Starting to get some dinoflagellates...what to do

Grkgod36

New member
So out of no where I'm starting to get some dinos it's on the sand and on my rocks ugly brown stringy slimey crap.

Tank is 2 years old I'm using rodi water . Lighting is goon leds whites only on for 4 hrs blues for 8. I'm going to test my phosphates and see where they are at .

I've been reading a lot about different methods used to deal with them.
From over feed to have other algae out compete for it . To stop water changes because there's something in salts that aids them ...etc .

Best bet from what I gather is a 2 day blackout and run a gfo reactor ,.

Will the blackout hurt my sps corals ,?

Has anyone used bacter m from continuum aquatics ?
 
Dinoflagellates are a ***** to beat, because they can adapt to just about anything you throw at them. You have to hit them on multiple fronts all at once - deprive them of food, outcompete them and chemically remove them.

When I had a particularly bad case, I managed to completely beat it (and yes, I mean completely, it never came back much to my surprise) by doing the following:

Media filter with extremely high-grade carbon (I used Vertex Rox 0.8)
Attach ozone to skimmer and run on high
Dose with active bacterial products - the ones with sludge that smell like a sewer. I used MarineLift Special Blend.
Lights out for a period of 7 days.
Extremely light to ZERO feeding of the tank.

The ozone and carbon will strip everything out of the tank including the dinoflagellate spores that live in the water column. The bacterial stuff will introduce several nutrient-consuming species that will hopefully out-compete the dinos for food. The last two steps deprive the dinos completely of their food source.

Your corals should - SHOULD - forgive you, they go through worse on the reef after a storm. However there is a chance they'll bleach or die from the sudden lack of light and change in water quality. But if you let the dinos take over, then they will DEFINITELY ALL DIE because that **** is toxic as hell.

Don't use any chemicals that are designed to kill dinoflagellates, as the symbiodinium (aka zoozanthellae) in coral that allows them to photosynthesise are ALSO dinoflagellate organisms, just a different variety to the pest kind.
 
Dinoflagellates are a ***** to beat, because they can adapt to just about anything you throw at them. You have to hit them on multiple fronts all at once - deprive them of food, outcompete them and chemically remove them.

When I had a particularly bad case, I managed to completely beat it (and yes, I mean completely, it never came back much to my surprise) by doing the following:

Media filter with extremely high-grade carbon (I used Vertex Rox 0.8)
Attach ozone to skimmer and run on high
Dose with active bacterial products - the ones with sludge that smell like a sewer. I used MarineLift Special Blend.
Lights out for a period of 7 days.
Extremely light to ZERO feeding of the tank.

The ozone and carbon will strip everything out of the tank including the dinoflagellate spores that live in the water column. The bacterial stuff will introduce several nutrient-consuming species that will hopefully out-compete the dinos for food. The last two steps deprive the dinos completely of their food source. And yes, do not do any water changes during this period, because dinoflagellates will latch onto any kind of food source, and your water source might contain something they can eat.

Your corals should - SHOULD - forgive you, they go through worse on the reef after a storm. However there is a chance they'll bleach or die from the sudden lack of light and change in water quality. But if you let the dinos take over, then they will DEFINITELY ALL DIE because that **** is toxic as hell.

Don't use any chemicals that are designed to kill dinoflagellates, as the symbiodinium (aka zoozanthellae) in coral that allows them to photosynthesise are ALSO dinoflagellate organisms, just a different variety to the pest kind.
 
For real that stuff sucks. I've had it for years. Finally used some fresh ocean water. Got a diatom bloom and a cyano bloom. Guess they knocked out most of the dino. It is still hanging around making surfaces slimy. My next step is an ozone or uv. Really not wanting to go that route. Tried almost everything else. When it was at it's worst I was freshwater dipping my liverock then scrubbing then dipping. Real pain in the arse. I recently put some pods in. Someone said they may eat it.
 
Dinoflagellates are a ***** to beat, because they can adapt to just about anything you throw at them. You have to hit them on multiple fronts all at once - deprive them of food, outcompete them and chemically remove them.

When I had a particularly bad case, I managed to completely beat it (and yes, I mean completely, it never came back much to my surprise) by doing the following:

Media filter with extremely high-grade carbon (I used Vertex Rox 0.8)
Attach ozone to skimmer and run on high
Dose with active bacterial products - the ones with sludge that smell like a sewer. I used MarineLift Special Blend.
Lights out for a period of 7 days.
Extremely light to ZERO feeding of the tank.

The ozone and carbon will strip everything out of the tank including the dinoflagellate spores that live in the water column. The bacterial stuff will introduce several nutrient-consuming species that will hopefully out-compete the dinos for food. The last two steps deprive the dinos completely of their food source.

Your corals should - SHOULD - forgive you, they go through worse on the reef after a storm. However there is a chance they'll bleach or die from the sudden lack of light and change in water quality. But if you let the dinos take over, then they will DEFINITELY ALL DIE because that **** is toxic as hell.

Don't use any chemicals that are designed to kill dinoflagellates, as the symbiodinium (aka zoozanthellae) in coral that allows them to photosynthesise are ALSO dinoflagellate organisms, just a different variety to the pest kind.

It's in the begging stages .
I have no experience with ozone reactors , and I don't know if my skimmer is even made to have a ozone hookup.and kinda makes a bit sketchy with excess leaving into the room.

I'm going to order a dual rector and run the carbon you recovered along with some gfo.

I will a black out as suggested , hopefully my corals forgive me !
Should I feed my fish lightly every other day ?

And as for the biological additives I could not find the marineLift.
Could you provide a link to the product ?

What about this ?
http://www.continuumaquatics.com/marine_wc/bacter_genm.php

And they also have another product called bacter clean m.

I will use a filter sock ,

I have not heard of anyone using bakers yeast but makes sencse.

Thanks for the info fellas
 
Believe it not - I quit changing my water after trying a lot of different things and that's what beat them back for me.
 
We finally tore our tank down, bleached it and started over. All new rock, which is cycling now and I'm still paranoid it will come back. All my critters would die, corals wouldn't grow, coralline wouldn't grow. Just not worth having a tank. I actually covered my tank with a tarp for two weeks then uncovered it; it looked like it was gone but after a few weeks, it was back. So far, dinos have been my biggest nemesis.
 
We finally tore our tank down, bleached it and started over. All new rock, which is cycling now and I'm still paranoid it will come back. All my critters would die, corals wouldn't grow, coralline wouldn't grow. Just not worth having a tank. I actually covered my tank with a tarp for two weeks then uncovered it; it looked like it was gone but after a few weeks, it was back. So far, dinos have been my biggest nemesis.

Did you run gfo , carbon , try biological filtration. Etc , use rodi water
 
Always use RO/DI. I did run a lot of carbon, some gfi. Completely shut out light for over two weeks (this actually looked like it worked, but not to be). Water chemistry was solid. I originally tried to set the tank up with totally dead rock to prevent any AEFW or other "bugs" that are tough to avoid. Wish I hadn't. I switched back to real live rock after the bleaching and so far all is well. Sorry this happened to you as I think real solutions to this are really hard to find.
 
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