dinoflagellates I.D

[Dust_draf]

Hey rc! I was wondering if anyone can help me out here. I have recently set this 20g long tank up about a month ago and about 2 weeks ago i started to get a lot of air bubbles and brown stringy stuff that falls apart easily. The water is not completely new, i got about 15g from my 125g tank and just added 5g of clean salt water. And now i have all this brown stuff that doesnt let my kenya tree coral open that much becuase it sticks to it. I was just curious to see if its dinoflagellates or some sort of algae. My phosphates are at 0.25 and have usually always been that way in my 125g and my nitrites and nitrates are at 0 and i am using thr api tests so ima upgrade soon cause i know these suck lol. But any help is greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!

[CoralNerd]

I just went through a battle with dinos. Does the bubbles come later in the day after the lights have been running then go away over night only to come back the next day?

[Dust_draf]

Originally Posted by CoralNerd

I just went through a battle with dinos. Does the bubbles come later in the day after the lights have been running then go away over night only to come back the next day?

Yes!!! They come back within minutes its frustrating lol i was trying to post a picture but it failed and doesnt wana let me maybe cause im on my phone

[CoralNerd]

Do you have any corals yet? If not I would shut the lights off. Are you dosing yet? You will want to get the ph up during the day and watch or stop two part dosing alkalinity portion of the dose.
The best way to get ph up is kalkwasser but it can spike the alkalinity so keep an eye out.

[CoralNerd]

Good reference http://www.socalireefs.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=73283
I used a modified black out so I can feed my fish and didn't turn the white part of lights on only blues when I did turn them on.

[deus ex machina]

I had the same problem in a tank start up and found that a short light cycle handled it nicely. I used 4 hours of full light with one hour of half light on both ends of the full light phase. The corals didnt seem to mind.

[Dust_draf]

Originally Posted by CoralNerd

Do you have any corals yet? If not I would shut the lights off. Are you dosing yet? You will want to get the ph up during the day and watch or stop two part dosing alkalinity portion of the dose.
The best way to get ph up is kalkwasser but it can spike the alkalinity so keep an eye out.

I do have corals in here but i will be moving them to my 125g today. And im not dosing yet but i can get my hands on that kalk soon.

[Dust_draf]

Originally Posted by deus ex machina

I had the same problem in a tank start up and found that a short light cycle handled it nicely. I used 4 hours of full light with one hour of half light on both ends of the full light phase. The corals didnt seem to mind.

I will be doing anything that has worked for everybody else, thanks for the tips!

[m0nkie]

Did you do the standard against dino?

-reduce water change
-lower phosphate and nitrate together
-heavy skimming
-reduce feeding
-check TDS
-lights out period

I always run carbon and gfo.. I had what i think was dino for a month after cycle.. came after diatom. went away eventually. i increased gfo during that time..

[dodgerblew]

If your corals have that algae on them are you sure you want to transfer them to another tank and possibly introduce it in there too?

[westminsterfrag]

I battled it for a few months and gave up. Only because I was lazy. I didn't clean my frozen food before feedng. Which adds a ton of phosphates. Remember that phosphates are introduced to the tank. It does not bloom in your tank. So use some rowaohos to help remove it. Do water changes. Make sure your rodi has no phosphates. Clean your frozen foods. If you want to get rid of the current dino. Siohone out as much as possible during water changes. Then completely blackout your tank for 3 days. It'll completely disappear. I mean completely black out every speck of light with some thick black paper or cardboard. Good luck.

[Dust_draf]

Originally Posted by westminsterfrag

I battled it for a few months and gave up. Only because I was lazy. I didn't clean my frozen food before feedng. Which adds a ton of phosphates. Remember that phosphates are introduced to the tank. It does not bloom in your tank. So use some rowaohos to help remove it. Do water changes. Make sure your rodi has no phosphates. Clean your frozen foods. If you want to get rid of the current dino. Siohone out as much as possible during water changes. Then completely blackout your tank for 3 days. It'll completely disappear. I mean completely black out every speck of light with some thick black paper or cardboard. Good luck.

