dinos, how to rid my tank of them

[Lutefisk]

Here is a thread with some replies by people that I beat them.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1188089

I'm knocking on wood to be sure but I've been free of that plague for about five months. Here is a summary of what I did.

By the time all was said and done I threw everything at it that I had:

Added a second oversized-skimmer set to skim wet
Added ozone (24x7)
A LOT of carbon (24x7)
Ran a full TLF reactor full of GFO (24x7)
Added kalk slurry morning and evening to raise the pH
Kept the tank in near total darkness for six days. A day after uncovering it I noticed what I thought was some dino build up and I recovered it for another three days.

At this point things look GREAT. The sand, rockwork, and glass are beautifully clean. The SPS got pretty white but are looking good now. The fish and even the clams did just fine.

I did a lot of big water changes and it looks like I've got them licked. I haven't seen a sign of the horrible things for quite some time now.

I went to some pretty drastic measures but I had some pretty significant sps and invert losses before I figured out what the problem was. Once I went to dark, GFO, carbon, ozone, dropping my water temp, water changes etc. (See my earlier post) I didn't lose anything else.

Yes, most of the coral didn't like it very much but they were doing a lot worse with the dino's than the darkness. I was to a point where even zoo's weren't opening. Everything has colored up nicely and is growing well.

Regarding water changes - there may be more than one way to skin this cat. There may be something in the water that is a limiting factor and that once it is consumed the dino bloom may crash. There is also evidence that darkness can kick it in the nuts.

My 2-cents is that if you've got a bad dino bloom underway give it everything you've got and can beg or borrow. This is not a pest that will go away easily.

Paul

 

[Zoom]

I did all of the above, but i can not keep my light out for a six days it is just pushing it i can not take that change i don't like to loose any more corals/fish.

 

[Lugonn[71]]

I had success with dosing sugar all dinos were gone in a week. I had dinos for over one year and also tried everything. Sugar was the last effort I tried even it might be a hit and miss. I dosed the recommended amount of sugar every two days, since I wanted to avoid bacterial bloom. After dinos were gone I got cyano and hair algae, but I'm winning the battle on cyano and also HA at the moment.

 

[TomRep]

Okay, I started the lights off treatment for the second time today. We'll see how it goes. Actually, just by dripping the kalk (raising Ph and alk) they seemed to be starting to go away. Maybe now with the lights off it will clear them out for good. I'll keep everyone informed.

Couple weeks ago

lastnight

 

[Zoom]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11676091#post11676091 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TomRep
Okay, I started the lights off treatment for the second time today. We'll see how it goes. Actually, just by dripping the kalk (raising Ph and alk) they seemed to be starting to go away. Maybe now with the lights off it will clear them out for good. I'll keep everyone informed.

Good luck let as know.:thumbsup:

 

[TomRep]

Okay, time for an update. After the lights off treatment, the tank looked a lot better. Ph never dropped below 8.2. When I turned the lights back on Sunday morning, I was going to perform a water change and syphon the rocks off. However, I figured I would just let things be and try to get my Ph back up to 8.5-8.6. As of today, four days after the lights came back on, the tank looks a million times better! The little bit of dinos and misc algea I did have after the lights off has mostly gone away. Tomorrow night I will do my typical water change routine and see how things turn out. I think they are finally kicked though, thanks to all the help from this forum! Now all I have to do is get my greens back into my Acro's! Below are some pics of the tank from Sunday and as of today.
Sunday

today (sorry about the white balance)

 

[Zoom]

I will hold of of any Water changes for now and looks like you may need one more treatment after a month.
Looking good....

 

[bertoni]

I'd do some 20-25% water changes, to try to remove any nutrients that might remain in the water column.

 

[Zoom]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11733937#post11733937 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bertoni
I'd do some 20-25% water changes, to try to remove any nutrients that might remain in the water column.

Every time i do water change it boost the dinos up big time, i will hold of and use as much as carbon as you can to get some of the Nutrients out of the tank.

 

[TomRep]

Well, quite honestly Zoom, they are going away more and more each day now after the treatment. If it keeps up the way it has been, I'm not sure I will need another treatment. But then again, who knows!
tom

 

[ezcompany]

so 4 days straight without lights? how do your fish feed?

