Daplatapus's 77 Gal

[daplatapus]

GAH! I have flat worms. I don't see them at all in my main DT but there's got to be a couple hundred all of a sudden in my cube (which is all tied together through a common sump).
For some reason I was expecting something much larger. But I can see a bunch on my front glass and maybe some on the base frag plugs of a couple sps.
Arghh... I knew things were going too well....

[daplatapus]

Figured I'd post a few updated pics. I've definitely got a nutrient issue. Probably from me feeding too much. Seriously looking into vodka dosing again and re-visiting my meal plan...
I've had this tank over 20 years and it's so full of scratches I can't clean it properly anymore but here goes. FTS of the 77:


FTS of the cube:


Right side:


Left Side:



And some various random tank shots:

[daplatapus]

And some top down shots. First time I've tried this. I just used one of my wife's Pyrex dishes

Green birdsnest (I think)


Digitalis


Some acro


Pink Birdsnest


Hammer


A bonsai I can't get to colour up

[gregzz4]

Have you noticed a bunch of your pics from last year are AWOL ?

[daplatapus]

Lol, yeah, I made the mistake of trying to organize my pics in photobucket now the links are off.

[gregzz4]

whoops

[daplatapus]

Well, I'm pretty sure I've got dinoflagellates in my tank and that's what's killed off all my clean up crew. I've been really slacking in my maintenance this summer, putting off water changes, not basting the rocks, etc, etc etc.
I really want to get it all cleaned up and gone before I transfer everything into the upgrade tank. I have been battling an algae I still haven't identified for a while now too, it might also be a result of my poor husbandry. It's really dark, almost black, short and fuzzy. So, I'm going to try several things:
1) On Aug 1st I started vodka dosing. I figure I'm around 150 gallons of net water volume so I started with .6 ml and did that for the first 3 days. Yesterday I dosed 1.2 ml, did that again today and will do it tomorrow then up it to 1.7 ml for a week.

2) I'm giving the tank my undivided attention today, (well other than painting the stand for the upgrade tank). I've pulled my GFO off line, going to change the carbon in the carbon reactor and will change it on a weekly or every 10 days or so.

3) Doing a water change tonight (have to wait until my water warms up a bit) and will do religious water changes every 2 weeks for the next couple months.

4) I'll be wiping my glass and basting my rocks every day.

5) I'll also be turning up the flow on the MP-40's and possibly adding one of the WP-40's in the 77 and putting a WP-25 in the cube. Obviously my flow isn't enough or my rock work is such that I'm getting dead spots.

6) I'm going to try and get in there with a toothbrush and scrub as much of the black algae of my rocks that I can and filter as much of the crud out of the water column as possible.

If there's anything else anyone can recommend doing to help get rid of these dino's I'd be very grateful

[Ginu]

Sounds much like the problem I was battling with some dino and ordered some Fauna Marin Algae X which I will be picking up today from my mailbox in US. This apparently kills all algae - less cyano.

Now I was starting to have a little dino growinig due to the elevated heat which struck at the beginning of July and since my AC unit was on backorder (everyone was sold out) and also I think my acclimation period was just finished and Radions were running at 100% which didn't help the situation.

After much reading I decided to do a lights out three day period and see how this goes before starting to dose (personally I hate dosing as it could potentially cause more issues down the road). At first I was skeptical about this method, but decided to go on and try it before dosing and I have to say every coral survived including three anemone's (I think the corals actually liked). I started the lights back up on acclimation mode from 55% and set it to a max of 90% over the next 4 weeks and everything seems fine.

I had a little dino which dissipated (have to see if this stuff comes back as it can grow over night) but seems clear so far.
Also I had a little cyano due to a large strawberry top hat snail rotting in the tank (I dont think they like 85-86 temperatures) and my sand is nice and clean now.

I can update you with any changes, if there are any, however if it worsens I will most likely start the Fauna Marin Algae X (people seem to have had huge success with it).