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Dynoflagellates

Mark_C

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Agree with jgraz.
In an 80 I had a number of years ago they took over the tank. Here's what I did as I recall...

20% water change.
Chemipure dose.
Protein skimmer off.
Full 100% covering of tank.
Left covered 3 full days, never checked, never peeked, no food, zero light.
Opened tank day 4, used turkey baster to loosen up dead/dying flag, blasted the heck out of all rock and sand.
Lights on overnight, with a feed for fish/corals.
Next day another baster blast, changed filter floss, 20% water change.
And... cover again for another 48 hours.
With a final baster treatment and water change had 100% success.

Also, FYI regarding cheato...
Its a pretty simple grower and can easily sustain on minimal nutrients with moderate circulation, but I don't think people realize the substantial amount of light it requires.
For a normal/large fuge a light clamp with a 1oow floodlight type bulb bulb 4-6" off the water surface does well.
My current setup has a separate small 2 gallon fuge over which I have a full spectrum 18w fixture 2-3" off the surface and I remove softball sized chunks of the stuff weekly.
If you're looking at the water surface and saying, 'Wow, that's bright' you probably have enough light.

IMG_8743.jpeg
 

Bot587

NJRC Member
David/Madreefer

Do you have a filter sock and a siphon? If so, use the siphon to siphon the sand bed (detritus) into the filter sock (short term this will create a nitrate factory - do not change out filter sock, leave it for a few weeks.). Cut out lights to the sump. If you have a smaller siphon tube (filter return pipe is what I use, this will have increased velocity of the water through siphon), attach that to the siphon hose and siphon the dinos off the rock.

Do not do any water changes. You should be siphoning the water through a 100 micron sock (Most dinos will go through this, food particulates will not). The food particulates will not be accessible to most detritivores (if you have chaeto or a macro algae, I would pull it offline). It's easy enough to get another ball later.

My issue turned out to be my chaeto. It was stripping my tank and creating a niche for dinos where other algaes couldnt compete.

Just my suggestion - many techniques may work
 
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MadReefer

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I have gone twice with 3 and 4 day blackouts, peroxide dosing and Vibrant. Just ran out of Vibrant BTW. Already pulled fuge offline, even though wasn't very big. So it seems these guys are going nowhere. Cleanup crew is dead, corals are also dying. It seems to be a lost cause at this point and waiting for the inevitable.
 
Yea. I don’t syphon my sand bed. I only have problems with my rock. My sand is clean, ever since I got a conch. It’s so fine grained, that I end up sucking a lot of the sand out of the tank when I try to syphon. When I scrub and blast the rocks, my filter sock cloggs up fast, and I can get it out of the tank.
 
I have gone twice with 3 and 4 day blackouts, peroxide dosing and Vibrant. Just ran out of Vibrant BTW. Already pulled fuge offline, even though wasn't very big. So it seems these guys are going nowhere. Cleanup crew is dead, corals are also dying. It seems to be a lost cause at this point and waiting for the inevitable.
I'll say it again,
Longer blackouts

Why are you adding Vibrant? Your just feeding them. Below is the ingredients.
Amino=food
Vinegar=food
061606f9fb9b2bed4b86337975b3121f.jpg


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MadReefer

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@jgraz there are tons of articles with many different methods and Vibrant was one of them.
They also suggest dosing bleach but won't be doing that.
The 2 blackouts I lost coral and some fish. Granted the dino played a hand in this especially the fish eating them. I assume no light is why the coral did not survive albeit on their last leg cause of dinos.
 

MadReefer

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So going to do a 7 day black out as suggested.
Covered front and right side with black poster board. Back is painted black, left side always had vinyl to block sun.
Also covered all with a sheet.
 

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Mark_C

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You should draw ghost eyes on the sheet to scare your wife.
 
Looks good. I’m going to have to do it too.I wish my corral were in better shape. I concerned they won’t survive the blackout.
 
Possibly, but the Dino’s are on the coral plugs too. The Dino’s might survive quarantine and then right back in the tank. I would also have to find a tank, , frag racks, power heads, etc, none of wich I have, and then I don’t have much space to set it up. Maybe in the summer when the basement isn’t so cold, I could do a quarantine down there.
 

MadReefer

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The marine pure is a win. @Steven Simon is using a large UV, maybe he can advise you a bit.

Don't want to spend big bucks on UV. Like I stated if the tank goes down not sure I will set backup. Reason being I have no clue what caused this dino outbreak and don't want a repeat if I try again.
 

diana a

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David you mentioned you are planning to start up you fuge with cheato. According to the my link above, dino love chateo
 
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