three day blackout
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Wrap the sides, but be sure to leave room on top for oxygen.
I'm not a big fan of 3 day black outs and most of the time it's an water chemistry issue, that's the root of the problem.
Good Luck!!!
I'm not a big fan of 3 day black outs and most of the time it's an water chemistry issue, that's the root of the problem.
Good Luck!!!
mcarroll
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A three day blackout isn't likely to hurt anything, but I'm not sure what it's likely to help either.
If I knew something about your tank and situation I could probably say more.
Details and pictures?
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jduong916
Well-Known Member
just have a little bit of dinos starting up, It on a few of my sps. Not a major outbreak but I want to stop it, at least for now, to give me time to figure out my next course of action. Never had this before, but I know if i dont do something I'm goin to lose a few sps.
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jduong916
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I guess I'll start from the beginning. My tank was doing pretty good, all the sps growing very nicely, but I had a severe case of vermetids. I couldnt get rid of them so i fragged everything and acid washed my rocks. After i put everything back together I had a nasty brown hair algae take over. I started dosing vibrant and the algae was removed quickly. After about three weeks dinos kicked in, not crazy but on a few sps. The threads have a lot of conflicting info on dinos. I chose to do a black out and see if they could be eliminated long enough for my macro to kick back in. I had a big fuge with a lot of chaeto, grape and feather calurp. The chaeto has diminished but alot of calurpa is left. By blacking out the display and the fuge im hoping the dino subsides for a bit and the macro can start growing like it used to.
One more thing that I left out. The dino started in my fuge. I saw the chaeto dying and pulled it out, stirring up the strings of dino, I think a bunch of pieces made its way to the display and now its in there.
Don't know if its cause my nutrients were too low. I dose 2 part daily and my parameters are fairly stable. When i test I normally get 0 nitrates and phosphates. I do 10percent water changes evry week. Thinking of stopping that. It's just that all the info i see is either your nutrients are too low or too high and the treatments are total opposites of each other, meaning your tank is too dirty or too clean pick what you want to do to change the direction of that. My inclination is my phosphate and nitrates are too low
Sorry no pictures now the tank is all wrapped up
One more thing that I left out. The dino started in my fuge. I saw the chaeto dying and pulled it out, stirring up the strings of dino, I think a bunch of pieces made its way to the display and now its in there.
Don't know if its cause my nutrients were too low. I dose 2 part daily and my parameters are fairly stable. When i test I normally get 0 nitrates and phosphates. I do 10percent water changes evry week. Thinking of stopping that. It's just that all the info i see is either your nutrients are too low or too high and the treatments are total opposites of each other, meaning your tank is too dirty or too clean pick what you want to do to change the direction of that. My inclination is my phosphate and nitrates are too low
Sorry no pictures now the tank is all wrapped up
mcarroll
10K Club member
I've got a thread for that: Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?
Focus on the first post before you wade into the rest of the thread. Ask questions as needed! 
(There are tests linked there that you can do on the algae itself to make sure it's dino's. You can also get an idea as to the causes.....GFO, carbon dosing, dead rock and zero nutrients are some of the biggest leading factors.)
Focus on the first post before you wade into the rest of the thread. Ask questions as needed!
(There are tests linked there that you can do on the algae itself to make sure it's dino's. You can also get an idea as to the causes.....GFO, carbon dosing, dead rock and zero nutrients are some of the biggest leading factors.)
mcarroll
10K Club member
Post #5 just popped up....get those N's and P's up asap....as long as your dino's really are dino's and they aren't too established, this could be all you need to do. Seachem, Brightwell and others make acceptable fertilizers to consider....DIY is also fine if you're comfortable with that.
Target ≥0.10 ppm for PO4 and ≥ 10 ppm NO3......and promise to read that first post to get the rest of the 411.
Target ≥0.10 ppm for PO4 and ≥ 10 ppm NO3......and promise to read that first post to get the rest of the 411.
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jduong916
Well-Known Member
Just a little update. Took off the bags and most of all the dinos are gone. Tested the water the day before and found i had zero nitrate, i mean abosolutely no color change on the test. Phosphate was at .07. Bumped up nirate to 6 ppm. Second day with the lights on and the dinos are on the pumps but not too bad. I manually removed pretty much all of it and it didn't come back like it used to. I blacked out my fuge as well. Today i checked and the dinos have really subsided in the fuge, again i removed what little i could. Hopefully itll stay this way and the macro will outcompete the dinos, Ill update when the dino is fully gone (fingers crossed). Two of my sps (smooth skin) still have it growing on them but it is much better, I blow it off and it stays off for a while
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jduong916
Well-Known Member
Last and hopefully final update. Dinos are 100% gone. None in the display or fuge. Macro has really taken off, the feather and grape calurpa is really flourishing. I definitely believe that low nitrate was the cause in my tank. I think the vibrant i used to remove some hair algae wipeout all of my nitrates and caused the dino out break. The blackout helped quite a bit and after i increased the nitrates i think i may have solved the problem for good.
