Dinos and Cyano in an sps tank...going 20k help?

[koral_lover]

Hi All,

I have been battling dinos for roughly 6+ months, I am really feeling deflated about it...I finally seemed to make a little headway, then Cyano bloomed like no other. I cut back on feedings, kept phosphates low, ran small amount of carbon passively and the cyano will start to die off, but not completely - then dinos begin to take hold again.

Meanwhile my sps start to pale badly while cutting nutrients back and then i find myself have to feed some to keep them healthy which results in a vicious cycle. I tend to like to do gentle changes to handle these issues and be patient. Lights out for 3 days and other products tend to cause stn as my corals are stressed enough with the constant nutrient change.

I am a little unorthodox and run several 10k aquablue special bulbs - i was wondering if i went all blue plus and actinic for several weeks if that would knock the dinos and cyano back while keeping my corals alive...do dinos and cyano thrive in 20k lighting??

Thanks.

 

[jda]

Yes. You need to find the root cause. Cutting or chaning light will not help. BTW - zooxanthellae in the coral are dinos too... starve one to death and you will starve the other.

How old is your tank? Did you start it with dry/dead rock? Is the dinos and cyano on the rocks, sand or both?

 

[koral_lover]

Tank is a year and half old....started with all brs dry rock, cyano is mostly in sand (1 inch crushed coral) and crawling up some at the rock base..Dino's are throughout...

 

[jda]

I would siphon the sand about 1/5 of the tank at a time when you change water. Don't do too much at once, like maybe 1/5 a month, since you need the bacteria in the sand.

The dinos on the rock will likely be an issue for a while to come. Even if you strip the water clean of nutrients, the phosphate leaking from the rock is more proximate to the dions. This is quite common with dead/dry rock since they are packed with dead organics and bound phosphate that can take years to get rid of - I know that most retailers will tell you that the rock is phosphate free, but it is not. How long the process takes depends on how aggressively you have gotten the phosphate out of your tank with either water changes or GFO.

Keep up on your water changes and suck as much dinos/cyano out as you can when you do. Also, change your GFO when you change water - GFO will get to equilibrium with your tank and if your tankwater phosphate lowers, then the GFO will release phosphate back into the water. This could take a while - this is an untended consequence of using dry/dead rock.

If you get sick of looking at the cyano, you can use some chemi-clean, but this is temporary too. ...but it might give you a nice breather.

 

[koral_lover]

I do 10% weekly water changes. I've never been able to get a nitrate reading; dosing nitrate made the cyano worse. Still, the cyano grew so fast my nitrate reading always read 0 when dosing. I was thinking of not doing water changes for a month to see if I can slowly shift my nutrient balance to be in favor of detectable nitrate vs. detectable phosphate...would it be fine to gravel vac the sandbed into a fine filter sock instead of changing water? Or are the weekly water changes key to beating this...was hoping to get nitrates up...

 

[jda]

You have enough nitrate. If not, nothing would grow.

Getting the phosphate down should be your goal, IMO.

 

[waterman78]

GFO....maybe?

 

[Pife]

I'd look up running micro bubbles at night.

 

[Martin Kuhn]

Cyanos as well as dinoflagellates indicate that there is an issues with population of "good bacteria / algae" and this two species occupy available space in your tank which should better be taken by another species

- steadily removal of unwanted species
- adding of good bacteria incl feeding
- good water Flow and introduction of a cleaning crew (v. Puellaris, v. Sexguttata, a Phalaena)
- weakening growth rate by lights out, o waterchanges no traces at this time
Should improve the situation

However , depending on type and heaviness of your dinoflagellate infection this might not be enough.


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