up a new tank, so lots of changes. Somewhere 7-9 would be good imo. If you do a larger water change, just buy a salt that runs lower alk like red sea blue bucket. 

 

7. Make sure to be cleaning debris off your rock, turkey baste them with water changes. The algae will trap more debris only fueling their own growth. Your nutrient levels are fine but organics are likely a problem.

 

 

 

 

Yes I pulled out the media reactor with spent GFO and carbon. Now there’s just a bag of carbon. I decreased the dose of RF 2 to decrease the alk, and I’ll test that tonight too. I’ve debated losing the filter floss before, but the way the sump is configured I have nothing to catch nasty stuff before hitting the return pump. I turkey baste every week with the water changes, and I also pointed the wave pump (one side of the gyre) and one of the outflow nozzles at the rock to continuously blow stuff off of them. What I DONT stir is the sump, A because it’s very tight in there and because of the siphon issue, and B because there’s a lot of nasty chaff that would stir. Now that I have that bulge pump I hope I can suck all of that out, which would help the nutrients too. 

[mcarroll]

Taking measures to address the salinity issue is definitely number one on your list. As was suggested by someone else, elliminate the filtration that is causing the problem if that's really what's going on.  

 

If you have to redesign anything, remember that your corals should actually be your mechanical and chemical filters. (In actuality it's more than them because there are bazillions of other organisms that come along with them including sponges and other invertebrates.)

 

Your macroalgae refugium is going to continue to compete with the rest of the organisms in the tank for nutrients including phosphates nitrates and everything else. I know it may seem counterintuitive, but I would shut down that refugium along with all of the other extra filtration — at the very least until you've forgotten about even the prospect of dinoflagellates and the tank has totally turned around.  growth of organisms in the tank will manage nutrients to the extent that they need to be. (Your new, lower fish load should translate within a few months to a lower nutrient system without you having to do anything at all....and it's a process that can't really be rushed.)

[ECLS Reefer]

51 minutes ago, mcarroll said:

Taking measures to address the salinity issue is definitely number one on your list. As was suggested by someone else, elliminate the filtration that is causing the problem if that's really what's going on.  

 

If you have to redesign anything, remember that your corals should actually be your mechanical and chemical filters. (In actuality it's more than them because there are bazillions of other organisms that come along with them including sponges and other invertebrates.)

 

Your macroalgae refugium is going to continue to compete with the rest of the organisms in the tank for nutrients including phosphates nitrates and everything else. I know it may seem counterintuitive, but I would shut down that refugium along with all of the other extra filtration — at the very least until you've forgotten about even the prospect of dinoflagellates and the tank has totally turned around.  growth of organisms in the tank will manage nutrients to the extent that they need to be. (Your new, lower fish load should translate within a few months to a lower nutrient system without you having to do anything at all....and it's a process that can't really be rushed.)

So instead of the filter floss, what can I slide in the sump baffle to keep large particulate garbage from getting kicked back to the display? Because that’s honestly the only reason I have it in there

[spectra]

Get a bucket head from home depot...………...that's what I use for cleaning the sump. Unless you want to spend more then just buy a shop vac...….

[ECLS Reefer]

1 minute ago, spectra said:

Get a bucket head from home depot...………...that's what I use for cleaning the sump. Unless you want to spend more then just buy a shop vac...….

What’s a bucket head?? (I’m sure you’re rolling your eyes now) 

[ECLS Reefer]

[seabass]

39 minutes ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

So instead of the filter floss, what can I slide in the sump baffle to keep large particulate garbage from getting kicked back to the display?

Filter floss is typically alright.  I think Matt was saying was that in a healthy reef tank, mechanical filtration might not even be needed.  However, with a potential organics problem, a little mechanical filtration (cleaned out regularly) might not be a bad thing.  Note that your filtration choices might change depending on a positive identification of cyano.

[mitten_reef]

25 minutes ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

Not that!

28 minutes ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

What’s a bucket head?? (I’m sure you’re rolling your eyes now) 

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Bucket-Head-5-Gal-1-75-Peak-HP-Wet-Dry-Vac-BH0100/202017218?g_store=2720&mtc=Shopping-B-F_D25T-G-D25T-25_14_WET_DRY_VACS-Multi-NA-Feed-PLA-NA-NA-WetDryVacs_PLA&cm_mmc=Shopping-B-F_D25T-G-D25T-25_14_WET_DRY_VACS-Multi-NA-Feed-PLA-NA-NA-WetDryVacs_PLA-71700000034127209-58700003933017535-92700031758439129&gclsrc=aw.ds&&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIkMfb6buf5gIVtyCtBh1JAA3GEAQYASABEgLBdPD_BwE

[ECLS Reefer]

4 minutes ago, seabass said:

Filter floss is alright.  Matt was saying that in a healthy reef tank, mechanical filtration might not even be needed; however, with a potential organics problem, a little mechanical filtration is probably a good thing.  Note that your filtration choices might change depending on a positive identification of cyano.

I’ll have to get a clear picture of what the sump chambers and baffles look like. It’s a super plain sump and the way the refugium is set in the center, I feel like the macro bits will just shoot under the baffle and up the returns without something to block it like FF. If there’s a holy plexiglass or plastic I could do instead of the FF I’d be game, just a trash trapper.

[ECLS Reefer]

5 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

Not that!

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Bucket-Head-5-Gal-1-75-Peak-HP-Wet-Dry-Vac-BH0100/202017218?g_store=2720&mtc=Shopping-B-F_D25T-G-D25T-25_14_WET_DRY_VACS-Multi-NA-Feed-PLA-NA-NA-WetDryVacs_PLA&cm_mmc=Shopping-B-F_D25T-G-D25T-25_14_WET_DRY_VACS-Multi-NA-Feed-PLA-NA-NA-WetDryVacs_PLA-71700000034127209-58700003933017535-92700031758439129&gclsrc=aw.ds&&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIkMfb6buf5gIVtyCtBh1JAA3GEAQYASABEgLBdPD_BwE

Ooooohhhh okay. I’ll try the hand bilge thing I bought first and if it doesn’t work I’ll put a bucket on my head AND try @spectra’s idea. 

[ECLS Reefer]

Soooooo..... possibly dinos and other algae?

 

 

[ECLS Reefer]

If the IG link isn’t great here’s at least the pictures. I shook the tube for a good 5 minutes. Some of it broke up into hair algae, some looked like flakes almost like seaweed and some wouldn’t come unclumped.