Kessil

About to give up on DF. What to do with corals?

Hey all.

So I've been fighting DF for a while now.
(catch up here: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1770765)

I'm getting pretty close to giving up. Not sure what I should do with corals, both DBTC and not DBTC.
Non-DBTC, I wouldn't feel good about entereing them as DBTC, selling them, or even giving them away, seeing as how I'm pretty sure they will take the DF with them.
DBTC corals: I don't feel great about passing them around because I don't want to pass the DF around as well.

Should I just throw everything out, count it as a loss (I've lost a LOT of SPS so far...)

At this point I want to take just the fish and inverts into my main tank (everything is still in QT) and give up on the rest.

I appreciate suggestions!!!

Thanks,
Tom
 
DF? In all my years this is the very fist time I have ever heard of some one using DF as shorthand. You made me follow a link to figure out you are talking about Dinoflagellates. The common short hand for it is dinos.

No advice, they suck.
 
Silica is not a limiting nutrient for them IIRC. I've had them and tested below resolution for silica.
 
My advice is water changes and reduce lighting to like 1-2 hours a day. It will wax and wane, but this is what worked for me. So well in fact that when someone wanted some for a study, I tried to grow them again but couldn't.
 
I had that stuff.
I turned off my lights for 3 days straight and got rid of it.
I also started using GFO since then and have had no problems for at least 6 months.
 
I also was so frustrated with them before.... I did maybe a few days lights out, water changes, little less fish food... then reduced light cycle a little...water changes... another few days lights out... water changes... and eventually it went away... Hang in there.
 
as the RC post says, I've done two separate 7-day periods of darkness.
I've tried elevating the PH to reduce their ability to photosynthesize.
I'm currently on 4-hour light periods.
I've lost a LOT of SPS (only a few left) and my LPS aren't looking too great.
I was just about to give up... then last night I got pissed.

I found a UV filter I'm going to start running.
I ordered a Phosban reactor that I'm going to run with Phosban and Carbon.
I put a bigger protein skimmer on it, and I'm looking for an even better one.
Any other suggestions?

...game on.
 
earthboy17 said:
as the RC post says, I've done two separate 7-day periods of darkness.
I've tried elevating the PH to reduce their ability to photosynthesize.
I'm currently on 4-hour light periods.
I've lost a LOT of SPS (only a few left) and my LPS aren't looking too great.
I was just about to give up... then last night I got pissed.

I found a UV filter I'm going to start running.
I ordered a Phosban reactor that I'm going to run with Phosban and Carbon.
I put a bigger protein skimmer on it, and I'm looking for an even better one.
Any other suggestions?

...game on.
Bleach? :D
Just kidding of course.
It sounds like your latest approach should help. when stuff starts dying it kinda feeds the monster.
Lay low for a while and don't add anything that could die until you get things under control.
Good luck!
 
How is your dKH? I had this stuff a few years ago after acquiring a coral from someone.
Here is what I did, and of course you can take it with a grain of salt, ;)

1) Use GFO
2) increase your dKH
3) 2 hours max of light
4) Siphon out as much as possible
5) 10 to 20% water change every 3 days for two weeks.
6) As Rich said, patience. It really takes patience.

If you need help, I'd be more than happy to help you out.
 
Man, I've gotten so much conflicting advice on this from so many trustworthy people. It's really hard to know what to do. And I fear a middle road would be ineffective.

Some people say to do lots of water changes, siphoning it out.
Others say do NOT do any water changes, you'll only feed it.

Some say raise the dKh.
Others say it would only make a difference at the point it killed everything else as well.

Some say use GFO/Carbon.
Others say that will only feed it.

Some say no light, some say 2 hours, some say 4 hours.


I'm at the point where the stuff is really really weak, but I still know it's there--I can see it's bubbly tendrils.
So it's only a matter of time until it comes back strong (possibly just by increasing the light period), not to mention if I got careless and overfed, or if something died.

JAR, you made a good point that the dying stuff just kept feeding it.
Maybe I reach a point where it's done feeding off that and then it dies off, it just has to run its course?

I was doing some research on it and its wiki page said it can go into 'hibernation' (not the right word, but whatever) and reemerge from shells when conditions are better. What do I do about that?? (FWIW, I'm dealing with the same problem with weeds in my yard...)

Thanks for the words, everyone. At this point my stubborn side is kicking in and I'll kill it, even if everything else in my tank dies as well...
tb
 
I've noticed the trend seems to be after 6 months any algae, dino, cyno problem goes away magically on it's own. Most likely that's why all the advice works.
 
Patience as Rich said.

Stuff shows up and is gone the next day. I've gone through a couple cycles of it with the nukes in the tank, but it just goes away.
 
earthboy17 said:
Man, I've gotten so much conflicting advice on this from so many trustworthy people. It's really hard to know what to do.

That's reefing for ya.

There's a ton of superstition in this hobby. Personally I don't believe anyone about anything unless they can cite a controlled study.
 
pixelpixi said:
earthboy17 said:
Man, I've gotten so much conflicting advice on this from so many trustworthy people. It's really hard to know what to do.

That's reefing for ya.

There's a ton of superstition in this hobby. Personally I don't believe anyone about anything unless they can cite a controlled study.

That's my problem. I believe everyone on everything. Everything works and everything is bad.
 
pixelpixi said:
earthboy17 said:
Man, I've gotten so much conflicting advice on this from so many trustworthy people. It's really hard to know what to do.

That's reefing for ya.

There's a ton of superstition in this hobby. Personally I don't believe anyone about anything unless they can cite a controlled study.

Sounds like you aren't given the opportunity to believe much given there are so few studies done on most tank topics :(
 
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