Dinoflagellate battle for 3 months. Help!

[fishyreef13]

So I have been battling Dino’s for going on 3 months. I’ve managed to grow a significant amount of hair algae. And green and purple algae growing under the sand base. My nitrates are finally stable at 25 and phosphates are at 0.16. I got a uv sterilizer the other day after previously attempting that, but it ended up breaking. I’ve dosed microbacter clean. I’ve tried silicate dosing. As well as blacking out the tank, not sure what to do next.

 

[slingfox]

Taken from a post on another Dino thread:

My preferred approach to battling Dino’s is 1) manual removal daily or every few days, 2) UV sterilizer, 3) does nitrates and phosphates to ensure they are not at zero, 4) dose silicates, 5) and bottled bacteria (it seems like Tropic Marine Nitrobiotic is popular—I have historically dosed MicrobeLift Special Blend).

Additional tools are the UV sand sweeper on a daily basis, as well as dosing copepods and phyto (can get pricey). Some people do blackouts (I have never tried that) and dose hydrogen peroxide (also never tried). One thing I was going to try is dosing Aquaforest Life Source but by the time it arrived the uglies I was dealing with was gone.

The basic idea is to export Dino’s and do things so that the Dino’s get outcompeted by other less annoying microbes.

Of the above I believe the most important thing to do is constant and consistent manual removal (ie, daily basis). Then a reliable UV.

Manual removal in your situation means remove all rocks and scrub them off outside the tank. Siphon out the top layer is sand, rinse it with saltwater outside then you can add it back in. That should remove most of the Dino’s. Then you need to blow off the rocks daily and get the Dino’s removed form the water column through some sort of mechanical filtration.

 

[fishyreef13]

So when I scrub the rocks, I would be scrubbing the green hair algae off as well. Would this not be a bad thing at this point?

 

[slingfox]

So when I scrub the rocks, I would be scrubbing the green hair algae off as well. Would this not be a bad thing at this point?

No reason not to scrub the green hair algae unless you want it in your tank for some reason. Why would scrubbing the rocks be bad? It is aimed and exporting the uglies and providing space for the less annoying microbes to populate.

When there is a massive outbreak of Dino’s, the key is to export as much of it as possible and take other steps (eg, dosing and UV) to slow the regrowth of Dino’s and encourage the growth of less annoying microbes.

 

[Baylott224]

Don't worry the algae will survive!!! ,lol

 

[EnterName]

It's a new tank isn't it?

This might just be the ugly phase (you can look up the term if you aren't familiar).

With that amount of growth you really want undetectable nutrient levels. I don't want to know what the parameters would look like if all that algae wouldn't consume most of it right away. If those are in fact dinos they aren't there because your tank is lacking nutrients

Clean the tank, get rid of the nutrients and let the ugly phase pass, then your tank will be fine in time

 

[Dan_P]

So I have been battling Dino’s for going on 3 months. I’ve managed to grow a significant amount of hair algae. And green and purple algae growing under the sand base. My nitrates are finally stable at 25 and phosphates are at 0.16. I got a uv sterilizer the other day after previously attempting that, but it ended up breaking. I’ve dosed microbacter clean. I’ve tried silicate dosing. As well as blacking out the tank, not sure what to do next.

Oh boy, you’ve quite a mess on your hands.

There is a type of cyanobacteria that resembles what you have growing all over the aquarium. I can’t rule it out from photo you posted. Looking at a sample of it under the microscope would be the best bet for identifying what the stuff is. If it easily pulls away from the rocks, that is suggestive but not proof that it is a cyanobacteria.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

It took me 5 months to beat dino's, then it took another 6 months for my tank to recover and start growing again, so don't panic and hang in there. The reason I had dino's was because my nitrates well over 100. To me your nitrates "stable at 25" is high, all that algae is also hiding nutrients so your tank is more nutrient rich than the tests show.

I cannot see a powerhead in your tank, do you have any flow besides the return? I would get as much flow going as possible without blowing sand around.

