Dinoflagellates, I need feedback please.

[redspot321]

Ok I have been battleing these suckers for weeks now. I have lost 1 zoo colony and 1 Acro. I refuse to lose another coral.


I have changed the water in my system about 5 times over the past couple weeks, 30% each. Water Quality is perfect and tested at multiple LFS's. RO is TDS with 3 month old filters.

Are water changes no help with dyno?


I kept my tank in total darkness for two days and it really seemed to help.....for a day. the dyno is beginning to return. How long will my SPS and corals live without lights?


All the dyno has been vaccummed from the substrate, yet it continues to grow on the LR and beginning to come back on the substrate.

 

[redspot321]

RO TDS is 9PPM

 

[fullkontact]

I had this problem forever, due to tap water, and little or no maintenance on the tank. I just got rid of it all....wooooohoooo.
and the cool part is, I have no refugium, no sump, very little live rock. Here's what I did:
up'd alkalinity/ph a bit
scrubbed rock (twice), what a pain in the *ss.
tried skimming more
and lowered temp from 82 to 78

I don't know what did it, but it worked in about a month.
I have read in a couple places about raising alkalinity though.
Water changes seemed to feed the problem but I did them anyway. Dino's suck cuz they kill your snails. Now I'm on the a much prettier niusance algae (green hair). good luck.

 

[redspot321]

WOW Im glad youve moved on the better things. Yes these are a pain in the butt. My snails are hanging out around the top of the tank.

 

[redspot321]

Anyone else out there with dyno wisdom?

 

[graveyardworm]

Nutrient export! If you can, set up a fuge with macro, turn up the skimmer. Trace elements can fuel it, so temporarily discontinueing water changes may help.

 

[graveyardworm]

Here's a couple threads to read
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=745599

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=687378

I've been there and unfortunately for my LR bubble algae actually outcompeted it.

 

[John Kelly]

I have a 55g that seemed to have dino's for quite awhile after I set it up. After I moved a huge colt coral into the tank, the dino's diminished rapidly within a week. It also cut the amount of glass cleaning down to almost nothing. The tank that the colt came from suddenly had a small algae bloom so I had to "up" the filtration for awhile until things balanced out again. Colt Coral might be good filtration material for in the sump.