dinoflagellates

I don't post much, I usually just read what others post. And yes, I have read whats on the forum on the subject, and googled it for information on the www as well.


Set up a 125 gallon tank june 3rd. Coarse gravel (not sand), Base rock, and some live rock from florida. The live rock was better than I expected. Came with halimeda, SPS coral, clams, etc. So all that got dragged through the cycle. oh my. I barely got thru and then a short cyano outbreak, and then a horrible hair algae attack. Put in phosphate remover, pushed magnesium up, hair died away. A lot easier than I was expecting. Then as the hair turned pale and withered away, the dinos came. I do not have them real bad. Snails are not keeling over. Long tentacle anemone is bigger and better than it was at the LFS. Pulsing Xenia is waving away. bubble coral doesn't look too bad. But the dinos are there. I have been putting in kalkwasser in my IV drip, and dosing about 15 ml of peroxide. I shoot it right into the filter socks. I can tell its messing up the dinos on the sock, but I really doubt that 15 ml is really going to do much in a water column like this. Not a newbie, I have had coral, clams, spawned and raised clownfish back in the 80s, but I have never had a problem like this before.


So I bought a little 30 gallon tank and inhabitants off craigs list, but I don't dare put them in the big tank, or they will get infected. My son wants to set up a tank, he got a 75 gallon bowfront that is almost ready to put water in. I don't dare take anything from my tank and put in his and spread the infection, do I? I read that a freshwater dip kills off the dino in seconds. Do a freshwater dip, transfer them to a safe haven, and then nuke the dino? I have done zero water changes since the tank was set up because people have said it adds some of the trace elements the dinos crave, so I don't want to throw gas on the fire. Turn the lights down to 4 hours, turn them out and put cardboard up for total darkness for days. Use peroxide. So many cures. So can anybody tell me this - if I dip my rock, coral, etc in RODI water for 30 seconds or so, will that be enough to kill the dino so I can transfer to another tank? How do I acclimate to another tank, without spreading the disease? How do I move a very large tridacnae clam, without spreading the disease? I would almost prefer the hairy algae. It wasn't that bad. It was unsightly, but my yellow tang swam around all day with a full belly, and I had copepods and other microbugs thicker than I have ever seen. Now its just snot with bubbles in it. And I noticed I have a few aptasia, so after I lick this dino problem, they are next. My main concern as I have rambled on, is that I do not want to lose my livestock, but I cannot afford to spread the zombie plague to another tank either. Marine SAT? Any other miracle cures?


Somebody will ask what my setup is. 125 gallon glass. Drilled, with a box overflow. Proflex sump with filter socks, and no media. No refugium. D & D Typhoon skimmer that with modifications, works well in my opinion. Hood full of LEDs. If it helps I can test water parameters tomorrow and post.

 

Thanks. turned off the LEDs this morning. Changed filter socks. Will let you know what happens.

 

Ph down around 7.8. This is with lights off. I have been adding lime water in the IV drip I have set up to replace evap. Baking soda? Go buy some marine buffer? Higher concentration of lime?

 

Second day lights off. Came downstairs this morning and sunlight was streaming in. I propped up a big piece of cardboard, but I have not actually taped up cardboard to block every bit of light. There is still some ambient going in. Total black for 4 days?


Stopping the peroxide dosing. Somebody on another forum said it fixed it for them. Since I am dealing with a menace I have not had before, I try what others said worked.


Adding lime water (kalkwasser). I mix some up in a cup, let the sediment settle, and then pour the clear stuff in the overflow so it can mix with tank water and dilute it before it hits the tank. PH is maybe around 8. Raising it slowly so I don't kill anything. Maybe my timing is off here. Maybe I should have raised PH, and then shut off the lights?

 

PH is still not where it needs to be. I looked behind the cardboard, looks like its almost all gone. So when I turn lights back on, dim them down, or full blast, and limit the photo-period to 4 hours, and gradually work back up to normal?

 

4 days lights out. Initally all looked good. Some of the coral that was stressed out by the dino was open and looking better. However careful scrutiny today revealed that they are not gone. I can see slight traces on some of its old hangouts. Not bad, but I can see the stringy strands, and the bubbles. I am going to hold out as long as I can before trying lights out again, and let the corals regain their strength.
One thing that has me worried is a piece of bubble coral that looks injured. There are some spots where the skeleton is sticking up through its "skin". Dinos have set up residence on the exposed skeleton. I can see the bubbles.
PH is also not as high as I think it needs to be (going by my test kit). I ordered a PH meter.
So tomorrow I guess I do a huge water change and see what happens.

 

UV sterilizer on order. 32 gallons of water set up to change out tomorrow.

 

I still have them. Changed 32 gallons. Running a little green killing machine 24/7. I still see them. They are not as bad (yet). Before they were so thick they were seeping through my filter socks. I don't see them that bad down there. They have some spots where they are concentrated. On some halimeda branches, on a couple of rocks, and apparently on a couple of polyp colonies. Polyps close up and do not come out.


I have been dosing pretty heavily with limewater. My alkalinity is pretty high, so I need to watch that. I have never been able to get my Ph up to the levels (8.4 to 8.5) that are supposed to choke the dinos out. It would seem that I put the tank through another 4 days of darkness again? I really don't know how much of this lights out stuff my tridacna clams and coral can stand.


So after I get this figured out the next problems are aptasia anemones, and a small mantis shrimp that suddenly appeared.

 

I still have them. Changed 32 gallons. Running a little green killing machine 24/7. I still see them. They are not as bad (yet). Before they were so thick they were seeping through my filter socks. I don't see them that bad down there. They have some spots where they are concentrated. On some halimeda branches, on a couple of rocks, and apparently on a couple of polyp colonies. Polyps close up and do not come out.


I have been dosing pretty heavily with limewater. My alkalinity is pretty high, so I need to watch that. I have never been able to get my Ph up to the levels (8.4 to 8.5) that are supposed to choke the dinos out. It would seem that I put the tank through another 4 days of darkness again? I really don't know how much of this lights out stuff my tridacna clams and coral can stand.


So after I get this figured out the next problems are aptasia anemones, and a small mantis shrimp that suddenly appeared.