Keys to beating dinoflagellates
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jnarowe
New member
I really cannot point to one thing in particular that helped, but I did get over them and with minimal total coral losses, although some I just have frags of and I did lose a few whole colonies.
What I did was the following:
1. Lots of water changes;
2. Blowing it off the rocks;
3. lowered the lighting period;
4. Started dosing sugar;
5. Lights out for 3 days;
6. Stopped water changes;
7. Stopped sugar dosing;
8. Tank recovered.
I think that's the right chronological order and it took about 2+ months, maybe 3. I continue to have a 1 hour "nap" in the middle of my light cycle.
As far as the sugar dosing goes, it seemed to help initially but the dinos would come back, and then I got the strange idea that I really had no understanding of dinos and that I could be feeding THEM with the sugar. I mean, how do we know that's not the case?
Anyway, the most interesting thing I found on this journey was that water changes could actually help the dinos grow more by providing them with replenishment certain elements they need to thrive like silicate.
What I did was the following:
1. Lots of water changes;
2. Blowing it off the rocks;
3. lowered the lighting period;
4. Started dosing sugar;
5. Lights out for 3 days;
6. Stopped water changes;
7. Stopped sugar dosing;
8. Tank recovered.
I think that's the right chronological order and it took about 2+ months, maybe 3. I continue to have a 1 hour "nap" in the middle of my light cycle.
As far as the sugar dosing goes, it seemed to help initially but the dinos would come back, and then I got the strange idea that I really had no understanding of dinos and that I could be feeding THEM with the sugar. I mean, how do we know that's not the case?
Anyway, the most interesting thing I found on this journey was that water changes could actually help the dinos grow more by providing them with replenishment certain elements they need to thrive like silicate.
GoldeneyeRet
New member
I fought dinos for about four years. they are not fun, to say the least
During this time I tried increasing water changes and not changing water. Dinos thrived.
I looked at everything. The tank was moved in the middle of this battle at which time all of the oldest rock was replaced and most of the newer stuff (maybe two years old at the most)was "cooked". The tank was completely cleaned and re-cycled yet still, the dinos returned.
During the move DSB was replaced with a SSB. Still the Dinos remained.
I removed all fish and did not feed the tank anything for over a year. Dinos persisted.
I completely redid my source water system and had it analyzed to death. The dinos persisted.
I completely changed lighting, flow and sump setups several times, but the Dinos were unrelentless.
I added a remote sand bed, excessive LR and the dinos flourished.
I ran carbon, GFO, cheato, elavated pH and everything else I have ever heard of to try--except the sugar. Then Dinos did not wither.
I strongly believe that my problem was not fueled by excess nutrients as you would expect, as I did everything possible to eliminate them. I did not have a detectable nutrient level such as nitrate, silica, phos even once during the four year battle. I have used every test kit, lab and method of measuring to attempt to pinpoint a cause. I have access to University laboratories and they have confirmed time and time again that these levels are undetectable by aquarium standards.
In the end I believe the key factors in beating dinos were fixing a chronically low MG level and repeated lights out periods.
I have been dino free for over a year now. I run two and a half days a month with lights out and I keep my MG level at around 1500. Those things, coupled with the other methods I still have in place such as GFO (I cant grow cheato at all), pH 8.4-8.5 lots of carbon, excessive source water purification and rigorous husbandry standards seem to be keeping the dinos from making a comeback.
In my reefkeeping years I have fought every battle there is, but there is nothing that compares to the wrath of dinos!
God I hate them.
During this time I tried increasing water changes and not changing water. Dinos thrived.
I looked at everything. The tank was moved in the middle of this battle at which time all of the oldest rock was replaced and most of the newer stuff (maybe two years old at the most)was "cooked". The tank was completely cleaned and re-cycled yet still, the dinos returned.
During the move DSB was replaced with a SSB. Still the Dinos remained.
I removed all fish and did not feed the tank anything for over a year. Dinos persisted.
I completely redid my source water system and had it analyzed to death. The dinos persisted.
I completely changed lighting, flow and sump setups several times, but the Dinos were unrelentless.
