Jimbo’s CDA 250

[DanK.Reefer]

The dino are definitely super efficient. It thrives with lights, and growing so fast that my large UV is no longer able to keep up. And the dino smell is not pleasant and just permeates the house. I talked with another experienced reefer, and he also said that the only way he was able to beat dino was lights out for multiple days while running a UV.

I definitely see way less dino on the side with the lights out. I'm still running my UV 24/7 to catch any floaters. I'm going to keep this way for another week. Then I'm going to switch sides since my corals are still on frag plugs, and I can easily move them.

With the added fish and increased feeding, I was expecting Nitrates to go higher. But I tested my nitrates today, and it has bottomed out (zero) and my alkalinity has been rising unexpectedly (seen on my trident). I ordered some sodium nitrate powder from Amazon, and I will need nitrates and phosphate much higher to get other types of algae going.

Dinos are super efficient but the problem with total black out is it doesn't kill them it only forces them into hibernation. Then if your nutes ever dropout again...BANG...Dino bloom even harder than before. UV only works to clear a full bloom if used directly in the DT with a closed loop pump from the display and directly back into the display and only on a few different types of Dinos. If you have Procentrum which it sounds like you may. they do not go free swimming they just bury in the sand bed and substrate when the lights go out thus UV won't do squat. I am currently battling Procentrum Dinos in my tank and winning with no UV at all.

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[DanK.Reefer]

I joined this group on facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/259474048655429/?ref=share. They are a 13k+ strong members dedicated 100% to battling Dinos. You can upload an image of your Dinos and they will ID them and provide a plan of action to help rid yourself of them. It's comlpetely free. These guys use a very disciplined scientific aproach to fighting Dinos not guesswork. I learned more about Dinos in 30min on this group than I did in 6 months on forums and listening to LFS guys. 4 weeks later my Dinos are almost completely gone.

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[mchain275]

I joined this group on facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/259474048655429/?ref=share. They are a 13k+ strong members dedicated 100% to battling Dinos. You can upload an image of your Dinos and they will ID them and provide a plan of action to help rid yourself of them. It's comlpetely free. These guys use a very disciplined scientific aproach to fighting Dinos not guesswork. I learned more about Dinos in 30min on this group than I did in 6 months on forums and listening to LFS guys. 4 weeks later my Dinos are almost completely gone.

This is good advice. Information is the best weapon against dino's and I think you'll find that half measures don't work. If you indeed have dino's, it's likely to be a multi-week/month solution. Otherwise it will likely be a chronic problem.

 

[DanK.Reefer]

Yup, beating Dinos isn't about "killing" them but rather outcompeting them for "turf" with other bacteria and then creating and maintaining an enviroment that doesn't foster them.

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[Jimbo327]

I never thought mixing 2 calcium solutions from different two part brands would be a problem, but I was wrong.

I added my own DIY calcium solution (made with calcium chloride and water) to the dosing container (which had a little bit of the ESV Bionic calcium solution)...it turned all milky. So if you are planning to switch 2 parts...make sure you empty the containers completely. I had to dump out most of that milky solution. (This also happens with adding DIY alkalinity to the ESV Bionic alkalinity solution as well, don't ask me how I know. )

 

[Jimbo327]

Dino’s are mostly gone, but hair algae is taking over the tank. I got more CUC (turbo and trochus) and a tuxedo urchin from LFS. Tang gang needs to show up and do their job soon.

Got super lucky and won some sweet QM scape rocks and a Biota coral beauty at the OC coral show raffles yesterday. The coral beauty is the size of a nickel though, and smallest one in the tank. Even the damsel is bigger and bullying it whenever it gets close to “his” cave. I hope it is reef safe and won’t develop taste for corals. I’m loading up on fish and feeding but my nitrates is still bottoming out. Nitrates 0.4 ppm and Phosphates 0.016 ppm. I think the hair algae outbreak is soaking it all.

 

[Jimbo327]

First time starting my pseudo QT, and hope it goes well.

I added Metroplex in the QT 2 days ago, and will start General Cure and Kanaplex tonight. Not doing copper yet and just observing. 1 juvenile blonde naso not looking good, and doesn't look like he is moving much and not eating, so I'm a bit bummed.

 

[drexel]

Try the hybrid TTM, no copper needed. Congrats on the winnings!

 

[Jimbo327]

I think I have baby snails! Either Collonista, Astraea, or Trochus.

Lots of white dots as well, hopefully they will become baby snails. That back algae wall isn't going to clean itself. Would be nice if I didn't have to buy any more snails for the CUC. Reefcleaners online is selling trochus snails for $4.50 each...that's nuts.

