- Joined
- Feb 13, 2019
- Messages
- 417
- Reaction score
- 244
Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?
I don't know what percentage of folks had luck battling dinos with any of the methods in the old Dino thread but it's obviously a very low percentage, so I'd like refresh folks on the natural alternatives and lay out three areas of info: some of the factors that contribute to a dino outbreak...www.reef2reef.com
Here’s a great article on this forum. You do not want your phosphates and nitrates to bottom out. MB7 (Microbacter 7 bacteria) will actually work to get these numbers to zero. I haven’t heard of a nitrifying and denitrifying actually eating dinos. A bacterium is <10 microns or so while a dinoflagellate is typically much much bigger. (Dinoflagellates can be seen with a relatively cheap microscope, whereas bacteria are so small, you need a special microscope to id) I don’t think the bacteria (much less mb7) will munch on dinos.
I’ll put this in layman’s terms. Dinos take over when there is no competition from other things in the water - like microalgae for example. You want your tank to actually have algae in it. Bottled bacteria will help to keep microalgae and Cyanobacteria under control because they thrive in higher nutrient environments. However, once the algae starts to starve off, dinos are given the green light and when they put their foot in your tank, they won’t go away so easily.
- up your phosphates and nitrates, slowly
- UV filter
- hydrogen peroxide
They should steadily decline. It takes time, but you’ll get there eventually. No overnight fix.
Thanks, this is really helpful