YHSublime

You can also use a few caps of bleach in a bucket of warm water, and soak the socks overnight. I soak them again in RO after a bleach soak and sink rinse.

I’d stop doing so much. Personally I’d pull the 2 part for 48 hours and test to see what Consumption looks like over that time period, then adjust accordingly. are you using a dosing calculator? did you mix up the ESV with RO by weight, or oz?

yeah. I think I’ll need to get it under a microscope that can take photos and video.

Would it be worth bothering with something like this:

@DFRwas kind enough to lend me a microscope. I am having a heck of a time taking a photo through the microscope, but from what I can tell, it looks like Large cell amphidinium, but then I pulled the ID guide on Ostreopsis, and it looks like that as well. it looks very similar to this kind of clustering, which is ostreopsis, but then I look at the other types, and they all look the same to me. I was seeing a little bit of movement like roomba type, but about 10 minutes later, nothing. I suppose the next step is getting it to where I can snap a photo.

Oh, I also added a couple chunks of rock from my frag tank. I've been wondering how I let the dinos out compete, and I think I've checked a few boxes. 1. It's a fairly new tank, I don't think this was an issue, as the rock was rock I've been using for almost a decade, almost identical contents, smaller volume. Same lights, same pumps, same flow, etc. BUT 2. The filtration on this tank is pretty efficient. On my old tank, I was literally skimming, and sometimes doing water changes. Everything flows through filter floss, pads, then socks, before it gets pumped back into the top. 3. The super aggressive 100% water change coupled with adding Carbon. 4. I don't have the science to back this up, but I had already identified the new salt I was trialing was giving me problems. Inconsistent mixing, dKH levels all over the place. I'm back to IO.

So it's been 10, maybe 11 days since I identified a problem. Life has been pretty hectic and busy, and I've not gotten this stuff under a microscope yet, HOWEVER: What I'm doing is working, as I keep chanting to myself; "nothing good happens fast." So what am I doing, and what have I done? Great question. 1. I did a "black out." And by that, I mean I turned my lights off for 48 hours. 2. I reduced my photoperiod by 3 hours. 3. I started feeding 3 times a day. 4. I turned my skimmer off, and then set it to skim super dry after the blackout. 5. I started siphoning out what I could see during the tanks lit hours into filter pads, that then go through filter socks. Every day there is a little bit less. It might come back in full force, but that doesn't seem to be the direction like it was aggressively about a week back. I'm definitely going to knock on wood, but I think I might have this close to nipped.

I appreciate ya!

I appreciate you! My neighbor and friend is the President of Washington Academy of Sciences, so of COURSE he has a microscope! It's just lining up timing as he's in office 5 days a week, heading into the weekend I should be able to grab him for 5 minutes. First rodeo here, is that like dosing silicate to get the dinos?

I still am having trouble getting access to a microscope, more so lining up meeting with folks that said they had one I could borrow. The 48 hour "blackout" coupled with siphoning out a lot of the strings has significantly helped, but they are still present. Lights went back on today with a much shorter window of being on. I used to have a 10 hour photoperiod, and have reduced it to 7.

Go with your plan of ESV for 2 part. Remember, calcium and alkalinity are tied together. Good rule of thumb is don’t climb higher that 1 dKH point a day. If you’re dosing manually for now to get good levels, make sure to space out each part to deter precipitation. if you have fish and a CUC, just feed a little heavier, you’ll get your phosphates and nitrates up.

Wasn’t able to get to a microscope last night, but, a little past 24 hours and it seems to be almost completely gone. Who knows what the story is once the lights come back on, but for now it’s nice to see everything thriving in the dark…

cool. Cool cool cool. Will get a confirmation ID and go from there.

It's definitely dinos after doing the coffee filter test. I'm going to head over to my friends house tonight and get a photo under a microscope so I can figure what what type. No sense in guessing, but I am doing a little pre-emptive strike here. Yesterday early evening I cut my lights off, and I'm going to do an at least 24 hour "black out." I put that in quotes, because I'm not covering up the sides, etc, so some light is penetrating. I've been worried about overfeeding such a small tank (I downgraded from a 100 gallon tank volume to a 35 gallon tank volume, and only moved 3 fish over. I'm now no longer worried about feeding the fish. Good news is I only feed frozen (LRS) and everything goes in the tank (I thaw in a shot glass in tank water and then broadcast feed, so I don't think I'll have issues bottoming out nutrients. I've taken my skimmer cup off. I've slowly bumped my tank temperature up to 81, and 82 by the end of today. I'm going to shout out to some buddies and see about getting some LR or scoop of sand to add to my display. I'm also going to grab some pods, a CUC, and some phyto, if I can find it. I know I'm just throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks, but I'd rather start chipping away than being idle. Whatever kind it is, it's very aggressive. I've already lost several valuable pieces. So I'm barebottom, and most of this seems to be growing on the corals/frag rack. To be fair, I don't have a lot of exposed rock, as most of it is covered with corals. If it's open water dino's, then I'll get a UV, but I'll hold off until I have a proper diagnosis. For what it's worth, the 12 hour lights off seems to have quelled a lot of the growth I normally see by now.

Based on how that works, I can already tell you it’s Dino’s, bit I’ll do the test anyways. I just siphoned this morning from my DT into the sump, and all the pieces I siphoned are covered again already. And were covered in like 2 hours again.

good point. phosphate is between .025 and .05 nitrate is 10 I’m not familiar with the coffee filter test, and I don't have a microscope. I might have a neighbor that does, I'm looking into that now.

no, I have a 9” clam, do you think that would effect it?

nutrient levels could be out of wack. I’m feeding much less, and y filtration is much more efficient.

Hey WAMAS! So a bit of a story, and advice requested: I had an anemone get a chunk knicked out via an MP40. The nem is fine, but the aquarium was a mess, and I did a 100% water change. I replaced all the filter socks, floss, added some carbon, emptied the skimmer cup and set it to aggressively skim. Looked like I was out of the woods, no harm, no foul. Now I have this super aggressive cotton candy/dino looking algae, coupled with hair algae all over the tank. Within 24 hours of removing it, it's back again. I'm continuing to do frequent water changes, but it's to the point in which a lot of the zoos or palys wont even open, or cant open. Am I just doing a small water change every day and siphoning it out? Is there something I can do, like get a large CUC, reduce my photo period, fluconazole? All of the above?

Amazon seems to be the go… for now

doesn’t sound bad, your risk tolerance is whatever you set it at.

Yeah, I don't know if it matters or not. But I have a 20' roll coming (aquarium grade) at about $35. It should last me at least the year. I've found that the pad above my filter socks blocks a lot of stuff, and helps keep from swapping them out for a longer period of time. Amazing how much gunk is coming out.

I think you'll find that any store (if you want to do local) should be able to do an order for you. I know you want to see them, and you're disappointed with what's in stock, but I think that model is gone the way of the Dodo. I'm sure that sitting on inventory/livestock and hoping it moves doesn't produce a decent enough amount of money to make it worth having a large livestock selection on hand. Are you QT'ing at home? I only ask because you said that's what you were interested in (buying QT'd) If you didn't, then I don't think it matters much who gets them for you. YMMV.

As soon as I posted this, I just went to amazon and found what I was looking for and bought it. Used to be you could find obscure stuff like that at Michaels, etc. I kept it up in case anybody else is looking and happens to come across this thread!