 

[Jimbo327]

And the best news of all...I see 2 small specs of coralline algae on the back wall...so I think my tank is finally stable enough for SPS.

I'm going to try an easy starter frag...a digitata. If I can keep that alive and growing, then it's on!

 

[drexel]

Cool, I love free snails. If you ever come to the valley, I'll give you some dove snails (nano conchs), they'll give you plenty of babies.

 

[Smite]

Great tank progress Jimbo, looking great

 

[Jimbo327]

I lost some of the fish I was QT'ing. I'm super bummed.

I may have screwed up with the medications or there was a bacterial bloom in the water. I came out with murky water in the QT. I suck.

And my Apex AFS feeder died. I don't really like APEX gear that much...they are loud and unreliable. I'm going to start selling off some of the extra APEX accessories and investing in other more reliable/silent gear.

 

[Smite]

The major key for me with QT was tons of aeration and a well seeded sponge filter. My best QT was a 40g breeder with the large penguin 350 and large air driven sponge filter. The penguin was for surface agitation but I’d also put floss back there or carbon after treatments were done. If doing a large group, I’d add an air stone right below the intake to add even more oxygen to the water.
It had a gravity fed ATO directly to display and a cheap inkbird controller on the heater. I had a small tunze power head I sacrificed for added flow. That really helps with food movement to trigger picky eater’s feed response. Large PVC fittings for hides.

I may have mentioned it before but I would treat the sponge filters as disposables. Always had a brand new one ( sponge part) in the sump of my display seeding. When I bought fish, I’d buy a new large filter. Pull the one from the display’s sump for QT, place the new filter in sump for future use. Didn’t always need to keep the QT running that way and would toss the sponge filter when done.

in my opinion* if going full copper and dewormer the aeration + a truly seeded filter is a game changer. It ends up being a pretty long process and being able to feed heavy really a helps with fish health.

 

[Smite]

Sorry to hear about your losses. Always tough

 

[drexel]

Sorry about the losses, I’ve been there too. I have copper power on hand in case I absolutely need it, but the next time I have to QT, I’m going hybrid TTM. I also only use general cure over straight prazi, especially with sensitive fish. I agree with @Smite, extra aeration is a must.


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[Jimbo327]

I combined Kanaplex and GC at the same time because I read that it should be fine. Maybe I screwed up somewhere. Now I have a bottle of Fritz and some sponge filter. I also have an air pump.

 

[Jimbo327]

In the morning, I was extremely confused because my Trident was giving an "out of range" error on alkalinity. No big deal...I thought the Trident was glitching again or there is a kinked tubing. Then I checked the alkalinity with a Hanna checker...and the alkalinity was indeed reading 14 dkh. Not good.

I checked the DDR alkalinity container, and it was empty. I checked the APEX, and saw that the DOS has been running all night and dumping 200ml of alk solution per hour.

I finally figured out what went wrong. I was refilling my alkalinity container last night, so I had turned OFF my DOS doser. And when I restarted the DOS from APEX, I switched the toggle to ON instead on AUTO. Then I went to bed. I think this is a very simple error that many people can have. Luckily, I have a big tank volume, and the DDR container is small, and I had kept my alkalinity at 8 dkh previously. Nothing really died in my tank because I didn't have any SPS. The mushrooms and torch seemed like they are fine. But it is big lesson learned that a small lapse or brain fart can nuke your tank in an instant.

 

[Jimbo327]

I'm not growing much besides snails and hair algae right now. They have sort of taken over my tank.

With this much algae, my snail population is exploding. I have a ton of tiny white dots all over, and they are becoming tiny trochus snails. I must have 200+ tiny trochus babies (smaller than a grain of rice). I read that most do not make it to adult snails, but it's pretty cool to see. I can always clean the algae by running the tank cleaner. I'm currently feeding frozen twice a day and lots of pellets/flakes, my fishes and snails are fat and happy. I figure at some point, the number of snails are going to overwhelm the algae...just have to let them grow in numbers first.

I also saw a string of cerith snail eggs on the front glass as well. I like to clean my glass regularly, but my kids have forbidden me to clean that spot where the eggs are laid.

Just waiting for my nassarius snails to do their thing. At this rate, I may have a snails growing side gig. LOL.

 

[Jimbo327]

I've spend the last 2 days manually pulling the longer hair algae just to keep it in check. It's a pain in the butt with a 27" deep tank.

I really need some fish that are algae eaters like tangs or rabbitfish.