Cyano or Dinos?

So... after reading about dinoflagglates or whatever I'm a bit (just a small bit) concerned they may be the problem...

Are they easy to confuse? What I have started off burgundy/red and is now mostly brown. My only concern is it's full of bubbles.

Here's a pic of it while it was red... I'll add a new shot when I get one.



(sorry to those on dial-up)

Thanks

-Doug

 

I dont think it is dino's. Mine was more brown and looked like....well, snot! Was thick and a lot of it. Covered the sand, the rocks and the corals.

I thought mine was cyano at first but it kept getting worse and worse

I think the treatment is similar though....
1. get the nutrient level down in the tank. I added a phosban reactor and cut the feedings down by over half. (IMO the most important step)
2. Bring the pH and alk up. My pH was running low at 7.8. I brought it up to 8.4 and my kH up to 11 I dosed daily kalk, 2 part and added 8.4 by aquavitro.
3. once those steps were taken I turned my lights off for 6 days....completely. No acentics, no moonlights, nothing. After 6 days then I slowly started the lights back on (I have 7 clams, SPS and LPS and everything was fine)

Once the lights came back on the dino had gone away pretty much.

Dont do water changes during this time until whatever it is is gone. It only delays the process from what I read

 

I agree it looks like cyano, cyano tends to be more opaque than dinos and grows more like a mat. Dinos can vary in colour but are generally redish green to dark brown, looks like snot and is colourless in places looking really slimy. I've not heard of anyone having low pH from dinos or cyano before, they usually elevate the pH because of the mass of oxygen they release (bubbles everywhere) causes an elevation of pH.

 

no dinos there, +1 to cyano

 

lol def cyano, thats what it looks like in a high flow area when it starts to sting out like that. Im having a epic battle right now with it. Blow it off with a turkey baster asap and do a water change when you blow it all off. But do this at your water change periods. Seriously get it done now or you will be sorry when it gets out of control!

 

This is how I got rid of it. I did a one time dose with chemiclean. (turn skimmer off or you'll be sorry) Waited 48 hours, did a 30 percent water change, and hooked up a gfo reactor. No more cyano=) This was about 2 weeks ago and everything is starting to look hunky dory=P

 

So I blasted as much as I could off till the water was so cloudy I couldn't see my rocks. stirred the top of the sand to break it up on there as much as I could, but really just succeeded in mixing it into the sand... more on that in a sec.

20% WC.

Added on phosphate filter media to the fuge, let that run for 3 days till it clogged up from other detritus.

Had about a week of nice clean rocks.... then it started to creep back. But not on the rocks really... just the sand.

I think when I stirred the sand I pushed it into it and seeded the sand, so now I have it in my sand. I've been blasting my rock regularly, every 2 days or so, and not much has grown on the rocks since I started that... but the sand.... oh the sand.... I can stir it and get it looking good again, but by the end of the day, 8 hours or so, it's back even worse.... so I leave it alone for a bit and just work on the rocks, then when I do a WC I siphon it off the sand, let it really tumble and break up... just did a 30% wc today. Done that twice now....hope i am affecting it.

Got a 2LF Phosban reactor and put PhosGuard in it, running that for >48 hours now.

Anyways.... I'll do that for a couple more weeks and if that doesn't start to work I will nuke it with Red Slime Control.

-Doug