HELP battle with Dinoflagellate

[smh254]

I have a 40b with 20g sump/fuge. I have a SCA 301 skimmer, chato and mangrove in the sump. I use 1 mp10 and 2 jebao rw4 in DT. I dose 25ml alk and 30 ml ca a day using BRS 2 part. I have ATI dimmable 4 bulb fixture with tech Reefbrite. Tank parameters ca 430, alk 8, mg 1380, no3 3, po4 00, ph 8.1 night 8.3 day. So about 2 months ago I started to notice something I thought was cynao. Started to follow a thread started by @twillard about dosing h020 to fight the cynao. About 11 days ago I started dosing peroxide 5.5 ml every 12 hours. I sent a sample of sand to @twillard an he confirmed Dinoflagellate. Last Wednesday I started a black out. Here's what it looks like

Siphoned the Sand

Black out

Removed cardboard Saturday

Sunday there coming back[emoji30]

 

[CodyRVA]

Do another blackout. How long was your blackout? When you uncovered, did you turn your lights on 100%? When I did my blackout, i didn't do any water changes, no dosing, etc. After a 48 hour blackout, I ran only 2 actinic blue bulbs for 48 hours before ramping up to 100%. I actually saw a few spots coming back, so I repeated the process once more and that time it wiped them out entirely. How old is this system?

 

[smh254]

I did a 36 hour black out. Lights ramped up from 0% at 10am to 90% 3pm till 6pm then back 0% 10pm. My SPS didn't far well lost a lot of color.

 

[smh254]

Tank is 2 years old. I'm now only running blue+ bulbs now. I started dosing H202 1.1ml every 3.5 hours instead of twice a day.

 

[tomxreef]

I accidentally got rid of some in my biocube by accidentally putting peroxide into my ato reservoir. Killed all of my flat worms too. The majority of the coral survived except a few acros that weren't doing well. I obviously wouldn't recommend this though.

 

[smh254]

Dinos are only on the sand bead. I ordered new sand last night. Here is what I'm going to do next. Remove all old sand and replace with new. After replacing will go lights out for 2days.

 

[CodyRVA]

Dinos are only on the sand bead. I ordered new sand last night. Here is what I'm going to do next. Remove all old sand and replace with new. After replacing will go lights out for 2days.

Assuming you do have dinos, replacing the sand isn't really necessary and honestly it might not even work. I would try the blackout trick again, it absolutely works. Try removing as much manually as you can first, again... assuming you do indeed have dinos.

 

[smh254]

Definitely dinos

 

[twilliard]

Assuming you do have dinos, replacing the sand isn't really necessary and honestly it might not even work. I would try the blackout trick again, it absolutely works. Try removing as much manually as you can first, again... assuming you do indeed have dinos.

His samples were confirmed dinoflagellates (and if memory serves right spirulina )
Cool little guys under the scope!

 

[smh254]

Dinos and cynao

 

[twilliard]

Thanks! I do so many I forget

as for reference here is a shot today of diatoms. Note the size of the cell

 

[smh254]

Thanks! I do so many I forget

as for reference here is a shot today of diatoms. Note the size of the cell

I would like to pick up Microscope so I can look at these things. Could you give me any suggestions on something it's not crazy expensive couple hundred bucks maybe.

 

[smh254]

Maybe something like this

 

[arman]

I had the same problem and lost alot of my babies.
I did water changes frequently and black outs and after 3,4 months they got weak and i bought a blenny and he ate them completly.

 

[smh254]

Pic of frag before and after black out.

 

[smh254]

Pc rainbow took a big hit too

 

[Addicted2ACRO's]

I had the same problem and lost alot of my babies.
I did water changes frequently and black outs and after 3,4 months they got weak and i bought a blenny and he ate them completly.

What type of Blenny did you purchase?

 

[Wiz]

The original pic does not look like dinos. Looks like cyano. Dinos is much stringier and has air bubbles. Its my opinion that all or atleast most tanks contain dinos. Certain conditions make them explode causing issues. You do not seem to have that problem. The dinos I had after 5 day blackout grew back in an hour or less. They are crazy! My guess is your problem is cyano. the dinos I had also grew on everything! Not just sand. I would bet you have a nutrient or flow issue. Maybe pumps getting clogged and slowing down or excess food. Maybe even bulbs getting old depending on lighting. But you don't appear to have anything even close to the horror I suffered with dinos.

 

[smh254]

The original pic does not look like dinos. Looks like cyano. Dinos is much stringier and has air bubbles. Its my opinion that all or atleast most tanks contain dinos. Certain conditions make them explode causing issues. You do not seem to have that problem. The dinos I had after 5 day blackout grew back in an hour or less. They are crazy! My guess is your problem is cyano. the dinos I had also grew on everything! Not just sand. I would bet you have a nutrient or flow issue. Maybe pumps getting clogged and slowing down or excess food. Maybe even bulbs getting old depending on lighting. But you don't appear to have anything even close to the horror I suffered with dinos.

I'm siphoning out the Dinos every day so they don't grow everywhere.
Right after removing the cardboard from blackout.

1pm the next day

 

[smh254]

I sent @twilliard a sample. This is what he found.
Dinos and cyano

Dinos