Dinoflagellates

[jservedio]

I battled and beat dinos about 6 months ago. Hydrogen Peroxide is a great start and will weaken it a bit. Also, turning off your main lights and running actinic only for about 2 weeks will further weaken it. Remove as MUCh as you physically can daily during these 2 weeks.

At the end of these 2 weeks comes the main assault - remove every last inch of dinos you can and BLACK OUT on the tank - cover it with towels or sheets so NO light gets in (sump light too). Do not feed either. Three full days of no lights on anything. Your coral will be fine.

The ONLY sure fire way to beat dinos is a black out. I had zero nitrates and phosphates and still battled them for a while. Once you get them, they will out compete everything in your tank for nutrients and will win.

Whatever your underlying problem was needs to be fixed before you think about a black out or you will go through all that stress and it'll just come back. The ONLY wya to rid dinos is complete blackout - no other way to do it once they take hold. H2O2 works well and shortening your lighting period and removing all nutrients from the WC are great ,but it still won't kill it.

Those filter pads may keep it at bay and make it recede - but once you remove them they are probably going to spring right back. THey need to be totally eradicated from the tank - not just managed.

 

[huuta]

this is great news.Look like i'm heading to the LFS

Just wanted to post back. I bought the pads and have had them in for a week now. Seem to have done the trick! Thank you!

 

[Masgatigata]

I agree completely with what you are saying. I did all that you mention in your post. After my three day black out, I saw a few bubbles creeping back up. My nutrients phosphates were at zero as well. I think dinos thrive in these types of environments. There must be something in that particular water chemistry that helps them grab hold. Anyway, I removed my GFO and replaced it with these pads. No more bubbles.

I battled and beat dinos about 6 months ago. Hydrogen Peroxide is a great start and will weaken it a bit. Also, turning off your main lights and running actinic only for about 2 weeks will further weaken it. Remove as MUCh as you physically can daily during these 2 weeks.

At the end of these 2 weeks comes the main assault - remove every last inch of dinos you can and BLACK OUT on the tank - cover it with towels or sheets so NO light gets in (sump light too). Do not feed either. Three full days of no lights on anything. Your coral will be fine.

The ONLY sure fire way to beat dinos is a black out. I had zero nitrates and phosphates and still battled them for a while. Once you get them, they will out compete everything in your tank for nutrients and will win.

Whatever your underlying problem was needs to be fixed before you think about a black out or you will go through all that stress and it'll just come back. The ONLY wya to rid dinos is complete blackout - no other way to do it once they take hold. H2O2 works well and shortening your lighting period and removing all nutrients from the WC are great ,but it still won't kill it.

Those filter pads may keep it at bay and make it recede - but once you remove them they are probably going to spring right back. THey need to be totally eradicated from the tank - not just managed.