How to get rid of dinoflagellates?

Despite my best efforts, the stupid things managed to infest my new tank from the transfer and now i have another very heavy infestation of dinoflagellates. Does anyone know much about this and how to get rid of them? Any help would be much appreciated bc the crud is constantly climbing on my corals and is causing die off. Grrrr

 

They die off a little but then come back thicker. And when I use a pipette to clean off my corals and rock (I don't even try with the sand its so thick) its back within a couple hours. I have a dual BRS reactor for phosphate and carbon and have plenty of carbon. How do I raise my pH and dKh? I'll do a water test later this afternoon after all of our errands are run to give you a better idea of where I'm at. Last time I checked my pH was 8.0 and dKh was 7 but that was a few weeks ago unfortunately.

I also have access to hot magnums, they are external filters that have micron filters in them that suck up anything floating around in the water, so long as you keep it stirred up. During my 48hr blackout, could this help to suck up the dino's if I get them off the rocks and into the water? Maybe even the sand too?

Thanks for the speedy replies everyone!

 

Just an update. So far I've had the tank on semi-blackout for about a day and a half. I have the lights set to turn on for four hours total (actinics for 4 hrs, mh less) during the day. I am just now drip adding the kalkwasser solution into my tank. My pH was 7.8 which surprised me a lot and my kH was 7, which was consistent with before. Does anybody happen to know exactly how much a 1 gallon solution of kalkwasser raises the pH/kH? It doesn't really say. I did the 1 teaspoon for 1 gallon and am drip adding it to a 40g breeder with a 29g sump so about 60g of water total in my system.

And since my pH had been so low before, is this something I could be using routinely? Isn't your pH suppose to be more around 8-8.4?? Any info is welcome.

Thanks

 

sweet. thanks for the responce. I'll be sure to look that stuff up

 

So far my ph is up from 7.8 to 8 and my kh from 7 to 8. Running the lights only 4 hrs per day. When do you think I should be seeing results? Is it bad to prolong the shortened photo period past a couple days? Once my ph n kh are up should i do a complete blackout? Keep in mind some of my corals seem really fragile either from the brown gunk growing on them or the toxins it releases.

 

I had thought of that before but the only way the dinoflagelates made it into my tank the first time was through the corals. I figured if I pawned them off, and even if I got rid of the dino's in the tank, anything on the corals would reinfect my tank, not to mention whoever's they were temporarily in.

BUT I THINK IT WORKED!! YAY!! It took me quite a bit to finally get the kH and pH up. But today is the end of day 4 of the black out and its all gone!! I'm running a hot magnum on the tank and sucking up any debree I can that could possibly be dead/dying dino's or any crud thats in the tank that could be feeding it. The lights are still off but tomorrow morning will be the initial test when the lights turn on. It looks amazingly clear now but I'll be able to see better then. And the next week will hopefully prove amazing and hopefully nothing grows back!! YAY!

Unfortunately, I did have a very sad causalty with the black out /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default//emoticons/sad.gif Everything made it except my oregon blue tort /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default//emoticons/sad.gif I'm very bummed out about that. I loved that coral. And it had been one of the few that were doing AMAZING despite the crud. Sads. Everything else is doing ok tho. Hopefully I'm on to a full recovery /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default//emoticons/smile.gif

 

So, lights are back on for 4 hrs per day and I'll be slowly increasing from there. The dumb crud is starting to slowly grow back which makes me really sad. Its only a thin layer on the sand after two days of the lights being on but I'm 99% sure its the same stuff. I'm thinking about keeping the lights on 4 hrs per day since all of my light sensitive corals died anyway and getting a UV sterilizer. That way it will kill any spores flowing through the water as I try to constantly manually suck up the visible junk with the hot magnum. Good plan?? Any other suggestions? Fish have shown no problems with the gunk btw.

 

Oh, and I'm overdue for a WC b/c of all this so I was thinking about doing a decently big one.. normally I do about 25-30% but I was thinking maybe a 40%?? Good idea? Bad Idea??

 

I thoroughly rinsed each coral seperately before adding them to the new tank but thats all. And I don't have another tank anymore so the quaranteen idea won't work. I really hope thats not what's happening. Even if it was, the dino's shouldn't be killing my corals then. Instead, shouldn't my corals be happier than ever?

 

Just RO water.

So far the lights have been on a 4hr/day cycle for three days now and it seems not to be growing back as terribly as before. Only in a really high light area with medium flow next to my window. Hopefully then I seriously knocked out most of the population and if I keep at sucking up whatever I can, it will go away. Hopefully.