Possible dinoflagellates?

[stroid]

Very recently as of this week i started seeing more and more of what seemed to look like diatoms. I thought no worries (eventhough i didnt expect them this late) until these started to look like a mixture of diatoms and cyano. The same look as cyano but the color of diatoms. On top of that I have noticed that my LR which has been covered with really nice coraline purple has turned to white on alot of the rock. What could possibly be the reason for the loss of purple and this algae growth. All parameters seem to be in check with regular water changes and top offs. I have a crappy picture because i left my camera in my friends car but here is the best I have

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[FutureInterest]

Cyano can be brownish as well. Hopefully, that's all you have. One of the best indicators of dinos is to watch your snails... Dinos are poison to most algae eaters and snails will tend to slow down and hang out near the surface... eventually they die. Dinos basically look like snot with bubbles in it, although it can be many colors from greenish to brownish.

 

[reefscape]

FutureInterest;39975 wrote: Cyano can be brownish as well. Hopefully, that's all you have. One of the best indicators of dinos is to watch your snails... Dinos are poison to most algae eaters and snails will tend to slow down and hang out near the surface... eventually they die. Dinos basically look like snot with bubbles in it, although it can be many colors from greenish to brownish.

an with dinos ...whats the best method to get rid of it

 

[FutureInterest]

Battling dinos unfortunately has caused many a reefer to throw in the towel. It's one nuisance algae that appears to thrive with the most minimal of nutrients... so trying to starve it out in a stocked tank is impossible. Some reefers that don't quit the hobby merely start over by "cooking" all their rock and essentially starting from scratch again. However, there are a few threads on RC on battling dinos successfully with high ph in excess of 8.5 I believe. One guy essentially used so much kalk he had a constant snow storm in his tank... amazingly he didn't lose any corals and the dinos melted away after a few days of treatment.

 

[wbholwell]

Ok, I recently battled dinos and won (at least they haven't come back yet.) Here's what I did:

-Performed a large water change
-Started running a polyfilter & made sure the skimmer was running wet
-Cut ALL lights to the tank for 5 days- also wrapped towels around the tank to keep stray light out
-Performed 20 to 25% water changes every two days, siphoning off as much of the dinos as possible
-Did NOT feed the tank for 6 days

Mine, however, never looked quite as bad as yours. Try my method, and if it's not completely gone put the lights back on for a few days (but for a shorter period of time), and then start the process again. Still beats having to completely tear down you tank and sterilize everything.

Good luck

 

[wbholwell]

Oh, and raising the pH a bit is reported to help as well

 

[FutureInterest]

Glad to hear your dino problem is under control Bryan. I forgot about the lights out technique, so I'm glad you posted it.

 

[stroid]

well i hope i can get this under control fast it doesnt seem to be as bad as before. I am going to do a water change tomorrow and probably another this weekend. I will reduce the light time and i might dose with chemi-clean i have had good results with that before. What is weird is taht everthing in the tank is doing really well but i just have this gross algae growth. I will try what has been recomended hopefully it will help. I will get better pictures as well.

 

[wbholwell]

Stoid, if it IS dinoflagellates, DO NOT use chemi-clean. It will make it worse. (The thought is that chemi-clean kills the algae that competes with dinos for food, hence more dino growth.) Question: how are your snails, anemones, and zoas doing? Mine were affected pretty badly by just a little dinoflagellates.

FutureInterest, thanks for the kind words and thanks again for all your help. What was that GI Joe slogan? Knowing is half the battle?

 

[stroid]

snails and anemones are pefectly fine. My zoas are pissed because i think they have nudi's on them I FW dip them all the time but still not better.

 

[wbholwell]

I think it's still possible that it might be dinos- maybe a different strain. My zoas were the first thing to be affected, then my anemones went to about half their normal size. During the entire time I think I only lost one or two snails. My zoas still haven't fully recovered.

 

[stroid]

The thing is my anemone looks great everything in the tank looks really good full extention and fully spread out. With the exception of my green slimer (which bleached out after two days in my tank) and my zoas everything looks great. Both of these corals I beleive are isolated incidents and have nothing to do with this brown stuff. I know the bulb has probably only another 2 months on it so I thought maybe the light just needs to be changed earlier. Do you guys know of any good reef kits that test for things other then the basic nitrate, nitrite, amonia, pH? I plan on a big water change today hopefully that should help.

 

[wbholwell]

Well, there's silicates & phosphates, and you can't go wrong with a Salifert test kit.

So, are there any bubbles in the "brown stuff"? If not, maybe it is slime algae. You said your snails were doing fine? BTW, what size tank do you have, what kind of skimmer do you have, and how much skimmate are you getting per day. And lastly, how much do you feed your fish and/or corals per day/week?

 

[stroid]

There are some bubbles in the brown stuff but not much. It is a 29g tank with a CPR Bak-Pak 2 when skimming properly a cup every two-three days. I need to replace the pump on it right now ive actually considered getting rid of it all together and getting a remora. As far as feeding once a day and not much I only have 1 Gold Stripped Maroon. I have 30 blue legs, 1 lettuce nudibranch, 2 Turbos, 1 Fire Shrimp and 3 Peppermint shrimp. I feed my anemone some food maybe once a week but it gets most of its food from the lights. 175w mh with 2 55w PC actinics.

 

[fulldraw74]

I've got the same thing going on in my tank. Any luck yet?

 

[stroid]

mine has gone down on its own. i have reduced the light cycle and i siphon it out daily. I think the key is water changes less light and good skimming. I dont believe that it is dinoflagellates but just cyano. Hope that helps you out mine isnt completely gone yet but getting better day by day.