Chrysophytes battle

[zachxlutz]

I'd suggest all of you consider an Eheim auto-feeder to get a really regular addition of food going into the system. Dry foods should not be your staple food item, but they are definitely useful in their place.

I plan to do the same.

Start with a small addition to your normal routine so there's no spike in nutrients.....the idea is to smooth out the peaks and valleys of your normal feeding routine.

Just to point out... I do use an Eheim and have it set to do 2 rotations 4 times a day with Marine S pellets. Just a pinch each time, but it totals to 8 pinches a day, plus the BIG pinch I give once a day and the 2x frozen Mysis cubes and I still struggle to keep NO3 and PO4 levels registering.

 

[mcarroll]

Crank it up littl

I do use an Eheim [...] and I still struggle to keep NO3 and PO4 levels registering.

Unless you're running it full-tilt, there's at least part of your answer – turn it up to 11! But seriously, if you can increase a live food component instead, you should consider that.

If you've never fed fish eggs, try that. Like @Reef Nutrition ROE, but there are some frozen options out there too....thought I've never actually seen them at retail.

Eheim also makes a double screw-model that I'm less familiar with, BTW. I also know some folks who use more than one feeder per tank.

2¢

 

[reeferfoxx]

I wonder if I should do another lights out period for 3 days? I did just get in about 10 new acro frags, so I will probably need to wait a week or so for them to recover from shipping before I can do a light out period.

No. I wouldn't do another lights out. If there is a small amount, typically, snails will take care of it.

Can I see a picture of the regrowth?
Also, when you were using GFO, how was it used(bag, reactor, etc) and did you notice an Alk drop?

 

[MasonReef]

I would not do another lights out. I would try hard to stabilize the system now.....no more new stuff or significant changes if you can help it. This will help establish the new norm without chrysophytes.

Try to stabilize the amount of food going into the system....pick either 3 or 5, whichever is more correct for your fish, and stick with it. (Probably more vs fewer, but you would know best.)

(See next comments too)

I'd suggest all of you consider an Eheim auto-feeder to get a really regular addition of food going into the system. Dry foods should not be your staple food item, but they are definitely useful in their place.

I plan to do the same.

Start with a small addition to your normal routine so there's no spike in nutrients.....the idea is to smooth out the peaks and valleys of your normal feeding routine.

Thanks for the advice! I will work on getting the nutrient input more consistent.

I do have 5 anthias coming out of quarantine in 10 days, but after they go in I will hold off on adding anything until things get more stable. And really, besides phosphates, everything in the thank is stable, including the nitrates now.

I have an apex auto feeder I can hook up to help with the feeding. I will go to 4 cubes of frozen a day (2 in the AM, 2 in the PM) and let the auto feeder handle feeding during the day.

 

[MasonReef]

No. I wouldn't do another lights out. If there is a small amount, typically, snails will take care of it.

Can I see a picture of the regrowth?
Also, when you were using GFO, how was it used(bag, reactor, etc) and did you notice an Alk drop?

Yes, I will take a picture when I get home from work this evening.

GFO was used in a reactor, about 3.5 cups of the regular BRS GFO if I remember right.

I didn't experience a drop in alkalinity while running the GFO.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Yes, I will take a picture when I get home from work this evening.

GFO was used in a reactor, about 3.5 cups of the regular BRS GFO if I remember right.

I didn't experience a drop in alkalinity while running the GFO.

I'm curious if the GFO was even effective? If it's purpose was served correctly, the impact would have been noticeable. At least in reference to alkalinity. I'm not super familiar with reactors because I've never used one. However, I do know flow rate can be adjusted?

I wonder if just using a bag of gfo in a filter sock or overflow would achieve better results? If taken into consideration, I would revert back to the first plan but only doing one round. So preparing another water change should be in order.

First though, I would like to see a pic of the regrowth to confirm. Sorry this isn't going well

 

[pboutin]

I'd suggest all of you consider an Eheim auto-feeder to get a really regular addition of food going into the system. Dry foods should not be your staple food item, but they are definitely useful in their place.

I have like 6 of these for various tanks and vacation feedings. I love them and have one on my reef for daily feedings other than my manual additions. More of peace of mind if I can't feed them myself it's like my back up. When I'm on vacation I bump up the feeding schedule.

 

[MasonReef]

I'm curious if the GFO was even effective? If it's purpose was served correctly, the impact would have been noticeable. At least in reference to alkalinity. I'm not super familiar with reactors because I've never used one. However, I do know flow rate can be adjusted?

