Distinguishing between Cyano and DinoF

[grassi]

If you want to go cheap waiting to upgrade to some fancy Vortech, go for a modded MaxiJet 1200. They put out more than 2000gph with the big impeller.

I used to have one in my 100g sump where I used to cure live rock and it was blowing water off the tub!

I'm running one in my aggressive tank and I can feel a strong flow at about 3ft. My puffer can't just swim in it lol

[grassi]

All great suggestions here. Let me add that siphoning them out and replacing that water with new water did the trick for me.

 

When you disturb them with a pump or a turkey baster they pretty much disintegrate only to show up again an hour later. You need to get them out.

 

Higher Ph is recommended but I'm not sure about Mg. That's for Bryopsis as Jason pointed out.

 

Depending on your layout inside the tank, your current amount of circulation is OK. You can get away with less flow if your aquascaping is more open. If it's packed full of rock it will definitely need more flow. If there are no dead spots or detritus traps you should be fine.

 

+1 on all said. What you see (the brown slimy thing), either for dino and cyano it is just the dead part which is food for the bacteria living underneat.

This is the real problem: that thing is able to feed by itself (like most of the bacteria).

High flow can help as a prevention.

[undrtkr_00]

Ciao, another thing that other folks may not realize is that your tank is fairly new. It is pretty common to have a brief outbreak of cyano or dinos in a young tank - just seems to be a part of the natural cycle of the maturation of the tank. While more flow, etc may be a good idea, don't overreact to this outbreak by assuming that there is something badly wrong with your system. Don't over-control the natural processes that are going to take place as your system settles into its own balance.

 

That said, I would think that 2 K4's and your returns may be on the low side for flow in your tank.

[ciao]

Well I took a turkey baster last night to some of it and sucked up as much as I could get with it. It just looked waaaaaaaaay too ugly for my tastes. So if the outbreak is a result of my tank just being new, does anybody know of a good way to find out if it's due to excess nutrients or part of the natural cycle?

[undrtkr_00]

Hit Jordan up for a phosphate test, and get a salifert or elos test for nitrates Unless the outbreak hangs around for more than 1.5-2 weeks, I wouldn't stress over it. Just keep it from smothering corals, etc. (using the baster, like you are doing) and wait it out.

 

In truth, if you are having any kind of outbreak, it IS due to the presence of excess nutrients. But, your tank may settle into the place where something else (sponges, microalgae, macroalgae in your fuge, etc) start to take up those nutrients so and the slime will go away. Is your skimmer working adequately?

[ciao]

I think the skimmer is working well. Odd thing is that the majority of the timeit gets a good head of foam and sometimes it doesn't seem to want to make any and the bubbles are only about an inch above the water. Not sure if that's just due to lack of "stuff" in the water or if there is something wrong.

 

As for the flow, do you think adding one MP40 would be sufficient along with the current 2 K4s?

[grassi]

If your tank is new then is pretty common. Unless you do a "europeean" start, which is meant to be with no lights and tank covered for one month then increasing the photoperiod slowly, it is very likely to have some sort of algae problem.

I know it is frustrating, but you are probably doing all you can. Just keep up with cleaning and doing water changes. I always solved the situation that way. People that "crash" the tank and have to start over for algae are often the ones that start putting lots of chemicals trying to find a fast way to solve the problem.

Nitrates and phosphates are a good indication for a general health of the water, but you could see them at zero because the algae outbreak is just feeding of it.

Slowly they will NOT disappear, they will move where they can grow, like in your sump. At that point they are helpful, if they are under control.

Huge concentrations of some kind of cyanobacteria can be dangerous, even for humans.

 

As for the skimmer, some are very sensitive to pollutants. Some skimmers, like the Remora, stop working for a few hours if you just put your hands in the water, especially when they are new.

But if your tank is new it could be that there is nothing to clean and the nuisance algae are using the nutrients before they get to the skimmer.

You can test your skimmer performance outside your tank. Put it in a tub with some pollutants, like some old skimmate and dirty water (leave your water change in there for a few days).

Or if you are in a hurry just mix some water with some unflavored gelatin (you can find if for cheap at the grocery store) and you will have some fun with the skimmer ;-)

[ciao]

LOL.....I might do that. It's an aquac EV240 and I put a MAG12 on it so it should have enough turnover into it and foam production. I just might try your trick with the gelatin. Do most of you wipe the inside of the tube every once in a while? I know the manual recommends it.

 

As for the flow, do you think an additional MP40 along with the 2 K4 and the flow from the return be enough??

[grassi]

You mean the inside of the collection cup? I clean it twice a week. I was thinking about building something like this: http://www.planctonite.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=82&language=en

Somebody here on the forum did it already. Is not that I'm lazy... my skimmer is bigger than my cabinet and it is a pita to clean the cup.

I think as flow you should be alright. To test the flow I usually pour some Purple-Up. The tank goes cloudy for a few and I can see how the water is moving and the dead spots. You can use this trick to put the powerheads in the right direction relatively to your rockscaping.

I was recently watching this video from a guy in the Netherlands:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0zXaLSLaPw&feature=player_embedded

I think that we don't spend enough time considering the flow while rockscaping.

I love that floating rocks!

[ciao]

I was thinking more the bubble chamber where the bubbles go up the cylinder before coming out in the collection cup.

[grassi]

I clean it sometimes. It tends to build up coralline algae in the direction of the fuge light.