Dinoflagellates! Can I move frags?

Caragol · #1 01/06/2008, 01:12 AM

So I've had a brown-snot dinoflagellate issue in one of my picos for a while. I left the lights out for about four days which seems to have killed most of it, I sucked out the rest of what I could find with a turkey baster. The thing is, I've got some really nice zoas and mushroom frags in this tank that I'd like to move into my main display.

If I move them, will the dinoflagellates follow? Is it worth risking it? Or is it simply a nutrient problem that won't matter because my main tank has better water quality due to real skimming, refugiums, etc?

Anyone dealt with this?

melev · #2 01/06/2008, 03:42 AM

What about setting up a series of buckets full of saltwater to dip, swish, and rinse each frag in, before it moves to the new tank? That should do it. You could put Iodine in one bucket's worth of water to nuke sneaky stuff, leaving the coral for 10 minutes before it goes to the next bucket.

Caragol · #3 01/06/2008, 06:19 PM

I considered that but wasn't sure. Are dinoflagellates like cyano in the sense that they exist regardless in every tank but won't thrive unless the proper conditions are there (dead flow spots, poor water quality, etc)? Or would I be possibly introducing a sinister pest to a tank where it doesn't exist in any great number?

I figured I could turkey baster it all off, temp acclimate then dip in NSW, shake it and baster it some more then do it again in separate NSW. Iodine would be a plus. Dino and cyano are the only pests that have ever appeared in this tank so I'm not too worried about anything else.

melev · #4 01/06/2008, 11:50 PM

Dinoflagelates - well I just read about them recently but hate to pass along misinformation. So here's a link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinoflagellate

In my own tank, I've had them crop up and go away. They are pretty toxic, in that snails that eat it die, and fish that eat it quickly look sick and even my anemones can whither up after I scraped the tank of them.

I have a feeling we all have some of them in the system, but usually our water quality issues are what make it appear in its evil form. It can be frustrating to get rid of, and there have been articles on this very topic, such as the one by Randy Holmes Farley:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-11/rhf/index.php

Hope that helps.