I added a remote sand bed, excessive LR and the dinos flourished.
I ran carbon, GFO, cheato, elavated pH and everything else I have ever heard of to try--except the sugar. Then Dinos did not wither.
I strongly believe that my problem was not fueled by excess nutrients as you would expect, as I did everything possible to eliminate them. I did not have a detectable nutrient level such as nitrate, silica, phos even once during the four year battle. I have used every test kit, lab and method of measuring to attempt to pinpoint a cause. I have access to University laboratories and they have confirmed time and time again that these levels are undetectable by aquarium standards.
In the end I believe the key factors in beating dinos were fixing a chronically low MG level and repeated lights out periods.
I have been dino free for over a year now. I run two and a half days a month with lights out and I keep my MG level at around 1500. Those things, coupled with the other methods I still have in place such as GFO (I cant grow cheato at all), pH 8.4-8.5 lots of carbon, excessive source water purification and rigorous husbandry standards seem to be keeping the dinos from making a comeback.
In my reefkeeping years I have fought every battle there is, but there is nothing that compares to the wrath of dinos!
God I hate them.
uhuru
New member
I also beat dinos by increasing my bacteria population. I battled dinos in a BB SPS nano for several months to the point of almost taking everything down and starting from scratch. I seriously had nightmares about the stuff. As a last ditch effort I converted to a zeovit system and within 7 weeks the dinos were gone and never came back despite increased feedings and photoperiod (fingers crossed). I believe the system not only worked because of increased bacteria but also because it took my skimmers performance up another notch.
Zoom
Premium Member
GoldeneyeRet
GoldeneyeRet
I'm on my second year Fighting dinos .
I did all GoldeneyeRet did but the dinos never die .
I never had any MG problems i always keep mine at 1450 .
Yes the only thing helps is Lights out but i had all SPS but now the tank is mix reef and i think i will start with more aggressive light out period .
I will not give up ever i will kill them one day even if i have to fight them for ten years.
GoldeneyeRet
I'm on my second year Fighting dinos .
I did all GoldeneyeRet did but the dinos never die .
I never had any MG problems i always keep mine at 1450 .
Yes the only thing helps is Lights out but i had all SPS but now the tank is mix reef and i think i will start with more aggressive light out period .
I will not give up ever i will kill them one day even if i have to fight them for ten years.
nismo driver
New member
i have been battling these things for close to four months now. at one pioint about a month ago they had cleared up to a very managable level for a few weeks but i had to catch a fish out of the tank and stirred the whole thing up and they came back twice as bad..
the whole time i have been not doing water changes or adding any thing other then two part and kalk. running GFO and Carbon 24/7. three days lights out periods every week with shortened light period on the on days. reduced feedings. rearranged and doubled flow.
this past week i switched from running cheap gfo like phos-ban or pura-phos to rowa phos and with in a day observed about half as much dino stringing and film with the lights on then i had the previous days with the lights off..
the whole time i have been not doing water changes or adding any thing other then two part and kalk. running GFO and Carbon 24/7. three days lights out periods every week with shortened light period on the on days. reduced feedings. rearranged and doubled flow.
this past week i switched from running cheap gfo like phos-ban or pura-phos to rowa phos and with in a day observed about half as much dino stringing and film with the lights on then i had the previous days with the lights off..
nismo driver
New member
zoom your killing my optomisim..
jnarowe
New member
My mg is always about 1450 so even though I did boost it a little bit, I don't think that helped. I did forget to mention that I had raised the pH. I allowed the pH to get as high as 8.50 and swing between 8.30 and 8.50.
As an aside, I believe this may have upset my clams. I haven't done enough research to determine if that is the case, but I am suspicious about it. At any rate, I am slowly bringing the pH back down, so we shall see if the dinos return. If they do, that may give us a bit more data regarding pH.
Glad you guys are posting as this can be a nightmare. Judging by many posts, it looks like my 2.5 month battle was actually short!
As an aside, I believe this may have upset my clams. I haven't done enough research to determine if that is the case, but I am suspicious about it. At any rate, I am slowly bringing the pH back down, so we shall see if the dinos return. If they do, that may give us a bit more data regarding pH.
