Dino’s or cyano or what?

[sevitz5]

First a little background:
110 gal mixed reef set up 1/3/18
Ph 8.2
Alk 8.4
Ca 459
Mg 1440
PO4 .05
NO3 0

I am dosing:
Alk
Ca
Nopox
Aminos

I am running a BRS reactor with gfo and rox carbon. Skimmer running. Tons of flow.

I know I need to get my nitrates up, so I stopped dosing Nopox and aminos, and started hand dosing some nitrate.

What am I battling guys?

 

[sevitz5]

I might add, my snails have not been acting right. I find them flipped over on the sandbed a lot.

 

[Hitman]

Following as I’m seeing the same on my jets.

 

[DeepBlueSomething]

Are the tufts strongly affixed or easy to pick off from the jets, etc?

 

[sevitz5]

Are the tufts strongly affixed or easy to pick off from the jets, etc?

I tried sucking some off and came off kinda easy but not entirely. Meaning on my return locking, I seen it pulling some off, but not all of it. A turkey blaster blows the air bubbles out of it, but really don’t blow it loose

 

[ncaldwell]

Following as I have both as well. Dinos confirmed under microscope but I see cyanobacteria in yours as well. I'm doing a blackout with vibrant as my latest try to rid myself. Been dealing with this for almost 2 years.

 

[sevitz5]

Following as I have both as well. Dinos confirmed under microscope but I see cyanobacteria in yours as well. I'm doing a blackout with vibrant as my latest try to rid myself. Been dealing with this for almost 2 years.

Wow, I hope this isn’t an uphill 2 yr battle for me.

 

[Carterfish]

You have a cyano problem. Red and green slime cyano I️t looks like. They often have air bubbles attached to it. I️ would use chemiclean and make sure to fix your phosphates and nitrates, you may have a buildup somewhere. For the immediate time being do a water change and try to siphon and scrub most of I️t off.

 

[sevitz5]

You have a cyano problem. Red and green slime cyano I️t looks like. They often have air bubbles attached to it. I️ would use chemiclean and make sure to fix your phosphates and nitrates, you may have a buildup somewhere. For the immediate time being do a water change and try to siphon and scrub most of I️t off.

So it’s not looking like Dino’s? That’s great news. My LFS has me dosing h2o2. Is that the right plan of attack? Can I do chemiclean along with the h2o2?

 

[rockskimmerflow]

You got all 3 to my eye, cyano of a couple colors, gha, and dino. The good news is if you stop with the GFO and get your nitrates up as well you stand a good chance of getting rid of the dino and then you can hit the cyano and hair algae next. Definitely avoid dosing H2O2 for the moment, could really spur the dinos on by reducing competition from other organisms that are more heavily hit by peroxide

 

[sevitz5]

You got all 3 to my eye, cyano of a couple colors, gha, and dino. The good news is if you stop with the GFO and get your nitrates up as well you stand a good chance of getting rid of the dino and then you can hit the cyano and hair algae next. Definitely avoid dosing H2O2 for the moment, could really spur the dinos on by reducing competition from other organisms that are more heavily hit by peroxide

How does this happen when my PO4 was.05 and nitrate was 0? Help me to understand. All the chaeto was falling apart in my fuge dying, so I pulled it all out

 

[Hitman]

Here’s my understanding.
Nitrates being lower then Phosphate will kill Cheato. If your PO4 stays the same and your Nitrate was say 5-10 ppm s the 0 you have per your test kit you would have a much happier tank. Per your test results having zero Nitrates but .05 PO4 your starving your corals and Cheato. @Randy Holmes-Farley correct me if I’m wrong with my understanding

 

[sevitz5]

I think I’m gonna shoot for the 7-10 range on my nitrates

 

[sevitz5]

Any other opinions?

 

[ninjamyst]

I been battling the same thing in my tank for 8 months. I went through dino, cyano, GHA, and now back to dino. GHA took forever to get rid of. Now that GHA is gone, I am dosing nitrate to get rid of dino. How is your tank coming along?

 

[surfman221]

Here’s my understanding.
Nitrates being lower then Phosphate will kill Cheato. If your PO4 stays the same and your Nitrate was say 5-10 ppm s the 0 you have per your test kit you would have a much happier tank. Per your test results having zero Nitrates but .05 PO4 your starving your corals and Cheato. @Randy Holmes-Farley correct me if I’m wrong with my understanding

Sounds like sound logic to me!

 

[saltyhog]

We can guess all day but honestly if you don't get it under the microscope it's impossible to say for sure what all you have. I suspect a combination of cyano and dinos but that's just a hunch. Microscopes capable of answering this and similar questions are not expensive and they are a lot of fun to observe the microscopic fauna/flora of our tanks.