Diatom nightmare!!!
- Thread starter sportparadise
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sportparadise
Member
Before this, the flow was the same. I had the 3 koralis running(1050) but they were in different positions. And I now have wave control. What you found on them is deffinitely odd.
sportparadise
Member
Ok, so its now day 4 with the peroxide treatment and running GFO and Carbon with no water changes. Believe it or not, but its starting to look like alittle light at the end of the tunnel. Its been about 4 weeks of this dino attack and keeping my fingers crossed, alittle hope. Fish seem fine and whats left of the coral is still alive. Ill be uping the dose to 10mil twice a day starting tomorrow for the rest of the 7 day treatment. Here another pic of tank tonight. you can see the snails have been constantly cleaning big rock in middle, but it usually grows back within 2 hours. I see alittle purple and rock shining thru!! 
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sportparadise
Member
Ok i am am at day 10. Dosing around 15mil twice a day and everything seems to be going good. It seems to be slowly going away. Still running GFO and carbon. Changing out sock everyday. I think i am going to continue treatment untill i cant see it anymore. Still have the rest of the rock in blackout tank and doing the same treatment to them.
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lbiminiblue
Well-Known Member
any updates?
sportparadise
Member
So far so good sas. It's still around, but has been improving for sure. Hopefully treating rock in the blackout tank is doing the same.
sportparadise
Member
So far with the treatments I have been posting I am taking small steps in the right direction. I hope! I'll be posting updates everyday or so till its gone for sure.
lol, what to do after the crisis is over, sigh
sportparadise
Member
Hopefully a sigh and not a cry! Time will tell.
sportparadise
Member
Day 13. It seems to be at a standstill. Not a big change from last post. I was hoping for better. It actually might have grown alittle on rock. I haven't done any water changes. I read that it might spark them up so I haven't done it. Should I do a water change?? And I have had all the other rock in black out tank and doing same treatment, do you think I can put rock back in the tank or would it go down hill??
You can try and manually removing the long strands and siphoning too. But keeping excess nutrients out of the aquarium water is one key element in eliminating your hair algae. There are many things that can add excess nutrients into your tank like some commercial foods which may contain undesirable things like nitrates, phosphates etc and overfeeding the tank is also another factor. Using a phosphate remover, RO/DI water, a good tank clean up crew ie. hermit crabs and snails and a high quality salt with no NO3, phosphates etc like Tropic Marin or similar good quality salt should really help bring the algae.
sportparadise
Member
Just figured a quick update. Day 17 (i think) pretty much the same a s before maybe just alittle less on the rocks. Same treatment as before but i did add a few more of the rock i have been storing in black out tank. Just wanted to see if it would start to grow on them. It did alittle. Its strange because at times the water get pretty cloudy and then clears alittle on its own. It has not gone back to really clear like before this which has me a tiny bit concerned. I did have the water so clear it was like it wasn't even there. I have the carbon out because of the reaction with the peroxide as sass pointed out in the black film on everything thread. I also havent done a water change as i read it could give nutrients to spark up dino again. What does everyone think do one?
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think we need to regroup, been reading and reading on dino's and its pure hell, this could go on for a year or more, sad news yes but why wait a year then look for more answers?
The fish should be fine but re housing them temporarily would be A+, corals I would rehouse for sure.
Total blackouts required dino's will grow in ambient room lighting, lights need to be restated real slow like 1 hr a day then add 15 minutes each day.
GFO is not good and apparently fuels dino so something else for reducing nutrient.
Probidio treatments.
Short story is nutrient starvation and its hard to achieve but has to be done.
without corals and fish you can wail on the kalkwasser and keep the ph high
Dinoflagelettes need total destruction or they just linger like an obsessed ex.
if/when you wish to start this regimen lets try and get a fully functional plan together and some input from others
sportparadise
Member
Wow, not what I wanted to hear. My prob with all this is spending more $ to do this plan. I have gone thru a ton of cash this past month with all the changes I did now, power heads,wave maker,reeflo cuda pump etc) with setting up another tank, I'll have to see if I can find any filters to hold fish in it. And I'll need some kind of light. Maybe we can figure something without another tank. Coral, there basically shot. I have a pc of rock with some polyps and a branch coral on it and a couple small pcs of Xenia. Everything else has gone to coral heaven. Is there a difference in lighting as far as sparking up Dino? Between actincs being on? What should I do with all the rock? The Dino really seems to be free floating (cloudy water?) and growing on rock only. Very little on glass Turbos have been keeping that in check as well as some rock.
Im sure the fish can handle it but they will be a constant nutrient supply, all the rock needs to stay as the end game is to get rid of the snot and not reintroduce it.
Old bulbs will be an issue, with this stuff it seems to be more about duration and the slow increase of photo period after a black out time.
I know its not great news but housing the fish won't cost much, only other expense would be purigen and phosban
sportparadise
Member
Ok. All bulbs are new. 6 t5 ho and 2 250 halides. What do you mean with purigen and phosban? So basically take all fish/coral out and put them into seperate tank. I have a small hang on filter for that. And blackout the main tank (and fuge?) and kalwass the hell out of it and high ph. Is that about it?
sportparadise
Member
What else can I put in with rock that have been in blackout garbage can for 2 weeks? To kill off Dino? We also need to change thread title from diatom bloom to The Wrath of Dino or Death by Dino!! Is there a way of doing that?
I didn't read through any of the post after the first page, so I'm not sure if this was a suggestion that has been tried. I apologize in advance if it is.
Have you given the Algae Scrubber filtration method a shot? I had a FOWLR 55g with a 2 ft Snowflake Eel, 5 " Picasso Trigger, Two 2.5" Perculas, a 4" Spotted Hawkfish, a 5-7" Purple tang, and a school of Chromis Damsels. I had many of the same issues, although I could not keep my Nitrates low, even after RO/DI water changes.
What I tried, that worked, was the Algae scrubber filtration method. It cleared up my water. I ditched the skimmer and other filtration. All the diatom and other algaes disappeared. The only issue I still had that I was never able to fully get rid of was Red Cyanobacteria. All my parameters were at 0. I could have probably started to throw some corals in the tank, no problem.
If you are worried about money, don't be. My setup was made with mostly stuff I had. I bought some lamps from Home Depot, and a nice pump. About $50-60 total.
If it is successful for you, you may be able to even sell a lot of the other equipment you have, and gain some money back out of this.
Hope this helps.
-Quick