I wonder if just using a bag of gfo in a filter sock or overflow would achieve better results? If taken into consideration, I would revert back to the first plan but only doing one round. So preparing another water change should be in order.

First though, I would like to see a pic of the regrowth to confirm. Sorry this isn't going well

Hmm. Yes the reactor's flow can be adjusted. The GFO was tumbling rather aggressively, but I really don't have an idea of how many gph were going through the reactor. I can always throw just a bag of GFO in, but last time after I ran GFO 24 hrs in the reactor the silicate was at zero. I haven't tested silicate levels since then though.

Here are some pics (hopefully this works):

 

[reeferfoxx]

That kind of sucks. Lets hold off on the GFO for a bit. Your colonies look lovely at the moment. ;Snaphappy
Maybe do a full parameter test. Get an idea of no3 and po4. Make sure Ca, dkh, and Mg are where they should be. Maybe see how things go for the next week? Might manually clean it off periodically. ;Yawn
I know Astrea and Trochus snails will eat it?

 

[Hockeypunk1]

I have been searching the web and this is the best thread on chrysophytes I've seen. I too have been struggling with this crap ever since I was able to beat dinoflagellates. It seems as though I went from one pest to another. The good thing is the chrysos don't seem to kill my coral however I long for the day I can look at my tank and see clean rock and sand. I have been dumping loads of flake and frozen food just trying to keep nutrients readable. I've also been dosing no3 and po4 in the form of stump remover and flourish phosphorus. I have noticed the chryso turned from golden to dark brown and the snails, brittle star, sally lightfoot and the tang have started to eat it. Yesterday I did some manual removal. I was thinking about a lights out. One question I have on that is do you stop dosing calcium and alk while the lights are off? I currently dose 36ml of each per day to maintain 9-9.3dkh. I don't want an alk swing. My corals seem to be hitting a growth spurt and my understanding is they don't uptake alk at night. I have also tested silicate and tested zero. I really don't want to run gfo and take the risk of starving the coral. I've had terrible luck with gfo

 

[reeferfoxx]

I have been searching the web and this is the best thread on chrysophytes I've seen. I too have been struggling with this crap ever since I was able to beat dinoflagellates. It seems as though I went from one pest to another. The good thing is the chrysos don't seem to kill my coral however I long for the day I can look at my tank and see clean rock and sand. I have been dumping loads of flake and frozen food just trying to keep nutrients readable. I've also been dosing no3 and po4 in the form of stump remover and flourish phosphorus. I have noticed the chryso turned from golden to dark brown and the snails, brittle star, sally lightfoot and the tang have started to eat it. Yesterday I did some manual removal. I was thinking about a lights out. One question I have on that is do you stop dosing calcium and alk while the lights are off? I currently dose 36ml of each per day to maintain 9-9.3dkh. I don't want an alk swing. My corals seem to be hitting a growth spurt and my understanding is they don't uptake alk at night. I have also tested silicate and tested zero. I really don't want to run gfo and take the risk of starving the coral. I've had terrible luck with gfo

So far you are on the right path. Seems you've kept stress levels at a minimum as well. I think a deep cleaning or rock cleaning followed by a 3 days lights out will a proper procedure. I would stop dosing. The residual effects from lights out won't cause too many issues. Just adjust lighting to a 4 hour period and then slowly increase back to normal.

 

[Hockeypunk1]

So far you are on the right path. Seems you've kept stress levels at a minimum as well. I think a deep cleaning or rock cleaning followed by a 3 days lights out will a proper procedure. I would stop dosing. The residual effects from lights out won't cause too many issues. Just adjust lighting to a 4 hour period and then slowly increase back to normal.

Yeah all the livestock seems to be thriving which is great. Yesterday I did a 5 gallon wc (100 gallon total volume) I used the 3/8" tube off a gravel siphon and suck as much chryso off the rocks as possible. I might do 5 more gallons and pull some more and then go lights out. I just started running instant ocean salt rather than reef crystals. I feel like I've had nothing but issues with nuisance type algae since going to rc from red sea coral pro. That and a lower alk is why I switched. I appreciate the help, and it is a relief to know someone has beaten this.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Yeah all the livestock seems to be thriving which is great. Yesterday I did a 5 gallon wc (100 gallon total volume) I used the 3/8" tube off a gravel siphon and suck as much chryso off the rocks as possible. I might do 5 more gallons and pull some more and then go lights out. I just started running instant ocean salt rather than reef crystals. I feel like I've had nothing but issues with nuisance type algae since going to rc from red sea coral pro. That and a lower alk is why I switched. I appreciate the help, and it is a relief to know someone has beaten this.

