Help: Dinoflagellates
- Thread starter miguelp19
- Start date
wickedfish
New member
So did a 15% WC after 3 weeks and they are sort of back (damn dino's).
I have fuzzies on the back wall, a few strands on my newer plugs and epoxy. And wherever the flow is blowing on the rock it has little strings of it.
Why did dino's rear its stupid head again? I am out of the bioclarifier, that proved so important in depleting its past numbers.
My PH went up to 8.1 from being at 7.8 stable for 3 weeks. And now dino's again!!! Gonna go dark again for a day. I haven't been dosing anything!!! wheres the happy face that shoots itself???
I have fuzzies on the back wall, a few strands on my newer plugs and epoxy. And wherever the flow is blowing on the rock it has little strings of it.
Why did dino's rear its stupid head again? I am out of the bioclarifier, that proved so important in depleting its past numbers.
My PH went up to 8.1 from being at 7.8 stable for 3 weeks. And now dino's again!!! Gonna go dark again for a day. I haven't been dosing anything!!! wheres the happy face that shoots itself???
wickedfish
New member
Miguel,
relax the wc isn't gonna make or break a rose bubble tip. It would be more along the lines that you feed it manually what it needs. Also keeping your nitrates and phosphates under control will help too. I am trying to figure why immediately after a dd salt h2o I have dinos again???
I did a small NSW wc while I had dinos a month back and it did not add to the fire like this ASW does. Must be an ingredient they add to this salt artificially, obviously a stab in the dark.
relax the wc isn't gonna make or break a rose bubble tip. It would be more along the lines that you feed it manually what it needs. Also keeping your nitrates and phosphates under control will help too. I am trying to figure why immediately after a dd salt h2o I have dinos again???
I did a small NSW wc while I had dinos a month back and it did not add to the fire like this ASW does. Must be an ingredient they add to this salt artificially, obviously a stab in the dark.
oscarslr
New member
I went 2 months no water change, I have 2 RBTA's and they are fine. have you tried the Lime slurry/ph 8.7? Water changes brought them back with a vengeance every time. I have also read that OZONE was effective against Dinos in a thread i was following here. I never tested it because I beat them 1 week before my Ozone unit arrived.
Ycore
New member
This is how I beat them this scourge that made my tank look like a cesspool within 24 hrs of cleaning, killed all my snails, and made my corals sad. Been dino free for a month.
1) Sucked, siphoned, and scraped as much as I could out of the tank. Washed powerheads in vinegar as they were totally coated in dinos. Siphoned and stirred the sandbed.
2) Total lights out for 3 days. I mean TOTAL; I covered my tank in black garbage bags taped together.
3) During the lights out period I put an oversized bag of Chemi-Pure elite into the filter sock, and dosed BW MB7 daily at the "high nutrient level" dosage.
4) Made sure Skimmer was working at maximum efficiency
When I unveiled my tank, all the dinos were dead--white coblike specters of their former selves. I then siphoned out as much Dino corpses as I could.
I then ran actinics only for the next 3 days while continuing MB7 dosing, then gradually ramped up the non-actinics from one hour to seven hours over the following week.
I didn't lose any livestock, though some of my SPS browned out, of which all are now regaining their color.
Interestingly enough, after the Dinos were goen I was hit with a mild case of Cyano (which went away after a week), followed now by a small bloom of bryopsis out of nowhere. With your Dinos gone (or subjugated), anything else you may have in the tank being suppressed by the "competitive pest war" will start to take hold. No matter, I'll take Bryopsis over Dinos any day of the week.
I believe Dinos are happy to live and thrive in 0 phosphate and 0 nitrate water-- I tested and retested, always getting near zero values yet Dinos were everywhere. My infestation began when I started dosing KZ Zeostart (basically vinegar/vodka)-- so I believe these guys thrive on a carbon source and light.
Bottom line, the tactic for dealing with these bad boys is to 1) starve them of light 2) starve them of a carbon source and 3) the addition of a competing organism (bacteria) that is given a chance to become dominant while they are knocked back via 1 and 2.
Just my experience and humble opinion
1) Sucked, siphoned, and scraped as much as I could out of the tank. Washed powerheads in vinegar as they were totally coated in dinos. Siphoned and stirred the sandbed.
2) Total lights out for 3 days. I mean TOTAL; I covered my tank in black garbage bags taped together.
3) During the lights out period I put an oversized bag of Chemi-Pure elite into the filter sock, and dosed BW MB7 daily at the "high nutrient level" dosage.
4) Made sure Skimmer was working at maximum efficiency
When I unveiled my tank, all the dinos were dead--white coblike specters of their former selves. I then siphoned out as much Dino corpses as I could.
