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Cultivated Reef

Dino's?


justinkdenny

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10 hours ago, ReeferND said:

Kinda late to the game here but I beat dinos (confirmed with microscopic examination). DinoX worked for me in collaboration with high nitrate and phosphate levels. I beat them (see my build thread) by dosing DinoX (corals hated it, expect loses) and keeping nitrate > 10ppm and phos > 0.1 (not 0.01). I haven't seen them in months after doing this. 

 

I truly appreciate the natural approaches to getting rid of dinos but dinos are tough. Once you have them,  you will probably never get completely rid of them. But you can keep them in check and unnoticed in the tank. Again, I have not read through then entire post. Are you sure you have dinos? You need a microscope in most cases...and it is obvious with a microscope if you do. You may be fighting something different so complete and 100% ID of the problem is needed. 

Yes I have confirmed with a microscope.   Well a poor excuse for a microscope.   It's either Ostreopsis or amphidinium. 

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9 hours ago, Clown79 said:

I had 2 tailspots, both were very finicky. Besides grazing algae they wouldn't eat anything else. 

 

They weren't interested in nori either

 

 

I have a bangaii that will only eat frozen mysis.

 

I've tried ocean nutrition formula two, I've tried pellets, and reef nutrition beta brine.  He likes beta brine best.

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1 hour ago, justinkdenny said:

Yes I have confirmed with a microscope.   Well a poor excuse for a microscope.   It's either Ostreopsis or amphidinium. 

I don't think dino x works on these strains. It only works on certain strains.

 

Dino's are always in the tank but they are in a "dormant" stage.

 

When you do get rid of them, you won't see them under microscope.

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Dino update 

I have been siphoning sand bed daily and running it through 10 micro ( or at least that what Amazon said it was) sock and returning water to tank.  

Tested yesterday 

Nitrate= 25

Phosphates = 0.1

Pleased with these numbers 

 

Sea hare is doing a good job on hair algae.

I have been dipping corals in 3% peroxide and tank water to help with struggling coral.  Already lost chalice and others look bad.

 

Seem to be less dinos in tank.  Dont know if what I'm doing is working or if it is just keeping them visually looking better.

 

Snails are very lethargic. 

 

Oh I also have been adding pods every few days from my  pod stash lol. Not sure how many I'm getting in there.  Still dont see them at night in tank.

 

That's about it.

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The more snails the better in terms of sharing the toxin load.....how many are you up to now?

 

I wonder if the sea hare is getting a buzz yet as well (but he's bigger) or if he's avoiding the dino's somehow?

 

I might consider trading the Sea Hare for Turbo snails if possible...4 or 5 more Turbos probably won't be too many if it's in trade.  I think I'd add at least 2-3 more herbivore snails regardless.

 

Any signs of coralline algae spreading?

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52 minutes ago, mcarroll said:

The more snails the better in terms of sharing the toxin load.....how many are you up to now?

 

I wonder if the sea hare is getting a buzz yet as well (but he's bigger) or if he's avoiding the dino's somehow?

 

I might consider trading the Sea Hare for Turbo snails if possible...4 or 5 more Turbos probably won't be too many if it's in trade.  I think I'd add at least 2-3 more herbivore snails regardless.

 

Any signs of coralline algae spreading?

5 or 6 algea snails and 1 nassarius. 

 

Sea hare does a great job but I will eventually have to bring him back to store.  I've never had turbos before.  Might eventually replace sea hare with those.  Are there any downsides to the turbo's?

 

Sea hare doesn't seem really effected bit he might be dodging the dinos.

 

I have a coralline algea spot about 1/2 inch diameter that I scrape some off when it grows.  I have 2 other spots the larger about 1/4 diameter and the other starting on the back wall.  When I turn blues off I can see small specks on rock but they have been there for a while but dont seem to grow.  Seems like they quit when the hair algea started taking over.  Maybe no clean surfaces to stick to?

 

My calcium is running high 485 and magnesium is high too 1455 but I'm trying to not do water changes, since they feed dinos, to correct it hoping it will eventually go down by coral consumption. 

 

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seems like plenty of good advice on here.  In case it hasn't been mentioned before, if biodiversity at the bacteria level is what's causing dino.  It stands to make sense that adding more bacteria would help.  not that other biodiversity won't help, but pods and others aren't small single-cell organism like dino.  I added aquavitro remediation to my tank, among other manual removal methods.  Note, I did this not for what the product says it would do.  But to introduce more variety of bacterial species.  Same could probably be done with other "tank starter" mix in a bottle out there.  

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@justinkdenny Just want to jump in and say I have been following your thread since the beginning and I think it's great that you created this and have been so diligent with updates.  

