Dino's KILLED EVERYTHING HELP

I have posted lots of issues that I am having with Dinoflagellites and have not recieved an answer that has helped. I dont know what to do anymore, I was told by a LFS to dose calcium and alkalinity heavly and leave the lights on to let it cycle through. Then I was told to leave the lights off for five days and do nothing but change the water every other day. I am so fed up with it, in the last three days it has completly wiped out two frogspawns, a colony of candy cane coral, it also killed my FAVORITE brain coral. PLEASE HELP! I cant take any more loss and I just need a straght answer.

 

how old are your bulbs? what are your parameters as of now? Old bulbs can throw out some crazy spectrum's that algae thrive in.

 

i was reading and apparenlty blooms will last weeks or months. I have them too but they are just moving around my tank..... and i didnt do anything. Obviously yours are worse then mine but maybe it will knock its self out.

 

oh someting to add. don't do any water changes during the duration of the bloom

 

I had a dino outbreak that killed my birdsnest..and I was at my witts end also. I was doing manual removal of that stuff everynight (would almost get a dixie cup full of just that crap!) I cut my feedings down in half, placed a phosban reactor, ran carbon, cut the lighting schedule, did frequent water changes, and to no avail!

This is what I did and I am about 3 weeks now with no sign of dino. I first dosed aqua vita 8.4 (my pH consistently ran 7.8 ) It is very difficult to get pH up with 2 part and kalk..instead it maintains it easier from what I read. I cut the lights all together for 5 days..no T5's, no halides, no LED nothing. I dosed NIGHTLY with 2 part solution (a little higher then the recommended dose) and I dosed NIGHTLY with kalk supersaturation. I tested the water EVERY night to see where my pH, kH and calcium was to not overload it. You want to maintain you pH at LEAST AT 8.4 even closer to 8.6! I changed all the filter pads and sponges and whatever else was in the tank.

Then after 5 days I turned the lights on for only a couple hours. I was still dosing the daily kalk and 2 part. I only added an hour of light on every couple days or so. I maintained the feedings by half. After 7 days my kH was 10, calcium was 500 and pH was 8.6. I did not dose for a couple days (testing daily still) until the kH went to 9. I then dosed again and back to daily 2 part solution. I am currently still figuring out the frequency of how often I dose the kalk..but still doing daily testing (PIA!) I dosed a little of the mag somewhere in there. I replaced my UV sterilzer that was broken and added another pump for flow.

After 2 weeks I did about a 30% water change. I replaced the pads, sponges and such again.

I still only have my MH for 5 hours a day and that is it. My T5 and LEDs are back to normal schedule.

When I turned on the lights again after the 5 days I did not have any recurring sign of dino anywhere in the tank. But I think that it helped also that I maintained a low light schedule when first introducing the lights back on.

Dont fool yourself though...I KNOW THAT I STILL HAVE THEM! As soon as I slack off the least bit it will be back full force!

What is your magnesium at? What is your current pH? You have to correct the underlying issue first if it is something that is out of whack....say overfeeding, tap water, low pH before the lights off will help! Try to reduce what you are feeding right now by at least half! Install a phosban reactor also if you dont have one. Make sure you are only using RO/DI water and if so test your TDS and make sure your membranes are ok.

I got this problem for several reasons...
1. I was way past due in replacing my resin in my filter..my TDS was out the roof.
2. I stored the water in a normal plastic trash can and I think some of the junk leached out. You have to store your water in food quality plastics..I now have all Brute trashcans for water storage.
3. My UV was broken and I was in the process of replacing it.
4. My skimmer pump was not as effective as it should have been.
5. I overfed!

good luck and hang in there!