Dinoflagellates in Refugium

[eb2292]

Hey guys, I have recently noticed I have some Dino's in my refugium. As of writing, they are isolated to that rock in the pic, the egg crate, and on the glass baffle a bit. None in the display tank.

I have had the whole system with that refugium set up and running for a little over a year now. I have not touched the refugium sand bed since I set it up. The display tank has about 1-2 inches of sand. I noticed the Dino's about a week or so ago, they may have been there before that, but I have been very busy so did not take a good look.

All tank inhabitants have been in perfect health.

Ca - around 450
Alk - 8.5 dkh
Mag - 1400 ish
Nitrates - 0
Phosphate - 0.05

I run an appropriately sized skimmer, 1/2 cup gfo, and 1/2 cup ROX carbon. 105 gallon system.

So my question is, do I try to eradicate it? Or will it run its course? If it doesn't run its course will it travel to the DT and spell trouble for me down the road? I was thinking about just removing the sand bed in the refugium as I don't have mangroves or any burrowing animals in there.

I ordered a fresh CFL for the refugium, should be here tomorrow. Can't hurt. The light runs for 8 hours during the night.

All advice is welcome.
http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/06/18/9403fb389c91ccb50e0e79733547ecfa.jpg

[eb2292]

I just did a phosphate test with my hanna checker low resolution Phosphourus tester and I got 0.1.... I guess I will be changing out my gfo and adding more today. My last test where it read 0.05 was two weeks ago.

[eb2292]

Just did the ULR Phosphorus test a couple more times to see if it was my error that the phosphates were so high... I got .01 the first time, then .02 the second time.

Can anybody make sense of the situation?

Forgot to mention that I have a small amount of cyano on my sand in my display tank.

[eddiereefs]

Dinos are very hard to get rid of however i would do lights out for a week and that should take care of them, if chaeto dies just buy more or put a piece in yhe display but u dont want that gettin in ur dt

[gi_eric22]

How is your ph? I had a similar issue and dosed two part to raise my alk and ph Dino went away in a few days. My ph was low around 6 from what I remember. I had to run an outside line for my skimmer to help keep ph stable during winter months

[eb2292]

Lights out would be an easy solution. Can't hurt to give it a try.

My pH sits around 8.3, I dose kalk and the low pH 2 part solution because at one point, my pH was getting way too high with all the supplements going in.

Thank you for the suggestions

[EuroGTI]

The Dino is now in the water column. While it's not growing in the display, it could. It's not like other algaes or macros. I dread ever having to deal with it again. It seriously almost made me quit the hobby! That might not be Dino's though. It could just be algea and the bubbles coming from the water flow in the fuge/sump.

[eb2292]

Yikes. This is scaring me lol. Right now I'm trying lights out for a week. Should I get rid of that rock that there's a ton on?

[ridetheducati]

Physically remove as much nuisance algae and bacteria as possible. Add more cheato, which will out-compete the nuisance algae.

[eb2292]

I will add cleaning out the fuge and getting rid of that rock to my regimen so far

[Wetfooted]

How's the current progress?

[eb2292]

Sorry for the late update. I took out that rock and the egg crate. Did lights out for 7 days. Scraped the sides of the refugium and really cleaned it up aside from vacuuming the sand. I replaced the CFL bulb. And I am running a bigger quantity of GFO.

The dinos have returned, but not as bad. They still have not spread to the DT (knock on wood). But the bubbles are smaller, and are only attaching to the pieces of coraline on the glass that I missed. None on the sand or in the chaeto.