 

To your question about the turbo snails: I like these snails alot and think that they get a bad rap for knocking stuff over (which they definitely do), but for me they work like a champ and especially when paired up with trochus snails.  I collect turbo snails in the northern gulf of mexico where I live and they are absolute workhorses in all of my tanks.  I guess that last comment begs the question as to what I am collecting versus what someone would buy in the LFS that is tagged as a turbo snail...so I'm not sure on that.  I find the ones I collect eat everything when it comes to algae but they are pretty sensitive to algae-originated toxins (I observed this with cyano) and will get "drunk" off them and eventually die unless I put them in another tank where they have always recovered just fine and can be re-introduced when the affecting algae is reduced/gone.

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2 hours ago, mcarroll said:

The more snails the better in terms of sharing the toxin load.....how many are you up to now?

 

I wonder if the sea hare is getting a buzz yet as well (but he's bigger) or if he's avoiding the dino's somehow?

 

I might consider trading the Sea Hare for Turbo snails if possible...4 or 5 more Turbos probably won't be too many if it's in trade.  I think I'd add at least 2-3 more herbivore snails regardless.

 

Any signs of coralline algae spreading?

Most pods like tisbe are pretty small.

 

Do you have a place for them to reproduce within the tank?

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7 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

seems like plenty of good advice on here.  In case it hasn't been mentioned before, if biodiversity at the bacteria level is what's causing dino.  It stands to make sense that adding more bacteria would help.  not that other biodiversity won't help, but pods and others aren't small single-cell organism like dino.  I added aquavitro remediation to my tank, among other manual removal methods.  Note, I did this not for what the product says it would do.  But to introduce more variety of bacterial species.  Same could probably be done with other "tank starter" mix in a bottle out there.  

I have been added more bacteria lately. I forgot to mention that.

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6 hours ago, icatchsnook said:

@justinkdenny Just want to jump in and say I have been following your thread since the beginning and I think it's great that you created this and have been so diligent with updates.  

 

To your question about the turbo snails: I like these snails alot and think that they get a bad rap for knocking stuff over (which they definitely do), but for me they work like a champ and especially when paired up with trochus snails.  I collect turbo snails in the northern gulf of mexico where I live and they are absolute workhorses in all of my tanks.  I guess that last comment begs the question as to what I am collecting versus what someone would buy in the LFS that is tagged as a turbo snail...so I'm not sure on that.  I find the ones I collect eat everything when it comes to algae but they are pretty sensitive to algae-originated toxins (I observed this with cyano) and will get "drunk" off them and eventually die unless I put them in another tank where they have always recovered just fine and can be re-introduced when the affecting algae is reduced/gone.

Thanks for your expertise on the snails.

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6 hours ago, Clown79 said:

Most pods like tisbe are pretty small.

 

Do you have a place for them to reproduce within the tank?

I have a little refuge spot in the second chamber which consists of a container with some rock rubble in it.  I also have a container that I attempt to raise pods in.  It has keeps pods for months and I add periodically.   I just bought a jar of reef nutrition tigger pods that I will put about 1/4 in pod container and 3/4 in main tank and mini fuge.

15793204715656360639447382736355.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

Well it seems like I have knocked back the dinos somewhat.  Corals are looking healthy with some growth.  One of them I thought was dead has started recovering.   I am seeing quite a few pods from tiny all the way to almost rice sized showing up in the main display.   Also seeing what I think is baby bristle worms so I'm finally getting diversity.   My snails don't seem lethargic so that's good.  Hopefully, I have turned the corner and things are on track.  Where I used to have to dose nitrates and phosphates, I am now having trouble keeping them down, which I think is a better problem.   Thanks so much to everyone who helped me with the dinos.   @seabass @mcarroll @Clown79 @Amphrites @j.falk @Tamberav You guys have been awesome! I don't think I have won the war but I have won a few battles lately.  Feels good!

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11 minutes ago, justinkdenny said:

Well it seems like I have knocked back the dinos somewhat.  Corals are looking healthy with some growth.  One of them I thought was dead has started recovering.   I am seeing quite a few pods from tiny all the way to almost rice sized showing up in the main display.   Also seeing what I think is baby bristle worms so I'm finally getting diversity.   My snails don't seem lethargic so that's good.  Hopefully, I have turned the corner and things are on track.  Where I used to have to dose nitrates and phosphates, I am now having trouble keeping them down, which I think is a better problem.   Thanks so much to everyone who helped me with the dinos.   @seabass @mcarroll @Clown79 @Amphrites @j.falk @Tamberav You guys have been awesome! I don't think I have won the war but I have won a few battles lately.  Feels good!

Glad to hear things are turning in a positive direction! Keep us posted.

 

Definitely agree, eli now would rather have higher nutrients and algae than dino's!

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