Yes, agree (at least partial...), if the "disease" has gone that far so the corals are really suffering, maybe a black out is bad. But only maybe, because its more stressfull for a sick coral to get too much light than opposite, and its more stressful for a coral to prolonge the dino outbreak. Its like a patient, as long as the treatment is doing before "no point of return", the action improves the outcome.
So We maybe have a little different experience of this. I have struggled with dino for 26 years, and tried everything , and must say that all these ideas with dosing this and that has low working potential AME (dino may dissappear by itself when small outbreaks). One of the worst cure was the "Algenex" or similar. Its an algicide. It works 2 weeks, then it comes back, and THAT really hurt your corals, as you do not want to kill the zooxanthelle (which is a dinoflagelate).
I have been afraid of dino due to these all bad cures, and also quitted a few tanks back in the days. Finally when I tested UVC I thought the non chemical solution was there. yes and no, only for dinos that leave the sand we said. And then suddenly I got that dino that do NOT leave the sand. UVC only didnt help at all. (I checked that dino in microscope). So I added black out, and 3 days later 100% white sand and no recurrense. After 6 months it came back, same dino, did not leave the sand (brown sand also in the morning). I combined again black out and UV and dino disappeared. At this time I posted my study where I calculated how much P and N really contains, and found it was a lot. And from there I really doubt that low P and N is the cause, as I know that Dino can consume N and P in hours. Many reefers test N and P when dino is a fact, and do not know if it was consumed or low before it started. I have also seen a lot of dino cases where both N and P are high in the beginning. And I have also seen , logic according to my findings above, that dosing P is just fueling the dino.
A friend of mine had dino last year, he was told to add PO4, dino just increased. I told him to stop, and dino dissapperad. Just a sitation from real life. Maybe a coincidence but at least PO4 addition didnt help. (he had zero in po4 as long as he had dino as dino consumed it)
For me I am happy that I finally arent afraid of maybe the worst thing that may happen, a Dino bloom, thanks to this. And especially as its harmless as its no additives or chemicals at all. I think many have not correct flow/watt ratio in the UV and also too low flow compared to the tank size.
Jonas
lol
