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steveb

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Been battling this gold/brown crap for a couple of months now. Have no idea what it is. Pretty certain it’s not dinoflagellates though. No bubbles or streamers.

It turned black after hitting the tank with chemiclean.

A9F60B57-7BB3-4843-97F2-934717E51BD0.jpeg
92904910-0417-47B9-9F11-EE7B9C16DF0C.jpeg
 

ITreefer

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Looks delicious!
How long has the tank been running? What phos/nitrate levels do you typically run?
I fought the gold/brown stuff in my lowboy frag tank for a while after setting it up. Subsided when I dosed nitrate/phos for several weeks straight and stopped the skimmer. Just figured it was dinos, but not 100% sure.
 

frankc

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My last outbreak of dinos stayed close to the sand and rocks like that for quite a while before it really went nuts and I started to recognize it as dinos. On the other hand, I know you have been battling high phosphates, and that usually keeps them away. I wound up using Vibrant on mine since the stopping the skimmer route wasn't working this last time.

If you can get a sample under a microscope, dinos look like somewhat oblong blobs that whirl around.
 
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steveb

steveb

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No3 runs between 5-10ppm
Po4 usually running .4-.7

Started with dirty rocks. Tried a bunch of macro algae that mostly died releasing everything in water. Bigger fish, like them fat, poo a lot.. Yada yada yada

Now that was before I enabled the auto water change system. So far I’ve done 150g the 1st week running one hour on, one hour off. Now I’ve backed it down to 70g/week using 15 minutes off, 45 minutes on.

I was going to test again once the salt water reservoir is emptied.


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steveb

steveb

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My last outbreak of dinos stayed close to the sand and rocks like that for quite a while before it really went nuts and I started to recognize it as dinos. On the other hand, I know you have been battling high phosphates, and that usually keeps them away. I wound up using Vibrant on mine since the stopping the skimmer route wasn't working this last time.

If you can get a sample under a microscope, dinos look like somewhat oblong blobs that whirl around.

I will see if I can get a sample this week. I don’t think it’s dinoflagellates but who knows. If it is I promise you that sand bed is gone.
 

kris4647

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How goes everyone’s Dino battles? I had them beat and did a water change [emoji2359].

Any one thing anyone’s convinced helped?


I cranked my nitrates up first time around and they were gone. Stressed out a few fish(which surprised me) but it worked.

I have a uv I’m sitting on, gonna give it a try.


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ITreefer

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Dosing nitrate and/ or phosphate definitely works in my experience.
Limiting skimmer time also helpful.
 

kris4647

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Dosing nitrate and/ or phosphate definitely works in my experience.
Limiting skimmer time also helpful.

Certainly worked the first time. Ive invested a lot in sticks at this point so I’m nervous I guess about dumping chemicals in the system.

Side note. Is it me or was there just zero talk of Dino’s like ten years ago?


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Cody

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My one-two punch is raising nitrates and introducing cyano. Raising nitrates alone should work, but cyano can outcompete it for real estate if the nutrients are adequate. After the Dino is gone, you can slowly starve out and remove the cyano. I’d much rather have cyano than Dino. Cyano isn’t harmful to the corals the way that Dino is.
 
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steveb

steveb

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Oh yeah I was dosing 40ml of vibrant every 3 days. Dosing lanthanum chloride. I think it was definitely a chrysophytes of some kind. Whatever it was vibrant and cyano remover didn’t really touch it.

im not sure if it was the metro or the CP but it wiped it out
 

TX_Punisher

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Siphon that top layer out into a filter sock 10 or 5 micron preferable. Return water to sump. Seems like water changes make it worse. Running chemi clean now myself. Stirring everyday with 10micron filter socks changed everyday has helped.
 
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