Recently a fellow reefer on one of my threads pointed out that I have a dinoflagellate problem. I have had these Dinoflagellates for several months now and it makes the tank look like trash. This stuff is worse then algae, I scrub of the live rock and a day later you can see it growing back. Has anyone ever experienced this or know of a proven way to fix this problem? I have heard of several methods of which 2 I have tried and didn't work. I have kept nutrients low, as well as run GFO but that didn't help. So my last hope is to raise the PH to around 8.8 and keep it there until the Dinoflagellates die off.
Dinoflagellate problem
- Thread starter Roblox84
- Start date
Brian DeGolier
New member
I have a similar problem, but I'm not sure what it is. Are you sure it's dinoflagellates and not diatoms or cyno? Have you looked into chemi-clean? There are so many species of all 3. I've never heard of raising ph to 8.8
Well most of the time I'm not sure of things but on this I am 90 percent sure they are dinoflagellates. For the time that I have been fighting it my snails were mysteriously dieing. And I just read an article online about a particular species of dinoflagellate that is toxic and when consumed by snails or other cuc it will kill them. The article stated that you can rid that species of dinoflagellates by raising the ph to around 8.6 or 8.8 in extreme cases. But raising the ph will only work on the toxic kind.
[QUOTE=Brian DeGolier;18762920]I have a similar problem, but I'm not sure what it is. Are you sure it's dinoflagellates and not diatoms or cyno? Have you looked into chemi-clean? There are so many species of all 3. I've never heard of raising ph to 8.8[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Brian DeGolier;18762920]I have a similar problem, but I'm not sure what it is. Are you sure it's dinoflagellates and not diatoms or cyno? Have you looked into chemi-clean? There are so many species of all 3. I've never heard of raising ph to 8.8[/QUOTE]
I will definitely be blackening the tank if the ph method will not work. I have also cut back water changes to my regular once a month after doing them every two weeks without any effect. So if raising ph won't kill it, the blackness will for sure.
Brian DeGolier
New member
Good luck it's frustrating, I've gone about the natural method for quite some time now and am ready for chemical warfare, but I'll definately try the black-out method before chemicals.
I don't think raising the ph would be that harmful because you use kalkwasser or lime water for top off instead of regular water. Ive heard of many people doing this regularly for calc/alk supplementation which is a more natural method then using chemical calcium or alkalinity supplements.