I then ran actinics only for the next 3 days while continuing MB7 dosing, then gradually ramped up the non-actinics from one hour to seven hours over the following week.
I didn't lose any livestock, though some of my SPS browned out, of which all are now regaining their color.
Interestingly enough, after the Dinos were goen I was hit with a mild case of Cyano (which went away after a week), followed now by a small bloom of bryopsis out of nowhere. With your Dinos gone (or subjugated), anything else you may have in the tank being suppressed by the "competitive pest war" will start to take hold. No matter, I'll take Bryopsis over Dinos any day of the week.
I believe Dinos are happy to live and thrive in 0 phosphate and 0 nitrate water-- I tested and retested, always getting near zero values yet Dinos were everywhere. My infestation began when I started dosing KZ Zeostart (basically vinegar/vodka)-- so I believe these guys thrive on a carbon source and light.
Bottom line, the tactic for dealing with these bad boys is to 1) starve them of light 2) starve them of a carbon source and 3) the addition of a competing organism (bacteria) that is given a chance to become dominant while they are knocked back via 1 and 2.
Just my experience and humble opinion
coralreefhq
New member
I would advise doing a kalkwasser treatment.
DF doesn't tollerate high PH, so by dosing kalk that'll maintain the PH at 8.2 - 8.4.
That was in the reefkeeping article as well.
Worked for me, hopefully it'll work for you too.
DF doesn't tollerate high PH, so by dosing kalk that'll maintain the PH at 8.2 - 8.4.
That was in the reefkeeping article as well.
Worked for me, hopefully it'll work for you too.
coralreefhq
New member
Sorry, double post.
Hydrogen peroxide can burn just about anything, so it's a dangerous approach, IMO.
High pH sometimes works, but not always. It's fairly easy to do, so it might be worth a shot.
The lights out approach can be useful. I agree with siphoning out as much as possible before and after, and running a lot of carbon and GFO.
High pH sometimes works, but not always. It's fairly easy to do, so it might be worth a shot.
The lights out approach can be useful. I agree with siphoning out as much as possible before and after, and running a lot of carbon and GFO.
wickedfish
New member
I am with Ycore on this one. Carbon and Light, fuel this pest significantly. In the many things I tried, I dosed vodka on 2 days the dinos spread like mustard. When I stopped the addition of a sugar/carbon source they slowed their roll.
The dino's in my tank are very minimal I will do the carib sea treatment/cleaning on the weekend. Will let you know if it worked.
The dino's in my tank are very minimal I will do the carib sea treatment/cleaning on the weekend. Will let you know if it worked.
I just started having dino issues again. The first time they popped up I replaced all my lights, cut the light cycle down to 5 hours. None of this seemed to stop them. Doing water changes just seemed to make things worse! I ordered a GFO reactor from BRS a few days later it was completely gone. Skip forward a month and now the dino has returned. I replaced the GFO and filled up the reactor as much as I could. So far it keeps getting worse.
has anyone tried adding a bacterial source like biodigest in addition to their carbon dosing? in my experience the competition killed the dinos. saying carbon is bad, but having tried it only partially is not something dont want to you advise to others. i killed the dinos twice by dosing bacteria (biodigest) and then adding vodka slowly so a competitional population could grow (without light). I think you still have to baster them off corals/rocks and filter them out somehow ( like advised when dosing vodka with an oversized skimmer). id really like to see some data about this, as you might have alot of other stuff out of check when you were simply tossing a carbon source into your tank...
wickedfish
New member
So day 4 of them coming back. I received the carib sea stuff via marine depot and the formula seems different, its viscous and the one I added from RAP was thin like water.
I am not getting long strands dinos which is cool. And its not on my rocks now like a month ago. It is all over the frag plugs.
I hate this crap. I am trying all the things I did last time to kill the pest. Shorter photo period, no fuge lights, the fresh gfo and carbon in a reactor, bio magnet clarifier, no WC and kalk in the top off. I will let everyone know how it goes.
I am not getting long strands dinos which is cool. And its not on my rocks now like a month ago. It is all over the frag plugs.
I hate this crap. I am trying all the things I did last time to kill the pest. Shorter photo period, no fuge lights, the fresh gfo and carbon in a reactor, bio magnet clarifier, no WC and kalk in the top off. I will let everyone know how it goes.
Well I have gone lights out for 3 day and I started dosing MB7 over a week ogo. I turned on the actinics for about 7 hours yesterday and saw only a very small amount appear as the day went on. I cut the lights back off and will wait until this evening to turn them back on. I plan to keep the photo period to a minimum over the next week to see if that will help. Its now been over a month since the last water change.
Mike
Mike
