hmmm Dino or diatoms after sand vac

[Nibejeebies]

Hey guys, is this Dino or simply diatoms ... This poped up after I gravel vaced half the sand bed... I was like.. Doooooo whaaaaaaaaaa

7 months old I thought I was done with diatoms. And I thought that's what it was yesterday when it started piping up but now it ha... Strings?!?

Pics and video

Clearly this is @camajestic biocube...

 

[Jeeper]

Cyano maybe? I just recently got a small patch of it in my biocube and its been up for 9 months....

 

[Nibejeebies]

Maybe? Not sure I'll do a h2o2 test but it's awfully brown/rust colored

 

[Surfandturf]

So I have been told that some people experience cyano breakout periods when the weather changes from hot to cold vice versa . Anyone had any experience with that?

 

[baseballfanatic2]

Hey guys, is this Dino or simply diatoms ... This poped up after I gravel vaced half the sand bed... I was like.. Doooooo whaaaaaaaaaa

7 months old I thought I was done with diatoms. And I thought that's what it was yesterday when it started piping up but now it ha... Strings?!?

Pics and video

Clearly this is @camajestic biocube...

I did a sand vac also and this started happening.


I am thinking we both have the same thing.

Does your brown algae stay on sand bed? Or does it get on corals too.

 

[Nibejeebies]

I've never get it get past 1/2 bottom of sand bed before I go nuts and clean again

 

[CastAway]

This is what I've been calling cyano in my tank, for a long long time now.

 

[baseballfanatic2]

I've never get it get past 1/2 bottom of sand bed before I go nuts and clean again

Do you have sps?

 

[Mandrew]

This happened to me too! I just started vacuuming my sand and same issue

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

cyano. Its what some call a "mini cycle" :mad: pet peeve of mine, as it has nothing to to with the cycle.
actually just extra nutrients in the system. Keep cleaning like you are.

each tank is different. I can stir up my tank pretty good(my talbot damsel does it a lot for me) and not have any ill effects. Mine is pretty mature and has a VERY good bio filter. 'Imo you can add some prime or mb7 or drT. makes me feel like I did something.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Little cyano is typical with sand vacuuming. Especially if the sand bed hasn't been touched for awhile. If you see a small spot, just remove it. If it persists, test your PO4. If PO4 is high, cut back on feeding, proceed to vacuum sand bed, cut back on lighting and/or photoperiod. Also make sure your clean up crew is adequate.

 

[Nibejeebies]

Not in this tank lol, I'm about to move the live stock in this tank to a larger cube.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Not in this tank lol, I'm about to move the live stock in this tank to a larger cube.

So this tank, the one you are cleaning that is only 7 months old, is all being transferred to a new tank?

 

[Nibejeebies]

Eventually yes. To a 60g cube with 20g sump along with real equipment (skimmer, gfo, carbon)
To many problems with the biocube 14.

Currently setting up said upgrade, and the biocube is going to a family member.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Eventually yes. To a 60g cube with 20g sump along with real equipment (skimmer, gfo, carbon)
To many problems with the biocube 14.

Currently setting up said upgrade, and the biocube is going to a family member.

And how was this tank set up? 7 months is the cusp of getting past the diatoms and sometimes algae. If you were to stop it now, nutrients could be an issue for awhile, post transfer. Once we understand what is the root cause of cyano, will it then be eradicated.

 

[Nibejeebies]

this simply didn't look like the Cyano that I've had in this tank before and with having diatoms and and then this I thought it might be Dino since there is no bright red or purple hue to this.

If it is Cyano then I know what the issue / cause is, the poor filtration design inherent with this tank.
And before you say anything about nutrients, they play their part. The tank is only fed every third day, 25 g of frozen mysis rinsed, the tank gets 30-40% WC weekly, and running the stock filter, chemipure blue, Purigen, along with a mesh bag of mixed gfo and rox. The sand is vacuumed every other week. (1/2 this week 1/2 next week and ect)
Newish PCs bulbs (replaced them dead on 6 months). I've even shop vaced the rear compartments and removed everything that was there and continue this once a month.
Stock wise has two clowns, a peppermint shrimp, emerald crab,urchin, Zoas,mushrooms, pipe organ, candy cane.

Water tests generally show nitrates around 8-10 and phosphate around 0-0.15.

And with no ability to install a skimmer with out compromising some system integrity, I feel it's better to allow a new larger tank with the appropriate filtration systems with new sand and some new rock to complete a cycle and move the fish, coral, and inverts to it.
I know what Cyano is caused by and how to deal with it, this didn't look like the Cyano I have dealt with before and looked like some thing completely different, hence the post.

This isn't the only tank in my charge, but it is the only tank I consitintly have issues with, that I attribute to not having sock/skimmer. Along with its significantly lower Water volume.

Edit: also 6 snails, no hermits.

 

[reeferfoxx]

this simply didn't look like the Cyano that I've had in this tank before and with having diatoms and and then this I thought it might be Dino since there is no bright red or purple hue to this.

Water tests generally show nitrates around 8-10 and phosphate around 0-0.15.

Give it 3 more days and I almost bet your cyano will show its true red.

Nitrates around 8-10 is fine. Maybe higher than I personally would be comfortable with. But to say your PO4 goes from 0.00 to 0.15 is quite the jump. In fact 0.15 is really high. NSW is 0.005 and our reef tanks should be around 0.02ppm. If PO4 does fall below 0.005 you are inhibiting any calcium phosphate precipitation and therefore causing what would already be absorbed PO4, to release back into the water column. Also, disturbing the phosphates in the sand bed will release the PO4 back into the water column. That said, if your phosphate issue were tackled with the vacuuming, it would be safe to say that this little bit might not last long. It would explain the lack in color also as it doesn't have enough po4 to absorb.

 

[Nibejeebies]

0-0.15 just happens to be the graduation on the test kit I use (api) the colors don't exactly show very well and my Hanna phosphate kit won't be here for another week because UPS lost my shipment...

 

[Chriscrna]

I agree with everyone else, I bet it's cyano.

My understanding is that Dino is quite rare. I had an outbreak of "something" in my old setup. I never had it confirmed under a microscope, but I believe it was Dino. It was brown and stringy with bubbles on the end. It would come and go with the lights. It covered everything, especially the acros. I had to blow everything clean with a turkey baster several times a day. I tried conventional treatments for cyano then diatoms to no avail.

The tell tale sign in my situation was a mass snail die off. All of the sudden, 20 or 30 snails were dead. A day later, all but two of my acros were dead. [emoji22] Lost dozens of acros including my orange passion and a prized colony of last dragon.

After reading extensively on Dino, found out that it kills acros and is quite toxic to snails.

It was a drag man. So I did a 5 day total blackout without feeding, and that eradicated it.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Luckily for R2R members, we have members here with microscopes that would love to check a water sample. Just pay for the 2 or 3 day shipping(which is cheap) and that is all.

There are other methods to checking dinos or cyano also.

Dino method is to pull some out. Put in a glass with tank water. Stir it, mix it and break it up. Then pour that glass of dino onto a flattened piece of paper towel that is on top of another glass. This will make the dino particles tiny. Wait a few hours and if the particles regroup into snot, it's dino.

With cyano you take a cup of tank water and add 3ml of H2O2. Wait 24 hours and if the water turns pink and the sample turns green, its cyano.