dinoflaggilates?????

[keish24]

for quite a while now i have been dealing with this stuff in my tank. started out as a reddish/purplish color with bubbles. i thought it was cyno....so i read up on cyno. i increased flow and lessened the light schedule. i use ro/di water. nothing seemed to be helping. it is now kind of a green color and bubbles are everywhere in it. it is all over the sand, rocks, and back glass. some places it almost looks like hair algea. i took all my rocks out and scrubbed them a couple of weeks ago and with in a few days it was back. first as the purple/red and now green again. i have noticed that some of my snails and a couple of my hermit crabs have been dying. i ordered a bunch of snails and acclimated them properly and nearly all of them died. i got another shipment of them and the same thing happened again. i finally resorted to getting red slime controller. dosed my tank the other day and there is not a noticable difference. i was reading a thread on cyno and discovered dinoflaggilates. i am thinking now this might be what i have instead of cyno. i have posted a couple of pics. what do you think this stuff is?
Attachment 228656
Attachment 228657

 

[flower]

I don't know what that nasty stuff is...but your nitrates are probably off the scale. I bet that’s why your inverts are dying. What are your water tests saying? What kind of filtration do you have?

 

[keish24]

i just tested my water. here are my parameters:
amonia - 0
nitrites - 0
nitrates - 0
phosphates - 0
salinity - 34

 

[cranberry]

Nitrates are not the instigator for this nasty snot. I can't tell you the problems I had with it. I'm sure some peeps will come on and tell you how to deal with it... I have nothing to suggest because nothing worked for me.
:-(

 

[keish24]

not encouraging
cranberry....does this look like dinos to you? i am almost certain after doing some research it is what i am dealing with but i would love to get an opinion from someone who has had it.
anyone ever successfully gotten rid of this stuff??????
if so can you help me out on how to do it?
i have read raising ph and doing 2 day black outs every week....anyone ever tried this?

 

[cranberry]

Ya, it looks like dinos for sure.....
I tried a black out for a good month. And it went away! As soon as I turned the lights back on they came back. Mine was crazy bad.
Others have fought the battle and won..... I'm sure they'll share exactly what they did. It just didn't work for me :-(

 

[spanko]

Here, start with the first link.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Problem+Dinoflagellates+and+pH

 

[pbienkiewi]

1) How often do you do water changes?
2) How often do you feed?
3) What kind of skimmer do you have?
You said your Phosphate levels are at 0. They need nutrients and or light to live and multiply. I would cut them both for a few days and do several small water changes. The skimmer should be big enough to remove excess waste and nutrients. You may want to look into a Diatom filter. I have had a couple of outbreaks and the ran the Diatom filter for a few days and it took care of my problems.

 

[keish24]

spanko....i have read that article already....i was really wanting to talk to someone who had tried it
plienkiewi....i do water changes every 3 or 4 weeks. i feed every other day. i am feeding a pellet food right now but i am thinking about switching to frozen as soon as i can. i have an Octopus Recirculating Protein Skimmer Model 110.
the diatom filter took care of Dinoflagellates? what is a good diatom filter?

 

[cranberry]

The pH thing didn't work for me.....
The diatom filter did not work for me.
Diatom filters are great but you won't be able to get all the particles and they can (and did) come back.
But there are many different varieties, and some are not even photosynthetic, so maybe my type was different making it harder to abolish.
There is no problem with rising your pH to 8.4. That's actually not a bad pH if you can keep it there. Bust most people can't, so a lower, but stable pH is preferred.

 

[keish24]

what is the best way to raise ph?

 

[renogaw]

alkalinity and/or calcium buffers. kalkweisser will raise your ph really fast, but you really don't want to do that.
i scrubbed every single rock i had, and raised my ph and got rid of dino

 

[keish24]

renogaw.....what did you use to raise your ph when you had the problem with dino? how high did you raise it to?