J-Dog Posted June 16, 2011 Share Posted June 16, 2011 As some of u may already know, I have finally realized that my tank has dinoflagellates (and not diatoms or cyano). After doing some research, I have decided that in order to rid myself of this nasty problem, I will be dosing hydrogen peroxide. Lots of people think this is a risky attempt to solve this issue, but I've read numerous reports of positive outcomes. The dosage I am using is 1ml for every 10gal of tank water. Since I have a 65 gallon tank, I am gonna start with 5ml of peroxide, and see how that works (65gal - 50lbs live rock= approx 50 gals, just a rough estimate). I will be keeping my tank lights off during the dosing period, maybe 3-4 days, to hopefully assist in killing the dino's. I dosed my first 5ml last night and woke up this morning to no adverse effects. I added my 2nd dose this morning (since I work 24 hour shifts, I can't be home tonight to dose, so I did it in the morning). I will update this thread during the entire process and let everyone know if it worked or not. Lets hope for the best (scary)(nutty)(scratch) Day 1 - 5ml H2O2 + lights out (no adverse effects) Day 2 - 5ml H2O2 + lights out (not home to see any changes) Day 3 - 5ml H2O2 + lights out (got home this morning and saw that everything was still alive (clap)) - also saw no sign of diatoms, but lights have been off, so it's hard to tell. I blew a few strands off of my birdsnest that seemed to be dead, so hopefully it's working Day 4 - 5ml H2O2 + lights on for 4 hours (everything still looks good, just hoping corals aren't losing color) - I will turn the lights on this morning to see how everything looks. This will be the real test! (scary) Day 5 - 5ml H2O2 + lights on for 4 hours (at work again, so I can't see how my tank is doing) Day 6 - 6ml H2O2 + lights on for 6 hours now (no signs of dinos anywhere, but still having some browning on the substrate) Day 7 - 6ml H2O2 + lights on for 6 hours (I can still see a few signs of dinos, so I'm stumped on why they aren't completely gone by now) Day 8 - 6 ml H2O2 + lights on for 4 hours (tank temp was up to 80 degrees, so I wanted to shorten my light time to lower temp. Back to work today, so no visual on the tank) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stylaster Posted June 16, 2011 Share Posted June 16, 2011 IMO i would try and find what the root cause of your dino problem. What your doing might fix the issue temporarily, but its a good idea to try and find whats causing them to bloom in the first place. (IE poor water quality) High phosphates, low water flow, high nitrates, salinity issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barelycuda Posted June 16, 2011 Share Posted June 16, 2011 Hydrogen peroxide dosing in aquariums is not unheard of. It is a common practice in fish breeding operations for sterilization of the water for larva and egg transfer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGooseWhisperer Posted June 16, 2011 Share Posted June 16, 2011 H2O2 is so unstable i'm surprised it lasts long enough in the water to actually kill anything. Anyone know if the affect is from hydrogen/oxygen gas formation or peroxide action on the bacteria/algae itself? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-Dog Posted June 16, 2011 Author Share Posted June 16, 2011 IMO i would try and find what the root cause of your dino problem. What your doing might fix the issue temporarily' date=' but its a good idea to try and find whats causing them to bloom in the first place. (IE poor water quality) High phosphates, low water flow, high nitrates, salinity issues.[/quote'] Well stylaster, the problem is, I have no idea what caused the dino's. My RO/DI water tests 0 using a TDS, I have no nitrates, my salinity is constantly kept at 1.026, and my flow hasn't changed since I got my tank 1 year ago (it has actually gotten better with the purchase of a Vortech MP40 about 2 weeks ago). My API phosphate tests are nothing but crap, so I don't know what levels my PO4 are at, but I will be getting them tested with a Hanna this weekend. So unless u know something else that causes dino's to bloom, please help me out, cuz I'm lost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impur Posted June 16, 2011 Share Posted June 16, 2011 When was the last time you changed your RO/DI filters? I had a major problem with cyano awhile back. Same scenario: 0 TDS out of RO/DI, no nitrates constant params. I changed all the filters and kept up siphoning it out and it finally went away. Test the TDS coming out of the RO unit before it hits the DI resin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-Dog Posted June 16, 2011 Author Share Posted June 16, 2011 When was the last time you changed your RO/DI filters? I had a major problem with cyano awhile back. Same scenario: 0 TDS out of RO/DI, no nitrates constant params. I changed all the filters and kept up siphoning it out and it finally went away. Test the TDS coming out of the RO unit before it hits the DI resin. Why would changing the placement of the TDS meter matter? If it comes out at zero, isn't that all that matters? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impur Posted June 16, 2011 Share Posted June 16, 2011 Because if your filters are not filtering out all of the NO3/PO4/NO2/etc., your DI resin will not remove them. And they won't show up as TDS. Testing before the DI resin will show you how much TDS are getting thru your filters and help tell you how far gone they are. I know you stated you have tested your tank and have no NO3 etc, but they can be consumed by the dinos before they get into the water column to show up on a test. