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    Thread: I'm battling dinoflagellates.

    1. #1
      iainnn is offline Registered User
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      I'm battling dinoflagellates.



      So about 6 weeks ago it started and at first I thought it was diatoms. No big deal, right? Toss in phosphate/silicate remover and black out a few days, looks great! And boom there they are again.

      I've been vacuuming the sand through a filter sock and dumping the water back in as to not feed it with any new nutrients. I ordered some MB7 and biofuel and am expecting it this Friday. Currently I have a blanket over the tank without any lights running for the day to keep it under control. I've also reduced feeding.

      I use rodi water and do 10-15% water changes every other weekend.
      I'm running a skimmer, and I have a uniquarium with a built-in fuge w/ chaeto and LR.

      I attached a couple of photos, too.


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    2. #2
      specvjeff's Avatar
      specvjeff is offline SDMAS President/SDR Mod
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      Here is the advice given to me by Julian Sprung.

      Cut your lighting period down to 4 hours. You can run the blues longer. Cut whites down to 4.

      Increase your alk to 11-12 dkh, and maintain it there.

      Stop all water changes.

      Cutting you lighting period will reduce it's ability to photosynthesize.

      Increasing your alkalinity, helps increase your orp which produces an environment less conducive to algae growth.

      Stopping water changes allows the dinos to eat up all the remaining food in the water. With it all gone and photosynthesis reduced, the dinos simply starve and die.

      I've used this method and recommended it several times. It has always been successful.

      It's important to keep the alkalinity up throughout the process. It's also important to not increase the lighting to rapidly. I'd increase it an hour a week over 4 weeks.

      Good luck!

      Jeff Saurwein
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      Jeff
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    3. #3
      specvjeff's Avatar
      specvjeff is offline SDMAS President/SDR Mod
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      Btw do not manually remove them. It simply allows them to bloom. It's like cutting a rotifer culture.

      Jeff Saurwein
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      Jeff
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    4. #4
      iainnn is offline Registered User
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      Thanks for the info, Jeff. I appreciate your quick response!

    5. #5
      specvjeff's Avatar
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      You're welcome. It might take a couple weeks but it will work. Just be patient with it. It's the most effective method I've found. The source of the information is pretty good too. Julian has been doing this forever.

      Jeff Saurwein
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    6. #6
      DoctorBomb is offline Registered User
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      A little late to the party, but to add to specvjeff's post, increase your flow if you can in problem areas. I tried nearly everything, and bumping up the flow and moving the powerheads to problem areas in the tank was the final piece to the puzzle for me (and also a 24 hour lights out when the dinos were nearly gone).

    7. #7
      aquaculture is offline Registered User
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      I know this is an old thread from 2014, but....

      Thought I had diatoms too, until I started seeing the dreaded little bubbles. Not sure what is causing my dinoflagellate problem, but just saw roughly 50 or so of these small (approximately 2 mm long) black beetles in my trigger systems ruby cube sump. They are only in my drain/filter sock area, then that goes to the refugium section, then the return section. I am running Miracle Mud system in the refugium and the tank has been setup for roughly 5 weeks. I currently have zoas, a few acros, a small toadstool and a micromussa. I am not currently running a skimmer and just put in some macro algae today (thanks Vance), there is also a 4L bucket of Seachem Matrix in the filter sock area, my flow through the sump is slow (because of the miracle mud)...I have a Jebao DC6000 return on the lowest setting. I have a Jebao wp-25 and Jebao RW-15 in the 60 cube, so there is a ton of flow now that I added the RW-15, almost too much now, and it's on the lowest setting.

      After 2 days of my new SBReeflights over my tank (8/22), I noticed the dinoflagellates (I was running an Ocean Revive Artic T247 at 20% whites and 50%blues prior to the new light), but I was programming the ramping on the SBReeflight and had the whites maxing out at 40% whites for 2 hours (mid day) and blues were maxing out at 85% at mid day, so I think I was running the light percentages too high compared to the Ocean Revive, and was running it for longer. Now, I started lights out today and will have the light off tomorrow to see how it effects the display tank. Not sure if the little black bugs in my sump are the cause of all this, or them combined with more intense lighting triggered it. Does anyone else ever get these little black beetles too? They are extremely annoying. Thinking of getting some glue strips to put around the inner areas for under the stand in the sump area so that they can't get into the sump. Any insight would be appreciated.
      Last edited by aquaculture; 08-24-2016 at 09:47 PM.

    8. #8
      aquaculture is offline Registered User
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      Found out that the little black beetles can also fly and are called Carpet Beetles...they can come in on your indoor flowers and plants, dogs, through windows/doors not sealed well. Now I need to figure a way to get rid of the lil' b**Tards as I don't want them in my house, much less my tank....Aaaarrrghh.

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