Uh-oh, Dinos.

[Delphinus]

I just abandoned dosing during the lights-off when I had dinos. You can always get your params back in check afterwards.

[asylumdown]

Yah I think i'll turn my auto doser off.

This morning my filter sock was overlfowing, and there were long, stringy strands of brown goo clinging to the fabric on the outside. I can only assume that means the tank was in the process of blooming, as the lights were on normally all day yesterday, I put the garbage bags up and unplugged my lights right before the normal lights out period.

I read through the entire massive thread on peroxide dosing on R2R, and there was a guy doing his PhD on dinos who was getting people to send him samples. he said that most people who sent him samples were actually dealing with cyano or diatoms, but that the ones who did have dinos all had different kinds, and he hypothesized that the reason peroxide worked for some people and not for others might be due to which species it was.

I'm going to give it a try, I'm hoping I caught it early enough that it won't become an entrenched problem. I've got a week to try and deal with it, then two weeks of me being away for it to do whatever it's going to do. Fingers crossed that I'll come home from the US to a sparkling and healthy tank.

[Samw]

I have my first outbreak of dinos and have had it for about a year now. I've ordered Fauna Marin Ultra AlgeaX and plan to give it a try as soon as I receive it. I understand there are always risks but at this point, I'm ready to try it.

[daniella3d]

First, you should id the stuff under a microscope because the key to the treatment is to correctly identify the culprit.

I had 100% success killing dino with higher PH. Worked like a charm and it never returned, ever.

I used Seachem OH to raise the PH to 8.5 for a week.

http://www.aquavitro.com/products/balance.html

I took a sample of the stuff before and looked at it with the microscope before to make sure what I was dealing with and it was positive id for dino.

Diatom won't react to the same treatment, neither cyano so ID is important.

[asylumdown]

Yah I need to buy a pH probe for my Apex, and a microscope. Sigh. So much for the tank sticking to it's budget this month.

[mseepman]

Find an XS Cargo...they usually carry some low cost microscopes that aren't children's toys.

[asylumdown]

I found one online that seems like a good deal:
http://www.microscopenet.com/40x2000...ra-p-9110.html

half off makes me a little nervous, but it's got an attachment for a digital camera. I think I'm going to have to end up sending the images to someone who knows better than me, as it's been about 10 years since i looked at anything through a microscope.

I'm going to try and sell that as a birthday present to myself.

[mseepman]

Okay, so you and i were talking different things...I was thinking $49.99 and you were thinking about adding a zero...

[asylumdown]

hehe, I've actually been wanting to get a microscope for the tank for a while, there's so many problems that can happen with a tank that are easier to solve if you can identify the problem. I can also justify getting it for school/work, so I figured I might get something pretty good. Compared to the professional biological microscopes out there though, that's a pretty cheap scope. I found a Canadian vendor who's bargain model started at 500, and their standard model started at $2500, before any of the add ons.

[phi delt reefer]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

hehe, I've actually been wanting to get a microscope for the tank for a while, there's so many problems that can happen with a tank that are easier to solve if you can identify the problem. I can also justify getting it for school/work, so I figured I might get something pretty good. Compared to the professional biological microscopes out there though, that's a pretty cheap scope. I found a Canadian vendor who's bargain model started at 500, and their standard model started at $2500, before any of the add ons.

call your local high school and ask to speak with the biology teacher. Offer to make a donation to the school if you can use their microscope for ten minutes after school or during lunch one day.

doubt you'll EVER get even $200 worth of microscope use for just reef tank use and im sure the school could use the donation.