Krismgm

Thanks, picked up Aptasia X this week frown Quantum reefs with Steve's help. So they're officially getting taken care of.

Thanks for the tip, I'll try that out

darn . . I let them grow around thinking they were feather dusters thinking they were. Should have done some research cause tiny ones are everywhere

These guys came in with a coral (that was dipped) and has since grown very large and are popping up everywhere. They don't seem to be bothering anything but I'm starting to grow concerned. I always thought they were feather sisters but they look a lot more like some kind of anemone.

I agree. I've been scared to do this. I'm concerned it will kill off a lot of my beneficial bacteria too. Also, how long has it been since. No sign of it coming back yet?

So I'm still relatively new here and to any forums really so don't shoot me if this topic has been broached before. Currently I have a 36g corner tank (Detailed in a former post) and I have been battling dinoflagellates for months and months now. It all started with a failed experiment with organic carbon dosing (sugar) which through lack of patience turned into over dosing, then great results, and then disaster in the turn of brown slime everywhere and cloudy as all H-E-double hockey sticks water. This eventually cleared up (relatively quickly) on its own by halting all attempts at carbon dosing. And then they came. Legions of little brown hair like slime popping up all over the rock and glass. Hundreds of bubbly soldiers of doom and misfortune wherever the light fell marching upon my tank leaving only despair in its wake and a constant reminder of what impatience gets you in this hobby. But seriously, it's darn annoying. I keep it relatively under control through periodic periods of lights out, and black outs, and water changes and everything else I can find online, but nothing stops it from coming back. Sometimes it helps for weeks, others for days. but when the lights get turned back on and ratcheted up in power they appear everywhere. Strands covered in little bubbles over my rock, glass, and corals. Closer to the lights the more I see, and I'm at a loss of what to do. Some people say keep your nutrients all the way down so they can't feed. (mine are pretty low, currently 0.02 NO3, and phosphates undetectable with API), others say you actually have to get your nutrients up high because the over feeding causes them to die out through morbid gluttony. Currently I'm just pretty much ignoring them and just periodically blowing them off of everything with a kent feeder thing whenever I walk by the tank. The first time they popped up my tank mates seemed bothered by them, but once i got rid of them and they came back again nothing seemed to care. My corals open as brilliantly as ever and my fish eat all day every day. Not once has anything, even a snail, died from em. The reason I post this now is that I'm soon going to be upgrading my 36 corner to a 90g reef ready cube. I'm at a complete loss over whether or not I should just call it a loss and start the new tank over brand new everything, or move my current rock into the new tank an potentially bring the dinos in with it. The plan if i bring the rock will be to do at least a 1 week lights out period and good scrubbing before and after of the rock to get any off. This obviously has some risk associated with it. The trouble with starting new is not financial but aging. I loose all age associated with the rock that I have, which means my tank's cycles start all over in which case I'm adding all my fish and corals in way too soon to a brand new tank. Corals and fish that I have no intention of getting rid of while my tank cycles through the various first stages. (I'm referring to how people say you have to wait at least 6 months before you add corals to the tank, give or take, as the tank has to complete several cycles before it's stable enough to add corals. So if you're still with me, I'm wondering if you have any ideas or knowledge in how to beat this stuff. It's easy to get it to go away, but not come back is the hard part. Even articles I've read where people are saying how they've beaten it often come back with updates like "Well, it came back". The forces of good must prevail, I will not so readily except defeat! If you read this whole thing, good for you. You have patience like few who have come before you.

