Dino's?

[justinkdenny]

With no lights on but light from room,  algae is on the rocks that looks green.  I guess that's positive.

[A.m.P]

Green and hairy algae are ugly, but better than dinos, dino's which aren't sliming or heterotrophic are also pretty-much just ugly and mostly harmless. If you think you can beat what's left with manual-removal, I'd be tempted to go for it.

[justinkdenny]

1 minute ago, Amphrites said:

Green and hairy algae are ugly, but better than dinos, dino's which aren't sliming or hetertrophic are also pretty-much just ugly and mostly harmless. If you think you can beat what's left with manual-removal, I'd be tempted to go for it.

I agree 100%.  I have never been excited for hair algae. Lol.  I plan to keep trying manual removal and hope other algae outcompetes it.   Still no coraline though and have thought about adding the coraline in a bottle.

[seabass]

4 hours ago, justinkdenny said:

thought about adding the coraline in a bottle

If the price doesn't bother you, then do it.  However, don't expect immediate and/or miraculous results.  Conditions have to be right for coralline growth (which can include good/stable parameters, clean surfaces, etc).  Even then, it could take several weeks (or longer) to start noticing spots growing.

[justinkdenny]

4 hours ago, seabass said:

If the price doesn't bother you, then do it.  However, don't expect immediate and/or miraculous results.  Conditions have to be right for coralline growth (which can include good/stable parameters, clean surfaces, etc).  Even then, it could take several weeks (or longer) to start noticing spots growing.

The only reason I'm considering this is because I have yet to get anything to seed my tank with.  A few of the snails and hermits have had minute amounts of coraline algae and the frags I have gotten have little to none.  My good lfs doesn't have live rock with much on it because I asked about purchasing some rock rubble with it but they had none. They are curing the fake stuff that looks purple and what looks like dry rock. I figure some is actual live rock but dont see much on it.

[justinkdenny]

Well cleaning with brush and changing filter floss out multiple times has not helped a bit.  This is so frustrating 

[A.m.P]

Brushing is a no-go usually, gotta vacuum them out if you're going for manual-removal.

[justinkdenny]

56 minutes ago, Amphrites said:

Brushing is a no-go usually, gotta vacuum them out if you're going for manual-removal.

They will not siphon off of the rocks is the problem.   

[A.m.P]

Wait, brown stuff with air-bubbles which won't siphon off of rocks sounds more like diatoms, are they still goopy, stringy, slimy and runny? Or are they more powdery - dusty, hairy, and crusty?

[j.falk]

22 hours ago, justinkdenny said:

Well cleaning with brush and changing filter floss out multiple times has not helped a bit.  This is so frustrating 

My dinos looked exactly like yours.  I was able to get rid of them over the past 2 weeks by doing the following on my 20 gallon nano:

 

- No water changes.

- Change carbon weekly.

- Took out a third of my Marco dry rock and replaced it with liverock from a friend's long established tank.

- Added 1 1/2 cups of used sand from the friend's tank.

- Added one bag of pods from Reefcleaners.org

- Upped feeding my fish to 2-3 times a day.

- Added Seachem AquaVitro Seed live bacteria daily until the entire bottle was gone.

- Started feeding 2 Little Fishies Marine Snow phytoplankton daily.

- Reduced the intensity of my AI Prime HD+ light settings to less than 50% of maximum power and knocked back my photoperiod to 7 hours per day.

- Manual removal with a turkey baster and filtering the water through filter floss in the evenings when the strands were the worst.

- Scooped out and threw away areas of the sand bed where the dinos were the growing the fastest.

 

I truly believe the key to winning against them is to get more organisms into your tank.  I didn't start noticing a significant difference until after I had added the  liverock, sand and the pods.  If you know of anyone in your area that has a long running/established tank...see if they'll sell you some sand and rock.  

[A.m.P]

1 hour ago, j.falk said:

My dinos looked exactly like yours.  I was able to get rid of them over the past 2 weeks by doing the following on my 20 gallon nano:

 

- No water changes.

- Change carbon weekly.

