Fighting Pesky Dinoflagellates & cyanobacteria!

[chriswho]

Thanks for the info. I was having a problem with dino's and here are the steps I took.

Day1: Added ph buffer to bring ph to 8.0-8.2, cut lighting cycle and moved to earlier in the day to reduce tank temp.
Day2: Spent approx. 3 hours sucking off the layers of dino's
Day3: Problem already looks alot better. I'd say I decreased the surface area by at least 75%

[wlninja]

Originally Posted by hma

There you have misunderstood or misread something wininja. The stated lighting duration is valid as a maximum time for Reefer which have problems with DINOFLAGELLATES . The times stated by you are perfect.

As already said, the lighting duration stated in this Thread are valid ONLY for the case of DINOS in the aquarium. OK?

Heinz, I was asking because I have some Cyano and was not sure about cutting the lights back since I have corals in the tank. I am concerned that cutting the lights back to fight the cyano will be detrimental to my corals.

Thanks!

[hma]

Originally Posted by wlninja

Heinz, I was asking because I have some Cyano and was not sure about cutting the lights back since I have corals in the tank. I am concerned that cutting the lights back to fight the cyano will be detrimental to my corals.

Thanks!

Ah, there I have misunderstood something, sorry.

Have no doubts to shorten the lighting duration, it damages the corals in no manner. They will look not really good for some time but it does not damage them.

You have Cyanos? Which values have you measured last (ca, mg, dKh, PH, Salinity)? Maybe I can help.

[wlninja]

Last night I tested Ca, Mg, Alk, (using Seachem kits) and Po4.

Ca = 410
Mg = 1350
Alk = 4.0 mg/l
Po4 = 0.01 (barely detected by my Salifert kit).

This past weekend when I tested (used Salifert test kits):
Ammonia = 0
Nitrites = 0
Nitrates = 5
SG = 1.026 (Refractometer)

Now I could be mistaken in thinking I have Cyano. I know at one point I had a really bad outbreak and it was on the sand, my rocks, and everywhere. Now its not longer on the sand but most of my live rock is covered in red. If I scrub it with a brush it seems to come off but it doesn't blow off easily.

This is the left side of my tank:
Left Side Algae on Flickr - Photo Sharing!


And an up close shot of my Ric you can see the red spots on the same rock.
Ricordea Florida on Flickr - Photo Sharing!


What are you thoughts?

[hma]

OK, thanks wininja. Still it looks after a smaller problem. Even lighter one can act against it. Because the values all in the norm area are the only reasonable way is the density either is to be raised or much better to lower. I would lower the density upon 1,020. Takes every day some litres of the aquarium water and complements it with osmosis water. You make this as long as to the value is reached. I would recommend as a time frame for the lowering 2-3 days.Cyanos react very sensitively to a change of the density.

[Basile]

My Dinoflagellates are on the back wall of the tank, how do i remove the algae. I'm affraid of spreading it. Do i scrape it off or better to suckit away while water change.or scrape it while water line lower. What tool would be better.