Thanks a lot for the compliments, all of the advice has been great too and I'll be checking into the ATO. I would deff like a sump but like everyone says at some point I'd like to upgrade to a 150 or 200 and do it right from the start. So who knows, time and money Sent from my 831C using Tapatalk

Hey thanks. Yeah that rockscape took a long time for me to be happy with it, but I finally have it in a way I really like. I'll look into that ATO, been meaning to find a good one Sent from my 831C using Tapatalk

Hey guys, figured I'd do my first real post about my tank just to kind of put it out there, I've also got some questions which I'll bring to light as they come to mind. So far I've got a 36g Corner tank which I've had set up for about 6months and in the last three months slowly been adding some of the hardier corals. Pretty much just been kind of figuring out things as I've gone along with some help from Blue Ribbon Koi and a whole H-E-double hockey sticks of a lot of help from Vince at Quantum Reefs who's been awesome. The fact he doesn't have a sign on his door prohibiting me from entering is testament enough.. Alright so to break it down: 36g Corner -Reef Octopus BH90 Hang on Back Skimmer -Fluval 50 Hang on Back Filter (Primarily to run Chemi-Pure Elite, I know I'll get some mixed feelings on this one) -x2 WP10 Jaebos -And with in the last few days I just upgraded from the Fluval Marine and Reef to Radion Pro with Reeflink which has turned out to be an awesome idea. (You have to love spur of the moment "F-it, I'm buying it" purchases) Stock: x2 Mocha Clowns x1 Leopard Wrasse (Eats like a starved pig) x1 Comet Grouper (Marine Beta, also eats great x1 Algae Bleeny 3 Heads Frogspawn (started as 2), but split a 3rd head Toadstool (Toxic Green polyps) 1 Head that's spliting in three directions of Octospawn (if that makes sense) 1 Ricordea Mushroom (Orange) W/ 2 mouths so hopefully will split soon. 1 Small head (Brand spanking new) of Hammer Other than clean up crew that mostly covers it. I've been scared of overloading it on the fish so yeah... Not sure if I'm playing it safe or if I'm pushing it, but yeah, that's what I've got. I plan on adding more corals over time as the tank continues to age and I hammer down the science of it all. Unfortunately the tank is not reef ready and so I'm not running a sump and while I've toyed with the idea of adding a hang on back overflow that comes with its risk, not to mention I'd prob have to build a new stand to fit a sump and that plus moving the tank is just a daunting task. So I haven't quite decided yet. So, so-far the tank has gone pretty well with a few hiccups here and there (when they say don't over dose with organic carbon they mean it...) Over all I'm happy, looking forward to seeing my lights after the acclimation period is finishedand tweaking them with the reef keeper to get what I want out of them. My current dilemma is about whether or not to swap out the Jaebos for a Vortech MP 10. Over all the two Jaebos do a good job but I feel like I'd get more of what I'm looking for out of the Vortechs. Having the Reeflink it'd be really cool to set the MP10s to a schedule and sink em with the lights, but with a corner tank I can't make waves the way they're designed as the dimensions of the tank throw it off, sure it'd do a great job, but a $200 great job? I do like that it has a wider flow angle compared to the Jaebos which are a relative straight jet. I've had a lot of fun (not really) adjusting their flows and angles so that it eliminates the deadspots and at the same time doesn't hammer my LPSs too much. that's been more of the trouble, that and not pissing off the Ricordea and making it tumbleweed around. I'll post some pics below. They're not the best pics by far. My water looks like crap because I was just messing with the sand bed a little so there's some sand in my water column, it's normally crystal clear. Also it's really blue'd with the new lights being in the acclimation period and the pic having been taken with my cellphone, so I'll post a pic from when I had the Fluval in place, you can tell because in that pic both Jaebos are at the bottom. In one of the pics with the Radion, I adjust the lights to 5k in order to get more natural looking lighting for comparison. And yes, I use an old IV bag and drip set as my water top off. I calculated how much water evaporates in a day and calculated a drip rate to drip RO-DI water back into the tank which matches that. I believe you can see that in the pics. Any questions, comments, advice is more than welcome. I'm just finding my way through this by reading most of what I can get my hands on and bugging Vince a lot. Other than my LFS, I don't know anyone with a reef tank or even a fish tank so like I said, any advice or comments are more than welcome. Sorry I rambled on so much, just trying to paint a complete picture. -Kris M

Hey, new to the hobby about 6 months ago. I live in Springfield and have set up a 36G bowfront and am now getting to the point where i'm starting to add coral and have pretty much been living in a constant state of anxiety since doing so. Not sure what help I can be but I am here if you need. -Kristofer