Dino's after replacing Bulbs

[johnarky]

I have an SM100 that's been working properly for a long while now on my current tank (over a year, probably closer to 2). Just changed the bulbs about 2-3 weeks ago (as I do every 3 months) and I'm having a huge dino outbreak... Nasty brown/reddish bubbly stuff. Been removing it mechanically best I can but it won't go away.
The ATS is still growing great, just as it always has, but the screen growth is now a little darker than before and (I think) I'm getting dino's on there as well. Have tested the water and no N or P at all. Took it to the LFS to have them test it as well (just in case) and same results ("Your water looks great!").
I've now lost 3 fish as well as many snails.... Pretty much all corals look AWFUL except a couple of toadstools that still seem to be doing fine.

I've read this thread: http://algaescrubber.net/forums/showthread.php?1569-Dino-plague-in-scrubbed-tank
and I'm wondering if I'm running into the same issues.

Here are the bulbs I use in the SM100: http://1000bulbs.com/product/4944/FHO-24T5830F.html

[Garf]

What's your pH ? as a matter of interest. I can grow dino's at 7.8 but get rid of them at 8.2

[SantaMonica]

Sounds like some other issue like maybe a change in powerhead flow which caused periphyton die off.

[johnarky]

No other changes.... Just the bulbs in the ATS. No changes for some time.
Since the change, I've pulled the powerhead and cleaned it to make sure it's working and it's working fine. Also pulled the return pump and ATS pump to make sure they were both working properly. Cleaned both and they're both working fine.
The darker algae in the ATS does have me worried. In the past, whenever I've changed bulbs, the algae tends to lighten up NOT get darker....

[SantaMonica]

Well whatever died will dissolve and be back to normal in a few weeks.

[Garf]

Does anyone else get dino's when they change the flow patterns ? I don't !

[Ace25]

Nope, I use an MP40 that cycles through different modes along with a closed loop that turns on/off several times a day, so I have very chaotic flow in my tank, never had dinos from that.

Going off the information from John, since there is only 1 variable involved, I would guess the bulbs are putting out a different spectrum than normal even if they are the same brand of bulbs used in the past, which is giving more proper spectrum for dinos. I would put the old bulbs back in the fixtures to see if that starts reducing the problem, but as those of us that have dealt with dinos in the past know once you get them, it is a lot harder to get rid of them, so putting the old bulbs back in may not show any real noticable difference for quite a while.

With a dino problem I feel it is one you have to really hit hard and fast. 2x daily scrubbing of the tank/equipment, or even better, use a 1 - 5 micron filter sock and pretend to do a water change in a big container, scrubbing/sucking out the dinos and filter them through the sock and then you can put the filtered water back in the tank without the added cost of new water/salt. If you just sit back and try and let nature handle the problem it could get A LOT worse before it gets better, to the point you lose all your corals AND fish, so being very proactive is hugely beneficial for this problem IMO.

[Nick28]

I have an SM100 that's been working properly for a long while now on my current tank (over a year, probably closer to 2). Just changed the bulbs about 2-3 weeks ago (as I do every 3 months) and I'm having a huge dino outbreak... Nasty brown/reddish bubbly stuff. Been removing it mechanically best I can but it won't go away.
The ATS is still growing great, just as it always has, but the screen growth is now a little darker than before and (I think) I'm getting dino's on there as well. Have tested the water and no N or P at all. Took it to the LFS to have them test it as well (just in case) and same results ("Your water looks great!").
I've now lost 3 fish as well as many snails.... Pretty much all corals look AWFUL except a couple of toadstools that still seem to be doing fine.

I've read this thread: http://algaescrubber.net/forums/showthread.php?1569-Dino-plague-in-scrubbed-tank
and I'm wondering if I'm running into the same issues.

Here are the bulbs I use in the SM100: http://1000bulbs.com/product/4944/FHO-24T5830F.html

If you can, run actinics only for a few days over your display 460/420nm and see if it clears up.

I had a huge problem with them before i removed an old 10000k current usa t5ho and 12000kUVL and dinos are almost all gone. (The 10k was about 2 years old I'm betting its color shift was the problem. they were not cyano or diatoms they had a slimey mat with tiny brown dots.)

doing this should at least lessen the dinos. Until you can see if the scrubber bulbs are the cause. I would stay away from a bulb that has a high yellow orange spectrum (all cfls that had this grew dinos) with low red and blue.

I only run 460nm and 420nm t5's now corals are growing and look great

[SantaMonica]

Also could be photoinibition from the new bulbs.

[johnarky]

Well, lost a total of 4 fish... 2 clowns, flasher wrasse and a yellow eye kole tang. The clowns really surprised me, they've been bullet proof for like 3 years. So it goes...

So, been doing a lot of manual removal of algae and cleaning the scrubber about 2x more than usual. Cut down on feeding. Cut down on lighting (a little).

Corals are starting to look better and algae seems to be in remission.

Thanks for all the help everyone - Still not sure what the hell happened.

[Floyd R Turbo]

I had this happen as well, could never figure out what exactly caused it, didn't kill any fish just a few corals. Best I can tell, it was the food I was feeding, I managed to beat them off eventually by cutting feeding way down, and only feeding right before lights out, then I actually increased the photoperiod on the DT. This was actually SM's suggestion, the theory being that it allow the corals to photosynthesize the nutrients out of the water. It seemed to work.

Scrubber during this time was growing very dark growth also, with a slimy dark brown dino type of coating, screen was 20x7 on a 120g tank with 4x 24W 2700K T5HO. Scrubber growth remained about the same after the dino outbreak was past.

It could have been overexposure on the scrubber also in my case though. I never made that connection until I started up my UAS test box, and I got a whole lot of dinos until the GHA started to really grow in, and then the dinos would kick in with too long of a photo period.

I would put 1/2 of the old lamps back in and see if that helps