What about dissolved organics, how are you removing docs? Do you have a skimmer or are you doing water changes?

 

[fishyreef13]

It's a new tank isn't it?

This might just be the ugly phase (you can look up the term if you aren't familiar).

With that amount of growth you really want undetectable nutrient levels. I don't want to know what the parameters would look like if all that algae wouldn't consume most of it right away. If those are in fact dinos they aren't there because your tank is lacking nutrients

Clean the tank, get rid of the nutrients and let the ugly phase pass, then your tank will be fine in time

The tank is 6 months old. I had upgraded from a smaller tank that was running for 2 years. Same rock, I just added new live sand.

 

[fishyreef13]

So I have been battling Dino’s for going on 3 months. I’ve managed to grow a significant amount of hair algae. And green and purple algae growing under the sand base. My nitrates are finally stable at 25 and phosphates are at 0.16. I got a uv sterilizer the other day after previously attempting that, but it ended up breaking. I’ve dosed microbacter clean. I’ve tried silicate dosing. As well as blacking out the tank, not sure what to do next.

Oh boy, you’ve quite a mess on your hands.

There is a type of cyanobacteria that resembles what you have growing all over the aquarium. I can’t rule it out from photo you posted. Looking at a sample of it under the microscope would be the best bet for identifying what the stuff is. If it easily pulls away from the rocks, that is suggestive but not proof that it is a cyanobacteria.

It blows off very easy with a turkey baster

 

[fishyreef13]

It's a new tank isn't it?

This might just be the ugly phase (you can look up the term if you aren't familiar).

With that amount of growth you really want undetectable nutrient levels. I don't want to know what the parameters would look like if all that algae wouldn't consume most of it right away. If those are in fact dinos they aren't there because your tank is lacking nutrients

Clean the tank, get rid of the nutrients and let the ugly phase pass, then your tank will be fine in time

I know traits were very low for a while basically undetectable so I have been dosing in the meantime, which is why my nitrates are now elevated

 

[EnterName]

It's a new tank isn't it?

This might just be the ugly phase (you can look up the term if you aren't familiar).

With that amount of growth you really want undetectable nutrient levels. I don't want to know what the parameters would look like if all that algae wouldn't consume most of it right away. If those are in fact dinos they aren't there because your tank is lacking nutrients

Clean the tank, get rid of the nutrients and let the ugly phase pass, then your tank will be fine in time

I know traits were very low for a while basically undetectable so I have been dosing in the meantime, which is why my nitrates are now elevated

Hm okay if the tank has been running for longer woth live rock this isn't an ugly phase that passes on it's own.

I would start with a proper identification. I assume it's a mixture of things. Green hair algae, possibility full of diatoms that cause the brown coloration and potentially dinoflagellates. I'm not aware of the cyano strain Dan mentioned (besides maybe Lyngbya?), but you can rely on Dan's word so I would suggest finding someone with a microscope. 200x better 400x magnification should be enough for a decent identification of pretty much everything that's growing in your tank.

Whatever it is manual removal will be a part of the solution as well as water changes and bringing nutrients back down. I know you are still within Randy's proposed target ranges and there are tanks that are running healthy with those parameters but this can differ from tank to tank.

 

[Dan_P]

It blows off very easy with a turkey baster

That is a hint that we are dealing with a cyanobacteria.

Someone suggested siphoning (i think it was this thread) it out into a filter sock in the sump. You might as well start suctioning it out. If you don’t like the filter sock idea, let the water flow to an bucket (make sue the end of the hose is clamped to the bucket so it doesn’t pull out snd flood the house) and add back new salt water. You should be able to do this in small steps if you want to spread out the water changes.

 

[MichaelReefer]

So I have been battling Dino’s for going on 3 months. I’ve managed to grow a significant amount of hair algae. And green and purple algae growing under the sand base. My nitrates are finally stable at 25 and phosphates are at 0.16. I got a uv sterilizer the other day after previously attempting that, but it ended up breaking. I’ve dosed microbacter clean. I’ve tried silicate dosing. As well as blacking out the tank, not sure what to do next.

