dino's

[whiteice669]

I have removed the entire sand bed, all corals that have died have been removed, doing water changes seem to feed it, but have done 25% 2-3 times a week, all levels appear normal with sailifert test kits

[kien]

I didn't see any mention of a UV Sterilizer.. would that not at least help ?

[whiteice669]

I have thought about one, not sure if it would help or not

[kien]

It should at least help reduce the spread of it, as it should kill the free floating spores that get pulled into the sterilizer. Meanwhile, the rest may die off with the other methods you're employing. Something like this requires a multipronged attack I think.

A UV sterilizer will help kill and control anything that is suspended in the water column. I think if you are do that many water changes in a week then you may be stuck in a constant tank cycle.
What do you have in the tank right now?
What size is the tank again?
Do you have Po4 test kit?
Do you have a Kh, Mg, Ca and copper test kits?
I consider these the basic test for a reef along with Ph, salinity, amonnia, nitrite and nitrate.
So there are 10 basic test you need to do and find out where those peramiters are to start to figure out anything.
You could test for about 100 different things but IMO these are a must.
Can you get these peramiters for us?
and slow down on the water changes you may be going more harm than good doing that many all the time. If you don't have the test right now most LFS can do them for you and get the number from them for each test. Lets get down to the bottom of this.
there is a forum in the US if you want help you have to get these parameters before anyone will help it is a known thing on that board I guess.
Your corals could be doing badly for more than one reason too many water changes they don't like to be disturbed to much or have things change to dramatical all the time.
25% water changes 2-3 time a week could be a contributing factor to corals closing up and dieing. I don't know at this point need parameters.

Bill

[christyf5]

My final kick at the cat when I had this issue was removal of the sandbed, powerwashing the rock and pretty much a complete start over. You may have to cook the rocks if they're releasing the nutrients that are fueling the dinos. For me it was the sandbed (even though it was new it had tons of detritus build up on it that looked like grey dust). After the sandbed removal and rock powerwash I was good to go and haven't had a problem since (I had a horrible cycle with caulerpa though, dinos would subside, caulerpa would grow, I'd yard out the caulerpa and then the dinos would flourish on whatever the caulerpa released during the pruning).

Sorry you're still having a time with this, dinos have sent many a reefer running screaming from the hobby.

[Werbo]

I am battling dino's currently as well. This has been going on over 2 months. I am making progress via running a high PH dripping kalk. I'd stop doing water changes and replace all your filters on your RO unit (to reduce silicates). Once dino's subside via high PH then re-try a period of darkness.

If I ever have a problem I consult reefkeeping. Here is an interesting read regarding dino's.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-11/rhf/index.php

Here is a nice summary with a picture as well. The picture is exactly what I am battling.

http://www.rimlessreef.com/1/post/20...eament-of.html

The main things to do are:

-Period of darkness for 48-72 hours
-Raise the Ph with kalk to 8.4-8.5
-Add good bacteria to out compete the bad (Microbacter 7/Biodigest)
-Run a Po4 remover such as GFO
-DO NOT conduct any water changes!!!
-Siphon out what you can
-Running a 100 micron filter will aid in capturing any free floating Dino's

[staceyd72]

Hi,

I battled dinoflagellates for four months. My tank is running on the full Zeovit method for about 16 months now, I was in my eight month when it started. I only dosed Start2 and Bak (both reduced by 50%), everything else I stopped. But I assume you are not dosing any Zeo products now?
- No water changes.
- Drip Kalk to maintain pH of 8.5
- Run filter socks(25 micron) on all drains- changed daily
- Carbon (passive) and GFO (low flow)
- One day of darkness every three days, lighting schedule was also reduced to only two hours of full light, supplement eight hours.

In 28 days it was all gone. I can't say for sure what exactly was the contributing factor in the eradication, but I think all of this helped.
I personally would not bother with a clean up crew, snails anyway, as dinoflagellate is poisonous to them. Wait till the dinoflagellates has fully gone then add a new CUC.

Hang in there, it just takes a lot of patience.