Dinoflagellates - How to Raise PH
 

I have been battling Dinoflagellates for the past 10 months.

I have my nitrates and phosphates down to immeasurable levels according to Salifert test kits. Reduced my tank feeding (only pellets) and been siphoning them out 3-4 times a week. I have done a couple 72 hour complete blackouts and only have the MH lights on 4-6 hrs daily. They keep growing back. This article by Randy Holmes Farley recommending raising PH to 8.5

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-11/rhf/index.php

I was able to borrow a Milwaukkee PH monitor and checked my current PH and it was 8.00 with lights on. Mixed 10 tsp of kalk to a 5G jug of RO water. Over the course of Saturday I added 4 cups of kalk solution 5 times (1.5 G total) and was only able to raise PH to 8.19. Does this sound about right? Parameters are below...

System - 160 G total water
Alk = 8.0 dKH
Ca = 420
Mg = 1400
NO3 & Phosphates = very low (no color period - Salifert test kits)

I just wanna make sure that I am on the right track as I've never played with raising PH before.

Or is there a better way to raise PH to 8.5 - 8.6?

Thanks, Tyler

I used this Seachem HO Balance product and it worked perfectly to raise my PH without affecting anything else or the alkalinity. I only did it till 8.4 and it worked for me and the dino was gone in 3 to 4 days. I am sure it was dino since I had ID it with my microscope.

You can aim for 8.5 but first start like I did at 8.4 and see if it work. It might do it so no need to go higher. I never saw dino again and that's been 6 months. So this is the product.

http://www.aquavitro.com/Products/balance.html

First make sure that you really have dino and try to ID it with a small microscope. 200x will do the job. If that's diatome or cyano it will not work.

I battled low Ph (like 7.9 or lower) for quite awhile I always felt I had excellent water flow/oxygenation, and a low bio load. So I looked at other causes like my calcium reactor, water quality, etc. Nothing I did fixed the problem, and adding chemicals to the water is only usually a temporary solution.

Anyways what solved my problem was just using a small air pump with a wooden airstone in my sump and it drastically raised by ph to 8.5 over the course of several days.

So look at your water flow/ oxygenation.

How often and much of a water change are you doing? I find that if I keep up with water changes ph remains stable for me.

However an air stone produce a lot of salt splash and salt creep everywhere when the little bubbles burst. Very messy. Obviously your low PH was caused by lack of aeration.

Salt creep was very minimal with adding the air stone, I was just suggesting he consider waterflow/oxygenation as a possible cause.

Airation is not a problem in my tank with a large skimmer and 2 MP40's causing lots of surface agitation.

I will look for the Aquavitro - Balance.

Sunday morning parameters:

PH = 8.07 (8.31 at lights out last night)
Salinity - 1.024 (down from 1.026)
Alkalinity - up to 8.8 dKH (8.0 yesterday)
Ca/Mg didn't measure today

Any other suggestions?
Tyler

Still can't seem to raise my PH to 8.5 with just saturated kalk. Problem is my salinity is dropping to low. The evaporation rate is not enough to match the kalk top-off water I am adding via a 4 cup addition every hour.

Why don't you use the HO balance? it is very fast and easy to raise the PH with the stuff and I had absolutely no adverse effect with it on any of my sensitive coral and SPS.

Danielle - What size is your tank? I have 160 G. Is this stuff potent enough to raise the PH of 160G economically?