Uh-oh, Dinos.

asylumdown · #1 02-02-2013, 04:27 AM

So since the fish started going back in the tank, I've been feeding more (obviously). The tank hit a nice ULNS with the small amount I was feeding while it was fallow for 4 months, and the water, rocks, and glass we crystal clear. I've been monitoring N and P closely since the fish started going back in, and the levels have consistently stayed in the undetectable to trace range, but I was noticing a teeny tiny patch of what I thought was cyano in one corner.

over a week the patch kept getting bigger and bigger, and then I started noticing what I thought was a diatom bloom on my sand and on my rocks. The 'diatoms' and cyano also happened to coincide with a melt down of my RO membrane, so I assumed the water was getting an influx of garbage from Calgary tap water.

Cleaned, bleached, and fixed my RO unit, drained, cleaned, and refilled my RO reservoir, and did two back to back 50 gallon water changes over the course of two days, and the problem didn't improve. Not one to let something get out of hand, I turned off my skimmer and phosphate reactor, and dosed chemi-clean as per instructions yesterday. One teeny tiny little spot of cyano (not the big patch that caused the initial concern) died in a few hours, but today, oh man. The sand bed has almost disappeared under a carpet of brown, stringy, bubble entrapping goo, and the rocks look like snotty brown cobwebs have draped themselves all over everything. It's starting to look to me like I don't have cyano after all, and what I'm dealing with is in fact Dinoflagellates. A quick search online says that chemo-clean might actually make dinos worse.

I'm getting conflicting information on how to deal with this. Some accounts say total blackout for three days, lots of siphoning and water changes, activated carbon, phosphate media, and raised pH. Some say no water changes at all and to just let the bloom run it's course.

nutrient levels still test undetectable, and there's no other nuisance algae in the tank. What have you all done to beat this?

ETA: spelling and auto-correct fails

mseepman · #2 02-02-2013, 04:52 AM

Wow...dinos scare me as there doesn't seem to be any specific fix. My best understanding is that silicates can be a big contributor.

After fighting dinos for 6 months one our local reefers who was previously a TOTM threw in the towel on his reef.

I would go dark and do water changes together.

jostafew · #3 02-02-2013, 05:09 AM

Sorry, I feel your pain. I fought the dyno and won, but it was a long bloody war. Low nutrients, high nutrients, one thing after the other, nothing worked. The only remedy for me was total blackout, and I mean total. Complete blockage of light on all five sides of the tank, transparent plumbing, sump, everything. And not for three days, I'm talking 7-10 days. I did 10 days on my mixed reef with no casualties other than the dyno (and algae). Granted I did not have an advanced SPS reef, but I did have various inverts, LPS, a couple hardier SPS colonies, a couple softies.

If you're up for a read have a look at this thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1962886

The big blackout was the recomendation from my LFS and was ultimately what worked for me. Sucks for sure, but the dyno is a tough one to deal with. Good luck

asylumdown · #4 02-02-2013, 05:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jostafew

Sorry, I feel your pain. I fought the dyno and won, but it was a long bloody war. Low nutrients, high nutrients, one thing after the other, nothing worked. The only remedy for me was total blackout, and I mean total. Complete blockage of light on all five sides of the tank, transparent plumbing, sump, everything. And not for three days, I'm talking 7-10 days. I did 10 days on my mixed reef with no casualties other than the dyno (and algae). Granted I did not have an advanced SPS reef, but I did have various inverts, LPS, a couple hardier SPS colonies, a couple softies.

If you're up for a read have a look at this thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1962886

The big blackout was the recomendation from my LFS and was ultimately what worked for me. Sucks for sure, but the dyno is a tough one to deal with. Good luck

Did you dose peroxide?

asylumdown · #5 02-02-2013, 05:18 AM

I should add, I don't know if I could do a 10 day blackout. A couple Gs in SPS in there, I don't think they'd do well with 10 days no light

asylumdown · #6 02-02-2013, 05:59 AM

Just read through that entire reef central thread. I'm going to try a lights out period starting tomorrow and dose peroxide. I'm going away for 16 days next friday. good lord why do these things always have to happen when I'm not going to be here to stay on top of it?

asylumdown · #7 02-07-2013, 12:14 AM

Hmmm, i just noticed my doliatus rabbitfish going to town on this stuff. I'm starting to lean away from dinos

Xadieu · #8 02-07-2013, 12:26 AM

Don't know if anyone had said this but apparently Fauna Marin algae x says in their description that it removes dinoflagellates. Hope this helps

http://www.canadacorals.com/collecti...-ultra-algae-x

SpikeJones · #9 02-07-2013, 03:23 AM

i'm sad to say i'm effected too

asylumdown · #10 02-07-2013, 05:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xadieu

Don't know if anyone had said this but apparently Fauna Marin algae x says in their description that it removes dinoflagellates. Hope this helps

http://www.canadacorals.com/collecti...-ultra-algae-x

oooh, i didn't know you could get that in Canada directly. That's a good tool to have in one's bag of tricks. I'd use it as a last resort sort of thing if looking at it under a scope confirms that they are in fact dinos.