Your nutrients show lower because all that hair algae is feeding on it. You could try peroxide but thats pretty bad. You need some more turbos and some algae eaters to help start cleaning it up, do some massive water changes, like 50% every few days to drop nutrients lower for the hair algae? It looks like someone else said, it appears to be a newer tank so thats part of it.

 

[fishyreef13]

Hey guys, so here is a bit of an update I did two 5 gallon water changes the past couple of days. I pulled each rock and scrubbed the hair algae off. This definitely has helped so far, Dino’s came back about 2 days after the first water change but much less and I could actually see white in the sand for the first time in forever. Corals look so much better as well.

 

[keatonmjenkins]

Hey guys, so here is a bit of an update I did two 5 gallon water changes the past couple of days. I pulled each rock and scrubbed the hair algae off. This definitely has helped so far, Dino’s came back about 2 days after the first water change but much less and I could actually see white in the sand for the first time in forever. Corals look so much better as well.

Just black your tank out for a week and do 5 gallon water changes to pull out the Dinos and algae and it should be good.
I wrapped black trash bags around mine, worked like a charm.
Do you have a CUC?

 

[fishyreef13]

Hey guys, so here is a bit of an update I did two 5 gallon water changes the past couple of days. I pulled each rock and scrubbed the hair algae off. This definitely has helped so far, Dino’s came back about 2 days after the first water change but much less and I could actually see white in the sand for the first time in forever. Corals look so much better as well.

Just black your tank out for a week and do 5 gallon water changes to pull out the Dinos and algae and it should be good.
I wrapped black trash bags around mine, worked like a charm.
Do you have a CUC?

Will a blackout have an affect on my coral? I have hermits,astrea snails, and margarita snails. My pistol shrimp is the only thing really stirring up my sand bed however

 

[jonelder68]

Go to petco and grab a bottle!

Clean everything the best you can and then start dosing TM nitribiotic. It truly is amazing stuff. I’ve struggled for a 1.5 years with my tank and it’s finally turned the corner since weekly dosing it. I had tried literally everything and spent a ton of money trying everything previously.

UV will help a ton as well! I’d try and get it back up and going. Not to mention keep your water looking invisible almost.

When doing cleanings I like to run a marineland magnum internal canister filter to catch all the debris that get stirred up while cleaning for easy removal. Also available at petco

 

[keatonmjenkins]

Hey guys, so here is a bit of an update I did two 5 gallon water changes the past couple of days. I pulled each rock and scrubbed the hair algae off. This definitely has helped so far, Dino’s came back about 2 days after the first water change but much less and I could actually see white in the sand for the first time in forever. Corals look so much better as well.

Just black your tank out for a week and do 5 gallon water changes to pull out the Dinos and algae and it should be good.
I wrapped black trash bags around mine, worked like a charm.
Do you have a CUC?

Will a blackout have an affect on my coral? I have hermits,astrea snails, and margarita snails. My pistol shrimp is the only thing really stirring up my sand bed however

It didn’t impact mine at all. When you bring light back on keep it dialed down for a couple days and slowly ramp up.

I also dosed bacteria to bring those numbers up to out compete Dino for organic nutrients.

This is also just part of a new tank and why you soak new rock for months with bacteria before turning on lights.

Tampa bay saltwater rock and sand is great to combat it too.

 

[EnterName]

Hey guys, so here is a bit of an update I did two 5 gallon water changes the past couple of days. I pulled each rock and scrubbed the hair algae off. This definitely has helped so far, Dino’s came back about 2 days after the first water change but much less and I could actually see white in the sand for the first time in forever. Corals look so much better as well.

Looks much better already! Don't get discouraged if it grows back, you removed so much unwanted stuff out of your water, great job!

That is a hint that we are dealing with a cyanobacteria.

Are you sure Dan? Dino mucus blows off quite easy as well (depending a little bit on severity of the issue and species in my experience). I'm not sure this is proof for cyanos yet but obviously cannot refute that theory either.