Dinoflagellates

Aup!

My friend (not me, its not one of those things, its definately my friend) has a rather bad infestation of Dino To help fix it we turned his lights off for a whole week. The horrid stuff came back full force within a day. Its a reef tank so leaving the lights off longer really isnt an option.

Nitrates - 25
Phos - 0.25
DKH - 12
PH - 8.3

We added a bigger phosphate reactor and more and new rowaphos so hopefully that will reduce phosphates to nothing now. He does use a refugium however is Calupera is being over run with dino, and i believe what once was keeping his nitrates down to a minimum its now dying and unable to out compete the dino so his nitrates are slowly going up.
All bulbs on his light fixture are brand new. That was one of the things i instantly suggested (amongst nitrates/phosphates).

So to deal with this at the moment im making him put his lights on for only 4 hours a day and we are trying to raise the PH to 8.5/8.7 as i belive this to work.

However when we were at the LFS they recommended adding vodka or brown sugar. Can someone explain why we would add Vodka or Brown Sugar to the tank, its effects and wether or not it would actually work to remove the Dino?

Thanks!

 

shuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrreeeee! never tried the vodka thing or heard of the brown sugar thing so Bump!

 

wow

Phoenix - check out Carbon dosing - on this site and on Google

I have never done it - Daniel072 does use it

basically the principle is - that the amount of bacteria that a system can support is governed by the amount of carbon present - life forms on earth as you know, are carbon based

thus if you add a source of carbon - like Vodka or Sugar- the carbon in your system increases and your bacteria multiply thus any nutrients get used up rapidly

thats the general principle , but as I stated I have no experience of it personally

Steve

 

Problem Dinoflagellates and pH by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

there is some reading for you I had a member in my other forum use hydrogen peroxide in doses to cure it it worked I am searching for the post I will see if he will come on here and elaborate for you.

 

Quick replies thanks!!

 

Use Hydrogen Peroxide (H202) VERY CAREFULLY!!! Before ozone came down in price, this along with Potassium Permanganate (KMnO4) were used as oxidizers. Everyone switched to ozone because it was much safer.

It will raise your pH (power of Hydrogen) instantly so you will want to have a pH monitor. It would be very easy to overshoot your desired pH and burn your fishes gills.

To get rid of dino's, I recommend dripping Kalkwasser a little faster than normal to safely raise pH along with siphoning off excess dinos.

 

Vodka, Brown Sugar and vinegar are single carbons used to reduce nitrates and phosphates. As suggested you can search for Carbon dosing, or just go here: Vodka Dosing by 'Genetics' and 'Stony_Corals' - Reefkeeping.com

 

i had them and they would not go away at all.... no matter what i did. Phos reactor lights etc.... they eventually went away on their own! i didnt do any water changes either.

 

Excellent articles and suggestions - i will show them to him!