Another Dino Outbreak Thread

Salty Hops

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Hello all. I've been battling a Dino outbreak on my take for the past month and have been reading an obscene amount on it, however I still need advice on how to get rid of it. Tank is 15gal with HOB filter and is approx 4mo's old. Phosphates and Nitrates both bottomed out so I started heavy feeding and wasn't able to get Nitrates to a detectable level. Po4 finally got to .03 so started dosing NeoNitro and finally have nitrates to 5ppm. I also setup a UV filter which has been running past 24hrs.

I don't have a microscope so I don't know exactly what type I'm dealing with. Given that levels are finally detectable and coupled with the fact I'm running UV, how long would I expect it to take before dino's started disappearing if I'm addressing the problem? I've read that its also expected with newer tanks and to let it run its course, but wouldn't want it smother what few frags I do have.

Test kits:
phosphates: Hanna ULR
Nitrates- Salifert

Any recommendations would be appreciated. Been out of the hobby for about 10 years so its been fun getting back in and catching up on all that I've missed.

Livestock:
1 clown
1 flasher wrasse
 

dvgyfresh

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Dose microbacter 7, dim the lights for a week and only use blue lights. Keep nutrients higher and clean out filter socks / pads daily. I think this will help speed up getting rid of Dino’s , it’s what I did and it took a week for Dino’s to start to become defeated (still some in tank but less everyday)
 
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Salty Hops

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Dose microbacter 7, dim the lights for a week and only use blue lights. Keep nutrients higher and clean out filter socks / pads daily. I think this will help speed up getting rid of Dino’s , it’s what I did and it took a week for Dino’s to start to become defeated (still some in tank but less everyday)
thanks for the advice dvgyfresh. I've been dosing microbacter7 once a week for the past month (should this be more frequent) and dimmed the lights to primarily just blues. Was thinking of doing a blackout for 3'ish days since they are significantly reduced every morning. Problem is they're back so fast so not sure a blackout would contribute anything longer term.
 

Dolphins18

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Hey there, I am dealing with them on my tank I recently set up. I've dealt with them a lot in the past.
They make hang on back refugiums and if you can get one of those I think it would make your battle a lot easier.
Run that fuge light around the clock, order a few types of macroalgae and throw them in there.
And if you do this get rid of the UV, dont give your tank any pods or feed live pods anytime soon. Do not dose vodka or similar product by any means.
Fuge makes this easier but if you dont have one throw the algae in the display. It wont hurt anything. Let it grow, itll be ugly but once it takes hold the dinos will be gone and never come back. CUC to keep the algae at bay.
PO4 should be safe to lower in the future, just dont let it 0 completely. Even SPS will show great growth around .3-.5
Careful dumping different things in your tank, I have seen these become impossible to fight for people and its probably because some of that stuff kills off all the dinos competition.
 

dvgyfresh

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thanks for the advice dvgyfresh. I've been dosing microbacter7 once a week for the past month (should this be more frequent) and dimmed the lights to primarily just blues. Was thinking of doing a blackout for 3'ish days since they are significantly reduced every morning. Problem is they're back so fast so not sure a blackout would contribute anything longer term.
Yes Dino’s are photosynthetic so lights will help their growth , a blackout coupled with UV does a lot to limit / kill them problem is how many corals/ anemones you have a 3 day would be fine tho, I dosed microbacter 7 and neonitrate daily to help bring competition to the Dino’s
 

Dkmoo

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How are you currently removing them? I see from your post you are doing things to deal with water param, but didnt get a sense of the detail of your husbandry/manual removal methods.

Also a tank shot would help
 
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Salty Hops

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How are you currently removing them? I see from your post you are doing things to deal with water param, but didnt get a sense of the detail of your husbandry/manual removal methods.

Also a tank shot would help
I've been vacuuming the sand bed every couple days to get as much as I can which results in maybe 5% water loss that I replace with new saltwater. Other than that, i haven't done any significant water changes in about a month to try to dirty it up naturally as much as possible.
Here is a pic of the dinos shortly after lights came on.
 

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Dkmoo

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I've been vacuuming the sand bed every couple days to get as much as I can which results in maybe 5% water loss that I replace with new saltwater. Other than that, i haven't done any significant water changes in about a month to try to dirty it up naturally as much as possible.
Here is a pic of the dinos shortly after lights came on.
ok i c, here's what my experiences have been after successfully getting rid of dinos multiple times in my 4 year tank.

first off, i think there's a lot of misconception that "nutrient dropping out" somehow causes dino so the first reaction is to bring nutrient back up. what's actually happening is the other way around - "something" caused dinos to explode, and since they are a very efficient nutrient absorber, the dinos explosion is causing the levels to drop off. The real cause is generally a change anything that absorbs nutrient, or anything that produce nutrient that tipped the balance and caused extra nutrient in the system that caused dino to proliferate. in more nature tanks due to the biodiversity, temporary imbalances are more easily corrected because there's a lot more organisms absorbing the extra nutrient so dino doesn't take hold. In newer tanks such as yours, since dinos is a very fast nutrient absorber and you dn't have a lot of other biodiversity, its exploding.

I think if you've read a lot of posts, you probably already know most of the common treatment. However, you should understand the underlying mechanisms of these them b/c some are anti-synergistic. These generally fall in two categories - a "reduce growth condition to limit dino growth" vs "increase growth conditions to increase competition to keep dino in check". Since most of the treatments are not specifically targeting dinos and instead targets the entire biodiversity/microfauna, if you are "trying everything to see what sticks", some of the treatments are actually canceling themselves out. This is why dino's hard to beat for some people. Below is what i think of each of the common methods and when it's effective vs not effective:

1) raising nutrients - this is a "increase growth condition/raise competition" method. This only works if you actually have competition that you are trying to raise. Looking at the pictures of your rocks. it looks like its very bare so i'm guessing your system doesn't have a lot of competition yet. In cases like this, raising nutrient just means its more food to feed the dinos. Manual removal helps only if there's competition in the system that you are trying to nurture. Bacteria, cyano, algae, corals, are all competitors. So raising nutrient + manual removal of ONLY dinos will work. how long it takes depends on how small your starting population of competitors are.

2) Dosing Macrobactor or other bacteria bottles is another "raising competition" method, so it has synergies with raising nutrients.

3) reducing lighting period - this is a "reduce growth condition" method so it has anti-synergies with the two above. even tho dino need light, so does your corals/algae, which compete for nutrient. The organisms that need light the most would be most severely impacted so is that dinos vs something else depends on the specific make ups of individual tanks but generally b/c the reduced growth condition applies to all photosynthetic organisms, its has a bigger function of REDUCING competition.

4) UV - another "reduce growth" method - yes, it kills dinos, but it also inhibits algae and other bacteria competitors. Again, depends on what specific microorgansm is more susceptible to UV.

5) vaccuuming sandbed - manual dino removal is "increasing competition" but the nutrient removal is "reduce growth". so its hit or miss depending on which one of the two changes has a greater impact on your tank.

6) filter socks/increase nutrient export/skim - "reduce growth condition" method - has anti-synergies with any methods that try to increase competition.

As you can see from above, the key to effectively treating dinos depends on the specific combination of treatments you use.
 
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