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Originally Posted by hunggi74
OP the algae you have is Dinoflagellates. I had/have the same issues and also use AF Reef salt. My nutrients were not in balance as my NO3 was anywhere between 10-50ppm but my PO4 was consistently low at 0.028.The worst thing you can do right now is water changes. The algae thrives on the trace elements in salt mix. I also used Comp123 and that has trace elements in it. My corals were being suffocated by the Dinos like yours are. I tried first a 96 hour blackout but that didn't faze them and only made my corals pale and my fish delvelop ich. I ended up getting some Dino X and dosing as per instructions. 21 day treatment max and then you have to stop dosing for a week. During that treatment time you syphon out visible dinos in tank and reduce your photoperiod to max 5 hours a day. So far after first full 21 day treatment my dinos have been reduced significantly. I still see some, but I'm hoping to be able to rid them by manually syphoning and by balanced nutrient reduction. I have done one water change since last treatment using the AF salt I have remaining. I don't dose Comp123. In fact, I don't dose anything now into tank except Alk. I don't want to do another treatment phase of dino x as I think my corals wouldn't be able to withstand another agggressive round of dino x. I lost a handful of pieces and the remaining corals are all brown to browner. Hoping to color them back up over time. After reading this thread and hearing horror stories about AF salt, I too will be using either IO or RS henceforth. Hope this helps you or anyone else going through the same issues.
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I definitely think you hit it on the head. I did a bunch of large WC which added fuel to the fire IMO. I tried the blackout which didn't seem to have any effect on these dinos. I may need to acquire a test kit to measure my silicates as this could be different with AF Reef Salt.
It seems to have mellowed out a bit and died off of the coral tips. That being said it is definitely still present in more of a purple hue. I plan on doing biweekly WC's again with the AF salt. Once I'm done this bucket I will reevaluate and possibly transition back to RC.
The weird thing is my tank looked like it was thriving and *bam* within a day this came out and took a hold. It is definitely not as stringy and more on the LR with bubbles. That being said I'm not sure when or if it will break out again. I reduced my photoperiod from 12hrs to 9 hrs with only 6 hr max intensity. The other gots account for sunrise and moon lights.
Has your tank shown any growth recently? Did the dead tips recede or eventually grow Over? Thanks for the information.