dinoflagellates will be the death of this hobby for me ...Need Help
Little history and observations..
My tank is 65 gallons, 2 - 175 watt Metal halide 14K Color Temp. lamps ( run 4 hrs a day ) and a 2 - 36 watt PL Lamps with a white and actinic color lamps ( Run 4 hrs a day) . I have a a 15 gallon sump running a Euro reef skimmer, dual chamber Bulk Reef dual carbon GFO Reactor , a chiller and until today a dual chamber Nitrate reactor - Sulfur in one and agronite in the other.
My tank had looked great for about 3 years but Nitrate has always run high around 50PPM despite trying to reduce it with mechanical nitrate reactor I read about on line ( Which I made Bio balls with a 50' foot tube in a closed chamber ) Despite everything I read no change in the Nitrate levels but continued to let it run for almost a year . ( I had 10% water changes every other week and the tank looked great)
I do not know if this next part is a coincidence or what but as I reflect back the big change to my tank occurred when I went to the Bulk reef carbon/GFO reactor. I purchased this because I had
a Phosban reactor that started to leak and saw the bulk reef with the carbon and liked what I saw so out went the Phosban and in went the Bulk reef.... what was different was the amount of water flow and time I ran the new Bulk Reef vs the Phosban. I ran the phosban probably 4 hours a day at reduced water flow. Not knowing if there was any impact I decided to run the new Bulk reef unit 24 /7 thinking it can only help my tank( which by the way looked great) .
It was not 30 days later after the change did I experience what was an algae bloom that I could not get rid of. It was not until I read this thread did I ever think this change caused my Dinoflagellete problems.... THOUGHTS????
I thought the issue with the bloom was due to the high nitrates that I could never get under control so I then I got rid of my Mechanical Nitrate reactor and replaced it with the Sulfur /agronite reactor . Despite this running for a month or so ..there was no change to the levels nor the algae . I would manually remove the algae but that was only a temp fix for a day at a time
Frustrated I took a sample of the algae to my local vet who has a tank in his office and he informed me it was the dreaded Dinoflagellates..
I read to increase the PH which I did for a week or so mixing Kalkwassser ( 2 teaspoons in a 2 cups of RO water) and then slowly manual put it in after waiting a couple of hours.
Well last week I had a water change which is done by a gentleman who has been monitoring my tank for 3 years . I had mixed up the kalwassser while he was there but forgot to tell him what to do before I left . Well anyways he thought I mixed the Kalk to be put into the tank all at once . Well when I got home my tank was a white out . I knew what had happened but had no idea what was going to happen next . Well over the next couple of days the white was gone and the tank turned a rust color . All tubing turned orange and the Skimmer filled up with the same color sludge in 2 days. Well last night the man that poured the mixture in and myself did a 25 gallon water change, took out the 70 % of the live rock and scrubbed it. We then put on a temp bio filter to clean the water .
Well the tank looks much better after all the work we did last night and I was hoping the rust color slime /powdery substance that was everywhere was the death to the dino ...
Well I hate to say it but looking at ihe tank it does not appear to be the case. ( IF it ws nto the death to the dino What caused the orange substance and what is it???)
Having said that I have read this thread and looking for HELP.....IDEAS....THOUGHTS...SUGGESTIONS...ANYTHING
The amazing thing is I had 2 clown fish , a Tube Anenome , 2 green tip anemones and a hippo tang that survive the ordeal ( during the last couple of months I have lost 4 fish, all my snails , ( Had hundreds) , Mushrooms, invertabreas,
Little history and observations..
My tank is 65 gallons, 2 - 175 watt Metal halide 14K Color Temp. lamps ( run 4 hrs a day ) and a 2 - 36 watt PL Lamps with a white and actinic color lamps ( Run 4 hrs a day) . I have a a 15 gallon sump running a Euro reef skimmer, dual chamber Bulk Reef dual carbon GFO Reactor , a chiller and until today a dual chamber Nitrate reactor - Sulfur in one and agronite in the other.
My tank had looked great for about 3 years but Nitrate has always run high around 50PPM despite trying to reduce it with mechanical nitrate reactor I read about on line ( Which I made Bio balls with a 50' foot tube in a closed chamber ) Despite everything I read no change in the Nitrate levels but continued to let it run for almost a year . ( I had 10% water changes every other week and the tank looked great)
I do not know if this next part is a coincidence or what but as I reflect back the big change to my tank occurred when I went to the Bulk reef carbon/GFO reactor. I purchased this because I had
a Phosban reactor that started to leak and saw the bulk reef with the carbon and liked what I saw so out went the Phosban and in went the Bulk reef.... what was different was the amount of water flow and time I ran the new Bulk Reef vs the Phosban. I ran the phosban probably 4 hours a day at reduced water flow. Not knowing if there was any impact I decided to run the new Bulk reef unit 24 /7 thinking it can only help my tank( which by the way looked great) .
It was not 30 days later after the change did I experience what was an algae bloom that I could not get rid of. It was not until I read this thread did I ever think this change caused my Dinoflagellete problems.... THOUGHTS????
I thought the issue with the bloom was due to the high nitrates that I could never get under control so I then I got rid of my Mechanical Nitrate reactor and replaced it with the Sulfur /agronite reactor . Despite this running for a month or so ..there was no change to the levels nor the algae . I would manually remove the algae but that was only a temp fix for a day at a time
Frustrated I took a sample of the algae to my local vet who has a tank in his office and he informed me it was the dreaded Dinoflagellates..
I read to increase the PH which I did for a week or so mixing Kalkwassser ( 2 teaspoons in a 2 cups of RO water) and then slowly manual put it in after waiting a couple of hours.
Well last week I had a water change which is done by a gentleman who has been monitoring my tank for 3 years . I had mixed up the kalwassser while he was there but forgot to tell him what to do before I left . Well anyways he thought I mixed the Kalk to be put into the tank all at once . Well when I got home my tank was a white out . I knew what had happened but had no idea what was going to happen next . Well over the next couple of days the white was gone and the tank turned a rust color . All tubing turned orange and the Skimmer filled up with the same color sludge in 2 days. Well last night the man that poured the mixture in and myself did a 25 gallon water change, took out the 70 % of the live rock and scrubbed it. We then put on a temp bio filter to clean the water .
Well the tank looks much better after all the work we did last night and I was hoping the rust color slime /powdery substance that was everywhere was the death to the dino ...
Well I hate to say it but looking at ihe tank it does not appear to be the case. ( IF it ws nto the death to the dino What caused the orange substance and what is it???)
Having said that I have read this thread and looking for HELP.....IDEAS....THOUGHTS...SUGGESTIONS...ANYTHING
The amazing thing is I had 2 clown fish , a Tube Anenome , 2 green tip anemones and a hippo tang that survive the ordeal ( during the last couple of months I have lost 4 fish, all my snails , ( Had hundreds) , Mushrooms, invertabreas,