There are a few ways to beat it. Not everyones situation is the same and therefore require different approaches. I went through a plethora of different approaches that didn't work for me but has worked for others. Usually it all depends o. How long its been there, what it looks like, precedures already tried and most importantly coral health.

 

[Hockeypunk1]

My aproach thus far has been to get nutrients up and try to establish a thriving pod population and biological filter. I've tried to have patience... it's been about a year in the process. I had a mass pod die off and that was the start of an uphill battle. I chased my tail alot by running gfo and doing mass water changes. The dinoflagellates went away when I started dosing no3 and peroxide and finally getting 55 watt uv sterilizer. The uv seemed to do the trick. It looks just like the pictures MasonReef posted above, just a thick slime matt covering the glass and rocks. I guess luckily for me coral health has been great the last couple months where I can actually see growth, good polyp extension, and good color. You can see here the chryso and fts you can see it growing on the glass

 

[mcarroll]

@Hockeypunk1 I saw you mention you'd been dosing, but what are your NO3 and PO4 levels now? Had they been zero before? (Hope I didn't miss a post...didn't see this info above.)

GFO supposedly shouldn't be a big deal for PO4 as long as it's removed from service within 24 hours.....within that timeframe it should mostly be adsorbing silicates. I used it that way during my chrysophyte recovery and didn't see a noticeable impact to my PO4.

BTW, levels that seem to work best for longer term dino-suppression would be:
No3: ≥ 5-10 ppm
PO3: ≥ 0.10 ppm

If you haven't reached those levels, then keep dosing – should work as well for chrysophytes.

 

[Hockeypunk1]

@Hockeypunk1 I saw you mention you'd been dosing, but what are your NO3 and PO4 levels now? Had they been zero before? (Hope I didn't miss a post...didn't see this info above.)

GFO supposedly shouldn't be a big deal for PO4 as long as it's removed from service within 24 hours.....within that timeframe it should mostly be adsorbing silicates. I used it that way during my chrysophyte recovery and didn't see a noticeable impact to my PO4.

BTW, levels that seem to work best for longer term dino-suppression would be:
No3: ≥ 5-10 ppm
PO3: ≥ 0.10 ppm

If you haven't reached those levels, then keep dosing – should work as well for chrysophytes.

My no3 and po4 were zero for quite some time and that was where, I believe, my problem started. I try to shoot for 2-5 no3 and any measurable po4. Po4 seems to drop back to zero after a day or so after dosing. I will try to shoot for a higher po4 because what I put in seems to get used up. I wasn't sure if my po4 checker was working so I bought the one time use calibration kit and found that the checker was low by 0.01 which isn't too bad. My no3 is a lot more stable than po4, and it wasn't until I had slightly stable po4 that I noticed the chryso turned darker brown and the cuc started eating it. I tested for silicate and that tested zero so I'm not sure gfo would be helpful. Last time I put gfo online against dino I lost 2-3 sps frags from rtn. So gfo is kind of a last resort.

 

[mcarroll]

I noticed the chryso turned darker brown and the cuc started eating it.

I had no CUC left, but otherwise this is the same description of how mine turned. (In my case N was low.)

I tested for silicate and that tested zero so I'm not sure gfo would be helpful.

+1 It's one of those things that's "a good idea" mostly because most folks can't/don't test for it.

 

[Hockeypunk1]

Tested yesterday and N was between 5-10 and P was 0.03 I haven't done the blackout yet. When I had no po4 the chryso would return within a day after manual removal, and it's been 3 days and it seems to be receding and my sand is mostly white. Sand has been like a brown film almost like cyano but brown. I'm going to hold off on the blackout for now and keep up manual removal, dosing, feeding, and testing

 

[mcarroll]

Cyano is known to grow in with other blooms like dino's and chryso's.

When I started NO3 dosing, my chryso bloom got darker and redder until I finally got a patch of cyano growing on the front glass of the tank. Yes!!! A few whisps of green algae appeared around the same timeframe.

 

[Hockeypunk1]

Cyano is known to grow in with other blooms like dino's and chryso's.

When I started NO3 dosing, my chryso bloom got darker and redder until I finally got a patch of cyano growing on the front glass of the tank. Yes!!! A few whisps of green algae appeared around the same timeframe.

Nice! I've had some cyano in the sump that's been there a while. I do have some green algae starting to take off which looks like is going to turn into coraline. I tested again yesterday P was .06 and N was still 5-10. I didn't have to dose but I'm going to keep an eye it.