Wisco Tank/Build Updates

[Viperdragon]

Here is a podcast with reefbum. He talked with someone that has a Dino group on face book maybe this will help also

 

[littlebeard]

Here is a podcast with reefbum. He talked with someone that has a Dino group on face book maybe this will help also

Interesting listen. Looks like there is another method they mentioned, that is silicate dosing. Anyone ever try that? Might also look into an icp test.

 

[JayRozzer]

would you say your tank has a pretty good mix of diversity etc. ? I think starting with dry rock causes all these issues. (Boy I have a lot of thoughts lol). I also got an order from IPSF which I think helped a lot.

 

[littlebeard]

97% of my rock was dry rock. I did have a clown fish and a few rocks from my 150 that got moved 1400 miles, so I'm not sure how much biodiversity made it. (I know some amphipods did).

Big question, how does one measure biodiversity in the tank? I know that we have microbiome testing, but I really feel that is in it's infancy. (does it give a complete picture of the tank? how do we know which sort of bacteria is good or bad or make your tank "stable").

I know that live rock would greatly help out my current situation, however I've always found that true ocean live rock also has the potential to open up your tank to an entirely unknown, new situation. It's also harder to get and more expensive to come by. As for live rock from the lfs... makes me nervous, I haven't seen a store yet that doesn't have aiptasia or some other awful infestation.

 

[Reef Nutrition]

I ordered about a week or so ago and the Tigger pods did great. The other blend did not but Reef Nutrition was quick to send replacements that did make it. Once again though now that I know Best Fish has them, I will go through them. My wife goes downtown Mil twice a week for work so it's fairly convenient so far.

So happy to see that your LFS carries us and that you can support them while avoiding the shipping costs!

If you ever have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out. Have a great week!

-Chad

 

[Zach B]

So happy to see that your LFS carries us and that you can support them while avoiding the shipping costs!

If you ever have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out. Have a great week!

-Chad

You guys rock!

 

[littlebeard]

Finally finished the dosing schedule for Dr. Tim's "PRESCRIPTION FOR GETTING RID OF DINOFLAGELLATES". Also started dosing Silica to induce some diatoms.

Observations: Red cyno is growing. Not to crazy levels yet but it is covering 50% of the sand. I believe there is a patch of dinos still behind one of my rock formations on the sand. It's hard to reach so I haven't check with the microscope. It hasn't grown, so that is hopeful.

Microscopic observations: I took a sample from the overflow wall where there is significant cyno growth. Lots of cyno, lots of gha, starting to see a few strands of what I think are diatoms, and yes, those darn dinos are still there.

Going to keep up the silica dosing and testing every few days. While dr. Tims didn't finish off the dinos, with the blackout + dr. Tims it really did kill most and stall them. Given cyno and dinos I'll take cyno any day. Having done more research, I really believe my biome is immature. I think I may have killed it dosing chemi-clean to deal with some cyno(I'm throwing mine away because I don't want to be tempted to use it again). I ordered some microbacter 7 and hopefully I can increase the biome even further.

Besides ocean rock anyone have any suggestions for increasing my biome?

 

[Viperdragon]

Using microbacter7 would be a good start or maybe a rock from someone with a mature tank. From what I gather adding things to out compeat the dinos is one of the best ways. But if you have any corals I wouldn't do black outs. I would lower intensity and shorten time they are one before that just heard to many bad things from black outs

 

[littlebeard]

Figured I'd give another update to my dino battle.

I've given those dino's a real run for their money. I still see them sparsely populating everything at the microscopic level, but the strands of dinos is gone. Diatoms and cyno now rule my sandbed. I think the cyno is receding every day but I don't know if that's my optimistic view and it's too early in the day, or if it really is fading. I'm hoping it stabilizes soon as I'd love to add some coral since dino's killed 99% of mine.

Still struggling to keep up my phosphate. Nearly bottomed out again! I am testing every Wednesday and Saturday for phosphates but I may need to increase that frequency to keep a closer eye on it.

I also noticed that a few tiny branches that were under my hammer coral before the big polyps died are still alive. One of them seems to be actually producing the neon green color. Another seems to be in too much shadow and is clear. Is it worth it to frag them? Not worth it because they won't grow or will grow too slow?

 

[cwerner]

What do you use for nitrate/phosphate reduction?

 

[littlebeard]

What do you use for nitrate/phosphate reduction?

Reduction? A protein skimmer. (I did have a refugium but that got taken offline in august) I'm fairly certain the rocks are absorbing the phosphate. Bacteria in a bottle to compete with the dino's might also be sucking it up.

 

[cwerner]

Man, I haven't heard of phosphate getting completely stripped just from a protein skimmer. How old is your tank? Is it brand new dry rock?

 

[littlebeard]

I'm at a loss too. It goes against everything I thought I knew about reef aquariums. I did start with new dry rock but that was about 15 months ago. I've been struggling with phosphates and nitrates the entire time. My current theory since I don't know what else it could be is that my rocks are like giant phosphate sponges.

I might just go a little crazy and buy a big clean up crew to deal with this cyno and diatoms. For whatever reason my tang and algae blenny don't seem interested in cyno. They stick to the glass.

 

[cwerner]

My Blenny is a trooper with GHA, but he won't touch cyano.

 

[RobB'z Reef]

Besides ocean rock anyone have any suggestions for increasing my biome?

Lots of choices out there, hydrospace, Tim's ecobalance, Prodibio to name a few.

 

[Zach B]

More fish and corals

 

[littlebeard]

More fish and corals

If I thought more fish and corals would help, I'd do it, but I'm pretty sure the corals would die quickly. In just a few hours it can completely cover the entire surface of something.

I guess my phosphates dropping for a day or two did have an effect. Sadly today it appears the dino's are surging back. I just saw one of my turbo snails is just covered with them... I believe this time Ostreopsis.

Think I might need to do daily phosphate testing.

UV in my future. Anyone have suggestions for a ~125 G tank? Also been reading, a lot of people hook it straight up to the display, what type of pump is used?

Think i might need to up my silica dosing as well.

 

[cwerner]

I think the UV will help, but only if the Dino's go into the water column at night. Anything that stays in the sandbed would be unaffected. I would still strongly recommend manual removal on top of UV.

 

[RobB'z Reef]

If I thought more fish and corals would help, I'd do it, but I'm pretty sure the corals would die quickly. In just a few hours it can completely cover the entire surface of something.

I guess my phosphates dropping for a day or two did have an effect. Sadly today it appears the dino's are surging back. I just saw one of my turbo snails is just covered with them... I believe this time Ostreopsis.

Think I might need to do daily phosphate testing.

UV in my future. Anyone have suggestions for a ~125 G tank? Also been reading, a lot of people hook it straight up to the display, what type of pump is used?

Think i might need to up my silica dosing as well.

also... try a 3 day black out followed by maybe a 25% light schedule for a week after. Your corals will survive that no problems. increasing flow a bit may help as well. It all adds up while your pursuing other methods

 

[Zach B]

Sooo, I may have started another tank and project More to come soon, I suppose another build thread is in order