Dinoflagellates

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Animal-Chin

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Nov 8, 2011
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Location
Vancouver BC
Ok combine a really hot summer, a new tank and 2 power outages and what I'm left with is a brutal outbreak of Dinoflagellates in my 30 gallon nano. I've been fighting it for a couple of weeks but this stuff is brutal. I do a 10 gallon water change and suck as much out as possible and the next day my tank is covered again.

Anyone ever deal with this before? Advice? I'm reading lots of "tear your tank down" online but I'm hoping there is an easier solution...

Thanks.
 
I'm in the middle of a battle as well, see my thread. So far ive removed my CUC and corals, blackout for 3 days, added increased Nitrate and phosphate filtration and used a veterinarian anti- bacterial for Dino's. Sadly I have to leave for a week so I'm hoping to keep it at bay until I return. At that time I think I'll have to tear it down.
 
ohhhh thats not good news. Tear down eh. Good think my tank is all of 3 months old and only has a couple of coral.

What would you do with your live rock? Boil?
 
I havnt had had to deal with this issue thankfully. But what I've read, remove all snails, siphon out what you can, run GFO or other phosphate reducer, run larger amounts of activated carbon, shorter photoperiod, and raise ph.

No single method will work. You will need to do most if not all of the above.
 
ohhhh thats not good news. Tear down eh. Good think my tank is all of 3 months old and only has a couple of coral.

What would you do with your live rock? Boil?

Don't ever boil live rock. You never know what's living on or in it and whether its poisonous or not. The last thing you need is poison gas in your kitchen :)
 
I've done everything except raise Ph and dose peroxide. I think I'll scrub and fresh water rinse my live rock and seriously siphon the sand. When I put it back I'm expecting a mini- cycle so I'll test and see how things go before re-stocking it.
 
I think i'm winning the battle! Did a 20 gallon water change (30 gallon tank) where I sucked out almost all the snot. Then I cranked my ph up by overdosing sodium bicarbonate (I think that's what its called, aka soda ash) and have blacked out the tank since Friday. NOT a TRACE of the stuff today. Tank is totally clean and the sand is totally white.

I'm scared to turn the lights back on now though...:lol:
 
Unsure what spectrums if any affect dinoflagellate but if you can do blue/actinic lights only start with that.
 
I'm battling it now. H202 dose. Siphon it out . Filter water and put back in. Avoid water changes. Dynos thrive on prestine water. When nitrates rise the dynos will explode. It's been 2 months and I'm down to just a few rocks.
 
I turned my LEDs on for 3 hours last night so my coral and anemone could open up and I still have no trace of them. I had my lights on the minmum setting though, I'm gonna take this real slow. I'm thinking it was cranking my ph/alk up that did it.
 
A turned my light off all day until I got home from work. Had them on for 4 hours a day. But it doesn't do anything for dynos unless u do a full blackout I think.. My dynos were multiplying over night. And I noticed mine were loving the oxygen.. Turned off the skimmer and they started to fade away. My skimmer isn't producing much of anything anyways. So I leave it off.
I dip a few rocks a week in h202 and clean them good. And it seams to be helping.
 
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