Beating dinos with experience

[sprungson]

Hi all,

I did a tank transfer into a RSR 525 (139gal). This included some bio balls and existing rock I've had for years. From day one I had 4 tangs, fox face, clowns, dwarf angel, and a couple wrasses. I also added a macroalgae reactor and dosed 1ml nopox a day. Had an initial bacteria bloom that cleared up first week. I fed about 3 times a day, and everything seemed great. I had nice green turf algae growing and tangs and clean up crew were keeping it on check.....

At week six, I added about 20-30 lbs worth of dry rock. Oooooh man, within 2 days, my tank got covered in dinos and killed off all the green algae I had (and it was the dino that stayed attached at night). Here's the thing, I'm not sure if it's from the dry rock or that my macro algae has grown a lot in a month and It caused nutrients to bottom out (or both)


What I did:
- I upped my feeding to like 8 times a day. Probably half a jar of ocean nutrition pellet a day. Not kidding. Got my nitrate back to 12 and pho to 0.04.
-raised the temp up to 83 for a week.
-i did not stop dosing nopox, I did not touch the chaeto reactor ( my logic here is that I wanted to sustain this practice).


After a week, all the dino died off, but so did all the algae ( I say this because my pH did not rise during the day, and only at night when my chaeto reactor turned on. I've now lowered my temp back to 77F and I've adjusted my feeding to four times a day. I also see my pH slowly going back up during the day. My corals have opened back up as well. Didnt lose any corals.

I know it was risky feeding that much , but I knew I had enough love rock to support all the waste.

Btw look how crazy my reefmat went during the dino outbreak

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi all,

I did a tank transfer into a RSR 525 (139gal). This included some bio balls and existing rock I've had for years. From day one I had 4 tangs, fox face, clowns, dwarf angel, and a couple wrasses. I also added a macroalgae reactor and dosed 1ml nopox a day. Had an initial bacteria bloom that cleared up first week. I fed about 3 times a day, and everything seemed great. I had nice green turf algae growing and tangs and clean up crew were keeping it on check.....

At week six, I added about 20-30 lbs worth of dry rock. Oooooh man, within 2 days, my tank got covered in dinos and killed off all the green algae I had (and it was the dino that stayed attached at night). Here's the thing, I'm not sure if it's from the dry rock or that my macro algae has grown a lot in a month and It caused nutrients to bottom out (or both)


What I did:
- I upped my feeding to like 8 times a day. Probably half a jar of ocean nutrition pellet a day. Not kidding. Got my nitrate back to 12 and pho to 0.04.
-raised the temp up to 83 for a week.
-i did not stop dosing nopox, I did not touch the chaeto reactor ( my logic here is that I wanted to sustain this practice).


After a week, all the dino died off, but so did all the algae ( I say this because my pH did not rise during the day, and only at night when my chaeto reactor turned on. I've now lowered my temp back to 77F and I've adjusted my feeding to four times a day. I also see my pH slowly going back up during the day. My corals have opened back up as well. Didnt lose any corals.

I know it was risky feeding that much , but I knew I had enough love rock to support all the waste.

Btw look how crazy my reefmat went during the dino outbreak

Prepare by starting with a water change and blow this stuff loose with a turkey baster and siphon up loose particles. Turn lights off (at least white and run blue at 10-15% IF you have light dependant corals) for 5 days and at night dose 1ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide per 10 gallons for all 5 nights. If you dont have light dependent coral- turn all lights off. During the day dose 1ml of liquid bacteria (such as micro bacter7 or XLM) per 10 gallons. Clean filters daily and DO NOT FEED CORAL FOODS OR ADD NOPOX

 

[BanjoBandito]

I'm not sure where the "NO CARBON DOSING" idea came from with dinos, because if we are in fact trying to "out compete" them, why wouldn't we want the bacterial count and diversity up via carbon dosing? I had a case of ostreopsis that was near unstoppable (I was super busy with work/pandemic stuff and I just let it go out of frustration for too long)....and I could see how carbon dosing wouldn't have helped that - I eventually tore the tank down and H202'd it into oblivion but it was a nano, so it was a 4 hour project basically. I dealt with sandbed dinos (unidentified) early on in the big tank when I set it up but lights off for a few days, sucking it out and then nippin' the vinegar took them right away. I also did away with whites for awhile on my light.

 

[Fishy888]

I'm not sure where the "NO CARBON DOSING" idea came from with dinos, because if we are in fact trying to "out compete" them, why wouldn't we want the bacterial count and diversity up via carbon dosing? I had a case of ostreopsis that was near unstoppable (I was super busy with work/pandemic stuff and I just let it go out of frustration for too long)....and I could see how carbon dosing wouldn't have helped that - I eventually tore the tank down and H202'd it into oblivion but it was a nano, so it was a 4 hour project basically. I dealt with sandbed dinos (unidentified) early on in the big tank when I set it up but lights off for a few days, sucking it out and then nippin' the vinegar took them right away. I also did away with whites for awhile on my light.

Carbon dosing does increase diversity but it also crashes ones n and p. Dinos come about from n, p, or both being 0 so it wouldn't be long before the bacteria from dosing crashes your nutrients. Plus dinos also love carbon.

 

[BanjoBandito]

Carbon dosing does increase diversity but it also crashes ones n and p. Dinos come about from n, p, or both being 0 so it wouldn't be long before the bacteria from dosing crashes your nutrients. Plus dinos also love carbon.

I guess I’m not considering the lack of nuance with carbon dosing. Crashing your N and P with carbon dosing is pretty reckless. Everybody wants quick fixes though.

 

[Fishy888]

I know I did when I started my battle with them. Thankfully my reef has turned a corner. I would still be battling them if a friend of mine hadn't helped me with some chaeto/pods and about 15ish pounds of live rock. Oh and an insane amount of feeding.

Even when the battle is over one has to be vigilant because of the cysts. I had a very brief scare about 2 weeks ago. I had fallen and had excruciating pain. As a result I was feeding the tank but couldn't bend down to keep the chaeto/pods in the sump well fed. I was looking in the tank and noticed a single strand of dinoflagellates on one rock. It literally wasn't there 2 hours before. I dumped a ton of frozen and flake food in the sump and blew the strand off the rock. The dinos have not been back since. I have a small amount of cyanobacteria mainly on the glass now but no dinos.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I know I did when I started my battle with them. Thankfully my reef has turned a corner. I would still be battling them if a friend of mine hadn't helped me with some chaeto/pods and about 15ish pounds of live rock. Oh and an insane amount of feeding.

Even when the battle is over one has to be vigilant because of the cysts. I had a very brief scare about 2 weeks ago. I had fallen and had excruciating pain. As a result I was feeding the tank but couldn't bend down to keep the chaeto/pods in the sump well fed. I was looking in the tank and noticed a single strand of dinoflagellates on one rock. It literally wasn't there 2 hours before. I dumped a ton of frozen and flake food in the sump and blew the strand off the rock. The dinos have not been back since. I have a small amount of cyanobacteria mainly on the glass now but no dinos.

Cysts remain in bedding and rock structure until depleted why some experience a reoccurrence .