I have dino ' s AGAIN

[xcountryx]

Well for the third time I have dinoflagelltes. Each time I've turned the lights out for 3 to 5 days. Tanks look great after this for a month or so. Then dinos just start coming back. I don't know what to do any more. I feel like I've tried everything. It's in both of my tanks but I've changed filters in the ro/di twice. I can't just tear these tanks down it wouldn't be possible unless I was done with the hobby. I just don't know any more. That may be my last resort

 

[xcountryx]

Well the lights are off and gona stay off for 5 days. In the process of finding a new water storage container. This crap has to be coming from the water source since it's in both of my tanks. I'm also dosing hydrogen peroxide 1 ml per 10 gallons in both tanks. Not sure what else to do at the moment. This realy sucks

 

[Zero Nitrates]

I have had the same thing in my tanks. I tried lights out. I tried hydrogen peroxide. And other techniques.
What seemed to work best was to cut my lighting period back to 8 hours a day and blowing off the rocks with a turkey before water changes. Be patient it takes time. Months not weeks.

 

[MattL22]

How long u had them I got them in my old tank struggled for months r u carbon dosing anything??

 

[mrcoffee2]

I cut back on doing my WC from weekly to 3 weeks... Honestly by the 2nd week a lot of the Dino's disappeared. Now I have Cyano...

 

[xcountryx]

I just started using gfo in a diy setup about a week ago. As far as carbon dosing I'm not dosing vodka or anything like that. I could but there are times when I'm not around to dose every day and still have not been able to.pick up a doser yet so I've tried to keep things simple on my tanks. I dose lugols weekly and that'd about it.

 

[xcountryx]

As far as blowing things off. I do this and it only seems to make it worse. Just spreading it more around the tank and on my coral. I'm hoping to get a hold of a bigger water storage container so I could do bigger water changes. Right now I'm doing 20 gallons on a 100 gallon tank. But I do 15 on my 30 gallon

 

[MattL22]

I asked because the carbon dosing has been assumed to fuel them!
I would get a sock and siphon water out of ur display through a filter sock into sump suck out every bit of it !
That won't work on the sand that u can suck out the top layer into a bucket rinse the sand and put back but don't re use that water!
Suck every little bit out then run fresh carbon and lights out for few days!
That's how I beat them but it took a while I found adding bacteria like special blen etc made it worse
Good luck

 

[gcrawford]

It takes patience, but I'm convinced that mine was caused by silicates in my sand. It took 9 months for the Dino's to remove the silicates. You can continue to put them in the dark, but they will return until the silicates are finally consumed. If your tanks are over 2 years old, this probably is not the issue - something else is fueling the blooms.

 

[Reefing Madness]

How I beat dinoflagellates, and the lessons I learned ? Advanced Aquarist | Aquarist Magazine and Blog

Not much help here for ya, other than whats been tried before. And I agree with above, that garbage will come back to the system, most of the time, after doing the lights out, thats why this is tough to get rid of, its gotta be done in conjunction with hydrogen peroxide dosing. . Wish you luck, and hope this is one of the success stories.

 

[SantaMonica]

This might help...

Nutrient Export

What do all algae (and cyano too) need to survive? Nutrients. What are nutrients? Ammonia/ammonium, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate and urea are the major ones. Which ones cause most of the algae in your tank? These same ones. Why can't you just remove these nutrients and eliminate all the algae in your tank? Because these nutrients are the result of the animals you keep.

So how do your animals "make" these nutrients? Well a large part the nutrients come from pee (urea). Pee is very high in urea and ammonia, and these are a favorite food of algae and some bacteria. This is why your glass will always need cleaning; because the pee hits the glass before anything else, and algae on the glass consume the ammonia and urea immediately (using photosynthesis) and grow more. In the ocean and lakes, phytoplankton consume the ammonia and urea in open water, and seaweed consume it in shallow areas, but in a tank you don't have enough space or water volume for this, and, your other filters or animals often remove or kill the phytoplankton or seaweed anyway. So, the nutrients stay in your tank.

Then the ammonia/ammonium hits your rocks, and the periphyton on them consumes more ammonia and urea. Periphyton is both algae and animals, and is the reason your rocks change color after a few weeks. Then the ammonia goes inside the rock, or hits your sand, and bacteria there convert it into nitrite and nitrate. However, the nutrients are still in your tank.

Also let's not forget phosphate, which comes from solid organic food particles. When these particles are eaten by microbes and clean up crew, the organic phosphorus in them is converted into phosphate. However, the nutrients are still in your tank.

So whenever you have algae "problems", you simply have not exported enough nutrients compared to how much you have been feeding (note: live rock can absorb phosphate for up to a year, making it seem like there was never a problem. Then, there is a problem).

So just increase your nutrient exports. You could also reduce feeding, and this has the same effect, but it's certainly not fun when you want to feed your animals

 

[xcountryx]

I am dosing the peroxide, lights have been out for 3 days. Tomarrow I'm gona pull the covers and blow everything off and let the filter socks grab all the crap. I will replace the cover for another 3 days. In my large tank I have crushed coral. In the 30 gallon I have black hawaiian sand. It could take a few days to remove and clean all the crushed coral but may not be a bad idea. The 30 though I was doing a deep sand bed and trying not to disturb it to much. Anyways I got a new water storage tank this one holds 50 gallons the old was 34. Also it says #4 ldpe or sumthing like that. The old was a #2 hdpe. So this is where I'm at at the moment. I will keep updating with the process. Thanks guys

 

[xcountryx]

I realy thank that my dinos came from my water storage trash can that I bought from mejers. There were a few times I would make water and it would sit for a few days in the can. A few times I found a brown ring around where the water line was after using the water. Once I caught it before and had to waste all the water. So hopefully I caught my issue and can move forward and have great tanks

 

[SantaMonica]

Should be no brown ring; that would be from organics floating to the top.

 

[xcountryx]

A little update. I pulled the cover from my tanks, blasted all the rock work and sand/crushed coral, and cleaned all the glass. I ended up having to scrap the back glass, this is where I've seen the dinos attached to first so that's completely cleaned now. I replaced the cover and will pull them again in another 3 days. Debating on doing the same thing blasting the rock work and covering for another few days. I just real don't want to have to deal with this issue again, it get to the point where it wears out the hobbiest I believe. So this is where I'm at today.

 

[SantaMonica]

Let the dino's stay for a while.

 

[xcountryx]

Why leave them?

 

[SantaMonica]

All algae absorb nutrients, so if the nutrients are held inside, they can't go elsewhere.

Dino's are the easiest/quickest to get rid of. If you leave them alone, more should not grow. You could vacuum them though.

 

[xcountryx]

The dinos just get worse, overtaking my corals and wrapping around them. Eventually will kill them. I don't think letting them just take the course would be good. My while tank would be dead in at least 2 weeks if not sooner

 

[scsdukefan408]

I use to never have them then moved in with the girlfriend before I got my own place and I had them no matter what I did or the rodi unit,but as soon as I moved into my new apt I haven't had em since same rodi unit and everything...