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  #151  
Old 11-08-2018, 10:01 PM
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That which does not kill us, makes us stronger.

This is one of the things that makes keeping reef tanks aka sps tanks to be considered very difficult. Stick with it, it takes time, patience and proper tank maintenance to beat this one.
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  #152  
Old 11-08-2018, 10:18 PM
Llorgon Llorgon is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Frogger View Post
That which does not kill us, makes us stronger.

This is one of the things that makes keeping reef tanks aka sps tanks to be considered very difficult. Stick with it, it takes time, patience and proper tank maintenance to beat this one.

I know you are right, but right now it's very frustrating.


It kind of looks like the tank may be crashing. None of the corals are looking good, some are bleached and have lost tissue. All are closed up, no polyp extension. Fish still look ok.


Where am I going wrong on my maintenance?


My parameters as of last night seem to all be in the normal range. I know my nitrate and phosphate should be a bit higher. Extra feeding hasn't helped yet. As of last night my params were:

Temp: 79
Salinity: 1.025
PH: 8.0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Phosphate: 0
Alkalinity: 8.4
Calcium: 430
Magnesium: 1410


Right now my maintenance is: Dosing alk everyday, dosing cal every other day, testing alk and cal every other day, feeding twice a day(morning, night), blowing off rocks with turkey baster each night, weekly 10 gal water change.

Where am I going wrong?
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  #153  
Old 11-09-2018, 05:02 AM
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Unfortunately it is not working. From what I have read water changes and trying to attain a clean tank doesn't work for dinos.

Water changes and blowing off the rocks having low phosphates and low nitrates appears to be not working for you.

Adding more fish, as you have seen is a problem in itself. You need to quarantine for at least a month assuming everything goes well. I have been trying to add more fish for over 6 months to my tank unsuccessfully can't get them past the quarantine stage/ type of fish I want not available when I want it.

Over feeding can help dirty up your water, stop blowing off the rocks if you are not exporting the dinos as you are just moving them around and spreading them.

Like I said before what worked for me is a micron filter helps remove smaller suspended particles and a UV sterilizer on a low flow rate to kill any dinos after I have blown off the rocks.

INNOVATIVE MARINE AUQASHIELD UV STERILIZER (9 WATT) is around 60 bucks.

I have some KNO3 and Potassium Phosphate you can have for free if you wants some. You know where I live.

You need to have measurable amounts of phosphate and nitrate.
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  #154  
Old 11-09-2018, 12:46 PM
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I've only just come into this at the tail end but it seems to me like your tank is still fairly new. You need a small amount of nitrates (~5ppm) and phosphates (~0.5ppm) as you and Frogger mentioned. Does the tank get any natural sunlight throughout the day? Is the water you're using for water changes RO/DI? Have you tested TDS on the water you're using for SW changes?
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  #155  
Old 11-09-2018, 04:31 PM
Llorgon Llorgon is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Frogger View Post
Unfortunately it is not working. From what I have read water changes and trying to attain a clean tank doesn't work for dinos.

Water changes and blowing off the rocks having low phosphates and low nitrates appears to be not working for you.

Adding more fish, as you have seen is a problem in itself. You need to quarantine for at least a month assuming everything goes well. I have been trying to add more fish for over 6 months to my tank unsuccessfully can't get them past the quarantine stage/ type of fish I want not available when I want it.

Over feeding can help dirty up your water, stop blowing off the rocks if you are not exporting the dinos as you are just moving them around and spreading them.

Like I said before what worked for me is a micron filter helps remove smaller suspended particles and a UV sterilizer on a low flow rate to kill any dinos after I have blown off the rocks.

INNOVATIVE MARINE AUQASHIELD UV STERILIZER (9 WATT) is around 60 bucks.

I have some KNO3 and Potassium Phosphate you can have for free if you wants some. You know where I live.

You need to have measurable amounts of phosphate and nitrate.

It's difficult because depending on what you read some say yes do lots of water changes other say stop. For right now I have stopped the water changes in an attempt to raise my nitrate and phosphates.


I have a filter sock that I change everyday an hour or so after blowing off the rocks and stirring the top layer of sand.


I might take you up on the free KNO3 and Potassium Phosphate. Do you use the seachem stuff for planted tanks?


