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#1
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![]() Dinos are one of the biggest pain in the butt algaes to deal with, sometimes all the "tried and true" things that people do work for some but not for others. I know I tried everything people told me to: high pH, high alk, low alk, adding a refugium, increasing skimming, decreasing photoperiod, blacked out tank for 2 days, blacked out tank for 4 days (this just succeeded in killing most of the corals, SPS anyways), increasing magnesium, replacing the sandbed...the list went on and on.
I dunno what to tell you, sometimes its good to keep trying but other times, well, you just need to see the writing on the wall and tear the tank down and start over. I fought dinoflagellates for a year before I clued in that nothing I did was going to kill them. As a last ditch effort before I left the hobby I removed the sandbed altogether and powerwashed rock. I haven't seen the dinos since. Sadly, that is my "success" story.
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#2
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![]() Christy - Thanks. Your pretty experience in this hobby as you have had many battles with many pests as I remember from your TOTM article. After 4 months I am beginning to feel like throwing in the towel. If i didn't have $800-$1000 in sps frags I'd give up but I'm not quite ready to give up yet. I may start doing more frequent syphoning and daily basting of the rocks.
At this point I am not seeing any progress. |
#3
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![]() Don't quit, then the Dino's win
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#4
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![]() At this point I would be worried about spreading the dinos to the temporary tank. I remove all corals from the plugs and expoxy them directly on live rock so it is not easy to remove the corals. I've actually been considering that but the way the corals are encrusted it would not work very well.
I don't think it is the sandbed as I have syphoned it monthly. Last edited by Werbo; 05-22-2010 at 12:31 AM. |
#5
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![]() I didn't think the sandbed was the problem either, I only removed it as I was at my wits end and it was suggested first that I change from a "coarse" sandbed to a "sugar" sandbed. When this didn't solve the problem and it was suggested that I remove the sandbed altogether as that seemed to be the "fad" at the time, or at least the topic of major controversy (no sandbed, my god! what are they thinking?). At this point I had tried everything else, all my corals were dead and I was ready to chuck the whole thing, I had nothing to lose so I went for it.
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Christy's Reef Blog My 180 Build Every electronic component is shipped with smoke stored deep inside.... only a real genius can find a way to set it free. |
#6
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![]() Something is feeding the dino's. Maybe it isn't silicates. Maybe it is (as Rob thinks). Silicate reading and TDS today was very low for my RO. Same with my display tank.
Hospital tank is something I have been considering. At this point some sps are in pretty bad shape. This is due to the extended blackouts and shorter photoperiod. Many corals are browning out. Most sps are still doing fine. I have 3 sps that are slowly fading to white with color only on the tips (base is bleached). This began before the dino outbreak probably due to such low phosphates/nirates. |
#7
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![]() What type of fish do you have and what sort of feeding regime are we talking about?
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#8
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![]() 120G tank
3 young tangs, 3 wrasses and 2 small percs. Spectrum pellets daily (small pinch), nori 3-4 times per week and frozen food 2x week (1/2 a cube). Definetely not overfeeding - if anything I'm under feeding. |
#9
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![]() Quote:
FYI its my understanding that dinoflagellates don't use silicate, only diatoms do so silicates shouldn't be a problem in your tank and if you did have high silicates you would see diatoms flourishing everywhere.
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Christy's Reef Blog My 180 Build Every electronic component is shipped with smoke stored deep inside.... only a real genius can find a way to set it free. |