Hi all,
After a really bad cyano outbreak (almost gone on the sand, still some on rocks) I started to see dinos (ostreopsis) increase. At the beginning I had some strings on few caulerpa leaves, until yesterday when they were covering every single macro and most rocks.
In the meanwhile I noticed that pH and kH values were different from what I expected. My sera tests are not very good in the saltwater parameters range (pH 7.5 and 8.0 have almost the same color). kH was testing 10 with one vial and 7 with another vial at 5ml mark.
So yesterday I finally decided to act. I brought some water to my LFS and he tested:
kH: 7,8
salinity: 33ppm
I also checked pH at work with a lab grade meter and was 7.6-7.7. I am not sure the calibration buffers were ok.
In any case I decided to:
- increase slowly my kH to 11-12 with sodium carbonate in hope to raise pH as well
- Take the tank lid off for few days (I have a 32,5g AIO tank with no sump and acrylic lid)
- Blackout everything for 3 days and covered the tank sides with towels
- Add a 13w UV light in the filter section
- keep N at around 10ppm and P at around 0.1-0.4 ppm
- Change filter floss every day and blow often dinos remainings off rocks and plants
- I also cut all the portions of macros with dinos on them and siphoned as much as I could
I will update here regularly on how the situation goes.
DAY 0
After a really bad cyano outbreak (almost gone on the sand, still some on rocks) I started to see dinos (ostreopsis) increase. At the beginning I had some strings on few caulerpa leaves, until yesterday when they were covering every single macro and most rocks.
In the meanwhile I noticed that pH and kH values were different from what I expected. My sera tests are not very good in the saltwater parameters range (pH 7.5 and 8.0 have almost the same color). kH was testing 10 with one vial and 7 with another vial at 5ml mark.
So yesterday I finally decided to act. I brought some water to my LFS and he tested:
kH: 7,8
salinity: 33ppm
I also checked pH at work with a lab grade meter and was 7.6-7.7. I am not sure the calibration buffers were ok.
In any case I decided to:
- increase slowly my kH to 11-12 with sodium carbonate in hope to raise pH as well
- Take the tank lid off for few days (I have a 32,5g AIO tank with no sump and acrylic lid)
- Blackout everything for 3 days and covered the tank sides with towels
- Add a 13w UV light in the filter section
- keep N at around 10ppm and P at around 0.1-0.4 ppm
- Change filter floss every day and blow often dinos remainings off rocks and plants
- I also cut all the portions of macros with dinos on them and siphoned as much as I could
I will update here regularly on how the situation goes.
DAY 0