Is this Dino's? - Page 3

Werbo · #21 05-21-2010, 09:55 PM

Anybody have success stories with dino's.

Zoaelite · #22 05-21-2010, 10:17 PM

I'm a little baffled, sounds like we have covered all of the bases. There are no excess nutrients in the water column so you should have no algae growth. I would say that your liverock is leaching something back into your tank but your tests are showing nothing. Your flow is perfect, your lights are good, your not over feeding and your running the correct filters.

Interesting... Any odd additives you are using that might result in it?

Werbo · #23 05-21-2010, 11:22 PM

After the initial dino outbreak (4 months ago) I began the n/p pellets. I've had the n/p pellets running for 2+ months now. 6 weeks ago I began Brightwell Aquatics Microbacter 7 (MB7). Nothing has slowed down the dinos.

Nothing would be leaching from live rock as it is thourghly cooked. I had no algae or nitrate/phosphate issues in the first 8-10 months the tank was in operation.

Werbo · #24 05-21-2010, 11:25 PM

Anyone know of a product specifically designed to remove silicates from a reef tank? I bought ROWA-PHOS today as it is suppost ro remove both phospahtes and silicates.

Anyone know of something better for just silicates?

christyf5 · #25 05-21-2010, 11:32 PM

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.

Werbo · #26 05-21-2010, 11:45 PM

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.

Zoaelite · #27 05-22-2010, 12:02 AM

Don't quit, then the Dino's win

. Like Christy posted they have to be one of the most irritating ordeals you can go through in a reef tank, I would take her advice and eliminate the sand bed.

christyf5 · #28 05-22-2010, 12:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tyler Werbowski

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.

Do you have someone that can take your corals for a bit? After removing the sandbed and restarting the tank (if that is the route you choose to go) there is hardly a cycle. I found even with powerwashing my rock I didn't have a cycle at all, at least not a noticeable one. I would say you'd only need maybe a week or two before you could put the corals back.

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.

Werbo · #29 05-22-2010, 12:09 AM

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.

christyf5 · #30 05-22-2010, 12:21 AM

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.