Something is feeding the dino's. Maybe it isn't silicates. Maybe it is (as Rob thinks). Silicate reading and TDS today was very low for my RO. Same with my display tank.

Hospital tank is something I have been considering. At this point some sps are in pretty bad shape. This is due to the extended blackouts and shorter photoperiod. Many corals are browning out. Most sps are still doing fine.

I have 3 sps that are slowly fading to white with color only on the tips (base is bleached). This began before the dino outbreak probably due to such low phosphates/nirates.

What type of fish do you have and what sort of feeding regime are we talking about?

120G tank
3 young tangs, 3 wrasses and 2 small percs.

Spectrum pellets daily (small pinch), nori 3-4 times per week and frozen food 2x week (1/2 a cube).

Definetely not overfeeding - if anything I'm under feeding.

I would suggest running a few pads of Polyfilter, the Poly pads to adsorb certain forms of silicates that will not show on the standard home test kit.

"Poly-Filter can sorb polymeric silicates . Collodial silicates exist in a flux state with a percentage of the particles sticking to each other and organic compounds or complex inorganic compounds which helps form the complex polymeric silicates. As the collodial silicates are converted over to polymeric silicates they are sorbed by Poly-Filter."

Ian - thanks. That's a very interesting product.

Are the dinos harming your corals, or is it your attempts to rid your tank of them. Maybe its time to take a deep breath and slow down a bit. Remember to put your corals first, or you could loose them all!

Try the Rowa you just bought and see if it helps. Give it at least a month before you move on to something else. Something has to be feeding the dinos, its just finding out what it is.

I know, easy for me to say :redface: hang in there!

Rob - Great advise. I basically came to the conclusion about a week ago that I should put the corals first.

Once the dino's appeared I didn't do anything for 6 weeks hoping they would run their course and die out (like diatoms). Corals had great color and growth. For those first 6 weeks, other than being unsightly, the dino's only casuality was that the snails were becoming lethargic, falling of rocks and slowly dying. The sps were fine.

I've come to the conclusion that this is gonna be a long battle. I read alot and their are many strains of dino's. Some are resistant to high PH. Other strains cannot handle high PH. Some are fueled by silicates others aren't.

I'll try the Rowaphos and see where I am at a month from now.

gonna go out on a limb here and say that the pics look like diatoms to me, not dinos.........increase the flow to the lower part of the tank......any dry foods that go un-eaten will quickly dissolve into the water column and become food for whatever.......do you strain your frozen food?......

Get your water tested by another sorce or LFS. You'd be suprised how many false tests happen.

Lighting and phospahtes are my guess, how long did you let the NP pellets run? I noticed a bit of brown algae about 2-3 weeks from starting them.

When were your bulbs last repaced/installed? Coral bleaching is due to lighting, low Iodine & Strontium

Another product I found that works for algae is PridiBio BioDigest, http://perso.ovh.net/~prodibio/index...&eau_id=2&id=3

Ken - BWA