Dinoflagellates

Dr. Tim, I have had an issue with Dino in my 150 gallon tall. The problem was really bad about six weeks ago. I was told to increase my alk, keep my PH at 8.3 and do a five day black out. I did that, as well as get on a regimen of alternating eco balance and waste away weekly after the black out. The Dino is creeping back slowly. I can see some of the dino starting again on the glass and sand. My dkh is higher than it should be at 13.27, and the PH is 8.3.

The rest of my parameters are; Ammonia 0, Calcium 448, Magnesium 1450, Nitrate .25, Nitrite 0, Phosphate 0.6, Strontium 4, Salinity 1.025 Temp 76.7. The test kits used are Salifert except for Nitrate Red Sea Pro, Phosphate, Calcium, Alk and PH are Hanna Checkers. I run a DIY LED fixture on an eight hour schedule, There is a sump / fuge with cheto set on an opposite photo period. As for stock I lost a couple of fish with the initial outbreak of dino so now I have a mated pair of yellow watchmans, a red scooter, cleaner wrasse, small royal gramma and a blue tang in a mixed reef setup. I skim fairly wet and do a 25 gallon water change approximately every 10 days. I feed rinsed frozen once a day. I run a dual reactor of GFO and carbon. I have some of your pearls and was thinking of buying a reactor and slowly starting pellets.

I really don't want to use a blackout every six weeks as a cure / band aid. What can I do to fix this problem? Any suggestions you can give me would be appreciated.

 

dino is super hard because it need very small amount of phos to survive it cause me to tear down my tank about a year back. pellets are supose to work really good you just have to do your research and have a strong skimmer. i hope you the best of luck

and why do you keep your tank so cold 76 do you have a chiller?

 

Hello - I have had people get rid of dino using my Re-Fresh product. I would try a treatment with that - you would 3 treatments each 2 days apart (so enough for 450 gallons - an 8 oz bottle). Do not use waste-away or eco-balance while on the re-fresh treatment. Turn your skimmer off for 4 to 6 hours are dosing the Re-Fresh. 48 hours after the last treatment dose with Waste-Away.

If you try this please update on your progress. Long term the Pearl might help your nitrate is pretty low compared to your phosphate so not sure.

Cheers

DrTim

 

oops sorry Drtim didnt realize it was on your form

 

newreef15 - no problem. Everyone can contribute if they have positive advice and points. I don't pretend to know everything so thanks for the post. A good skimmer is a must but one has to be careful about over-skimming in that this can remove the beneficial bacteria that are consuming the organics, nitrate and phosphate. Every tank is different so you just have to dial it in not try to be careful not to remove everything.

Cheers

 

Yea I have heard of that happeneing with solid carbon dosing you strip the tank and then you can create some major problems for yourself even though some companys have now came out with reactors that the pellet circulation and the water coming in and out of the reactor are complete seperate. This in turn controls the the bacteria better and helps to avoide this problem

 

Dr. Tim, Thanks I will get some ordered on Monday. Sorry, I meant to say the phosphates were .06 not .6.

 

I was told a long time a ago that because of the altitude, the water would have a higher dissolved oxygen at a slightly lower temp. If this is really true or not, I don't know. I have been running the tanks between 76 & 77 for some time without any ill effects. Nope, no chiller. The temp does get to about 78 in the summer.

 

I live in Castle Rock, CO (6600'). We keep ours right around 79 and haven't had any visible problems to date; tank is almost 1 year old. I don't have any scientific evidence one way or the other, but that's my experience.

 

I got the Re-Fresh this week and just added the first dose after a 25 gallon water change. Skimmer is off and I will restart it here in a few hours. Changed out the carbon and GFO.

We'll see how things look in a few days.