Dinoflagellates!!!!!!

I am not aware of anyone recommending carbon. I am also not aware of any significant reason it would be harmful. If you don't currently have it on your tank, unless I'm wrong and someone out there recommends for carbon, I would not add it.

Since you syphoned, is the stuff growing back at all?

 

Not sure.. It may help to get the toxins out, but if your snails are eating the stuff, and if your corals are touching the stuff, then I'm not sure how much this will actually help. I think at the current time you probably want to minimize the changes you are making to your tank. Adding GFO, changing the salinity, adding powerheads (I think I remember seeing that one), altering the pH, depriving everything of light for a few days, stirring up everything by manually removing the dinos, etc., etc, etc.. Thats enough changes as it is lol.

 

Well it's been three days from me siphoning, exporting and cutback on my photo period and I do not see any of it coming back.
Now if this in fact is working for me, when should I be raising my photoperiod and start doing water changes?

 

Does anyone have Ecotech Radions Here? I may need some help finding the best configuration for a mixed reef. This stuff pretty much started when I got the Radions installed. Not sure if the Radions caused it but that's when the Dino's surfaced.

 

Having fought Dino for months, I gotta say if its not coming back given what you've done, it wasn't Dino. That is great news. The lights won't cause Dino. Good light may have caused diatoms to grow, but if that's the case, the problem has almost past and the lights were just doing their job correctly.

 

Yup, Dino is not that easily beat.

It was not Dino if the problem is that easily remedied.

Just looking at Dino is not enough to confirm the ID, many things look like Dino.

Glad you got it cleared up so quickly, consider your self lucky that it was not Dino.

 

Haha you must be relieved! But either way, you did the right thing. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best!

I have never heard of LEDs promoting growth of photosynthetic organisms. I have only heard of old T5 bulbs (>9 months) promoting algae growth. Many people blame their lights for algae growth, but this is not the problem. The main cause of algae growth is due to an excess of nutrients (nitrate/phosphate) in the water column. The best ways to get rid of these nutrients are to use GFO or phosban, to setup a fuge, feed less, add less chemicals to the tank, do more WC's, etc.

As for the best configuration for a mixed reef, what are you referring to? Coloration? Intensity? I am fairly new to LEDs myself. Just put them on my tank the other day. Maybe someone with more experience/knowledge can help.

 

Coraillaine, when you siphoned the Dino's would they just come right back even if you exported them

 

Yes it would come back within hours.

It would start as a brown dusting as the day wore on it would turn into strings with bubbles enclosed along the strand.

I fought it for about 3 months. The only thing that knocked it down was the complete black out, with a big reduction in lighting, elevated pH and no water changes.

I tried everything else under the sun.

 

Yeah I want to know, what would be the best configuration, what spectrum ? Intensity ?