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Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 2/26/2007 6:30:59 PM
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| Greetings. I recently submitted the attached picture on RC asking for assistance on what it was and what to do with it. The best guess I've gotten so far is dinoflagellates. I have done some pretty extensive searching over there for info on this stuff and alot of the methods of dealing with it have been rather helter skelter. Some of the more commonly seen approaches involved keeping the tank completely dark for a day or two and raising the pH. My system is 3 1/2 months old, 120 gal tank 35 gal sump/fuge. Was stocked with some already existing rock from my smaller systems, some reeferrocks base rock, and some live rock I bought from a local reefer who was downsizing. The stuff in question is only growing on the rocks I got from him. Additional info is that my trates have crept up on me a little and are nearing 10. Salinity 1.025, pH is around 8.0, dKH 7.0, PO4 not measureable - salifert tests. I have not tested for silicates and have seen this suggested several times. Do not have the test for that right now. Water is via an RO/DI with 0 TDS, new filters in Jan, new DI resin about two weeks ago. The pH is being monitored by the ACjr I just installed last night. I just picked up some Wages pickling lime today and will be getting some kalkwater going soon. Here is the pic: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v385/DavidW/DSCN0211.jpg
Dave
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Group: Moderators
Last Login: 11/19/2009 1:09:50 PM
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| it could be dinos... or not. Hardly any way to say from pic ID alone. The treatments for such nuisance growths are indeed similar and you have already got some very good advice IMO (maintain high pH... 8.3 minimum night time pH... higher by day... also focus heavily on more aggressive nutrient export). Making an educated guess... its a lack of adequate water flow in some spots in the tank (if not overall... do you have at least 30X turnover) to prevent the sinking of nutrients over time that has been largely contributory. If you have not been getting string daily skimmate collection... tis another nutrient source. Bad habits like admitting the thawed pack juice from frozen foods (yikes!0 to the tank is also rocket fuel for such nuicance growths. The solution here indeed is high water flow, aggressive nutrient export and mindful limitations to nutrient import (feeding habits). You can erradicate this growth in mere weeks without any scrubbing or manual labor by doing the above. No worries 
. Anthony Calfo
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Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 2/26/2007 6:30:59 PM
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Thanks for the response Anthony. Ok, this is a 120 gal tank and I have in it 2 Seio 1500's, 2 maxijet 900's, and a return pump which is a Mag 12. Allowing for some head loss on the mag, this comes out to 4260 gph or around 35.5 x turnover. I have been feeding occasional frozen spirulina enriched brine which is thawed and strained before adding to the tank. I feed some formula one flakes. I also feed frozen cyclopeeze. There are a few other things I feed from time to time, but those are the main ones. Skimmer runs full time (Euroreef 6-2) and I have a good size blob of cheatomorpha in the fuge with a light on it 24/7. My fish load isn't very much, most of my fish are very small and there's only 8 of them in there. I have no signs of any other bad algae, I do have some cyano in the sump/fuge. If you have any other insight after reading this, I appreciate it. Thanks again. Keep on doin' what you do.
Dave
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Group: Moderators
Last Login: 11/19/2009 1:09:50 PM
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| good info and folowup Dave. Gracias It sounds like you are very aware of your nutrient load and perhaps how to finesse it. If the skimmer is producing daily skimmate consistently, and if you are not seeing any dead spots in the tank (accumulating detritus... substrate kicks up a cloud, etc)... then that is all very reassuring here. It may be getting back to a chemistry problem in part as the catalyst for the dino-like growth (flat pH and/or minor impurities coming in with source water, supplements, foods). If this were my system, I'm add ozone (and more carbon if needed) and get that pH near 8.6 steady while skimming aggressively and expect to see this dino-ish organism abate in 2-3 weeks likely. kindly, Anthony
. Anthony Calfo
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Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 2/26/2007 6:30:59 PM
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| Thank you again, Anthony. I obviously still have some tweaking of this system to do. I'm on an extremely tight budget, so ozone addition is not likely any time soon. I am just getting going with kalk dripping however, along with being able to monitor the pH with a probe now, so hopefully I will be able to stay on top of that better. I have not been real reliable on my carbon usage either, so I'll make an effort to get much better with that. Here's a pic of the whole tank. Not this blue in person, I'm just not real great about fixing that on my pics. Hope to eventually be able to put some more SPS corals on that upper level of rock once I get my system more stable. I went somewhat minimalist with in-tank rock. Wanted space for fish and corals. Have alot of rock in the fuge. Anyway, here it is: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v385/DavidW/DSCN0209.jpg
Dave
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Group: Moderators
Last Login: 11/19/2009 1:09:50 PM
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| understood about the ozone... and indeed it will help with the kalk being used faithfully (boosting pH in part, precipping other matter) as well as more carbon (small weekly changes are better than large monthly ones... try using one ounce per 50 galls). The pic helps too. I really like your layout and atience to allow room for the corals to grow. For the depth of this tank though, I can imagine surely that you are having deadspots (poor water flow) in some areas. This is one of the situations where folks make the strong argument for multi-tee (like 1 per ten gall) closed loop manifolds over static pumps and surge devices. The former scenario (CLMs) give much finer tuned control over where and how much water flow make it to needed places. FWIW
. Anthony Calfo
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