Resetting tank b/c of dinoflagellates

Well, as some of you know I've been fighting dinoflagelattes for a few weeks now at least. It's turned into a mess - black outs, raising pH, and cutting down lights didn't work, and it's melting away some of my zoas now. The tank is looking like a wasteland some days!




I'm now in the initial planning stages of a total tank reset (Happy 1 year anniversary lmao!)

Luckily my roommate has a tank set up in the same room. I'm thinking I'll empty his water out, move 15g my water plus 15g new water over, and give the fish a place to live for awhile.

My corals I can give to a friend with a reef tank to hold onto.

Ditch the sand. Nuke the rock. Bleach the tank and sump, clean all equiptment thoroughly, new plumbing (probably beananimal this time) and start over!

If anyone have any advice or experience to share, I'm all ears. Anything I need to plan for in a total tank reset that I may have looked past? I don't want to run into unexpected hurdles here, so I'm trying to get a plan drawn out before I start tearing anything down.


1. Get livestock to temp homes
2. Drain tank, trash sand, clean everything! New plumbing
3. Nuke rock in bucket with water/bleach for 3 days
4. Rinse rock in bucket of RO/DI water for 3 days
5. Let rocks sit outside for 2 weeks
6. At this point would I have to cure the rock in saltwater buckets for awhile?
7. Try to see if LED's are in the budget and ditch the halides
7. Fill'er up!

 

Why dont you just syphon all the sand out and geta strong cuc?

 

Oh wow its way worse than I thought... Fresh start is the best and quickest way to take care of the fugly sucker, unfortunately.

Im tagging along, Logan!

 

You may consider doing 2 ro/di soaks after you bleach it. I forget the thread, but I read where several people did 2 soaks because the first soak turned the water yellow and gave it an odor. The second soak cleared everything up, and then the drying for two weeks took care of the rest. After that you are pretty much left with dry "base" rock so I would think any curing wouldn't be necessary. You should be able to put it back and cycle the tank and bring the rock back to life like you normally would.

 

OH my I think that is one of the worse cases I have ever seen.

My Zoanthids all died as well when I had my out break.

That had to be extremely frustrating, wow. Karma for hanging in there and for the new start.

 

That looks like diatoms on steroids. I guess starting over is a good thing. Now the pressure is on to make it look better than the last time.

 

dino is different then just cyano. Nothing will eat it, in fact can be toxic if something does eat it.

Ouch, i am sorry for you. That is one of the worst outbreaks i have seen. Keep us updated on progress

 

Wow dude, that blows. I don't know diddly about dinos, so I did a bit of research (mostly looking for preventative measures) and it looks like you've done just about everything that could be done. I did find an article where one guy dosed hydrogen peroxide for about two weeks after his black out/water change regimen and another that used a product called "special blend" which is a bacterial solution. UV and ozone were other suggestions but that's expensive.

When you move water to your roommates tank is there danger of transferring any of the little f#@$%ers with it?

Good luck man, I hope you get this beat.

 

yeah.....i didnt think about that.......dont transfer your water over. Just takes a little to cause big problems

 

Yep,

I gave up and started over. That stuff sucks.