Dino or cyano?

[amitrano]

Hey everyone, I am in desperate need of some help. I own a 20 gallon reef tank which I bought already set up. It had been running for 2 years with little problems and I have now had it for around 9 months. Currently I have one fish two shrimp and around 10 types of coral with a considerable amount of rocks. I had what I thought was a cyano problem so about two months ago I purchased an AcuaC remora skimmer. I have been running the skimmer 24/7 and I feed the fish and coral once or twice a week. Current water tests show temp = 78, sality =1.024, Ph=8.2, minimal ammonia and nitrate and 420 calcium. I do weekly water changes because in one week this gooey slimy stuff covers the rocks. I also have more then adequate water flow. I have come to think it is dinos and was hoping someone could positively identify this stuff for me. Its brown and slimy with a minimal air bubbles. Also, could the sand bed be dead and could this be causing extra nutrients in the water? Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

-Jon

[amitrano]

Also, all my snails have died. I bought some replacement snails and currently only one is alive. Altogether I would say I have lost 20 snails in the past 4 months. This stuff seems to thrive no matter what I do. When I change the water it is back in 2 days, these pictures are 3 days after a water change. The coral, fish and shrimp are thriving, I have had no problems with them.

[Loverotties]

1st it's not good you have Ammonia!Not good.2nd looks like hair algea so you have high Phoshate and/or your lights are old.How are you skimming?needs to be wet or wetter!

[Loverotties]

Originally Posted by amitrano

Also, all my snails have died. I bought some replacement snails and currently only one is alive. Altogether I would say I have lost 20 snails in the past 4 months. This stuff seems to thrive no matter what I do. When I change the water it is back in 2 days, these pictures are 3 days after a water change. The coral, fish and shrimp are thriving, I have had no problems with them.

Snails wont live with Ammonia in the water.

[Kimberfish]

I went absolutely nuts with the same thing about a year ago. I finally bought Julian Sprungs book "algae - A problem solvers guide" I did what he recommended and it worked.
Quoted from his book
"Discontinue water changes for the duration of the bloom. Boost alk. use kalk for top off. Use activated carbon to reduce humic substances that promote dino's"

I actually spoke to him about this at MACNA and he said also not to add any additional additives to the water. Not because they cause cyano but they help keep it fueled.
This is hard to do and I did get slime while not doing water changes but red slime is easy to get rid of compared to dino's. I probably had 200 snails die on me and am just now getting brave enough to add more to my system.

All in all I did what he recommended and it worked. Yours looks a bit greener than mine did though and HA can trap air bubbles too - the hard part is identification.

Good Luck!!

[Hop]

Definitely Dinos

Quoting from yesterday's post...

That's the same dino strain I had, or so it appears...

Treatment as follows:
* No water changes for 6-8 weeks
* Reduced Lighting (only enough to keep stuff alive)
* Use Kalk to keep pH at or slightly above 8.3
* Skim wet, very wet!
* Run GFO starting out with a small amount and work your way up.


If you have no corals yet, some report a 3 day blackout does work with the above remedies. It took me 9 weeks to make a dent in my 450 tank a few years ago. At 9 weeks I did a water changed and kept up on the things I recomended to you. After 15 weeks it was completely gone.

Don't add anything to your tank until all this is wrapped up

[amitrano]

Thanks a lot everyone, I have been skimming really wet. I was wondering what the appropriate amount of light would be. I have a number of SPS and LPS corals. I currently use white light 8 hours and actnic for 10. Thanks.

[Hop]

Maybe 2-4 hrs halide and 4-6 hrs actinic.

[Kimberfish]

there are non-photosynthetics dinos that feed on diatoms. and the photosynthetic ones have a focusing mechanism to focus any light from various sources. I blacked out my tank for 3 days but it stresssed my corals too much so I stopped.

did you seems to have high diatoms before the outbreak?

[amitrano]

I did have high diatoms, but not anymore, I am starting to add Kalk today and have cut back the lights to 4 and 5 hours. I cut back the light about a week ago and have already seen a dramatic improvement.

[amitrano]

Just wanted to give an update. I have been driping Kalk for all top-off water and have been giving the tank 5 hours of light a day. The Dino is almost all gone and I think in a week or so I am going to black out the tank for 36 hours to make sure everything has died off. Thanks for all the advice.

[Hop]

Great news!