Lightning question

[arman]

Hi guys,i have a 50g reeftank for two years.It was doing very well till 6months a go(good i mean that corals grew very well and etc).Suddenly some kinds of algae came to scene named dino flagellates.
I tried my best to clean it up and my last attempt was two months a go(and i thought that its gone but after two weeks it got back but not as strong as it was before).
I thought that maybe my metal h lamp is expired and i changed it.
But it didnt work much for the problem.
My question is that could the starter and transistor of the lamp be the reason the metal h do not emmit what it should or not?

 

[arman]

Does any body knows the answer?

 

[SteveSTL]

The ballast has some effect on the output of the lamp but lighting's not the general reason for Dinos...it's a sign that your tank is possessed.

I had them in my old 65 and they were Satan manifested in reef form. Have your snails died off? That's usually the first sign that you have dinos. As they die off, they release nutrients which fuel the dinos.

The problem is there are a number of different species of dinos but there are 2 main ways of killing them:

#1 slowly raise your pH above 8.5 with kalk. Suck up as many as possible and do a COMPLETE blackout for 3 days. Put a tarp over the tank, or whatever it takes. No peeking, no nothing. After 3 days, siphon off more and do a largish water change with the high pH. Keep the pH up for a while and you should see them go away. If you have the capability, run your lights at a low level (no MH, just T5's if you can) for a couple more weeks.

If that doesn't happen, you have a different species of dino which leads to

#2 Raise your nitrates. Huh? There's something in some dinos that reacts to low nitrates and causes them to explode. Get your nitrates in the 5-10 range and keep them there for a while (observing fish and corals the whole time to make sure they're doing OK) Try and get some nitrates in your replacement water because as soon as you add new clean water, the problem will come back.

#1 is the easiest to start with - check back and let us know how it goes.

 

[Reefing Madness]

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/how-i-beat-dinoflagellates-and-the-lessons-i-learned
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-11/rhf/index.php

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-03/sj/index.php
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2008/7/aafeature1

 

[arman]

The ballast has some effect on the output of the lamp but lighting's not the general reason for Dinos...it's a sign that your tank is possessed.

I had them in my old 65 and they were Satan manifested in reef form. Have your snails died off? That's usually the first sign that you have dinos. As they die off, they release nutrients which fuel the dinos.

The problem is there are a number of different species of dinos but there are 2 main ways of killing them:

#1 slowly raise your pH above 8.5 with kalk. Suck up as many as possible and do a COMPLETE blackout for 3 days. Put a tarp over the tank, or whatever it takes. No peeking, no nothing. After 3 days, siphon off more and do a largish water change with the high pH. Keep the pH up for a while and you should see them go away. If you have the capability, run your lights at a low level (no MH, just T5's if you can) for a couple more weeks.

If that doesn't happen, you have a different species of dino which leads to

#2 Raise your nitrates. Huh? There's something in some dinos that reacts to low nitrates and causes them to explode. Get your nitrates in the 5-10 range and keep them there for a while (observing fish and corals the whole time to make sure they're doing OK) Try and get some nitrates in your replacement water because as soon as you add new clean water, the problem will come back.

#1 is the easiest to start with - check back and let us know how it goes.

Thank u very much .u know what i am really surprised to hear the #2,cause i just bought a hammer coral and it started to disintegrate and i saw that dinos do not grow on the glasses while hammer is going to die off.
And when i took it out the growing started.
Whats the reason ?
Would u give me an article or what ever to read.
Thanks.

 

[arman]

I have to mention that the no3 is about zero.
The color does not change at all(api).

 

[arman]

Steve would you answer me,please.

 

[Reefing Madness]

@SteveSTL

 

[arman]

Helllllooooo

 

[SteveSTL]

There could be any number of reasons - difference in lighting between your tank and the old tank, salinity, pH, etc. It all depends upon where it came from. The other problem could be that it was being covered in dinos and didn't like it and was retracting. When you took it out, no more dinos.
Too many variables to give you a definitive answer.

 

[arman]

What do you think about lack of no3 causing the issue?

 

[SteveSTL]

Regarding the hammer or the dinos? The hammer isn't going to degrade because the water is too good so it had to be something else. The only way to know about the dinos is to experiment. It could be one or the other but only you can figure that part out.

 

[arman]

U know what when j bought the hammer a very short edge of it was going to degrade,but i thought its going to rebuild,but it just got bigger and bigger.
Since then ive bought flower pot and polyps and i had fox coral and kolt from past.They could die too.The other thing is that i have 3 snails living in the tank and it really confused me.