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Two should-be-simple reef health questions

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chrisdhewitt

Hello All, I have two things in my tank that I cannot figure out.
First, I got two Carribean sea cucumbers a few weeks ago. They went into the rockwork the day I put them in, and have not moved from those spots since. Is this normal? Theyre clearly still alive as they wiggle around.

Secondly, I have this very long stringy algae sort of taking over things. It is brown and thin, and can get up to 12"+ long. Easy to manually remove, but it sticks to EVERYTHING. Is this just diatoms, or is it dinos? If it is diatoms, will running GFO in a reactor pull out the silicates? Phosphate test at .03 on red sea pro. I want to avoid any kind of carbon dosing as the macro algae suffers. And to add, if I do run GFO will it effect a 7" maxima clam? I have read it will cause pinched mantle. If I were to use the GFO i would mix it with matrix carbon that runs most of the time anyway.

Thanks for any input, I have googled these things and havent found any satisfactory answers.
 
MadReefer

MadReefer

Vice President
Staff member
NJRC Member
Moderator
I would say Dino's too. Long brown snot looking stuff. Took me 3 months to kill it. Lost plenty of coral and fish cause of it.
 
DangerDave

DangerDave

NJRC Member
Don’t worry about the cucumbers... sometimes mine disappears for days, sometimes it stays in one place for days. It does what it wants when it wants. I think when they find something to, they stay put.
 
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chrisdhewitt

Thanks for your replies- I have read elsewhere that dinos can be taken care of by hydrogen peroxide at 2ml/10 gal for a week will do it. Is there any truth to this? I would rather not do lights out due to acros/clam/anemone.
 
DangerDave

DangerDave

NJRC Member
I think I may have the dinos, not sure. I already run an oxydator anyway, so I’m not afraid of h202 in the tank. I started dosing 1ml/gal h202 yesterday. I ordered a microscope from amazon to try and confirm.

@Steven Simon was in same position recently. He ran h202 and lights out and cleaned up nice and quick, wasn’t 100% what it was. He’s running UV as precaution now. I may do the same...
 
jmags080307

jmags080307

SPS Grow Out Winner
i had dinos 3 or 4 months after i started my first tank. i tried peroxide and that didn't work. i ended up doing twice a week water changes to suck it all out. i think i beat it in about 2 months if i remember. it wasn't fun. overnight most would go away and then by the end of the day it was back. it's a battle for sure - but you can win it:)
 
Mark_C

Mark_C

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Officer Emeritus
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Moderator
If you want to go the chemical route, Chemiclean works wonders, just DONT overdose.
HAve used it a number of times with success and no livestock (invert, fish, or coral) losses.
 
C

chrisdhewitt

UPDATE- I think I have semi-accidentally solved the problem, which after looking around was definitely dinos. I got some algae barn clean sea lettuce from RAP and added to my refugium Saturday. The entire tank has been looking better and cleaner every day since (not just the dinos). I have also been using a long kent feeder (like a long thin turkey baster) to pull out as much as I could. Each day I have seen at least a 50% reduction in the dinos. The only thing I can credit is the sea lettuce as nothing else has changed. Thanks for all your tips and ID.
In other news, the sea cucumbers still haven't moved.
 
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