I need advice please, dinoflagellates.

[gbroadbridge]

I've been in your place.

Fauna Marin make a product called Dino X

It will nuke the Dino's and give you a fresh start.

Normally I don't recommend chemicals but when you're tearing your hair out this stuff works.

 

[Reef.]

I did a 10 gallon water change , I hadn’t done one in a month, since I’ve been trying to get my nutrient levels up.

Looks like you are nearly there, don’t ease up now.

Can you not remove the rocks and give the a scrub, that would help a lot. Use water change water to scrub the rocks.

 

[TheDuude]

Agree with @Reef. your making progress. What seems to have been the biggest "Gain" on them for me was a blackout to force the Osteos into the water column and through your uv. I got my nutrients stable, stopped all dosing other than the big 3 + nitrate, and switched to very light feedings. I moved my UV (25 watt on 120 gallons) so it was in a closed loop in the display and covered the tank with a table cloth for ZERO light 24 hours a time once a week. After a couple rounds dinos are hard to find in the tank but still finding small numbers under a microscope, I think they are always present in every reef tank.

 

[ELChingonsReef]

Keep doing what you are doing. Blow those dinos up into the water column and change out your filter socks every day. Throw them in the washing machine with a cap full of bleach . Wash them twice if you use bleach. Once with bleach and the next wash without bleach. Never use laundry soap on filter socks. WATER ONLY. Make sure you are testing nitrates and phosphates daily. Try to get nitrates to 10ppm and phosphate to 0.1 . I have nero 3s and nero 5s . I turn mine up when I use the turkey baster. Then turn them back down again. The most important thing is turning down your light intensity. Always remember that when you get dynoflaglates or any other weird alge. Try not to do anymore water changes or add any unnecessary food to the tank other than what the fish need to survive. Don't add reef roids or stuff like that. Dose nitrates if you have to . My nitrates go up naturally when I remove filter socks for a week or so. But you need them now to trap dinos. But pull them out after you turkey baste for a few hours. Turn skimmer off too. Pristine is a good product. Use it regularly. Good luck

 

[richardmwalker72]

Ok so let me give a quick run down of the tank. Tank has been set up for 8 months or so. I have run into dinoflagellates due to low nutrients in the tank. Confirmed dinoflagellates under micro scope.

Been stuck at 0 phosphate, 0 nitrate for……. Well probably since day 1. Been trying to raise nitrate and phosphate for the past 2 months.

I recently purchased the Hanna checkers for both nitrate and phosphate. Nitrate reading 0.00 and phosphate is starting to raise first test was 0.01 and second test 0.02. So I do have movement on the phosphate finally.

I’ve taken everything offline filtration wise. Turned off skimmer, taken out carbon until recently due to the smell haha. I did add the carbon back in. Removed filter floss, Removed Cheato which I think started all the low to no nutrient problems. I’ve done 1 water change in 2 months.

I’m using rodi water and salinity is always 1.024.

I recently installed a UV sterilizer, only been up for 4-5 days. I have noticed a slight slow down in growth of dinoflagellates on rocks in the mornings but still coming back just not as bad.

I’ve been using a turkey baster to blow off the rocks twice a day and been sucking up the big pieces and straining the water through filter floss and back into the tank.

I really didn’t want to dose anything but I’m getting to the point of thinking maybe I should?
Should I dose some kind of bacteria to combat the Dino’s?
I don’t know what to do. Anyone have any advice on how to win the battle would be greatly appreciated?

Do a three day black out and use Dr. Tims re-fresh and waste away. Follow the direction. Also get your nutrients up. I have done this twice with great results. I still use Dr. tim's waste away once a week.

 

[ELChingonsReef]

Dr Tim's waste away works great. Ultimately my method is the same as reef dudes. Check out reef dudes on YouTube. He has a few videos about dynoflaglates. Deven is a buddy of mine. He helped me through my dino outbreak. There's a few things I did differently but I pretty much stuck to his advice from his videos

 

[Screwgunner]

I could not get rid of mine I blew it off every day . 3 day black out slowed it down . But I took my algea scubber off line and let nutrients go up and added a bottle of biospera. The time my phosphates hit .2 they were gone. I will not let my phosphates bottom out again.