So i went to my lfs in bell called bells bird farm, and joe, the owner told me the same thing it was my phosphates and you are correct, i do not clean my mysis shrimp either and my skimmer isnt big enough to keep up so i will be doing more water changes and upgrade my skimmer. Also, joe asked where i get my water and i get it from a local water shop but i tested it and noticed it comes with high phosphates so i went to get water from joe and tested that one out and my test kit did not read any phosphates. Must be the water and bad husbandry, we'll see how fast it disappears.

[westminsterfrag]

Originally Posted by Dust_draf

So i went to my lfs in bell called bells bird farm, and joe, the owner told me the same thing it was my phosphates and you are correct, i do not clean my mysis shrimp either and my skimmer isnt big enough to keep up so i will be doing more water changes and upgrade my skimmer. Also, joe asked where i get my water and i get it from a local water shop but i tested it and noticed it comes with high phosphates so i went to get water from joe and tested that one out and my test kit did not read any phosphates. Must be the water and bad husbandry, we'll see how fast it disappears.

Yeah. Either get a rodi or buy rodi from a fish store. Water stores are for drinking and they don't use the di stage. Which takes it to 0. For me. I had the best results when buying sea water. But if you have to mix your own salt water it'll be so much cheaper to buy a filtration system. Good luck.

[Dust_draf]

Originally Posted by westminsterfrag

Yeah. Either get a rodi or buy rodi from a fish store. Water stores are for drinking and they don't use the di stage. Which takes it to 0. For me. I had the best results when buying sea water. But if you have to mix your own salt water it'll be so much cheaper to buy a filtration system. Good luck.

So i was finally able to get rid of the dino!!! Surprisingly it was accomplished without blacking out my tank for several days. All i did was change my water source. I now get my water at a fish/pet shop that is meant for aquariums and mot drinking like i was doing before lol! So i began to use different water, i did water changes every 3 days. I changed about 6-7g from my 20g long tank so it was a little less than 50% water change. I slolwy began to see the dino come back less and less until now that its all gone. I have to say maybe it wasnt dino? Ive read so many forums of how hard it is to get rid of but i did it in a matter of weeks. Maybe it was just a phosphate issue i had or bacteria? Who knows... Im no expert but i want to thank everyone who chimmed in and gave me a piece of their time to try and help me out. Hopefully one day i will just as experienced and knowledgeable as you guys are with reefing thanks again everyone

[pga7602]

Originally Posted by dodgerblew

If your corals have that algae on them are you sure you want to transfer them to another tank and possibly introduce it in there too?

I think the opt is talking about dinos, and not algae rik. Dinos are everywhere and anywhere,so it's more about his tank conditions than anything. That said, I've had good luck with vodka dosing AND lots of water changes

[pga7602]

Originally Posted by Dust_draf

So i was finally able to get rid of the dino!!! Surprisingly it was accomplished without blacking out my tank for several days. All i did was change my water source. I now get my water at a fish/pet shop that is meant for aquariums and mot drinking like i was doing before lol! So i began to use different water, i did water changes every 3 days. I changed about 6-7g from my 20g long tank so it was a little less than 50% water change. I slolwy began to see the dino come back less and less until now that its all gone. I have to say maybe it wasnt dino? Ive read so many forums of how hard it is to get rid of but i did it in a matter of weeks. Maybe it was just a phosphate issue i had or bacteria? Who knows... Im no expert but i want to thank everyone who chimmed in and gave me a piece of their time to try and help me out. Hopefully one day i will just as experienced and knowledgeable as you guys are with reefing thanks again everyone

Ahhh glad you found the issue. Do yourself a favor and order a 5 dollar TDS digital meter. It tells your the TDS of any water source. Back when I was buying water, I was shocked to see some LFS selling 41 PPM water as filtered water

[Dust_draf]

Originally Posted by pga7602

Ahhh glad you found the issue. Do yourself a favor and order a 5 dollar TDS digital meter. It tells your the TDS of any water source. Back when I was buying water, I was shocked to see some LFS selling 41 PPM water as filtered water

I will definitely buy one of those!!! It wouldve saved me this headache lol

[dodgerblew]

Originally Posted by pga7602

I think the opt is talking about dinos, and not algae rik. Dinos are everywhere and anywhere,so it's more about his tank conditions than anything. That said, I've had good luck with vodka dosing AND lots of water changes

Are dinos not an algae Tri?