Red Sea Max 650 led

SPR

Well-Known Member
The reason I asked to tell us if it had bubbles, is that they look like dinoflagellates to me

I would try a 3 day blackout and see if that clears it up and also make sure you increase water flow to all the affected areas. I would try this before you try Dino X. I still have an unused bottle of Dino X I purchased

And whatever you do, stop adding all of those different additives and let the system settle or you’ll be on a constant battle with the tank.

And also decide carefully who you take advice from especially when dealing with LFS’s. How do we know what we’re talking about? Look at our tanks and judge yourself on that. I don’t add anything to my system other than basic replenishments
 

P4inter

Member
Thanks again for the comments and advice.

Some real good threads and advice Glen. I don’t disagree with any of this and have no doubt if left alone my tank would eventually come round and the algae would be overtaken. How long it would take I don’t know and patience is unfortunately not my strong point ;). I also want rid of this as soon as p[ossible as the longer its there the more chance of affecting my coral. Likewise Shaun the advice is appreciated and your tank looks fantastic. Lights out would help but i am unsure this would get rid of the stuff and my fear is it would simply re-appear. The main reason for this is i have had the lights on for only 5 hours (blues only) and as soon as light comes on the algae is there.

This is what makes this hobby so interesting in my opinion. Depending on where you look for advice there is so much conflicting info out there. I have seen the following over the last 4 weeks or so regarding dino algae from people far more knowledgeable than me:

Carry out frequent large water changes to dilute nutrients
Do not change water to ensure nutrients are used up and not replenished
Increase magnesium/PH as dino cant tolerate this
Do not add any additives (calcium/mag/KH) as this feeds the dino
Cut down on food to starve the algae
Increase food to get the nutrients up to outcompete with algae
Add cuc to help clear the rock
Do not add cuc as it will not touch the algae and if it does it will kill them
Overskim to remove nutrients
Turn off skimmer to encourage nutrients etc........

I suppose we all take some advice as well as what we know (or think we know) and do our best to get the results we want.

Interestingly this is the 1st tank i have set up with predominately dry rock. I did add a small amount (5kg) of live rock as well as live sand to seed this. Unfornutley I skimmed from day 1 possibly getting rid of a lot of the good stuff before it had a chance to thrive. This is the main difference I see with this tank compared to anything previous in have had. If I was starting again I would personally go with live rock and take the chance/deal with pests if introduced. I am not saying this is in any way related to my algae issue simply I don’t see the same diversity (worms, snails, shrimps, sponges etc.) that you get from live rock. Any thoughts on this?
 

P4inter

Member
An update on where i am and what i am doing with the algae issue

I tested the the parameters last night and have the follow:

SG 1.026
Temperature 25.6
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Phosphate 0
PH 8.2
Magnesium 1470
Calcium 430
KH 10.5

I decided i will go with Dino x and have dosed exactly as per the instructions. This means turning off the UV and GFO, removing carbon as well as reducing the lights to 5 hours (which is where i was anyway). I dosed 30ml last night at lights out and will continue this every 2 days till either the tank is clear or something happens with the parameters. I plan on testing the water at least every 2 days to see if any changes occur. While i am on this regime I don’t plan on adding any additives however if KH, calc, mag drop significantly i may look at this.

I have taken before photos and will take a couple daily to observe the changes if and when they occur. If this does work it will be interesting to see what happens with nitrates as i have never had a reading with these (assuming the algae is using these). On the other hand as i now only have a skimmer running these should increase anyway?

Where i will not get any results is if the algae is Cyano (seemingly this stuff doesn’t touch Cyano). Here’s hoping its not!
 

P4inter

Member
As promised an update on the tank after 1 treatment (day 2) with Dino x

SG 1.026
Temperature 25.6
Nitrate 0
Phosphate 0
Mag 1410
Calcium 430
KH 10.5

Looks like the magnesium may have dropped a touch however it seemed high so maybe my initial reading wasn’t quite right. I am still not adding anything so will keep an eye on this. Still no nitrates or phosphates as yet.

See photo before I started treatment.

I will forward day 1 and day 2 in the next post (cant send more than 1 photo at a time?)

IMG_1678.jpg




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P4inter

Member
After day 2 treatment.

419f58742ecd4d66dd5dfbf0ffdfd5b7.jpg


Tank seems cleaner and algae is definitely not growing as quick however it is still growing. 1 treatment so we will see how it goes.

No harm to any fish or inverts to date


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P4inter

Member
Thanks Nobbygas, anything to get me out of water tests is appreciated lol. I have only tested nitrate and still reading zero. Getting annoyed as the algae is definitely declining. Below pic is after 3 treatments (6 days).

The tank is definitely looking far cleaner and the algae is not far from gone. I am planning at least 1 more treatment and then need to decide whether to take a chance its gone for good or continue (instructions say up to 10 treatments). After the final treatment it is instructed to leave 1 week then run carbon, do water change, reconnect reactor, start dosing etc. Although there is no visible negative reaction from the livestock i would like to get rid of the chemical asap once its done the job. Anyone any experience/knowledge of Dino x? Does it continue to work for the week or is this just belt n braces to leave it?




0140a70a6957113cb4e617c437f83895.jpg



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P4inter

Member
An update on the tank after 5 treatments. The algae has 99% gone with just a small discoloration to sand in 2 places. That’s 8 days treatment and 5 doses of dino x. The only parameters i have checked is nitrate and phosphate. Zero phosphate and nitrate is 3 (1st time I’ve had a nitrate reading). I think the nitrate has appeared as the algae died off so probably the case the algae was using it quicker than i could test for it (as a couple of people mentioned earlier).

I don’t plan on adding any further treatments and will leave till the weekend prior to a water change and adding carbon as well as running reactor and UV.

I would say the treatment has been a success with no visible harm to fish or coral. I have lost a couple of snails and wiped out (or maybe just cant see) my population of pods. Corals are not as colorful however that may be the reduced lighting (i have now increased lights intensity as well as length of time to something more normal). The tank seems almost sterile (unnaturally clean if that makes sense). I am looking forward to removing the chemical and getting back to adding coral. Come the weekend i will ensure all calc, mag, KH etc. are back to normal levels (advised not add these when treating) and hopefully get the colour back into the tank.

How much is coincidental I don’t know but thankfully this stuff worked for me on this occasion. I have another bottle if need be but seriously hope that’s the last i see of Dino’s!

See below up to date photo. I will also post a full tank shot before and after (i still cant post more than 1 photo per message so bear with me)

IMG_0107.jpg


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Nobbygas

Well-Known Member
That looks much better! I do love clean sand and a clean back to the tank. When both are clean it makes the colours of the fish and corals stand out.

Now just stick to dosing Calc, Mag and Alk. I may have missed it, but do you use NOPOX? It is a really good aid for keeping Nitrates and Phos under control.
 

P4inter

Member
Thanks all, yes it has definitely made a big difference. The biggest difference is the sand, it makes the tank so much brighter

Nobbygas i have not used Nopox as yet. I never had a reading for nitrate (or phosphate) so never thought there was a need. Now i have some nitrates i will monitor and dose this if needed. I am hoping the nitrate don’t go off the scale now the algae has gone (assuming that was what was keeping it down). I will keep up the regular tests and report on how the tank is going.

Right now just happy to have a clean tank :)
 

Nobbygas

Well-Known Member
I had my Nitrates creeping up. They read about 25 and I then followed the advice of the good people on here (and some of the bad ones) and added three litres of Seachem Matrix. Now they are back down to 5.
 
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