Help!!

[ReeferRyan]

I had dinoflagelates (sp?) in my 75 gallon tank. I cooked the rock in complete darkness for well over a month and thought it was ok. Well, it wasn't. I used a few small pieces to start cycling my new aquapod and noticed today that the dino's were once again covering the rocks and there were even a few small spots on the sand. I removed all of the problem rock, and left one completely clean rock in there. I have now turned off the lights since nothing in there needs them to survive, but what else do I need to do? Should I treat this tank chemically since all it has is sand and rock, or just light starve it and hope for the best. Also, what should I do with my other rock? Let it dry out completely and start it all over or keep it cooking for a much longer time? When I took it out to put in the new tank, it looked completely clean and was mostly covered in coraline but it only took about 3 days for the dino's to show up again.

Right now my param's are:

pH-8.3
dKH- 7.7
temp-84 (not sure why it is so high, I don't have a heater in it)
S.G.-1.020
PO4- 0.0
Nitrates- 0
Nitrites- 0
Ammonia-0

Using instant ocean salt, 20#brand new aragalive sand, 2 MJ1200 flow

 

[djc1026]

Do you have pics? How long was the cooked rock in the tank before you noticed the stuff? Are you sure it's dinos and not diatoms?

Dave

 

[ReeferRyan]

To be honest I got ****ed off that it was back and yanked it all out as soon as I could so unfortuantely I do not have pics of mine. It is definitely dino's. Looked almost exactly like this:

 

[dugg]

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-11/rhf/index.php
Here is an article dealing with dinos that might help some.

I would suggest raising the S.G. to 1.026, and also raising the dkh a little. I try to keep a dkh of around 10. I have only had a dino problem one time, and i found mine to be caused by old PC bulbs. If not caused by it, they sure went away when i changed them out, so if you have PC lights and they are over 6 months old, you might try changing them out.

Do you have a stong current going in the cooking bucket? I personally think cooking rock is a waste of time, but that is a loaded topic here. Before i would cook rocks, i would rather let them dry in the sun for a few weeks until they are dry all the way through. I feel cooking only kills the stuff on the rocks that are feeding on the nutrients, and not doing anything to remove the nutrients themselves.
I would work on the water quality first and since you don't need the lights, leave them off for a week or so. Maybe even try some phos guard or something.
Good luck, and keep us posted. I will do some searching for you in the mean time. Here is the RC search for poor folks also.
http://reefcentral.com/search.php?menu=11

 

[ReeferRyan]

Thanks dugg. I have a mag 3 for flow in about 15 gallons of water for the "cooking tub". I have my lights off and I think I am going to go buy some fresh rock at a LFS tomorrow so my tank can actually get going and I can get something to look at in there. I am leaning very heavily towards letting the stuff I want to use in my new tank dry out completely then cycling it all over again and starting fresh.

 

[Russ Braaten]

Ryan,

What you need to do is stop interfering with the tank cycles. Leave the lighting on about 8 hours a day. siphon off the brown stuff, what ever it is and the tank will take care of itself. It just takes time.

 

[ReeferRyan]

I appreciate the input Russ however, this is not a common part of the cycle. It is my fault for introducing this junk to the system, and I am fully aware of that. I am trying to find out how to get the rock I already have ready to go back in a tank. I broke down my other tank because of this stuff. It took over everything; my sand, my rock, my corals, and my snails. This stuff is vicious and I am trying to start my tank off right.

 

[Russ Braaten]

I still bet that if you just try sucking the stuff out and let it run through it's cycle it will be gone. In time it will loose what it thrives on and as you remove the growth it will have to stop. I have found that being too aggressive with chemiclals or trying to get things like this fixed NOW just create more trouble and will stress you out more.

 

[dugg]

Please correct me if i'm wrong, but dinoflagellates in my experience are not anywhere in a normal tank cycle. If they are, i have only had one tank in i guess about 16 or 17 years now that ever managed to completely cycle. It has to do with the rock that he has cooking being contaminated with an abundance of nutrients and dino spores that are just waiting on proper conditions to bloom all over again.

Another thing that may help in the cooking process is a good skimmer removing all of the waste that is coming from the rocks rather then just letting it sit in the dark. I personally don't think so called cooking rock does any good. Like i said earlier, i believe it just kills the life on the rock that is feeding on the nutrients and leaves the nutrients waiting on the next batch of algae to come feed on it when you put it back in the light. In order for that to work, you need something like a few hundred or thousand bristle worms in the bucket to actually clean the rock out, and some GFO media to absorb the minerals. The nutrients inside the rock will be uneffected by depriving it of light, as they already don't get light inside of a rock. The nutrients that cause the algae isn't rotting food either, they are more mineral deposits such as iron that absorb into the rocks over time.

Personally i think in order to really get rid of an algae problem or dino problem by cooking, the proccess should be reversed. Place all of the rocks in a large flat tub with good circulation and give it tons of good light, but no additives or food. That way the algae or dinos would deplete all nutrients from the rock and die. This seems more feesable to me then making it where the algae or dinos can't proccess the available nutrients and die leaving the nutrients behind for another day. Just my opinion.

The number one thing i have learned in this hobby is an ounce of prevention really is worth a pound of cure.

 

[dugg]

Ouch!!! that post cost me $109 lol. As i clicked submit on the RC page, my poker table popped up and i clicked all in with nothing lol.

 

[ReeferRyan]

I agree about the prevention/cure. I learned that one the hard way. I agree with you totally about the only true way to kill the algae completely would be to dry everything out and start it all over in a healthy environment. I just hope that there is another solution because I have dried and recured rock before and my whole apartment stunk to no end, and that was only about 20 lbs. Lol