Glad you guys are posting as this can be a nightmare. Judging by many posts, it looks like my 2.5 month battle was actually short!
iwishtofish
Active member
Oh, jeez...I think this may be dinoflagellates 
I've been through a 6 day blackout, another 6 day blackout, I run rowaphos and carbon, I went through an 8 day blackout, with scrubbing the rocks before I started, and on the 6th day, and the damn things are coming back. I just went through another 4 day blackout, ending yesterday. I also pulled out every rock yesterday and scrubbed em' down. Here is what it looks like if I let it go/grow - ignore the thing in the red circle, I was using this pic for identification of the thing in the middle of it, but also has a decent (but blurry) image of what I think is dino's surrounding it:
When it starts to grow it looks like short, light colored hair algae type stuff, doesn't start looking like snot until it gets more out of control.
When it starts to grow it looks like short, light colored hair algae type stuff, doesn't start looking like snot until it gets more out of control.
I discuss the high pH treatment of dinos here:
Problem Dinoflagellates and pH
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-11/rhf/index.php
Problem Dinoflagellates and pH
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-11/rhf/index.php
Dack77
New member
I was going to say the same thing. Looks much more like cyano to me than Dinos.
The dinos that I had were completely different. They created a fairly harder mat in the sandbed and on the rock then what you are looking at. It wasnt slimy, but was obviously dinos from how the mat would disappear with extended periods of non light and I had a ton of swimming organisms. The only way I was able to get rid of them was to do a 5 day period of no light and I kept my PH at 8.4 the best I could. I had a couple corals bleach, but none of them died and now are gaining their base color back quite nicely.
On a side note, I had one Purple Tang in the tank in a 120g with a 35g sump, nothing else. So I was not over feeding and I was still doing 20g water changes every two weeks. The amount of nutrients in the tank was very low, so I have no idea what was actually feeding them. But they multiplied like crazy and was taking over the tank. I had no choice but to do the no lights and PH, and I have been dino free a couple months now. I just hope they dont come back.
The dinos that I had were completely different. They created a fairly harder mat in the sandbed and on the rock then what you are looking at. It wasnt slimy, but was obviously dinos from how the mat would disappear with extended periods of non light and I had a ton of swimming organisms. The only way I was able to get rid of them was to do a 5 day period of no light and I kept my PH at 8.4 the best I could. I had a couple corals bleach, but none of them died and now are gaining their base color back quite nicely.
On a side note, I had one Purple Tang in the tank in a 120g with a 35g sump, nothing else. So I was not over feeding and I was still doing 20g water changes every two weeks. The amount of nutrients in the tank was very low, so I have no idea what was actually feeding them. But they multiplied like crazy and was taking over the tank. I had no choice but to do the no lights and PH, and I have been dino free a couple months now. I just hope they dont come back.
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iwishtofish
Active member
I sure hope you are right! I never thought I'd be happy to hear someone suggest I have cyano!
Mine has had a few strands in it, but they are short, short-lived, and whispy. Not anything like the picture posted by you, Zoom.
(Don't worry, I'm getting my fair share of nasties at 6 months - green hair/turf, and I suspect bryopsis)
iwishtofish
Active member
Thanks, Dack77. The more I hear/read the more relieved I am getting (we noobs tend to panic 
).
).So, if iwishtofish's picture is cyano, any opinions on the snotty stuff in my picture? I've had red cyano that looks nothing like the stuff in my picture. Based on the 'snotty with bubbles in it' description I've read many times to describe dino's, I assumed that's what I had.
Oh, and I have also tried raising my PH, using a daily (or bi-daily) kalk slurry. Never could get the PH high enough (8.4 was the 'normal' high I could get (hit 8.5 once). Ended up stalling several pumps/powerheads due to precipitate clogging them up.
Oh, and I have also tried raising my PH, using a daily (or bi-daily) kalk slurry. Never could get the PH high enough (8.4 was the 'normal' high I could get (hit 8.5 once). Ended up stalling several pumps/powerheads due to precipitate clogging them up.
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