Problem with the dreaded Dinoflagellates. Advice?

[Krismgm]

So I'm still relatively new here and to any forums really so don't shoot me if this topic has been broached before. 

 

Currently I have a 36g corner tank (Detailed in a former post) and I have been battling dinoflagellates for months and months now. It all started with a failed experiment with organic carbon dosing (sugar) which through lack of patience turned into over dosing, then great results, and then disaster in the turn of brown slime everywhere and cloudy as all H-E-double hockey sticks water. This eventually cleared up (relatively quickly) on its own by halting all attempts at carbon dosing. And then they came. Legions of little brown hair like slime popping up all over the rock and glass. Hundreds of bubbly soldiers of doom and misfortune wherever the light fell marching upon my tank leaving only despair in its wake and a constant reminder of what impatience gets you in this hobby. But seriously, it's darn annoying. I keep it relatively under control through periodic periods of lights out, and black outs, and water changes and everything else I can find online, but nothing stops it from coming back. Sometimes it helps for weeks, others for days. but when the lights get turned back on and ratcheted up in power they appear everywhere. Strands covered in little bubbles over my rock, glass, and corals. Closer to the lights the more I see, and I'm at a loss of what to do.

 

Some people say keep your nutrients all the way down so they can't feed. (mine are pretty low, currently 0.02 NO3, and phosphates undetectable with API), others say you actually have to get your nutrients up high because the over feeding causes them to die out through morbid gluttony. 

 

Currently I'm just pretty much ignoring them and just periodically blowing them off of everything with a kent feeder thing whenever I walk by the tank. The first time they popped up my tank mates seemed bothered by them, but once i got rid of them and they came back again nothing seemed to care. My corals open as brilliantly as ever and my fish eat all day every day. Not once has anything, even a snail, died from em. 

 

The reason I post this now is that I'm soon going to be upgrading my 36 corner to a 90g reef ready cube. I'm at a complete loss over whether or not I should just call it a loss and start the new tank over brand new everything, or move my current rock into the new tank an potentially bring the dinos in with it. The plan if i bring the rock will be to do at least a 1 week lights out period and good scrubbing before and after of the rock to get any off. This obviously has some risk associated with it. The trouble with starting new is not financial but aging. I loose all age associated with the rock that I have, which means my tank's cycles start all over in which case I'm adding all my fish and corals in way too soon to a brand new tank. Corals and fish that I have no intention of getting rid of while my tank cycles through the various first stages. (I'm referring to how people say you have to wait at least 6 months before you add corals to the tank, give or take, as the tank has to complete several cycles before it's stable enough to add corals.  

 

So if you're still with me, I'm wondering if you have any ideas or knowledge in how to beat this stuff. It's easy to get it to go away, but not come back is the hard part. Even articles I've read where people are saying how they've beaten it often come back with updates like "Well, it came back". The forces of good must prevail, I will not so readily except defeat!

 

If you read this whole thing, good for you. You have patience like few who have come before you.

[wangspeed]

I had a minor Dino issue and got rid of them by doing a 3 day TOTAL blackout, including sump and dosing hydrogen peroxide for a few weeks.

 

 

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[DCReefer1964]

I had a minor Dino issue and got rid of them by doing a 3 day TOTAL blackout, including sump and dosing hydrogen peroxide for a few weeks.

 

 

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+1

[Coral Hind]

I had a minor Dino issue and got rid of them by doing a 3 day TOTAL blackout, including sump and dosing hydrogen peroxide for a few weeks.

Can you explain in detail how you dosed the H2O2?

[Krismgm]

Can you explain in detail how you dosed the H2O2?

I agree. I've been scared to do this. I'm concerned it will kill off a lot of my beneficial bacteria too. Also, how long has it been since. No sign of it coming back yet? 

[wangspeed]

Sorry, didn't see the replies. I have been Dino free for months now. There are great threads about H2O2 dosing elsewhere, but basically dose 1ml for every 10 gallons each day. I dosed it into my overflow.

 

 

--

Warren

[zygote2k]

36g is small enought to take everything out and scrub. Prolly a ton of excess nutrient that will come out with a quick teardown and rebuild. Should only take a few hours. Finish the 36, and in the meantime, set up the 90 and do the slow but correct 90-120 day cycle.

Edited November 1, 2014 by zygote2k