Need help with Dinoflagellates

[10g Reef]

I have a huge dino problem. My 10 gallon tank started showing dinos about 2-3 weeks ago. I left the lights off for 3 days straight and keep pH at around 8.4 all the time. It either came from my live rocks or live sand. But anyway, it has gotten out of hand. I treated with chemi-clean just to make sure it was truly dinos and I am now 100% sure. The tank has numerous inverts, one zooanthid rock, a small royal gramma, and a small clownfish. My parameters are all good: ammonia-0 nitrite-0 nitrate-0. I run chemi-pure elite to cut down on phosphates. Photoperiod is only 8 hrs. per day. I don't know what else to do. I am thinking about tearing down the tank and restarting. I would boil all the rock and get new sand. What else would I need to do? What do I do with the fish while I re-cycle? I don't have any other tanks or anything that I could keep the fish in. I could set up another bare-bones 10g if neede, but what about the cycle? I need help!!!!!!

[Neya]

I had a bad dino issue several months ago. I followed the following article.

Water changes made it worse. Lights off did nothing. Capturing the stuff was awful because it just disintegrates.

I followed the following article:

 

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-11/rhf/index.php#2

 

I had some phosphates, so I used a phosphate reducer temporarily. I raised the PH to over 8.4 slowly(8.6 was goal daily, it required a lot of dosing, I tested ph & kh twice daily and dosed as needed)

 

8.4 was helping the spread but wasn't cutting it. When I began hitting 8.5-8.6 the die off began. I think in a couple days they were gone. I kept up the dosing for I think two weeks after they completely dissipated. I let the ph fall naturally back to my normal levels, the dino's never returned.

I think this method doesn't work for everyone, but it's worth a shot. Make adjustments to ph slowly