Blog Comments

  1. melev's Avatar
    Yes, I put in 30ml of peroxide in my system with a total true water volume of 300g. I dosed for 8 days. My lights were on as usual, and each day the dinos lessened in volume on my corals. By the final day, I didn't see any anywhere. None of my livestock seemed affected.

    I dosed into the skimmer section of my sump to give it time to dissipate.
  2. melev's Avatar
    I've used a few versions over the years (I.O. , Kent, Oceanic, & Red Sea), but with this tank I've been using Sybon Reef salt. Premium Aquatics carries it. If you didn't have that choice, it would be Kent or Red Sea.
  3. JABlacher's Avatar
    Just finished reading through a 33 page post on reef2reef on the peroxide dosing as well as your blog on here and numerous other articles on dinoflagellates. My tanks algae has had all of the symptoms of Dino no matter how much I wanted to deny it.

    Couple questions on the hydrogen peroxide dosing:

    Did you use the 1ml per 10 gallons dosage?

    Many also reported combining that with a lights out period but not sure if that was necessary. Did you do this and when during the day would you dose?

    Did you have any I'll effects?

    How many days did you dose?

    Thanks for the help!!!!
    Updated 08-21-2011 at 12:59 PM by JABlacher
  4. JABlacher's Avatar
    Going to check out the blog on dino as that was another one of my suspicions.

    Have a hard time believing it could be the salt as I know others who are using it with great success. Not going to rule out a bad batch at all though. Been having good success prior with the red sea coral pro but i'll know a bit more after ruling out the trashcan as a source of the problem.

    Just for reference melev, what salt have you been using?
  5. melev's Avatar
    It could be the salt too.

    Double check if it matches dinoflagellates. I had some in my reef a few months ago, but I resolved it with hydrogen peroxide. I have a blog on that; use the Advanced Search to find that entry.
  6. JABlacher's Avatar
    Testing the tank with a Hanna phosphate meter tested 0 ppm. I'm only assuming that the algae in the tank is consuming what phosphate is in the water throwing off the test.

    Besides the small managable amount of cyano that recently started ( I'm assuming because of the bio pellets?), Im dealing with what I believe are branching diatoms. Small stringy brown algae that covers the rocks and some of the bases of my hard corals starting at the frag plugs. I'm only assuming thats what it is based on pictures I have seen. I've read that possibly cutting the lights might help but this is my first experience dealing with this.

    Been siphoning this every few days as it appears but it just seems to come right back. Now my mixed salt water tested .07 ppm of phosphates. I'm draining the water from my 55 gallon mixing container to clean it. Going to mix some water and test it to see if the container might possibly be leaching phosphates. The source water from my RO system tested 0 so I just need to rule out the trashcan. Im figuring that with my weekly water changes adding a fresh batch of phosphate to the water column I'm simply making the problem worse with every batch.
  7. melev's Avatar
    I would remove the GFO since you are running biopellets. What is the PO4 level currently?

    Why do you want to run lights out? Because the cyano bacteria is back? Can you siphon out most of it? Blow off the rocks and corals with a small powerhead or turkey baster to get it into suspension. If you have a filter sock, catch that stuff as the drainline pours into the sump. Keep your skimmer & neck clean so it can work optimally.

    Get more snails. I would rely on chitons and limpets. They are too small to consume algae on a regular basis. I rarely see either actually near nuisance algae.
  8. JABlacher's Avatar
    Can't wait to read it! I wan't to beat this once and for all.
  9. Mccoy85's Avatar
    i have a book i picked up that you need to read.
  10. Hat39406's Avatar
    Hey JABlacher, just wanted to tell you: if you have a bubble coral watch out if you do a three day lights out. When I did one my bubble coral totally died. When I turned the lights back on I was disappointed. Just a warning for ya.
  11. DJ in WV's Avatar
    havent heard of plastic leaching phos but there is some that can fuel diatoms when new cant remember what it is that it give off atm
  12. jlemoine2's Avatar
    Have you tested phosphate in the tank yet?

    In addition to figuring out the phosphate issue, you'll want to get a much bigger cleanup crew. For that size of an established tank, you'll want around 300 critters in there. That sounds like a lot, but really is not. About half of those would be dwarf ceriths (they are tiny, but are great cleaners). Then perhaps 30-40 of the 300 would be hermit crabs, then the remainder would be various other larger snails, such as nerites and larger ceriths (florida ceriths). I like to use www.reefcleaners.org, but there are other good places you can order from online. You might be able to shave off some of the larger snails since you already have 4 urchins.

    I'm curious to see how your experiment goes with the phosphates in the saltwater bin.
  13. matt_longview's Avatar
    Let us know what you find out. I know there are certain grades of plastic... maybe we can figure out which grades will leak and which won't.
  14. JABlacher's Avatar
    Yes I have a skimmer. Appropriately sized reef octopus.

    After testing my mixed salt water today I recorded .07ppm of phosphate, yet my RO water tested 0. Thinking my rubbermaid trashcan might possibly be leaching phosphates into the water causing me to add a fresh dozing of phosphate to my tank every time I do a water change. Next step is to test a small batch of salt water mixed outside of he trashcan to either rule it out or determine that's the cause.
  15. steve8855's Avatar
    nice i wanted the vortech mp40s but they like 450 each i had to get 40$ power heads lol lucky you...

    So for you tank do u have a skimmer?
  16. JABlacher's Avatar
    jlemoine2:

    Cleanup crew has been a bit on the light side but I just added 4 - tuxedo urchins to help out a bit and could probably use a bit more help to attack whats on the rock and sides of the tank.

    matt_longview:

    150 Gallon tank
    No filter socks
    Carbon and biopellets in a reef octopus reactor with enough flow to tumble pellets.
    15 gallon refugium with chaeto and no idea on rock lbs.
    Reeflo snapper pump and (2) vortech mp 40's for flow
    medium fish bioload and mainly sps corals
    feed once a day very light feeding
  17. matt_longview's Avatar
    Give some more tank info.

    What size tank?
    What mechanical filtering (filter sock/floss) and how is it used (in a sump, media rack)?
    What chemical filtering (carbon, gfo... I know you're running biopellets) and how is it used (reactor, how much flow through it)?
    What biological filtering (how many pounds of live rock, are you using macro algae)?
    What skimmer are you using?
    What do you have for water flow through the tank?
    What's your stock list (fish & corals)?
    What's your feeding schedule, how much and how often?
  18. jlemoine2's Avatar
    It's kind of hard to tell what kind of algae this might be from the pictures... but it appears to be a simple green algae. A heft sized cleanup crew can take care of this. What do you currently have for snails and hermits?
  19. JABlacher's Avatar
  20. JABlacher's Avatar
    Yeah, I realize it's just going to take some patience waiting for it to clear. I hate those damn gobies as they feel its their mission to move all the sand from one side of the tank to the one place you don't want it to be.
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