Dinoflagellates and Aquascaping
by
, 04-16-2013 at 09:22 AM (5456 Views)
Hello All,
I have a question about getting rid of dinoflagellates and aquascaping my aquarium.
A Little Background
I have a 100 gallon aquarium that was given to my church in September 2010. It was originally purchased as a freshwater aquarium and was turned into a saltwater aquarium be the previous owner. When it was given to us it had two Marineland hang on back filters with bio-wheels. It came with sand, rocks, and fish. Since then I have added the sump and overflow box. I also added about 60 pounds of rock and Tropic Eden sand about a year after we got it up and running. I'm not sure how much rock I started out with but I'm just guessing I have about 90 pounds of live rock right now. I have a 20 gallon refugium with a 4" sand bed and chaeto. I have an INS 135 Reef Dynamics Protein Skimmer. About a month ago I purchased and installed three Ecotech XR30W (gen 2) lights.
Livestock
2 Ocellarus Clownfish
1 Sailfin Tang
1 Yellow Tang
1 Rusty Angelfish
1 Clarkii Clownfish
1 Engineer Goby
1 Starkii Damsel
At least 80 snails
At least 20 blue leg hermit crabs
6 Emerald Crabs
3 Porcelain Crabs
1 Red Mithrax Crab
2 Rocks covered with palythoas
9 Bubbletip anemones
1 Torch Coral
10 mushrooms
2 Ricordia
1 Frogspawn
1 Goniopora
Water Testing
I usually test my water on a weekly basis but because of home and work responsibilities have not been able to be as consistent. I use the API test kits and test for pH, Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia, Phosphate, Carbonate Hardness, and Copper. I test Calcium using a Hanna Checker. My last test results from weekend before last follow:
Salinity: 1.028
pH: 8.4
Nitrate: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Copper: 0 ppm
Phosphate: 0 ppm
Carbonate Hardness: 9 dKH
Calcium: 480
Problem
I have been fighting a battle with cyanobacteria for quite a while (maybe a year). A while back a friend recommended that I used something called Red Slime Remover by UltraLife. I used it according to the directions and the cyanobacteria "disappeared" by the next day. A couple days after using the Red Slime Remover I noticed a brown algae "take the place" of the cyanobacteria. I didn't know what it was and unfortunately didn't get it identified right away. When I noticed it getting progressively worse I started searching. I finally determined that it was dinoflagellates and read that it was not an easy thing to get rid of and was the cause of some getting out of the hobby. I don't know if the stuff I added caused the dinoflagellates or if it was just a coincidence. One post I read suggested leaving the lights out for three days. This made a huge impact but did not totally get rid of it. I've read that I should do frequent water changes and I've read that I shouldn't do water changes at all. I've also read that raising the pH will help. I've thought about sucking it out and run that water through a filter sock and then return that water back into the aquarium until I have sucked as much off the rocks and sand as possible.
I have wanted to redo the aquascaping in the aquarium and I just purchased 50 pounds of BRS Fiji Dry Live Rock and BRS Tonga Shelf Dry Live Rock. I was hoping to tackle this project this weekend. I also purchased the BRS 2 Part Calcium & Alkalinity Total Package with Dosers
Questions
1. I will be taking out my rocks and placing them in buckets of water taken from the aquarium. Prior to taking them out I am going to try sucking off as much of the dinoflagellates as possible. Is there something I can dip the rocks in or something I can do to remove that stuff off my rocks and keep it coming back?
2. I planned on sucking out the top layer of sand that has the dinos that I can see on it. Originally when I planned on changing my rockwork I was going to put in the rocks, push sand out of the way so that the rocks sat directly on the glass so that my goby couldn't dislodge any rocks, and put crushed coral on top. But now with this problem I don't know what to do about the sand. Should I take it out and just use the crushed coral?
3. Should I hold off on re-aquascaping until I have this problem under control? Would continuing with this project make the problem worse?
I apologize for the length but I wanted to make sure I provided all the information I could. Thank you so much for any help you can provide!
Audra