Red slime / Dino help

C

CptHowdy

Copepod
#21
#21
Thanks guys!

Craigar - I saw you had some medical issues. Sorry to hear about that and hope you’re on the mend! The kit came in pieces, so I had to plumb it. I looked it over last night to make sure it’s input - sediment - carbon - RO - DI then out. I also pay attention that I am not using the waste water line for my fills. I have a pressure gauge in the garage and will hook up to faucet later today to test pressure. I do see the unit has some min and max pressure values, so we’ll see.

The Real Chris Brown - tank is still looking pretty good. I removed the silencer off my skimmer and it looks like it’s applying a bit more air. Still skimming wet. My zoas are finally staying opened and my RFA is walking around a bit but I kind of changed his position when I pulled his rock out to scrub. By Tuesday or Weds I will know better.

Thanks!!!


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Dr.DiSilicate

Dr.DiSilicate

Great White Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
ex-officio
#23
#23
I have no clue about the RODI function but it should be better that that and must be a big part of your issues. Also, how old is the tank? What kind of rock did you start with? Years ago we all had the luxury of aged rock from the ocean and not that’s hard to come by. Dry rock is just harder to start with.


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C

CptHowdy

Copepod
#24
#24
Dry rock from Elite Reef, started the tank in my Biocube 16 back in Aug 2019. Didn’t have these issues using distilled water from King Soopers to fill and top off. Didn’t have a skimmer on the Biocube either. Oct 2020 got this IM 30l, took an hour to break down the BC, kept almost all the water, added sand from BC to the IM, added old water from BC, added the rock from BC and a couple more dry rocks, added new water and then added the corals and live stock back to tank once I knew the temp and salinity was good.

It seemed like last year at some point the distilled water from King Soopers took a quality hit. Not sure if COVID caused a demand on distilled water but it was harder to find and that’s when I started getting the slime. Until this last week I was vacuuming my sand every week during the water change. I did use tap water with Prime for a couple weeks several months ago and noticed an immediate jump in the slime. Stopped doing that and went back to distilled and then got this RO unit.


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Spieg

Spieg

Copepod
M.A.S.C Club Member
#26
#26
Something definitely not right with your RODI... your filtered TDS is about the same as my tap water. Should be below 5ppm after the DI resin.
FWIW, I don't know anyone who has been happy with the RODI system you have for more than a few months (those cartridges are just too small to last very long).
 
C

CptHowdy

Copepod
#27
#27
Mystery solved: while making sure I hooked everything up right, I decided to make sure my RO membrane was seated correctly. It was but there is a black o-ring / gasket about 3/4 up the membrane. When I pulled it out I saw it looked to be folded down on one side. As I got it all the way out it flipped up. I reseated it and ran some new water: 0ppm

Thanks everyone for your help!!!


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C

CptHowdy

Copepod
#31
#31
Well, it’s come back. I have been testing my RO water, it’s 0ppm still. No other changes. After I did the thorough scrubbing, the red slime was super slow to come back. Been doing 4-5 gallon weekly changes. I used dry rock for the tank, it’s a lace type rock and not the typical reef rock. I notice that the red slime seems start off on the biggest piece of rock in the tank. This rock also gets the most flow. One of the returns points toward it and I even have my power head 2” from it, blasting it. It starts growing the red slime, some of it almost turn to hair algae, only on this side of the tank. Then I see air bubbles develop on all of my rocks and then the red slime starts.

I pretty much want to start pulling this rock out of my tank, starting with this big rock. It represents about 50-60% of my total rock.

Thoughts on this? I just have been reading so much about phosphates leeching from these types of rocks. I would replace it with either good live rock or good dry rock like Marcos or something. Thanks


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Dr.DiSilicate

Dr.DiSilicate

Great White Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
ex-officio
#32
#32
Without going back through everything can you remind me... do you have sand? What are your nitrates and phosphate?


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Andrew_bram

Andrew_bram

Tiger Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#33
#33
October 2020 so 6 months. The tank is still young. Just tell yourself this to shall pass.

Are there corals in it. If not turn lights off for a bit.

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C

CptHowdy

Copepod
#34
#34
I have a Frogspawn that is growing like weeds, a RFA that is ok, a candy cane that is ok and a drag of zoas that will hardly ever open.


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neil82

neil82

Sting ray
M.A.S.C Club Member
#36
#36
If it's easy to remove the suspect rock, might be worth a try. Go one rock at a time over a few weeks. If replacing with new 'dry' rock, I would get that rock ready ahead of time by seeding with bacteria and letting it cycle a bit.

It may require some sustained efforts to win the long term battle. Manual removal and I would consider vacuuming sand bed down to about 1.5 inch throughout. Stir the sand regularly. You could also consider vacuuming all the sand out (reused from previous tank I believe) and replace with new substrate that has been rinsed really well. I would do it slowly over a period of time.

Just a few ideas. I have researched some myself, and most of the dino threads on the larger forums are suggesting using microscope to identify which type and determine specific treatment options.
 
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C

CptHowdy

Copepod
#37
#37
Thanks for the advice! Thanks to Craigar for dropping off a good Nitrate test kit to me today. 0ppm. I ordered a Salifert Phosphate test kit today as well.

Going to be doing a water change in the next day or two and will be removing the rock I think is the culprit.

This tank has been going since Aug 2019 as a Biocube 16. In Oct 2020 I got the IM30l and transferred all rock, sand and water to it.


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neil82

neil82

Sting ray
M.A.S.C Club Member
#38
#38
Good call testing Nitrate and Phosphate. Sounds like you are on a good path to working out a solution. I'm in a similar situation with my tank. I found a couple things that helped, but it's not gone yet. I didn't want to 'recommend' any of the more drastic measures of treatment until you tried some other options. Battling this stuff is not fun. I might have to get back on Facebook just to hang out in the Dinoflagellates support group!

https://firsttimemarinekeeper.com/2020/03/29/dinoflagellates-the-final-chapter/
 
C

CptHowdy

Copepod
#40
#40
I still have some issue causing this. My lighting is low, no red or green and whites are low, feed pellets and no pellet goes uneaten, skimmer, two overflows with filter floss, carbon and GFO and then some Matrix. I skim really wet too. I think it’s these dumb rocks. We’ll see...phosphate test kit should be here in the next two days too.


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