 

[bertoni]

That's a good point, though, about dinoflagellates and water changes. Sometimes, water changes do seem to boost the growth, maybe due to the added trace elements. I'd probably do a few, though, since there might be a lot of decaying microbe in the water column, and then watch to see how the tank reacts.

 

[TomRep]

Well, it was three days straight with no lights. There was some ambient light from the sun coming in the back door into the room behind where the aquarium is. I threw and alge clip in two of the three days when I got home from work. Quite honestly though, my fish don't get a lot of food. Thats part of the reason my nutrients are so low. Don't worry though, all the fish are nice and plump! I just make sure when I feed the food I add is eaten and not laying under the rockwork etc. bertoni- the first night I had the lights off I put in fresh carbon and Rowaphos to help with any nutrients from the decaying microbe. Tested the water for PO4 and NO3 on the last day with no lights and after the lights came on and there was no rise in either. Was going to do my water change tonight, but I got hit with a pretty good stomach virus. Soo, hopefully tomorrow I will feel better and do it.
tom

 

[bertoni]

Okay, sounds good, except for the stomach problem.

 

[Retzius]

I am also dealing with dino issues and have the exact same problems. I am basically doing what everyone here in the boards recommends: GFO reactor, cut photopertiod, carbon, bigger skimmer (wet), cut feeding, kalk reactor, and everything is doing alot better.

I still have some but it has gone down. I didnt cut the lights out for four days but cut my photoperiod from 12 hrs to 8hrs and noticed an improvement.

I think the best factor in dino reduction is the light. I might go down to 6 hours but I am giving the 8 hour photoperiod more time. I feel your pain, it is a nuisance algae.

 

[ezcompany]

I have begun my battle against dinos last night.
I basically did a 30% water change,
changed carbon to chemipure,
installed a kalk doser,
siphoned out all detritus,
ran vinegar solution through the chiller to clean it out, siphoned as much dinos as i possibly could,
added prodibio biodigest and biooptim,
and am doing a lights out period (lenght undetermined).

i'm thinking of doing a 48 hour period of no light but feel slightly uneasy doing so.

 

[TomRep]

For me, after 48 hours I still saw it on the rockwaork. After the 36 hours, it was noticeably limited on the rocks. After the lights came back on and I got my Ph up again, the rest pretty much has gone away. Even now, a week and a half later, the tank seems to be getting better and better everyday I come home from work. Good luck to you all fighting it! I'm just glad I'm finally over it.
tom

 

[nismo driver]

i to have been in thedino fighting game..

for the first few months i did the lights out then shortened photo period with not much chnage, as soon as teh lightswere back on with in a day they would be back full force, i also upgraded my skimmer, added gfo reactor and dripped kalk.

in my attempt to raise the ph and alk with lime water i went to fat and this kicked off a lot of stn on some of my sps, lost four pieces. eventually i decided to change tactics.

i set up a frag tank, moved all of my coral out of my display into the frag tank. cut all lights on the display and fuge for four days with the exception of actinics on long enough to give the fisha light feeding.. during this time i also skimmed wet, broke down the rock scrubbed the tank walls and throughly vacced the shallow sand bed several times to remove all detritus. i can now run the lights for a full phot periodwith very little signs of dino's and have been observing a reduction in nusance red macro on the rocks.

when i moved the corals from the display to the frag tank i dipped them in fresh mixed salt water in an attempt to rinse of some of the dino's. forthe first week the frag tank seemed to be dino free then they came on strong, this was part of my strategy, contain the dino's to the frag tank while they are eradicated from the display.

i am now slowly transitioning high calcium demand sps back to the display, i was having a difficult time keeping up with the calcium demands in the smaller tank so i mived out al of the bigger montipora pieces. at this point intend to leave teh rest of the sps piece inteh frag tank until they make a full recovery from all of the stress and show healthy growth and the dinos in this tank have been under control.

i did get a reccomendation to use a 1/4 of a normal dose of maracyn but after careful consideration i felt this would also damage the bennificial bacteria in the tank and cause more problems and ultimately not resolve the underlying problems that fueled the dino outbreak.

 

[ezcompany]

how did you keep your PH up?
should i just dose Kalk continually to keep it high?

I'm very glad you won your battle.

 

[Zoom]

I'm very glad you won your battle. [/B]

You win the battle after not having any dinos for a six months in your tank.
Not been negative or any thing i'm on my second year with this battle against dinos this is the worst battle i have in many years of my reef keeping .
Good luck to you all .