Dinoflagellates HELP!

I think I have dinoflagellates. Help me! I've read raising pH helps...cutting back lights...

Please tell me what to do!

And can this stuff make me or my animals sick?! I know dinos are what cause red tide and all that. I'm a worry wart...:-/

Thanks!!

 

Is it red Dinos or more of a tan?

 

I cured mine with elevated pH for an extended time period (2 months). They haven't been back since.

 

I won the battle by raising ph to 8.4,reducing flow (i shut off my powerheads and just ran the skimmer and filter pumps only) and followed with a 4 day blackout,in a week,they were gone.I kept ph elevated for over a month,they never came back.

 

Not all dinos respond to high pH. Actually some people have suggested that the toxic ones do and the non-toxic ones don't. And the toxic ones tend to have a reddish orangish tint, while the non-toxic ones are more brown. I am not sure about that and need to do more research on that myself. I have found though, standard algae control methods work fairly well on the tan ones I have had. I have seen the tan ones in my tank, I think there are always some there, but they are controllable. After all zoox is a dino, so, to get rid of them completely would mean providing an environment that could be harmful to your corals and they are a common component of any phytoplankton and a major food source for many organisms.

As such, it does not seem surprising that I've found, at least the apparently non-toxic ones I have, are readily consumed. I've watched turbo snails and maybe other snails mow them down. I know pods can eat them. They don't seem to respond to pH though. What they don't get, I siphon off. Also, running GFO, at high levels can be effective and they can be mixotrophic, loosly meaning that they can photosynthesize, but also eat stuff to survive. So, running GAC and keeping detritus levels low is quite important.


Here is some other reading to help.
Problem Dinoflagellates and pH by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

Dinoflagellates - Predators, Pathogens, and Partners by Eric Borneman - Reefkeeping.com

 

Hey Kacy,

What worked for me after battling them for 3 month.

1. No water changes.
2. Complete black out of 4 days, I even covered the tank.
3. pH of 8.6 24/7

What did not work.

1. Water changes seem to make it worse.
2. Chemipure and purgen.

Everyday during the black out I used a turkey baster and clean it off the rocks and corals. I then waited until the water cleared and rinsed all my mechanical filtration.

Once the lights went back on I started at 2 hours on, if I saw even a tiny bit of dino pop up out the lights went. Continued to clean the rocks and corals daily with turkey baster.

It took about 2 weeks of cleaning and a reduction on photo period.

It did kill off some of my zoanthids and lps. My Red Planet did fine during the treatment.

I have seen some good reports with the use of Ultra Algae X in the battle, but I have never used it.

Good luck.

 

Pretty much what I did and worked perfectly!! I did a 3 day black out and didn't touch my ph.. No water changes because that does seem to fuel it and Reduce flow. I haven't had any trouble since.. Good luck!

 

I have always done water changes and it works. I worry about not doing water changes, as some of the toxins may be hydrophillic, so, in that case, there would be no other way to remove them. Also, in general, water changes will keep your tank livestock healthy which should help them deal with dinos better. I know the no water change thing is popular though, but I haven't found it to be necessary personally.

I currently have a 20L, that I am growing out a BTA clone in. I set it up a few months ago. I don't feed it really. Maybe feed the BTA a small amount every 2 weeks or so, and have only done one small water change in the last few months. When I get home, I'll post a picture, it is absolutely covered in dinos. Meanwhile, my main tank, which I feed 5-7 times daily, change 15% of the water weekly, and is where the rocks and nem and everything else came from, has absolutely none detectable.

 

I did water changes until the cows came home, changed out chemipure and purgen frequently. I love both products. The more water changes I did the worse it got, terribly frustrating. A marine biologist on another forum that studies dino, advised me on the water changes and he was right. If you are aggressively doing water changes up until the lights out and running a skimmer surely you can go 2 weeks without a water change.

 

It's my understanding that water changes and flow actually fuels them,I also did no wc's during this time.Whats the reason?IDK,I simply followed through with alot of research and helpful advise on here.From what i also understand,yes they are a zoox type algae that co-exist,but the red ones (typically known as red tide) shows up very rarely in home aquaria.