WheresTheReef February 7, 2015 Share February 7, 2015 I have a 2.5yr old 40g breeder mixed reef that has been infested with dinoflagellates. I have been battling this crap for around 6 months. During this time I have lost a clam and many of my SPS. Other SPS have been fragged down so much that it is killing me and I’m just tired. Frags start to heal, but the dinos spread onto the rock/frag plug and eventually irritate them again so they start to STN where it touches them. I also had a one-spot fox face (had him for 1.5 yrs) that refused to stop eating it and just recently died. I still have a few fish and quite a few corals SPS, LPS, and zoas that are still hanging in there. I tried many things including 72hr lights out every couple weeks, running carbon/GFO (though still ramping it up to recommended levels), manual removal and reduced lighting schedule. I recently just sucked out 99% of my sand bed over a few weeks, and bumped up weekly water changes from 10% to 25%. During water changes, I have been blowing off the holes in the rock with the turkey baster and crap still keeps coming out for me to siphon out. This has helped beat the dinos down quite a bit, but it’s still there. This has really made this hobby hard to be happy with, but I am ready to nuke the dinos and get things going again in the right direction. I’m considering to either 1) restart the tank or 2) go ahead and upgrade (e.g. 90g). The upgrade seems really attractive right now, but would also require buying more rock + equipment changes. For example, I don’t think my 32” IT2080 Evergrow light would cut it for a 4’ tank. I would try to trade it out for a couple 24” lights even though it is only ~1yr old. Would my return pump (EHEIM Compact+ 3000) be sufficient for a 90g tank? The pump will eventually be used to connect in my son's 20g long. My skimmer would need to be swapped out eventually (Reef Octopus 110 4” internal) as the stock increases. Another hard question is I would like to reuse my existing rock (after an acid wash). I would also like to keep the corals I have. The issue is how would I ensure that there are no dinos riding in with the coral? I don’t want to kill off my livestock and start over with it. Anyone have experience with doing this? Sorry for the long rant, just want to get things right again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wangspeed February 7, 2015 Share February 7, 2015 Hydrogen peroxide after lights out, when the dinos are in the water. 1ml for every 10 gallons. Worked for me in combination with a blackout. You'll need to continue the peroxide dosing for at least a week or two to knock it down and at even the slightest sign, I would get back on the dosing schedule. The only downside I noticed is that it temporarily makes zoas close and my magician palys are beautifully bleached out. No ill effects on my sps. -- Warren Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WheresTheReef February 7, 2015 Author Share February 7, 2015 Hydrogen peroxide after lights out, when the dinos are in the water. 1ml for every 10 gallons. Worked for me in combination with a blackout. You'll need to continue the peroxide dosing for at least a week or two to knock it down and at even the slightest sign, I would get back on the dosing schedule. The only downside I noticed is that it temporarily makes zoas close and my magician palys are beautifully bleached out. No ill effects on my sps. -- Warren I saw people dosing H2O2 but didn't look into it much since it kinda worried me. I guess I'm at a point that I could try it. Lots of research to do first though. Did you start dosing during the black out? Where did you dose it? How long did it take for you to notice a difference? Thanks Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wangspeed February 8, 2015 Share February 8, 2015 During a blackout is most effective since they will be free floating. You could just try dosing at night without yet another blackout. I've even dosed twice a day. My preference is into my overflow, but I run a ton of flow through my sump. If you have a low flow sump, just dose it in front of a pump at night or in the morning before the lights turn on. -- Warren Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zygote2k February 8, 2015 Share February 8, 2015 40g is small-start over Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keraxis February 8, 2015 Share February 8, 2015 I have heard raising ph. 8.8ish will help kill them off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JR-Tanked150 February 8, 2015 Share February 8, 2015 Try not to do water changes. We did the blackout a couple of times and the no water change for a month and that seemed to help us. Also it was a 40 breeder tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WheresTheReef February 8, 2015 Author Share February 8, 2015 Thanks for the advice so far. I would like to get this fixed asap, then push towards an upgrade. I don't want to start over with regards to my current livestock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rtelles February 9, 2015 Share February 9, 2015 Had the same issue with my 40B this Summer. Nearly removed the livestock and started over but the following worked for me: Suck out every dino you can see, especially the large ones (I used a simple turkey baster and methodically went from one side of the tank to the other. It took a long time.) Vacuum the sand. Replace only the water you basted out. Do a 72 hour lights out period, and cover the tank completely so that no ambient light gets in whatsoever (your fish will not be happy, but they'll survive. I still fed mine, but not much, since I knew I wouldn't be changing the water for a bit). When you light the tank up again, suck out every dino you can see. No water changes for a bit. Lower your light intensity to as low as you're comfortable with, and then a tiny bit lower. Repeat the lights out period every two/three weeks and slowly increase the light intensity between treatments, but