Dinoflagellates.

I got rid of them by doing a series of massive water changes . 3 in one week. Now I do a twenty percent water every 2 weeks. I started running double amounts of carbon; and added more flow. Adding more flow really seemed to help.
 
I have been battling Dinoflagellates for some months now and have tried lots of methods to eradicate them in conjunction with lights out, with each only providing a Dino. free reef for several seconds after lights back on.

Recently, I invested in a 24 watt UV sterilizer for my 30 gallon reef and installed it on my tank. I turned off my lights and covered the aquarium for 3 days. During the 3 days of darkness, I continued to dose H2O2. 1ml of 35% H2O2 per day.

The results are spectacular! Once lights were resumed, no Dino bloom and any remaining Dinos. have slowly disappeared. The skimmer went nuts for the 3 days the lights were off and after the 3rd day, the skimmer collection jug overflown. I have been Dino. free now for 3 almost 4 days now and have done my first water change in almost a month and still no Dinos. bloom as a WC always promoted. For me, even a week free from Dinoflagellates is worth anything as it is the most problem free the tank has been for months.

I am a very happy chap. :D
 
Does anyone have a pictures of what these things look like?

I have this fuzzy stuff all over my live rock and can't seem to get an ID. It comes off pretty easily with a tooth brush.






This is what grows at my overflow, but I think this is just hair algae?


 
My guess for the first image would be a bacterial bloom of some sort.

I can't tell much from the second picture, but that's a likely place for hair algae to grow, IME.
 
It's been 10 days now.
Dinos are on most surfaces and have multiplied at least thousand times.
They do prefer some light, but they seem to be fine with almost no light at all.

It was a fresh start with 60 pounds of introduced rocks and my 10 fish.
I'm lighting with 2*80W actinics for 6 hours instead of my usual 1070W plus 250W in the sump at night.
This can be seen as an indicator of how little they need to thrive.

- - -

I had previously identified my dinoflagellates as Ostreopsis sp.
One reefers success story in not certain to work for the next one without indentification.
There are up to 2000 different kinds and they are not all the same.
 
I have almost gotten mine under control. I went 2 weeks of actinic only after a 3 day lights out. Lots of carbon and lots of scrubbing helped. I have also started dosing more Alk as that seemed to be depleted rapidly during the worst of the outbreak.

I was using Kalkwasser before but did not seem to be maintaining the ALK properly.
So many different kinds out there but PM me if you need a detailed rundown of the fight.
100 gallon setup with 432 watts of T-5 lighting.

Good luck to anyone fighting this aggravation.
 
brandon429 said:
do we agree the fish brought the new batch in to the new tank, amazing pic of 2013.
Click to expand...

They came with the rocks that sat in friends system for a while.
He's had them for years, but didn't realize it until I pointed it out.

There is so little of them in his display tank that I had a hard time finding them.
A few weeks ago he added a connected frag tank to the system where they took off and it became apparent we had the same problem.

I found it interesting how huge a role, the slightly different conditions can play, within the same system, on the growth.
What is keeping them in check in the display tank is not having any effect in the bare frag tank.
 
What is the dosage for H2O2 treatment? I am trying to find a new bulb for my UV sterilizer and hoping to knock this completely out hopefully.

Also, has anyone else noticed a severe decline in their alkalinity during a Dino problem?

My parameters from yesterday:
pH 8
temp 76
Cal 500+
Mag 1500+
Alk 8
Phosphate .07
Nitrate 0

I only dose "part 2" and do water changes about once a month due to the fact that the water changes tend to fuel the Dino's. Using Kent salt. Was using a kalkwasser drip and was not elevating the alk at all.

Softies and some LPS are doing fine. Lost a fairly large frogspawn. Any thoughts on this?
 
I have a kind of odd question for you guys... And I could be completely foolish for asking, but does anyone have any thoughts, that the use of DI filtering could help motivate the Dino's to grow? I only ask, but two out of the 3 times I've had issues with these, it coincides with the recent application of DI'ing my RO water... It may or may not have anything to do with it, but this was an observation I made... Could definately be coincidental...
 
Well, that'd depend on what the DI is removing, which will vary from place to place, but I don't think RO/DI is a problem in general. Lots of people have problems with dinoflagellates, and I haven't seen any evidence that suggests that tap water contaminants on average inhibit dinoflagellate growth.
 
Hi I've tested a product named Dinoxal. Used it on my very infested tank for about 14 days: the first 5 days dinos looked like they've been dried out, in the following days they disappeared. Now it's nearly two months and no signs of dinos again.
I've had no damage to corals (lps,sps), fishes, shrimps and snails.
My dinos were brown, created long filaments with air bubbles trapped in them, and incredibly stinking.
 
I started the UV sterilizer and H2O2 treatment yesterday. Will post as things happen (good and bad). Mine were also the brown with air bubbles and very smelly.
I got most of it under control from scrubbing and 4 day lights out / 14 day actinic only.

Good luck to everyone fighting this.
 
I had a very bad dinos outbreak but it was cured

Try Fauna Marine Algae X or something like that. It worked well with my tank
 
AlgaeX is the only thing I had 100% luck with, it over took my tank and killed a bunch of stuff. After several lights out periods, manual removal, water changes, GFO, GAC, etc, AlgaeX killed it in 4 days and it's been almost a year after I fought it for many, many months.
 
I literally just beat Dino's in my tank. Here is how it is done:
stop doing water changes (Dino's are fueled by trace elements)

Cover your display and do a blackout for 4 days

Run a filter sock if possible because the Dino's are going to be melting away

Skim very heavy to the point you will be changing the collection cup 2 times a day

Run carbon to help absorb the melted away Dino's

Dose hydrogen peroxide 3% (the generic hydrogen peroxide that is sold everywhere. I picked it up at Walgreens for 99 cents) at 1 ml per 10 gallons of water. I have a 90 gallon system so I dosed 9 ml a day.

After the blackout, immediately do a water change and change the carbon.

Continue doing everything except for the blackout for the next 2 days.

This is how you will win.

If not, algea X or micro faunas version of algea X can also do the trick.

Good luck and you can beat this!
 
DNA said:
(11-14-2013) It's been 10 days now.
Dinos are on most surfaces and have multiplied at least thousand times.
Click to expand...

Update since the reset in october.

Dinos can't be seen any more.
Nothing was done.

I have yet to start up the calcium reactor and halides in a few weeks.
If I had to bet, I'd be confident the dinos would reappear.
It would be all in. If I lost I'd still be happy.
 
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