How do I get rid of dinoflaggelates? PLEASE HELP!

[cdeakle]

I believe you have dinos just like me. If you get rid of them for good let me know. I did over 30 hours and over 50 hours of no light and they came back full force again both times.

If you have brown snot looking strings that have air bubbles then you have dinos!

 

[Anonymous]

Only way I was able to get rid of them, is lots of carbon use, skimming, and overdosing the kalk to keep the ph up over 8.5

 

[cdeakle]

If i slowly get my ph up that high it shouldnt have any bad effects on my guys?

 

[Anonymous]

if you can, it was a total PITA, I think the dino bloom was supressing the PH, it was really low when I started, like 7.8-7.9

 

[cdeakle]

it was a total PITA

AGREED! It has taken me forever to raise the ph from 7.9 - 8.1!!!!
I have never dosed kalk but I think im about to. I have a tub of kent marine kalk that i have never used yet.

Should I buy a UV? I'm very tempted to if it will kill of these little SOB's....

 

[jandree22]

just make sure you dose the kalk within reason.... you wanna raise your pH obv, but dosing kalk too quickly risks the possibility of a pH of 9 or greater. remember, you just wanna kill the dino's, not everything

good luck with that tho!

 

[cdeakle]

Im gonna order a kit from MD, Its a dosing bag with some kind of drip iv like at the hospitals....

 

[jandree22]

ah ic... cool cool. those are def a nice way to control the drip. I just used a gallon milk jug with a airline tube and air valve to do the job... but I'm sure it doesn't work nearly as good as that :lol:

 

[cdeakle]

Im too lazy to be cheap :lol:

Dinos are still kicking my arse, I get some macros today via fedex that should help me sometime, I know that macros can take awhile before seeing there results. Im still boosting up ph, cut down my metal halide lighting by 2 hours.

Im loosing this battle and I hope the tide changes before I reallly get pissed and start throwing stuff LOL

 

[cdeakle]

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[Money Pit]

I have been struggling with the same problem for well over a month with very little luck. I even removed my sand bed which helped, but the minute I put new sand in the problem returned.
I am having much better luck with the Kalkwasser drip method. I am running my PH at 8.6 and I have carbon in my sump. I have read that Dino's use trace elements and that's why you should not do water changes. I did notice huge blooms after every water change(I use Aquarium City Water).

 

[cdeakle]

I still have them, just waiting to see if the new fuge with macros will help. Aquadose will be here tomorrow so I can start dripping kalk. Man this sucks........

 

[Money Pit]

Trust me I know how you feel. I have been dripping kalk for 2 days now and I honestly see an improvement. I have tried no light, water changes, vacuming the sand and everything else people have mentioned with temporary results. I hope the high PH with the Black Diamond activated carbon will do the job, time will tell.
BTW I also removed a few fish (still have a few in the tank, which is 200 gallons) and cut my light cycle to 7 hours (Actinics) and 4 hours on the halides. Also, do not put any sea cucumbers or Sea urchins in your tank, they will die almost instantly. I made this mistake after the LFS suggested they might help.

 

[cdeakle]

I also cut time off my lights. I cut 2 hours off halide and 2 hours of actinics.

Thats good the hear the kalk is working, I have the kalk already and my aquadose comes tomorrow from marinedepot, those guys rock! How are you dosing the kalk? aquadose, DIY...?

For the carbon did you just get a media filter bag and fill with carbon and place in sump? Thats what I'm planning on doing, never had to use carbon yet in reefkeeping...

Lets see who beats the dinos first or smashes there tanks in the process LOL

 

[Anonymous]

Sounds like the same problem i had...no matter what i did including leaving the lights off for hours at a time didnt help much..i rode it out in much frustraction and it cleared up.....it seemed like more i tried to fix it the worse it got...this seems like a Dejavu question i have asked sooo many times...and 420 i know how you feel...it pisses you off....algae can go a few days without light, but your corals cant...thats the problem...leaving the lights off for extended periods of time just slows it down but wont cure the problem...I think the only thing you might be able to do is ride it out...

 

[Money Pit]

I agree that you have to ride it out. Water changes seem to perpetuate the problem and leaving the lights off is just a temporary fix. The problem with doing nothing in a stocked tank is that you run the risk of killing everything in your tank. Dinoflagellate blooms are toxic to aquarium inhabitants. I personally have lost all of my bottom dwelling fish, and most inverts as well as the cucs and urc's I mentioned earlier. I'm willing to try anything to rid my tank of this problem and hopefully save my remaining livestock. The kalkwasser seems to be working but time will tell. I would highly recommend not trying this method without a PH meter.

Todd Crail has posted an article here's the link.

http://www.reefs.org/library/article/t_crail.html

 

[Money Pit]

Yes the activated carbon is in a bag in my sump. I guess I can take some pictures and show you what I'm dealing with and hopefully the progress over the next week or so.

 

[cdeakle]

I would appreciate it, thanks bro!

 

[Money Pit]

Good news, the kalk drip seems to be working. I have been running my PH at 8.6 for a few days and I am seeing results. I'm pretty excited because I was on the verge of tearing down my tank a week ago.

 

[eris8]

Without question, IMO, the best cleaner of dinos are cucumbers. I had an anemone get shredded by a PH and all the nutrient that put into DSB fueled huge outbreak of dinos. I did do all the posted methods w/ moderate success but only when I got a couple cukes did my sand really get clean and w/in a month got to be totally white. Now they and the conchs are able to do their daily business of cleaning dinos much easier. Once you get them youll still have to continue w/ siphoning some excess dinos and kalk and everything else but you WILL get ahead of it at a point. HTH, good luck.