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120g Acrylic Acropora Addiction (1 Viewer)

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UGHHHH when you think you’ve just had a persistent bit of cyano but it’s actually dinos that will knock you back a bit. Welp it hasn’t gotten worse really in 2 months so not gonna go crazy with changes. Probably just start dosing actual nitrate as phosphates are good at .05-.1
Any detritus piled up in the sump corners or, sand due to be vacuumed? "Dinos" aren't always caused by low nutrients. I have more brown slime "dinos" from detritus than from if po4 bottoms out. Never have seen an actual correlation with nitrate. Or, if DI resin is a bit old, silicate can really fuel brown dino-like slime. Alot of the stuff out there on "dinos" is really just throw 💩 at the wall and see if it sticks it seems.
 
Any detritus piled up in the sump corners or, sand due to be vacuumed? "Dinos" aren't always caused by low nutrients. I have more brown slime "dinos" from detritus than from if po4 bottoms out. Never have seen an actual correlation with nitrate. Or, if DI resin is a bit old, silicate can really fuel brown dino-like slime. Alot of the stuff out there on "dinos" is really just throw 💩 at the wall and see if it sticks it seems.

I did get them under the microscope and confirm. And yes I have some detritus under the rocks in my sump for sure and in the sand as I can’t siphon nearly as much as I would like. I really need more detrtivores…
 
I did get them under the microscope and confirm. And yes I have some detritus under the rocks in my sump for sure and in the sand as I can’t siphon nearly as much as I would like. I really need more detrtivores…
I'd start with cleaning up detritus ans see what happens. That'll also take out alot of the anaerobic bacteria which is converting beneficial nitrogen and phosphorous into undesirable organics. That alone can be all it takes.
Here's a case where the guy had alot of issues, and the root cause seemed to be as simple as just cleaning up detritus.
 
All corals continue to be happy and this guy really surged in vibrancy since I started dosing calcium nitrate instead of ammonia.

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Someday I will see growth like this? Right? Right…….? :)
 
@spsick have you tried iron. I have heard Chris meckley say that him and Chris (Captivat8 Aquaculture) dose iron to get rid of it
 
Sounds dicey with the bubbles ?
 
@spsick have you tried iron. I have heard Chris meckley say that him and Chris (Captivat8 Aquaculture) dose iron to get rid of it

Chris Meckley is a crackpot haha.

I think the iron is actually part of my problem. Since I switched to Nyos (which has iron) I’ve seen bubble algae and red turf algae that were dormant take off, and now dinos.

Thinking back, I remember Abe suggest I dose iron when I was having issues with pale acros and bubble algae went nuts. So it may be that and not the ammonia I was dosing. Or maybe both were feeding it.

I do still have some iron, but really gunshy on dosing stuff I can’t test for.

I probably need to send in an ICP to see what’s going on, but assuming the iron is getting consumed by algae anyway.
 
I forgot about the NYOS salt. You maybe right.
Tell you what get some instant ocean and do couple back to back and see if that makes a difference. My rationale is let’s say the ICP shows a problem, the solution will be water change lol
 
Chris Meckley is a crackpot haha.
I find that if someone has been "farming coral" for 19 years, yet that bulk of their offerings are import, best to not take their advice.
that said, with the brown slime, this can be caused by nasty sand, or mulm/detritus accumulated in a sump, overflow box, etc. "brown slime" isn't always "dinos" now always caused by low nutrients. hell, seems that the common belief is on cause and treatment is more wrong than right. depleted, or near depleted Anion Resin allowing silicate to get to the tank is another culprit that can fuel that brown slime. I highly suspect a lot of "new tank dinos" is due to silicate leaching from dry rock and dry sand. I actually do not fear brown slime. Many times over, I've had po4 bottom out, algae explode, po4 is corrected, then brown slime pops up. this brown slime is actually consuming the nutrients from decaying algae, and staying the course, eventually, both disappear. other times, in a stable tank, if it pops up, i simply vacuum the sand, sometimes just running the water through a sock and not actually changing it, and within a day, the brown slime is gone. even though I didn't even directly touch it.
 
Thanks @Jposch I’ll look at my resin again, but I never let them get much more than half depleted.

I def have a brown slime I can’t identify on the glass vs the dinos I was able to identify in a microscope.

I have been doing exactly you described, siphoning sand through a 100 micron sock and pumping water back in to tank for a while.
 
Another stop gap against silicate is replacing all evaporation with kalkwasser. Only some brands. Some, like Mrs. Wages arw actually high in silicate, or ESV has nearly no Magnesium oxide "contamination." That Magnesium oxide is what is responsible for precipitation of silicate. I use the vitacal H stuff you can get in 50lbs bags. Not sure how BRS or other brands stand up.
 
So kinda as expected, ammonia has been off for a few weeks and bubble algae explosion has ceased. It’s still there sure but coralline is growing over it in many spots.

I slugged like 2ppm ESV nitrate every day for like a week and now have been feeding heavy and 1oz/day of phyto and nitrate has stayed around 10ppm.

Downside, dinos do seem to be slowly gaining some ground. I’m just staying the course of shotgun approach. Ordered some more amphipods, copepods, and phyto as well as some Microbacter. I’m not convinced the Microbacter is the magical cure it’s talked up to be, but certainly can’t hurt to get some good bacteria added and the stable system dosage is 2 capfuls a week for my tank size so seems low risk low cost.

Also ordered some big 25 micron filter socks so when I siphon the sand where the dinos are hopefully it captures more of them and detritus.


I would LOVE to see any green algae again especially on the glass so show me things are moving in the right direction.

Meanwhile the corals are still happy…
 
So kinda as expected, ammonia has been off for a few weeks and bubble algae explosion has ceased. It’s still there sure but coralline is growing over it in many spots.

I slugged like 2ppm ESV nitrate every day for like a week and now have been feeding heavy and 1oz/day of phyto and nitrate has stayed around 10ppm.

Downside, dinos do seem to be slowly gaining some ground. I’m just staying the course of shotgun approach. Ordered some more amphipods, copepods, and phyto as well as some Microbacter. I’m not convinced the Microbacter is the magical cure it’s talked up to be, but certainly can’t hurt to get some good bacteria added and the stable system dosage is 2 capfuls a week for my tank size so seems low risk low cost.

Also ordered some big 25 micron filter socks so when I siphon the sand where the dinos are hopefully it captures more of them and detritus.


I would LOVE to see any green algae again especially on the glass so show me things are moving in the right direction.

Meanwhile the corals are still happy…
Pro Tip, put a higher micron sock inside the 25 micron sock. You'll have less large particles clogging the finer sock so quickly. The lower the micron, the harder to clean, IMO. I have some 5 micron socks I used for lanthanum. Worked great, but clogged so fast.
 

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