Quote:
Originally Posted by Scythanith View Post
I've only just come into this at the tail end but it seems to me like your tank is still fairly new. You need a small amount of nitrates (~5ppm) and phosphates (~0.5ppm) as you and Frogger mentioned. Does the tank get any natural sunlight throughout the day? Is the water you're using for water changes RO/DI? Have you tested TDS on the water you're using for SW changes?

Tank doesn't get any sunlight or if it does very little and not direct. Water I am using is RO/DI, filter are about 6 months old. I have not tested TDS. I guess I should pick up a TDS meter and see what it says.
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  #156  
Old 11-09-2018, 09:24 PM
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No the stuff i have is from a online fresh water fish guy in Richmond. I had to sign my life away to get it.

Filter socks don't filter down to a fine enough particle size to effectively capture all the microscopic dinoflagellates and their spores. Most filter socks are either 100 or 200 micron in size and are designed to remove larger particles.

The Magnum micron cartridge is 8 microns and dinoflagelletes are between 25 and 50 microns in size. It uses pump pressure to force the water through it, versus gravity.

Last edited by Frogger; 11-09-2018 at 09:34 PM.
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  #157  
Old 11-09-2018, 10:29 PM
Llorgon Llorgon is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Frogger View Post
No the stuff i have is from a online fresh water fish guy in Richmond. I had to sign my life away to get it.

Filter socks don't filter down to a fine enough particle size to effectively capture all the microscopic dinoflagellates and their spores. Most filter socks are either 100 or 200 micron in size and are designed to remove larger particles.

The Magnum micron cartridge is 8 microns and dinoflagelletes are between 25 and 50 microns in size. It uses pump pressure to force the water through it, versus gravity.

Sounds like some serious stuff. Don't have the name of the guy or anything?


So are you saying get a magnum canister filter and use that to help remove the dinos?
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  #158  
Old 11-10-2018, 12:56 AM
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There is no right answer, it what ever works for you. I used the magnum micron filter combined with the uv sterilizer and that did the trick for me. Our tanks are different, mine was set up for 15 years before I had the dino bloom. About 3 years ago first I had Bryopsis (for years), treated that, then immediately followed by Cyano followed immediately by dinos. Dinos was the worst by far. So I had a ton of things happening in my tank. I don't want you to go out and spend a ton of money and then not have it work for you.

I had to change the micron filter daily when I first started, now I change it once a week. Rinse it off, dump it in bleach (for a day), rinse well and use again. I have several spare filters. I still use it. Now this is on a tank that I did not have a filter sock. This is why I still use it.
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  #159  
Old 11-10-2018, 06:40 AM
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Canadian Aquatics. I think his name is Patrick. He carries potassium nitrate and potassium phosphate. He'll need a photocopy of your driver's license and you have to declare what you are using the potassium nitrate for. Required by law because it's a controlled substance.

My tanks is just over a year old so I'm pretty new at this. I was out of town for a week this summer and came back to a small dino outbreak. I think it was triggerred by the warm weather as I had the ac turned up while we were away. I dimmed down the white leds and got the temperature lower/stable as we had the ac set back to normal. It actually just went away on it's own in about 3 weeks. This just happenned by chance cause I didn't have time to deal with it actively. BUT cyano came in shortly after the dino was gone. I syphoned it out once and it came right back. I've always had high nitrates and phosphates in the past but I hadn't tested for it for a while. I never made much effort to reduce nitrates and phosphates as I never had any issues with the tank.
Decided to test, 0 nitrate and .5 phosphate on api testers. After some reading, I started dosing nitrates to maintain 10ppm. Syphoned the cyano again and only about 10% came back this time. Syphoned the remaining patches and what ever I missed just went away on it's own. There's still a little on my chaeto in my refugium but none in the display.

Sorry, got a little off topic with the cyano. I've noticed nuisance algae really likes white light so maybe it was a combination of cutting the white light and the lower stable temperature that took care of the dino. I don't know for certain. Maybe the chaeto is out competing everything now that there's plenty of nitrates.

Fyi, I don't run a skimmer, don't do scheduled/routine water changes, never clean my refugium and don't run any mechanical filtration.... because I am lazy and stubborn. All I have is chaeto, a little bit of rubble and half a large marine pure block in the refugium.
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  #160  
Old 11-10-2018, 10:33 PM
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Patrick that's the guys name. I have more of this stuff then I need come on by and I measure you up enough for a couple litres of each mixture.
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