- Took out a third of my Marco dry rock and replaced it with liverock from a friend's long established tank.

- Added 1 1/2 cups of used sand from the friend's tank.

- Added one bag of pods from Reefcleaners.org

- Upped feeding my fish to 2-3 times a day.

- Added Seachem AquaVitro Seed live bacteria daily until the entire bottle was gone.

- Started feeding 2 Little Fishies Marine Snow phytoplankton daily.

- Reduced the intensity of my AI Prime HD+ light settings to less than 50% of maximum power and knocked back my photoperiod to 7 hours per day.

- Manual removal with a turkey baster and filtering the water through filter floss in the evenings when the strands were the worst.

- Scooped out and threw away areas of the sand bed where the dinos were the growing the fastest.

 

I truly believe the key to winning against them is to get more organisms into your tank.  I didn't start noticing a significant difference until after I had added the  liverock, sand and the pods.  If you know of anyone in your area that has a long running/established tank...see if they'll sell you some sand and rock.  

Some folks have success adding bacteria and others don't lol, mixed bag with that part as they can also drive your nutrients down and some species of dino's will feed on the bacteria as well IIRC. Glad yours have quieted down!

[RemoGaggi]

I've been dealing with dinos (Ostreopsis) the last few weeks in my Nuvo IM20 and I've been following Clown79's suggestions.  I lowered my lights to 65-RGB and 10 white, shortened the light cycle, stopped water changes and after a couple days I saw a significant decrease in the dinos.  I didn't add any pods but I started adding reef nutrition phytofeast and after a couple days I actually saw some pods on the glass.  Things were looking good the dinos had decreased significantly.  I had read that some have used a UV sterilizer with success so I figured I'd get one (Aquashield 9watt) to finish off the dinos.  Nope, after running the UV at night only for 2 nights, they dinos started coming back.  I've stopped the UV now for the last 2 nights and now I'm pretty much back to where I was before the UV.  Any ideas how the UV could increase dinos?  Could it be the UV is killing off pods and other organisms that are helpful in the dino fight?

[j.falk]

7 hours ago, RemoGaggi said:

Could it be the UV is killing off pods and other organisms that are helpful in the dino fight?

From my understanding of uv sterilizers, it kills off anything that gets filtered through it.  Good stuff, bad stuff...it all dies.

[Clown79]

10 hours ago, RemoGaggi said:

I've been dealing with dinos (Ostreopsis) the last few weeks in my Nuvo IM20 and I've been following Clown79's suggestions.  I lowered my lights to 65-RGB and 10 white, shortened the light cycle, stopped water changes and after a couple days I saw a significant decrease in the dinos.  I didn't add any pods but I started adding reef nutrition phytofeast and after a couple days I actually saw some pods on the glass.  Things were looking good the dinos had decreased significantly.  I had read that some have used a UV sterilizer with success so I figured I'd get one (Aquashield 9watt) to finish off the dinos.  Nope, after running the UV at night only for 2 nights, they dinos started coming back.  I've stopped the UV now for the last 2 nights and now I'm pretty much back to where I was before the UV.  Any ideas how the UV could increase dinos?  Could it be the UV is killing off pods and other organisms that are helpful in the dino fight?

Uv works on some strains but not all strains

 

Uv can also kill off beneficial life as well as the bad stuff.

[mcarroll]

10 hours ago, RemoGaggi said:

I've been dealing with dinos (Ostreopsis) the last few weeks in my Nuvo IM20 and I've been following Clown79's suggestions.  I lowered my lights to 65-RGB and 10 white, shortened the light cycle, stopped water changes and after a couple days I saw a significant decrease in the dinos.  I didn't add any pods but I started adding reef nutrition phytofeast and after a couple days I actually saw some pods on the glass.  Things were looking good the dinos had decreased significantly.  I had read that some have used a UV sterilizer with success so I figured I'd get one (Aquashield 9watt) to finish off the dinos.  Nope, after running the UV at night only for 2 nights, they dinos started coming back.  I've stopped the UV now for the last 2 nights and now I'm pretty much back to where I was before the UV.  Any ideas how the UV could increase dinos?  Could it be the UV is killing off pods and other organisms that are helpful in the dino fight?

