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Donate or sell all livestocks to lfs and start all over again would be the easiest attack.
Dosed per instructions.Thanks for the info. When you used it, did you follow the instructions on the bottle or did you dose a different amount?
As others have stated, your issue may not be with dinoflagellates at all - the stuff could well be filamentous diatoms. I went through this and initially misdiagnosed it as dinoflagellates when they were indeed diatoms. I tried different things but the problem wasn't resolved until I added Chaetomorpha to the sump using 24-hour lighting. The turnaround was amazing - gardens of this stuff disappeared literally overnight. In addition, I had previously added a dozen Turbo and Astrea snails, as well two conchs (which was working, albeit very slowly). I found that manually removing this stuff only stressed some of the corals - a Blastomussa ejected some of its green fluorescence through its mouth both times I scrubbed (this was visible as stringy material that glowed green.) What worked for this diatom species might not work with others, so, for what it's worth.
Chaeto grows MUCH faster and you have less browning when you give your chaeto 6+ hours without light a day. I learned that after a few months of having my lights on to long. Personally I’ve also seen a faster growth rate when I added a 2 hr “nap” into the routine.As others have stated, your issue may not be with dinoflagellates at all - the stuff could well be filamentous diatoms. I went through this and initially misdiagnosed it as dinoflagellates when they were indeed diatoms. I tried different things but the problem wasn't resolved until I added Chaetomorpha to the sump using 24-hour lighting. The turnaround was amazing - gardens of this stuff disappeared literally overnight. In addition, I had previously added a dozen Turbo and Astrea snails, as well two conchs (which was working, albeit very slowly). I found that manually removing this stuff only stressed some of the corals - a Blastomussa ejected some of its green fluorescence through its mouth both times I scrubbed (this was visible as stringy material that glowed green.) What worked for this diatom species might not work with others, so, for what it's worth.
Chaeto grows MUCH faster and you have less browning when you give your chaeto 6+ hours without light a day. I learned that after a few months of having my lights on to long. Personally I’ve also seen a faster growth rate when I added a 2 hr “nap” into the routine.
Current fuge light schedule:
5pm-7pm on
7-9pm off
9pm-9am on
Display:
8-9 AM Ramp on
9AM-6PM on
6-9 pm fade out
Agreed that 24-hour lighting is unnatural and probably inhibits cell reproduction cycles (if studies of other plants/algae are any indication.) It was originally my intent to run RDP (reverse daylight photosynthesis) after adding the Chaeto but I didn't have a timer for the BML light strip, hence the 24 hour photoperiod. The tank is now almost entirely free of diatoms - even on the glass - so I will likely begin to reduce the photoperiod.
Coincidentally, I was going through my notes and found details of a conversation I had years ago with David Chai about the fabulous Hawaii coral reef tank he ran at the Hualalai/Four Seasons resort on the Big Island of Hawaii. He ran a 24-hour photoperiod on his Caulerpa prolifera- based refugium and said he had nothing but problems with the tank until he began this protocol.
Would you clarify what you mean by 'browning'? Is this overgrowth by a brown alga/diatoms, or a negative response by the Chaeto itself? Thanks!
Running the opposite schedule helps to balance ph swings. By always having some photosynthetic action going on in the tank there is always gas exchange going on in the water.What great info to have for a first time Chaeto user. I have noticed everyone recommends running their fuge lights on an opposite schedule then their DT, do you happen to know the reasoning behind this?