Any SPS keepers battle dinos and win?

[TCU Reefer]

My 215g tank has been set up for a little over a year and has never experienced dinoflagellates until recently. Nitrates are around 15ppm (trying to bring this down), PO4 around .5 ppm (running a PO4 reactor). I feed every two days and my photoperiod is only 6 hours long. The bulbs are all under a year old, I do 40g water change every two weeks.

Recently, I've been shutting down the lights for a couple days and it disappears...temporarily. I find that it comes back within days so my tank ends up getting more darkness than light during a week's time. I hate doing this because I want my SPS to have a steady and full photoperiod.

For flow, I've got a CL system with a Dart and an OM 4way, a Wavebox, VorTech and 2 modded MJ 1200's but this stuff still finds spots to grow on.

I try to siphon out as much as I can but my tank is ian inwall with no front access so getting to the bottom/middle of the tank is almost impossible.

Strictly using RO/DI. Just changed the filters and TDS is 0.

I'm frustrated guys. Any words of encouragement?

Thanks.

[rynon]

Keep your alk and Ph high.....not answering your question but this should help. A kalk reactor would help a lot with keeping your Ph up. I work at a LFS and that's what finally took care of the problem...major siphoning helped too.

[rynon]

And I brought my nitrates down from 15 to 0 in a few months STRICTLY using a DSB. I have decreased my water changes from 22 gallons per week to 30 gallons per month......all corals look MUCH better, more color. The DSB takes a while to work but once it does it really takes care of nitrates FAST. Once I noticed a decrease it took 3 weeks.

[rynon]

Shoot sorry, a remote DSB, in case of problems.

[TCU Reefer]

Forgot to add that this is a BB system. I'm not running a fuge right now but I'm going to get it running for extra nutrient export.

Alk - 9.5
Ca - 475
Mg - 1450
pH 8.1 day, 7.9 night

I top off with kalk from my osmolator but I can only raise pH so high.

I have a small fish closet and there is very little space. There's just enought space for me to squeeze in there and do maintenance. I can't think of anywhere I could put a RDSB. Wish I had more room.

[dvmsn]

I had to kill my lights for several days to get a leg up, along with tons of siphoning and water changes.

[pfish]

Turn light out for three days. Then bring them on slowly over three days. Cut back on feeding, at least 50%.
Worked for me.

[Serioussnaps]

You can do all the stuff you already know about and it works. The one thing people don't understand is the time and patience it takes to eliminate them.

this is anectdotal, but I elevated my alk slightly away from NSW to 9, raised mag to 1500 and kept PH high by 24/7 kalk drip and kept my BB spotless by WC's and just siphoning multiple times weekly through a 50 micron filter sock and then dumping the water back in the sump

Removing carbon, running ozone, constant GFO and less feeding helped also.

Really it just took time. Mine happened after a tank breakdown and move, but the use of the same rock. PITA it is. Stick with it.

[Serioussnaps]

Sugar dosing to provide a C source for bacteria is another notch on your battle belt as well.

[jwre]

What about a skimmer upgrade ?


Tried everything and nothing worked. I changed my skimmer ( Bubble King to KZ revolution ) and they all disappeared.

[redbug1]

I had the same problem for weeeks on end but i tried an Organics Sponge and it worked great the problem was gone in less then a week.

[Lutefisk]

I recently went through this problem (I hope it doesn't come back).

By the time all was said and done I threw everything at it that I had:

Added a second oversized-skimmer set to skim wet
Added ozone (24x7)
A LOT of carbon (24x7)
Ran a full TLF reactor full of GFO (24x7)
Added kalk slurry morning and evening to raise the pH
Kept the tank in near total darkness for six days. A day after uncovering it I noticed what I thought was some dino build up and I recovered it for another three days.

At this point things look GREAT. The sand, rockwork, and glass are beautifully clean. The SPS got pretty white but are looking good now. The fish and even the clams did just fine.


Paul

[RichConley]

not using a salifert alk kit are you?


I've found high alk kills dinos fast. Skim wet, raise the alk to 11 or so, and start siphoning them out.

[leveldrummer]

not sure, just makin a suggestions, but wouldnt a uv sterilzer help?

[Lutefisk]

UV wouldn't hurt.

I also forgot to mention that I dropped the temperature to 76 remembering that red tides are associated with the warmer months.

I'm in the process of slowly raising the temp.

Paul