Helpful Method to Identify Dinoflagellates

[sonnus]

Originally Posted by LuciDog

2:15 pm



4:15 pm



Conclusion: cyano does not pass/re organize in the cup.

Interesting.

Anyone else try?

LuciDog, was this calothrix that you did your test with?


Anyone else try this out? I'm really interested to find out how reliable this is.

[sonnus]

It turns out dinos will also pass through a coffee filter although the coffee filter does get clogged pretty fast. It might be best to pass through a course filter first to get rid of most of the detritus then pass the rough filtered water through the coffee filter. This might be a better method since I doubt any significant amount of cyanobacteria will be able pass through a coffee filter.

Here's the shaken siphoned water




Freshly filtered water


After about 8 hours


It did seem to take longer for the dinos to gather back together after passing through the coffee filter. I'm not sure if this is because less water was used (since the filter became clogged) or because less dinos were able to pass through that filter size.

[solitude127]

Great thread Aaron. I'll have to try that out on my algae probelm.

[dirtdevil1981]

Thanks for this post on this matter, for an newbie this is very very helpful

[JMorris271]

Good post

[fastjetjockey]

This is some really good information everyone. I've been searching for answers whilst battling for over 6 months now. This thread is going to help a lot of people with identifying their problem.

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[djsmeegy]

Originally Posted by sonnus

Well, I know there are a dozen ways to treat dinos and all seem to have mixed results for different people. I personally have been very successful with raising the pH, this typically causes the dinos to almost completely disappear after 2-3 days and you do not need to turn off the lights. I have done this on dozens of tanks and it has worked every time. Having an Apex to control the pH is very helpful but not necessary.



I use kalkwasser to raise the pH and I've never experienced any losses in FOWLR or full-blown reef tanks. Of course there is risk whenever you dose kalkwasser and this is no different.



Day 1:

Add about 1.0 teaspoon of kalk per gallon of RODI top off water. This will typically bump up the pH about 0.1-0.3 after 24 hours.



Day 2:

After 24 hours your pH will hopefully be around 8.1-8.4. If your pH is not 8.5 then increase the saturation to 1.5 teaspoons per gallon of RODI top off water. This will typically bump up the pH another 0.1-0.3 after 24 hours.



Day 3:

After 48 hours your pH will hopefully be around 8.2-8.5. If your pH is .........





Fallback OFF

OSC 000:00/000:30/004:30 Then ON

If pH > 8.20 Then OFF



Of course you will need to increase the pH limit 0.1 about every 12 hours.

Hi guys, unfortunately I have the dinos. But I found this thread so I want to go for this PH increase method, but I dont have RODI top off system. I just manually fill the water into last septum. So what do you recommed me to do? May I create some kalkwater lotion and put it time to time to reef or should I create some doser with arduinoIMG_0003.jpgIMG_0004.jpg?
I have 200L reef and filtration with pellet reactor, skimmer, carbon and live rocks. Here are some photos.


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[bertoni]

You could try an IV bag for dripping Kalkwasser, but a lot of tanks don't see much of a change in pH, so I wouldn't spend a lot of money on a dosing system. If you like playing with the Arduino, that could be a lot of fun, but, again, it's fairly common for Kalk to fail to raise the pH. Better aeration might be your best shot, but that can be difficult to achieve in a house with the windows shut.

[mcgyvr]

Originally Posted by sonnus

Here's the sample water after filtering through a paper towel
(See photo1)

And here's the same water after about an hour
(see photo2

[mcgyvr]

Originally Posted by sonnus

Here's the cyano after filtering through a paper towel. I would say 95% of the cyanobacteria is stuck in the filter but there is definitely some cyano that passes the filter since the water is tinted slightly brown.
(see photo1)

And here is the water after sitting for about 4 hours, there is a little bit settled at the bottom but no sign of any re-aggregation of the cyano like seen with the dinos.
(see photo2)

[mcgyvr]

Originally Posted by sonnus

It turns out dinos will also pass through a coffee filter although the coffee filter does get clogged pretty fast. It might be best to pass through a course filter first to get rid of most of the detritus then pass the rough filtered water through the coffee filter. This might be a better method since I doubt any significant amount of cyanobacteria will be able pass through a coffee filter.

Here's the shaken siphoned water
(See photo 1 and 2)

Freshly filtered water
(we have all seen a glass of water.. no pic needed)


After about 8 hours
(see photo 3)