Dinos: A Treatment Log

[DigitalCraze]

Hi all.

Tank has been setup for about 9mo now. This particular algae has been creeping in lately and it's getting more and more invasive.

I keep a pretty lot nutrient tank. Not sure if this is dino and I should dose no3/po4 or what else. I'm upping my gravel siphoning and blowing off rocks but this stuff is getting out of hand.

Measured parameters this morning:
Salinity: 1.025
Temp: 78.6
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 0.19
Phosphate: 0.02

Here's a link to some videos with and without blue light on: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1J0zeQJToha59GGVRlOiNLuD2Bq28g5QV

 

[DigitalCraze]

Update: Just performed the coffee filter test, and after ~1ha of sitting in the sun, there's definitely substantial reconstitution/growth. Several filament-looking snot-like globs floating.

So, It seems I'm going to start implementing the regiments I've read about.

First, I'm going to *slowly* dose nitrate/phosphate until I'm reading ~0.05 po4 and 5 no3. As well as keep up with removal and keeping everything else constant.

I'll update here with progress if there is any.

Edit: I realized that 0.02ppm for po4 was just fine.

 

[DigitalCraze]

Update: We're on day 4 now. I've been slowly dosing nitrates, and yesterday The dinos had gotten out of hand, so I decided to do a water change and use this to siphon as much as I could out. I'd say I got about 70-80% of it with the siphon. Did the water change. Then, dosed nitrates as well as microbacter to help rebuild the appropriate bacteria.

My new levels today are at:
Salinity: 1.025
Temp: 78.4
Ammonia: >2.0 (!!!)
Nitrites: 0.1
Nitrates: 1.67
Phosphate: 0.01

So Everything in my tank looks much happier. The coral polyps are extending again and the color is restoring to some. This spike in ammonia has me cautious though. I wonder if it's due to the removal of the dinos pre-feeding. I'm not sure how much ammonia they use if any at all. I'm retesting the ammonia JIC I did something wrong by mistake.

The dino growth had gotten to be so much that I was unable to tell if anything was slowing it. But everything I've read says this is a gradual process, so I'm going to keep charging forward no matter what. My plan is to keep at it and monitor closely.

Edit: Retested ammonia, it IS that high. Definitely going to keep an eye on this. Not sure if I should let it ride out or do another water change. ;Bookworm

 

[DigitalCraze]

Update.

My new levels today are at:
Salinity: 1.025
Temp: 78.6
Ammonia: 0.0
Nitrites: 0.0
Nitrates: ~2 (ran out of Hanna checker reagents, using red sea test kit until Monday)
Phosphate: 0.01

20% dino still over the gravel. Going to let the tank chill for a day as I don't want to have another ammonia spike so close to the last one. Just added the nitrate dose for today. Will be doing another water change and siphoning the rest out tomorrow.

 

[Aquajamin]

Dino's love clean tanks!
Try turning off the lights and keeping the room dark if possible for a couple days.
You can also turn off your protein skimmer to increase bio load and feed a little heavier.

 

[Zer0]

I’m in the same boat as you, starting a war against dinos. What ppm for nitrates is your target?

 

[DigitalCraze]

What ppm for nitrates is your target?

I think, for now, I want to keep it ~3ppm just to not go too crazy. (It's all about stability, right?) Then maybe ~5ppm as that seems to be what I read most as a good place to be.

It seems my phosphate is near 0 as well, so once I get nitrates up to 3 and stable, I'll probably work to bring that up to ~0.02 as well.

I will say that just from 5+ days of > 0 nitrates I can see a definite improvement in my zoas and stylos (that's all I have in this tank at the moment).

 

[DigitalCraze]

Update: Siponed the rest of the dinos out last night, then brushed/blew all my rocks off and used a gravel vacuum to perform general weekly maintenance to take care of ~95% of the visible dinos. There's some visible regrowth of the dinos on the gravel but not like before. I have dosed MicroBacter as well to again help promote the bio-filter bacteria.

Params this morning:
Salinity: 1.025
Temp: 77.6
Ammonia: ~0.1
Nitrites: ~0.1
Nitrates: > 5
Phosphate: 0.0

It does seem like stirring up the dinos/gravel tends to spike the ammonia levels. I believe that I'm seeing in these readings the remnants of my bio-filter dealing with it. Hence the elevated nitrates. (I am not dosing enough for it to have jumped that much). To be safe, I'm setting my doser to a lower level until this stabilizes again. I should have my Hanna reagents back tomorrow so I'll have more accurate nitrate levels then.

 

[DigitalCraze]

Today's params:

Salinity: 1.025
Temp: 78.2
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: ~0.1
Nitrates: 2.42
Phosphate: 0.02

Dinos are growing back still. Much less aggressively so this time. But I expect to have full gravel coverage in a few days. Will have to keep siphoning. I cannot today, so I'll be doing this tomorrow. Started to dose phosphate. I'm going to just continue everything as is and keep siphoning as the dinos grow back. I've read a ton that says this is a long process, so I'm keeping my hopes up.

 

[DigitalCraze]

Today's params:

Salinity: 1.025
Temp: 77.6
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: ~0.05
Nitrates: 2.43
Phosphate: 0.02

Seems like I've got my params stable just about where I want them now. May adjust up the nitrates a bit more. Not sure yet. The dinos are still growing, but the growth definitely seems more muted. I will continue with things as they are for now and see what happens.

I will update less frequently now that I have my params stable.

 

[entranced]

dinos thrive on clean environments so doing waterchanges will certainly not help your situation, it will set you back, if you are worried about toxins, try carbon instead