Dinoflagellate solution??

[Billybatz9]

I am begging anybody to please help me with this dinoflagellate problem that I am having... how do I get rid of them?
I tried the 3 days with lights off. They go away, but come right back when lights go on. And I have done hours of research with no solutions. Can someone please help me?

 

[xdestry]

try fauna marin ultra algae x. they recently renamed it to dino x so you might be able to find it under that name as well, they are teh same thing. brs has it

 

[pyithar]

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/how-i-beat-dinoflagellates-and-the-lessons-i-learned

^^ that might be helpful to you.

 

[GilliganReef]

Extend out your w/c and allow it to starve itself. Dinos takes months to get rid of. If you keep doing water changes your just allowing more nutrients for the Dinos to feed off of. IF you need to w/c for your corals only do small amounts like 5-10%. Its a PITA to battle. Get a GFO reactor and carbon going and be ready to keep an eye on your Phos. Good luck, it took me 7 months to get rid of it and then I did a 25% w/c and came back. Another 4 months later to get rid of.

 

[Heatherabel3]

How fast did you bring your lights back up? I did a 3 day blackout for mine and it worked but I only ran daylights for an hour the first day and slowly built back up to normal time over the course of a week.

 

[monkeysee1]

Get some high test GFO and a reactor ASAP!!

 

[coralsnaked]

Dinos cannot be beat with anything that will not kill your coral. They are the same algae that is found inside your coral. Berst method is to stop trying to beat them and let hair bubble and cyano take over to out compete for the nutirents. The Dinos will treced after the competing algaes take over. Then you can deal with the new algae along proven paths. It is a long journey and taken when the rock and coral are worth the fight. If this is a new tank then consider nuking it and starting over.

 

[pyithar]

Dinos cannot be beat with anything that will not kill your coral. They are the same algae that is found inside your coral. Berst method is to stop trying to beat them and let hair bubble and cyano take over to out compete for the nutirents. The Dinos will treced after the competing algaes take over. Then you can deal with the new algae along proven paths. It is a long journey and taken when the rock and coral are worth the fight. If this is a new tank then consider nuking it and starting over.

if the idea is to grow other types of algae to out compete for the nutrients, the op could simply set up an algae turf scrubber. it'll be a lot less "messy" imo.

 

[DDon]

Dinos are the hardest thing I have ever dealt with in my tank..been battling unsuccessfully since January. Have you had a chance to read through the long dino thread?http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2307000
There is some good info there but no definitive way to beat them as different species respond to different things.

 

[BleuFish]

I had dinos completely take over my tank for a few months before I did anything to get rid of them. Get a toothbrush and a turkey baster to brush and suck it out. Manuel removal worked for me. It took a couple months but hit it hard every other day start taking all the dinos you see out with the turkey baster. I had to rescape every couple weeks because a bunch of it would gather underneath the rocks. And really try and take as much out before doing a 3 day lights out and then afterwards too along with a WC. Repeat lights out every 3 weeks. It's going to take allot more than just one 3 day lights out if it was bad like mine.

 

[gotnoclue]

Recently overcame this problem. Be ready to loose coral if you have sps or finicky lps. Three days off two weeks on three days off. Dose a teaspoon per gallon of hydrogen peroxide 3% solution the first day of lights out. Abandon water changes until you have the algea problem fixed. Yes its drastic. Yes its a pain in the ***. Yes it worked. And I managed to keep all my softies alive when I did it.

 

[Reeferside]

I've fought it off multiple times while being in this hobby and have won the battles.

First time, h202 killed it off for me.

Second time h2o2 did nothing, 5 day lights out, lost all my acans but dinos were gone. I dosed h2o2 while the lights were off. Black plastic trashbags covered the whole tank so that not even a speck of light could find it's way in. I ran my skimmer the whole time and even doubled the dose on the 4th and 5th day.

I also took one of my shelf piece rocks out the first time I battled, since it was the most heavily infested one.

Turkey baster with h2o2, all pumps off, squirt right on the heavily infected areas also helped, IME. though I probably only did this like 3 times. I would dose the h2o2 right into the display

 

[gotnoclue]

On a side note my dragons eye brain and my goniapora also pulled through.

 

[Billybatz9]

I've fought it off multiple times while being in this hobby and have won the battles.

First time, h202 killed it off for me.

Second time h2o2 did nothing, 5 day lights out, lost all my acans but dinos were gone. I dosed h2o2 while the lights were off. Black plastic trashbags covered the whole tank so that not even a speck of light could find it's way in. I ran my skimmer the whole time and even doubled the dose on the 4th and 5th day.

I also took one of my shelf piece rocks out the first time I battled, since it was the most heavily infested one.

Turkey baster with h2o2, all pumps off, squirt right on the heavily infected areas also helped, IME. though I probably only did this like 3 times. I would dose the h2o2 right into the display

Recently overcame this problem. Be ready to loose coral if you have sps or finicky lps. Three days off two weeks on three days off. Dose a teaspoon per gallon of hydrogen peroxide 3% solution the first day of lights out. Abandon water changes until you have the algea problem fixed. Yes its drastic. Yes its a pain in the ***. Yes it worked. And I managed to keep all my softies alive when I did it.

Is the hydrogen peroxide safe for corals and fish? I have about $400 in corals. I dont want to lose them. Should I do it now or wait 3 weeks until I do lights out again? If I'm not doing water changes, will the build up of hydrogen peroxide be bad? Also, should I stop using carbon and other media stuff while I'm using hydrogen peroxide?