only if you have a noticeable decrease in dinos each time. Your corals will not be happy, but unless they're super sensitive will probably be fine (not sure about SPS, though). I lost a few small frags, but my colonies were okay. Also, if the dinos are heavily infesting a certain area of the rock or sand, cover it with something that won't allow the light to get through. The dinos underneath will die relatively quickly. Don't increase your CUC - they'll just die from eating the dinos and further foul up your tank. I'm not sure about dosing or any of the other stuff since I never tried it. You may go through a few days without dinos after each blackout and you'll be tempted to blast the light again to keep your corals happy, but you'll quickly be at square one again if you're not patient. This was only my experience, and I'm sure there are other successful methods. I haven't seen any dinos in 3-4 months, though I've been doing a 3 day blackout period (without covering the tank) every month since as regular maintenance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neto February 9, 2015 Share February 9, 2015 It depends on the Dyno.. I am battleing them ass well, so far two 4 day light out with Peroxide and no luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wangspeed February 9, 2015 Share February 9, 2015 It depends on the Dyno.. I am battleing them ass well, so far two 4 day light out with Peroxide and no luck. Make sure it is dino and not cyano. Dinos appear all over the place and become snotty mess by the end of the lighting period and tend to disappear overnight. I'm months out from my battle with them and have not seen them reappear. Honestly you could dose peroxide twice a day for weeks and probably not hurt your corals. I did. -- Warren Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neto February 9, 2015 Share February 9, 2015 Make sure it is dino and not cyano. Dinos appear all over the place and become snotty mess by the end of the lighting period and tend to disappear overnight. I'm months out from my battle with them and have not seen them reappear. Honestly you could dose peroxide twice a day for weeks and probably not hurt your corals. I did. -- Warren Yes im positive its dynos, maybe its the hydrogen peroxide that its old. I may try again Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WheresTheReef February 9, 2015 Author Share February 9, 2015 I've looked up the use of h2o2 and some people have success and others claim not to. I came across a few posts that said no affects using old h2o2 but saw progress with a new bottle. I just bought a new bottle and will start dosing on Friday so I have a long weekend to monitor the tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bmax February 10, 2015 Share February 10, 2015 I'm going through the same battle right now with my new180. I don't even have any corals in it yet-just fish, CUC and a RBTA. I'm 24 hours into a 72 hour black out. I started dosing waste away (two 1/2 doses so far, as not to overdose) for the first time a couple days ago to see if the bacteria would begin to out compete the dino (not sure if it will work). I was thinking about going the h2o2 route but wasn't sure how the RBTA would react. Put food in the tank but didn't see any fish come out to eat, they're all hiding. Never fed fish in the dark, not sure what to expect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WheresTheReef February 10, 2015 Author Share February 10, 2015 It's definitely been tough and I'm only dealing with it in a 40g. Let us know how the bacteria goes. My fish never eat when I do a lights out so I don't even try. They will be OK. Besides it's good to limit food for the dinos during a lights out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott711 February 10, 2015 Share February 10, 2015 how much flow do you have? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bmax February 10, 2015 Share February 10, 2015 Not sure if the flow question was for me but I have a Gyre 150 and Jebao 12000 return on my tank. I will definitely keep you posted. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WheresTheReef February 10, 2015 Author Share February 10, 2015 how much flow do you have? 3x koralia 425 + return pump. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taiscici February 10, 2015 Share February 10, 2015 I just got rid of all the dyno and redslime in my tank. Took me about a month to beat it, and now it's been 1 week with no sign of them coming back. First I used chemiclean and then 30% water change. Dyno and redslime are 70% gone at this point but they still growing because of high phosphate and nitrate. I added kz zeozym (this stuff neutralize bacteria and help skimmer export more waste) daily for about 1 week. In this time I also dose vinegar and used lanthanum chloride to remove phosphate. My tank is now all clear. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zygote2k February 10, 2015 Share February 10, 2015 I just got rid of all the dyno and redslime in my tank. Took me about a month to beat it, and now it's been 1 week with no sign of them coming back. First I used chemiclean and then 30% water change. Dyno and redslime are 70% gone at this point but they still growing because of high phosphate and nitrate. I added kz zeozym (this stuff neutralize bacteria and help skimmer export more waste) daily for about 1 week. In this time I also dose vinegar and used lanthanum chloride to remove phosphate. My tank is now all clear. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk with so many variables, how can you tell what worked? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taiscici February 11, 2015 Share February 11, 2015 I didn't do all the treatments at once. I observed and tested the water after each treatment before starting a new one. Also each treatment I listed above served different purpose. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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