Keys to beating dinoflagellates

[yoboyjdizz]

any before and after pictures?

[MegaDeTH]

I've got no before pictures, was not too into taking pictures of dino everywhere

once it's done clearing I'll take after

not much to speak off, it's been FOLR for 5 years, just a few frags in it now

[tmz]

Several months ago I was dosing vodka as a carbon source. My xenia also waned. Perhaps it's bercause they rely on absorbtion for much of their nutrient or just coincidence.

[Justin James]

Well before I try this sugar thing is there any bad things that could happen because of the sugar? I'm willing to try almost anything.

[MegaDeTH]

before you dose any sugar make sure you understand exactly what it does

there's a few threads on here about it

[HPD Turbo]

can someone shere a pic?

[MegaDeTH]

few pictures of the tank here

no dino so far, i'm only feeding flake lightly for another week just in case

http://freddy.geekopolis.com/gallery2/main.php/v/2007/

[MegaDeTH]

my nano is now 100 % dino free

the cloud took an extra day to clear, and I had a wierd film all over the glass I had to scrape off, it was grey & slimy, but it came off in a sheet that was tough enough to pick right out, really weird stuff

but the dino is gone!

[Justin James]

Did you run carbon while dosing the sugar? Also did you have a high ph while dosing the sugar?

[MegaDeTH]

I run carbon 24/7 all the time, I dont trust my kids


no idea what the ph was, I've grown tired of replacing ph probes or caring what it is anymore

[crackers]

I had the same problem in the past and just raising the ph worked for me my ph was like 8.0 and by raising it to 8.2 or .3 they all cleared up. I know i'm late chiming in but it may help someone.

[Justin James]

I'm on day 1 of the sugar treatment. I added 5 heaping teaspoons to my 150 with a 75 gallon sump last night and thisevening i've added another 4. When I woke up thismorning after the first dosing of sugar the night before the tank was starting to cloud. Now this evening the tank is very cloudy but still no difference in the dino's. The corals are still open but the anemone looks crapy.

[Zoom]

Originally posted by Justin James
I'm on day 1 of the sugar treatment. I added 5 heaping teaspoons to my 150 with a 75 gallon sump last night and thisevening i've added another 4. When I woke up thismorning after the first dosing of sugar the night before the tank was starting to cloud. Now this evening the tank is very cloudy but still no difference in the dino's. The corals are still open but the anemone looks crapy.

Any update on this sugar dosing to kill Dinos?

[jnarowe]

Hasn't worked for me. I thought it was, but over time, I am still battling it. I am going to the lights out method.

[Zoom]

Originally posted by jnarowe
Hasn't worked for me. I thought it was, but over time, I am still battling it. I am going to the lights out method.

I cut mine dinos down to manageable rate buy switching to all 20K bulbs.
I got 4LB of GFO and i will start to run a GFO full time.
I don't know what else to do .

[jnarowe]

I only run 1000W 20K lamps.

[law086]

Any updates on the sugar method? This stuff is kicking my butt too.

[jnarowe]

I really cannot point to one thing in particular that helped, but I did get over them and with minimal total coral losses, although some I just have frags of and I did lose a few whole colonies.

What I did was the following:

1. Lots of water changes;
2. Blowing it off the rocks;
3. lowered the lighting period;
4. Started dosing sugar;
5. Lights out for 3 days;
6. Stopped water changes;
7. Stopped sugar dosing;
8. Tank recovered.

I think that's the right chronological order and it took about 2+ months, maybe 3. I continue to have a 1 hour "nap" in the middle of my light cycle.

As far as the sugar dosing goes, it seemed to help initially but the dinos would come back, and then I got the strange idea that I really had no understanding of dinos and that I could be feeding THEM with the sugar. I mean, how do we know that's not the case?

Anyway, the most interesting thing I found on this journey was that water changes could actually help the dinos grow more by providing them with replenishment certain elements they need to thrive like silicate.

[GoldeneyeRet]

I fought dinos for about four years. they are not fun, to say the least

During this time I tried increasing water changes and not changing water. Dinos thrived.

I looked at everything. The tank was moved in the middle of this battle at which time all of the oldest rock was replaced and most of the newer stuff (maybe two years old at the most)was "cooked". The tank was completely cleaned and re-cycled yet still, the dinos returned.

During the move DSB was replaced with a SSB. Still the Dinos remained.

I removed all fish and did not feed the tank anything for over a year. Dinos persisted.

I completely redid my source water system and had it analyzed to death. The dinos persisted.

I completely changed lighting, flow and sump setups several times, but the Dinos were unrelentless.

