Aghhh dinos AGAIN!

[Russ265]

so you're supposed to show the good with the bad....

had these guys beat back in november. Lights went full blast since the new year, been coasting ever since.

exibit a:

looking up at a 45 degree angle you will notice bubbles forming on the rock work. these are no ordinary bubbles... they are "magic" bubbles of goodness.

exibit b:

long strings. usually happens when the dinos "clump" together on the glass walls. they also clump in strings on your rockwork, and my personal favorite...... corralites!

exibit c:

the return. my personal favorite, and an indicator of when dinos are in your tank, as well as when you eradicate them. they are closest to the light, enjoy flow, and are a constant reminder that they are eyeballing your prized LEs down below.

i let these guys go for a couple days thinking that they would go away... on contrare my fellow aquarists... they are thriving and already killed a tip of one of my less than fluffy corals.

current actions:
lights out... peroxide needs to be eased in to my tank slowly.... this will not kill them on it's own. this just prevents them from attacking my sps for the time being.

turkey baste sps. strings have GOT to be removed or they will do damage.

drop temp to 76. this is not one i want with a fast metabolism.... my current tank temp is 82 f. i will drop 3 degrees per 24 hours.

peroxide back on the doser. 2ml per hour on my 300g system has resulted in 0 losses and is sufficient for lighting to return to normal.

no cleaning at all... let everything and anything outcompete dinos. even cyano.

more to come:

 

[cowboy]

Following for sure still looking for something to eradicate this stuff.

 

[twilliard]

Oh russ.. sorry to see this.
We have dinoflagellates in our frag tank and it's taking a toll on the corals.
I will be back

 

[Russ265]

initial dose with lights out. What i personally look for....







zoas and duncans are highly sensitive to peroxide. although they will close initially, they will later come back out.

sps polyps should not be affected.

the cleaner shrimp is also highly sensitive to dosing. if he dies, you went too far. unfortunately, this is the canary in the coal mine for me.

 

[twilliard]

Here is a close up view of dinoflagellates

 

[Williard_Karen]

Twilliard found the Dino's in my tank... Needless to say, I'm losing some of my corals and fish... I wish there was a way to eradicate them [emoji22]

 

[Russ265]

Twilliard found the Dino's in my tank... Needless to say, I'm losing some of my corals and fish... I wish there was a way to eradicate them [emoji22]

no reason to lose fish unless you've got those strands everywhere. i had a YT that had a strand hanging from his snout but didnt lose him.

i lost 6 pieces of coral before i got a handle on dosing and how to keep a happy medium in the tank.

 

[cowboy]

In my experience with dinos several of your tangs, rabbit fish and Fox fave will actually eat the dinosaur so for you to see fish loss with dinos I would lean towards something else effecting the fish.

 

[Russ265]

after 6 hours of lights out and dosing 2ml per hour on my 300 system....

now im going to let my evening lights go, and let lighting return to normal for tomorrow.

if bubbles start forming on the rock enmasse then it is time to shut off the lights and let peroxide continue it's work.

eventually they will die faster than they can reproduce. this will take longer if you have been fiddling with them for a couple weeks or a month.



here is an initial lights on afterward.

ill record if they start coming back but it is doubtful since my blues are going.

what will be more telling is tomorrow during peak lighting.

-documenting for those of you who have never kicked this plague before.

 

[ksc]

I ran a UV at night with very low flow. It kills them when they are in the water column.

 

[Russ265]

I ran a UV at night with very low flow. It kills them when they are in the water column.

yeah it does. it just wont kill the stubborn ones on the return and rocks. it does a great job though with a lights out regimen

 

[ksc]

I think it was an article by Sunnyx that recommended the use of KZ Coral Snow (basically chalk powder). Supposedly the CS will bind to the dinos and trap them in a filter sock. Most dinos will require at least a 50 micron sock but the CS allows them to be caught in a 1-200 micron sock. This worked for me along with large doses of phyto to out compete the dinos. I was losing sps at the time and didn't want to dose anything more aggressive.

 

[bobman]

Will be following I have what I thought was algae on my powerheads and sand but after seeing you pic its exactly what is on my powerheads. Will have to break out a microscope and take a closer look. It has been there for quite sometime now dosent seem to get any worse but it aint getting any better either. My sand I am not convinced is dino but it could be as it looks the same and has bubbles.

 

[Russ265]

one hour in. some really tiny tiny bubbles but nothing i care about.

without treatment, invasion occurs quickly ime.

zoas and duncans are out too with lights on. lights do affect the time peroxide works. peroxide is just to get them in their free-swimming mode. this happens when it is night time.

 

[Russ265]

just an update.
left my lights run its usual ramp up period. About 2 hours in to my white's peak hours i had to shut it down.

saw a dino in a corralite. So... used a turkey baster to blow it off.

as a reference, this is the blue color temp i talk about to keep dino growth to a minimum.

 

[buckeye82]

Sorry to hear. Definitely feel your pain. And to come back a second time. Bummer.

 

[buckeye82]

Russ, is your return flexible? One thing that worked to get the dinos off mine was to get them higher than the water just enough to touch the water surface but not be covered. The more things I could remove as growing surfaces for them the better. Also why only 48ml a day for a 300? Would think with time you could get that up higher to 2 treatments at 1:10 ratio. Stronger doses rather than spread out. Things I know you already know since you have helped me but just thoughts to throw out.

 

[metrokat]

following

 

[Russ265]

Russ, is your return flexible? One thing that worked to get the dinos off mine was to get them higher than the water just enough to touch the water surface but not be covered. The more things I could remove as growing surfaces for them the better. Also why only 48ml a day for a 300? Would think with time you could get that up higher to 2 treatments at 1:10 ratio. Stronger doses rather than spread out. Things I know you already know since you have helped me but just thoughts to throw out.

good idea but i have a dolphin diamond 6250 shooting water out harder than an mp40. i would get salt creep on my lights in no time.

the 1:10 ratio is a "one and done" event. it is also only good for 4 hours before the half life is burnt up. this can also kill my cleaner shrimp (guilty as charged).

ime this "slow" method works to KEEP dinos down. the bombs i did knocked them back to next week, but they would come back in short order.

hope that makes sense

 

[buckeye82]

good idea but i have a dolphin diamond 6250 shooting water out harder than an mp40. i would get salt creep on my lights in no time.

the 1:10 ratio is a "one and done" event. it is also only good for 4 hours before the half life is burnt up. this can also kill my cleaner shrimp (guilty as charged).

ime this "slow" method works to KEEP dinos down. the bombs i did knocked them back to next week, but they would come back in short order.

hope that makes sense

Ahh makes sense if you have the cleaner shrimp. If there is one thing with dinos it is never a one size fits all. I sent Todd a sample last week and he says there were none in the samples which is crazy to think after 10 or 11 months they are finally gone in my system. I hope your second batch of them don't last that long. You ever tried adding copepodes to consume the dinos? Between that and the UV I added a few months back, one of them or both along with peroxide may have helped. Hard to say as I did both around the same time. Article I came across that made me try once I got my Dino population low to that last pesky 5-10%

http://www.scienceisart.com/dockbook/a2012-09-Sep/a2012-09.html