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-Dog Posted June 16, 2011 Author Share Posted June 16, 2011 So my TDS meter should give me a reading of 0 even before the water hits my DI resin? And if it doesn't, then I need to change the filters? What does the DI resin do then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impur Posted June 16, 2011 Share Posted June 16, 2011 No. Most hobby RO membranes have a 95% rejection rate (yours might be different, i assume you know the rejection rate), so if your source water has a TDS of say 50, and your TDS before the DI resin is anything over ~5, you need to change your RO membrane and filters. DI resin - It is the removal of mineral ions by using the ion exchange process. Using a mixed bed of anion and cation resins; ions, salts and minerals can be entirely removed from water. The RO membrane has a direct impact on the life-span of the DI. The RO membrane can remove about 95-99% of TDS (minerals) in your water. When a DI is used after the RO membrane, you can expect almost 100% removal of the TDS. http://www.airwaterice.com/category/z.2/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Electrokate Posted June 16, 2011 Share Posted June 16, 2011 Had dinos in a 10 gallon quarantine tank and it went away. Changed the water a bit more frequently but other than that did nothing special. Another tank (55) gets them now and again, usually if I either neglect maintaining the skimmer or skip a water change. Phosphates in 55 too high to test accurately, in the other zero. Probably not a coincidence that the dinos show up where uneaten food collects... interested in seeing how this goes as I would prefer not to bring them into my new frag tank. They never took off in the 120 for some reason but that tank has other algae issues. Kate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-Dog Posted June 17, 2011 Author Share Posted June 17, 2011 Day 3 and everything is looking good.....I've been editting my initial post with updates, but it doesn't bump the thread, so I'll add stuff here to get it bumped Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-Dog Posted June 17, 2011 Author Share Posted June 17, 2011 No. Most hobby RO membranes have a 95% rejection rate (yours might be different, i assume you know the rejection rate), so if your source water has a TDS of say 50, and your TDS before the DI resin is anything over ~5, you need to change your RO membrane and filters. DI resin - It is the removal of mineral ions by using the ion exchange process. Using a mixed bed of anion and cation resins; ions, salts and minerals can be entirely removed from water. The RO membrane has a direct impact on the life-span of the DI. The RO membrane can remove about 95-99% of TDS (minerals) in your water. When a DI is used after the RO membrane, you can expect almost 100% removal of the TDS. http://www.airwaterice.com/category/z.2/ Ok Impur, I put my TDS meter before my DI resin and got a reading of 3......so does that mean my filters are good? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impur Posted June 17, 2011 Share Posted June 17, 2011 Yah sounds like it. Darn i was hoping it would be an easy fix for you..... Hope the hydrogen peroxide goes well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-Dog Posted June 18, 2011 Author Share Posted June 18, 2011 Even if the hydrogen peroxide works, I still need to figure out why I got the dino's in the first place...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-Dog Posted June 18, 2011 Author Share Posted June 18, 2011 Day 4 update.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-Dog Posted June 18, 2011 Author Share Posted June 18, 2011 Well, after having the lights on for about 4 hours, I saw no major signs of dinos (clap). But I did still see patches of brown forming on some of the substrate, toward the end of the light cycle. So it looks like the peroxide worked on a majority of the dinos, but for some reason, they are still forming on the sand. I'll keep dosing for about 7-10 days and hopefully it takes care of it all.....the experiment continues (scratch) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impur Posted June 18, 2011 Share Posted June 18, 2011 Well thats good news. How are your corals and fish doing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-Dog Posted June 18, 2011 Author Share Posted June 18, 2011 Fish and corals look perfectly fine.....decided to start attaching corals too. Seems like the birdsnest coral gives me the most trouble with the dinos. They always seem to be stuck in it's branches, and I have no idea why. I'll keep u posted Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-Dog Posted June 19, 2011 Author Share Posted June 19, 2011 Tank looked fine this morning, but I'm at work for another 24 hours, so I can't see what's happening with the lights on. Tomorrow I'll bump the lighting to 6 hours and see what happens Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-Dog Posted June 21, 2011 Author Share Posted June 21, 2011 Came home this morning and my tank looked fine. Left the lights on for 6 hours today and still no sign of the dinos reappearing. I still have brown spots showing up on my substrate (after about 3-4 hours of lighting), but I'm not sure if they are dinos or something else. I also decided to up my peroxide dosing to 6ml, which seems to be fine (added more to compensate for the extra water in my rear chamber). Hopefully the stuff on the substrate will start going away over time. I planned on dosing for approx 10 days, so lets see what happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-Dog Posted June 23, 2011 Author Share Posted June 23, 2011 Lagging on my updates, but I saw a very minimal amount of dinos forming on my frag rack yesterday. I am clueless on why they are still around, since I thought they had died off with the dosing. I will be going camping for the weekend, so my dosing will have to stop tomorrow......so we will see how the tank does while I am gone. I'll let everyone know what happens once I am back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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