If you have done nothing to enforce positive nutrient levels such as dosing nitrate and phosphate, then that's where you should probably begin.  UV is only a cleanup tool, not the cure.

[justinkdenny]

So do you think dino toxins are killing my pods which I'm trying to establish to help defeat dinos? I purchased Poseidons feast from algaebarn that has tisbe and Tigri pods along with phytoplankton.   I added half to jar of pods to tank after lights out and started a culture with the other half.  I have since saw a boom in my culture and have added some to my tank 2 more times.  When I check for pods after lights out, I still see nothing.  I know my clownfish eats some but shouldn't I see some at night? I also dose phyto dairy fyi.

[A.m.P]

I'd say it depends on the stage they were in, some are going to be small enough to be near-impossible to spot, others may still be in a benthic stage, you'll definitely see adult Tigger pods though (they get big).

[justinkdenny]

1 hour ago, Amphrites said:

I'd say it depends on the stage they were in, some are going to be small enough to be near-impossible to spot, others may still be in a benthic stage, you'll definitely see adult Tigger pods though (they get big).

They were tiny when I bought them but I could see them with the naked eye in the clear bottle.

[Clown79]

5 hours ago, justinkdenny said:

So do you think dino toxins are killing my pods which I'm trying to establish to help defeat dinos? I purchased Poseidons feast from algaebarn that has tisbe and Tigri pods along with phytoplankton.   I added half to jar of pods to tank after lights out and started a culture with the other half.  I have since saw a boom in my culture and have added some to my tank 2 more times.  When I check for pods after lights out, I still see nothing.  I know my clownfish eats some but shouldn't I see some at night? I also dose phyto dairy fyi.

No, I don't think so.

 

I seeded my tank with rotifers and tisbe. Not only did my dino's start going away within a few days, the pods flourished after. I had tons of them.

 

Most pods hide with light, they are at threat when lights are on.

 

 

[justinkdenny]

2 hours ago, Clown79 said:

No, I don't think so.

 

I seeded my tank with rotifers and tisbe. Not only did my dino's start going away within a few days, the pods flourished after. I had tons of them.

 

Most pods hide with light, they are at threat when lights are on.

 

 

Clown79, I have been checking after lights out and still dont see any.  Is this normal?  I'm going to harvest another batch this weekend to add to aquarium. 

[j.falk]

When I added my pods, I dumped the whole thing in.  Two days later I saw them climbing all over the glass after lights out.

[mcarroll]

10 hours ago, justinkdenny said:

So do you think dino toxins are killing my pods which I'm trying to establish to help defeat dinos? I purchased Poseidons feast from algaebarn that has tisbe and Tigri pods along with phytoplankton.   I added half to jar of pods to tank after lights out and started a culture with the other half.  I have since saw a boom in my culture and have added some to my tank 2 more times.  When I check for pods after lights out, I still see nothing.  I know my clownfish eats some but shouldn't I see some at night? I also dose phyto dairy fyi.

What were your last phosphate and nitrate tests like?

[justinkdenny]

9 hours ago, mcarroll said:

What were your last phosphate and nitrate tests like?

I have got my nitrates up to around 15 ppm so I have backed off on dosing that and have struggled to show a reading with phosphates  using salifert kit.  We decided it might be .003 ppm.  I have dosed it along side of the nitrate from brightwell as well as heavy feeding .

[justinkdenny]

I did have a single bubble algea pop up and I saw a type of sponge show up and grow on a coral frag that previously wasn't there so I guess that is a good sign?  I also believe I have some hair algea going now too.

[seabass]

30 minutes ago, justinkdenny said:

struggled to show a reading with phosphates  using salifert kit

Yeah, it can be tough.  However, you should see a slight blueish tint (whether you can directly match it to the card or not).  If it's completely clear, then the phosphate level is low.

 

28 minutes ago, justinkdenny said:

I did have a single bubble algea pop up.

I would carefully remove it (even to the point of breaking off the chunk of rock it's on), and watch for more.