anyone with a magic cure or answer?

[christyf5]

Here are some photos. I found the dinos grew best on top of other algaes.



And sometimes other algaes grew on top of it



Yeah I'm pretty good at growing algae I'd say. Thank goodness those days are over!!

[kwirky]

omg i think I had that in my 120g tank! THAT crap is what caused me to throw my arms up in frustration and get rid of my reef tank in July! I had zero nitrates, zero phosphates, reduced lighting period, hand removed. nothing worked.

It bubbled, it was like brown snot, and it multiplied like crazy no matter how much I removed. It was an endless battle. I thought it was a slime algae but now in retrospect I'm having second thoughts. Bubbled like crazy and was kinda stringy. I look at that photo and I'm sure it's EXACTLY what I had.

Grew all over the back and side glass (kept the front clean daily with a magnet cleaner). It grew on everything plastic too. Pumps, pipes. It loved pull-zip-ties. There would be 5" long strings of the stuff off zip ties. I'd remove it and they'd be there again 2 days later. I had to feverishly remove it from the plugs of my frags. I was afraid it would grow onto the coral.

Good luck dude. That stuff won the battle in my previous tank: I took it down

On another note though my liverock was kept in a pitch black rubbermaid bin for a few months and now there's NO pests left on my liverock. Most of the macroalgae that was getting out of control is gone too. If you take down your tank in frustration just store your rock for a few months n start a tank back up again

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by kwirky

It bubbled, it was like brown snot, and it multiplied like crazy no matter how much I removed. It was an endless battle. I thought it was a slime algae but now in retrospect I'm having second thoughts. Bubbled like crazy and was kinda stringy. I look at that photo and I'm sure it's EXACTLY what I had.

Based on this description alone, without question, you had dinoflagellates.

I nearly tore down the tanks I had it in too when I was fighting it. It's demoralizing.

[tang daddy]

Thanks for the pics christy I was just comparing it to what I thought I might have had awhile back but no bubbles on mine, it happened after I took fishes out of the reef and lasted about 2 months.

[kwirky]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Based on this description alone, without question, you had dinoflagellates.

I nearly tore down the tanks I had it in too when I was fighting it. It's demoralizing.

I think the problems I had can be largely attributed to buying livestock and rocks from people getting out of the hobby. I'm sure a fair portion of these people are getting out due to pests they were unable to control. Lesson learned I guess.

[christyf5]

Yeah I battled this stuff for a year. It would come in cycles, I'd turn the lights off etc. It would be gone for about 2 weeks or so. I'm pretty sure that my huge caulerpa field is what was feeding it. The dinos would appear, I'd do my no lights trick, they'd go. Then the caulerpa would grow like crazy so I'd rip it out then about a week later the dinos were back. I could calculate to the week when they'd appear. It was pretty bad. Eventually I powerwashed all the rock to get the caulerpa off but there was no stopping the dinos at that point. I think they got resistant to all the stuff I used to do to them. Eventually I ripped out my aragonite sandbed and replaced it with sugar sand. Sure enough about 4-6 weeks later the dinos were back. It wasn't until I totally shocked the system by taking the sandbed out completely that the dinos were finally gone for good. I do sort of freak out when I see bubbly algae in my tank but its usually the result of microbubbles sitting on something. Its like 'nam flashbacks for me

[Kryten]

I just started dosing with kalk, we'll see if that helps any. I suspect this may be what I have too.