I added a remote sand bed, excessive LR and the dinos flourished.

I ran carbon, GFO, cheato, elavated pH and everything else I have ever heard of to try--except the sugar. Then Dinos did not wither.

I strongly believe that my problem was not fueled by excess nutrients as you would expect, as I did everything possible to eliminate them. I did not have a detectable nutrient level such as nitrate, silica, phos even once during the four year battle. I have used every test kit, lab and method of measuring to attempt to pinpoint a cause. I have access to University laboratories and they have confirmed time and time again that these levels are undetectable by aquarium standards.

In the end I believe the key factors in beating dinos were fixing a chronically low MG level and repeated lights out periods.

I have been dino free for over a year now. I run two and a half days a month with lights out and I keep my MG level at around 1500. Those things, coupled with the other methods I still have in place such as GFO (I cant grow cheato at all), pH 8.4-8.5 lots of carbon, excessive source water purification and rigorous husbandry standards seem to be keeping the dinos from making a comeback.

In my reefkeeping years I have fought every battle there is, but there is nothing that compares to the wrath of dinos!

God I hate them.

[uhuru]

Originally posted by MegaDeTH
just got home, the cloud is almost gone, no dino's in sight, it worked perfectly

steps that I used

aggressive carbon/phosphate remover used in magnum 350 & small duetto for entire outbreak, the past 2 months up to and including right now

3 weeks of aggressive water changes (40 %), no impact
kalk reactor added, online with no other changes for 2 weeks, 1 more water change, no impact

1 week passes with no improvement

attempt sugar treatment to out compete dino's for nutrients

day 1 3 tablespoons table sugar
day 2 3 tablespoons again, water starting to cloud
day 3 3 tablespoons again water getting more cloudy, skimmer starting to go crazy
day 4 no sugar, really really cloudy, skimmer crazy
day 5 no sugar, really really really cloudy, skimmer crazy
day 6 today, cloud is almost completely gone, skimmer has settled down

not a single spec of dino in the tank right now, it seems to have worked, I'll post here again in another week if it looks good

the corals were all fine for the duration, the dino's did **** off everything, stuff would not open up much at all.

Last couple days everything has been opening more, today everything but the xenia looks wonderful, the xenia looks bad, really bad


I've kept tanks sense 95, I've never tried sugar but I've never had any algae problems other than byropsis

I really did not expect sugar to work, I am pretty shocked right now, my wife is as confused as ever

I also beat dinos by increasing my bacteria population. I battled dinos in a BB SPS nano for several months to the point of almost taking everything down and starting from scratch. I seriously had nightmares about the stuff. As a last ditch effort I converted to a zeovit system and within 7 weeks the dinos were gone and never came back despite increased feedings and photoperiod (fingers crossed). I believe the system not only worked because of increased bacteria but also because it took my skimmers performance up another notch.

[Zoom]

I'm on my second year Fighting dinos .
I did all GoldeneyeRet did but the dinos never die .
I never had any MG problems i always keep mine at 1450 .
Yes the only thing helps is Lights out but i had all SPS but now the tank is mix reef and i think i will start with more aggressive light out period .
I will not give up ever i will kill them one day even if i have to fight them for ten years.

[nismo driver]

i have been battling these things for close to four months now. at one pioint about a month ago they had cleared up to a very managable level for a few weeks but i had to catch a fish out of the tank and stirred the whole thing up and they came back twice as bad..

the whole time i have been not doing water changes or adding any thing other then two part and kalk. running GFO and Carbon 24/7. three days lights out periods every week with shortened light period on the on days. reduced feedings. rearranged and doubled flow.

this past week i switched from running cheap gfo like phos-ban or pura-phos to rowa phos and with in a day observed about half as much dino stringing and film with the lights on then i had the previous days with the lights off..

[Zoom]

I try every type of GFO is out there i saw nothing difference.
You may just had one of the slow dinos grow periods.

[nismo driver]

zoom your killing my optomisim..

[jnarowe]

My mg is always about 1450 so even though I did boost it a little bit, I don't think that helped. I did forget to mention that I had raised the pH. I allowed the pH to get as high as 8.50 and swing between 8.30 and 8.50.

As an aside, I believe this may have upset my clams. I haven't done enough research to determine if that is the case, but I am suspicious about it. At any rate, I am slowly bringing the pH back down, so we shall see if the dinos return. If they do, that may give us a bit more data regarding pH.

Glad you guys are posting as this can be a nightmare. Judging by many posts, it looks like my 2.5 month battle was actually short!