Transfering from a dino infested tank

[Mmsetta]

Well- the Dino's beat me. I have been fighting them for two months and they took all my cleanup crew, my skunk shrimp, and two fish. I surrender!

But, I had an upgrade I was planning anyways. Does anyone know how I can move my fish (just one clown and a gramma) as well as two anemone's over without bringing the Dino with them?

I was thinking a fresh water dip. Never did that before some any advice would be great.

 

[Reefing Madness]

I do not believe that the fish nor the anemone will carry the dinos over. Corals on frags will, live rock, decos, sand, equipment and such, but not those guys.

 

[PaulKreider]

^^ They should be fine, they don't carry algae.

 

[Mmsetta]

I do have three corals I would like to bring over too. Freshwater dip for those?

 

[Reefing Madness]

Are they on frags? If they are on plugs or rock, you'd want to dip them, although I don't think you want to dip them in FW.
Rather Hydrogen Peroxide
https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/zo...0209-how-do-you-do-hydrogen-peroxide-dip.html

 

[jedimasterben]

You cannot transfer anything other than fish, and even then, you MUST quarantine the fish as they can (and will) hold dinoflagellates stuck to their slime coat.

You cannot transfer any other livestock such as corals or anemones. They do not capture these dinoflagellates for symbiotic reasons like they do with zooxanthellae (which are also dinoflagellates), but they do take them in as more of an accident and release them later, infesting the new system. This comes from experience.

 

[Mmsetta]

Thanks for the honest feedback Jedi. Thinking about giving the fish up and just starting over. The anemone's hurt though- real nice sunbursts. Any way you know that I can transfer them successfully. I.e. Quarentine.

Also, when qt'ing the fish, what will this do? Qt for a month in a new tank? Do I treat them with anything? And will qt'ing the bta's have the same cleansing effects?

 

[jedimasterben]

For the fish, have the water be a very low salinity, at least 15ppt different than your tank. Leave the fish in there for a few hours to let teh dinos come off of the slime coat on their own and they will be killed instantly by the different osmotic pressure.

For the BTAs, I'm not sure if there is anything you can do, unfortunately. As they expel and take in nearly at the same time, unless you're doing 100% water changes to the quarantine tank every hour or two, ensuring that you're siphoning 100% of it out, I don't think there is a way to make sure they will not transfer over.

 

[PaulKreider]

My bad, I guess you learn something new every day! I wouldn't of thought the slime coat could hold algae!

 

[Mmsetta]

Just following up. For those fighting Dino's I am happy to say raising ph and ceasing water changes for about a month and a half got rid of mine completely.

 

[jedimasterben]

Just following up. For those fighting Dino's I am happy to say raising ph and ceasing water changes for about a month and a half got rid of mine completely.

You confirm this with a microscope? I had the same thoughts as you, but was mistaken.

 

[Mmsetta]

It's been about a week with no outbreak at all. Keeping my fingers crossed

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

Just following up. For those fighting Dino's I am happy to say raising ph and ceasing water changes for about a month and a half got rid of mine completely.

This worked for me also. I quite carbon and gfo at the same time I unplugged my skimmer. My Dino's we're bad. This was two years ago. I just started really cleaning up the tank again and Dino's came back. This time I backed off the skimmer a bit, decreased the amount of carbon I was running and stopped all water changes. I went lights out for three nights and dosed h2o2 for eight days. It has worked well for me. This time around.

 

[mrcoffee2]

I think you will hear different opinions from different people. Personally I believe dino's just to be part of a cycle... They will go away on their own, it might take a few months maybe longer. Chances are some thing is off balance in your tank. That something could be anything from lights, LR, nutrients, RODI water etc... If you rebuild this tank chances are you will get the cycle again...