dinoflagellates

[TekCat]

I've read a bunch of megabytes on dinoflagellates, and I have a question. Is there any creature that eats them?

I have 55G tank lightly stocked w/fuge/sump, and brown crap is all over the sand. I am a bit short on money for an ozone equipment, so I am looking at the alternatives.

Thanks in advance.

 

[bertoni]

You could try some cerith snails, if you don't have any. Mostly, though, I think you'll have to starve them out. That's what I have to do, in the end.

 

[TekCat]

Starve them? you mean to isolate them so they get hungry? How long do I need to keep them in the isolation?

 

[bertoni]

Hee, hee. I starve them out by growing and harvesting Chaetomorpha. Better skimming or reducing feeding are two other ideas worth considering.

 

[skimmy]

slowly increase your ph and alkalinity to the top of acceptable levels and decrease your light cycle, physically remove as much as you can everyday.
tukey baster and net are your best friends

 

[TekCat]

Oh... I thought you meant starving snails ))) silly me

 

[TekCat]

Yep, I raised alk and my ph is 8.5 at the end of light cycle. I am going to try decreasing SG, right now it is 35ppt, how low can I drop it without hurting my SPS corals ?

 

[bertoni]

You can't, IMO. A short period or a small change might not hurt much, though. Why reduce SG?

 

[TekCat]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7311145#post7311145 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bertoni
You can't, IMO. A short period or a small change might not hurt much, though. Why reduce SG?

I've read on one of the threads about dino, that lowering SG helps. Or at least helped one person while also lowering temperature, and raising alk and pH at the same time.

 

[bertoni]

I'm always skeptical about this type of report. I've heard reports that raising SG will help kill dinoflagellates, too. All in all, they need food, and I think that's where the fix will be found.

 

[TekCat]

hm... go figure...

so far I've:
- decreased temperature from 82 to 79, my target is 77.
- increased alk to 12 dKH
- reduced total lighting period from 12 to 10 hours, my target is 8.
- gave up flake food, feeding exclusively frozen food.
- placed Chemi-Pure in sump

After one day, there is no visible changes.

 

[TekCat]

I think I have found the source of my problem. My fuge had been collecting detrius for past two months. I cleaned it yesterday, boy!, there was so much crap trapped there. So far there is no change in dino's growth, I'll keep monitoring it. later

 

[aztbs]

This may sound crazy, but I had a bit of a bloom with new live rock in the tank. I moved the contents of a 55 to a 180 and that included a pair of black lyretail mollies (the kind you get at the store for less than $2)
They love the stuff! They have been picking it off the sand every time I look at them. They have made wonderful progress in cleaning it up.

Downside is, they poop a lot. I have a team of ceriths to clean up the poop, some hermits to help out too, and a really powerful skimmer. But the mollies save me the trouble of breaking out the baster and getting it myself.

This is just my breif experience with them.