Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

[HomeSlizzice]

I'm feed up, most of this post is an outlet to vent from the extreme frustration i have been going through for months.. Out of this frustration i am mad at vendors, follow my protocol, buy my bacteria, do this, do that, just for it all to come back. How many power heads have been developed over the past few months? Skimmers? Lights? The Tech in this hobby has taken off as if we were in the fashion world but what about the problems a lot of us face with Dinos? I feel it's more and more common, and yet no cure no one want to take this on? I have spent probably close to $1000 in bacteria, lost $600-$800 in corals. It feels as if i'm always buying something to combat them or start this or start that. To see Dinos growing on the fins of your fish, who know what it feels like for them to be in a tank of nasty gunk. It really has gotten to a point for me that it ruins my day. I do not hang out in the room with the tanks anymore. i don't want to be around them, its not fun. I truly think this is my last, my absolute last reach for a solution before i leave this hobby for good.

I have a 120 and a 8 gallon. Both have amphidinium per an Id from a post i did in the past. They started on my sand bed then rocks, power heads, over flow, returns, snails, corals and glass.

I have tried Dr. Tims method black out, Waste away and Refresh. Worked for 2 days after the lights were back on. Within 4 days they were covering 70% of the tank again.

I have tried H202 - made it worse. The days after h202 the dinos were covering more area than before. I even target sprayed the dinos with flow off and a syringe. I even injected h202 into the sand bed where dinos were.

I tired hitting areas with rodi water, flow off attempting to kill them with salinity shock.

I have tried UV - does nothing for dinos.

I tried elegant corals method of creating a bacteria bloom with vodka dosing. This was the worst mistake i made. It bottomed out my nutrients to 0 and 0 with po4 and no3.

I have tried to siphon out into a 5 micron sock and pump the water back in.

I have tried Dino-x, killed 1/2 of the sps frags i had. Followed the directions perfectly.

Tried Vibrant - did nothing but lower nutrients.

Tried sea lettuce as there was rumors it released a toxin that killed dinos.

I tried Silica dosing, a ton of bacteria dosing, skimmer off and dirty method. po4 is currently .3 and no3 is currently 20ppm and guess who is currently thriving more and more each day? Dinos!!! BTW no green algae anywhere in the tank.

All i care about is the health of the fish. The $800 in corals are worth losing at this point no reason to try and keep them alive if i have a chance at wining this.

I also have tried multiple orders from Indo Pacific Sea Farms for their live sand activator, miracle mud, pods for bio-diversity. Funny thing, the mud and sand were covered in dinos the following day!

All said and done i'm in the area of $2000-$2500 trying to rid the tanks of these things.

I would pay someone to come out to my house and fix this, i'm literally desperate.

I'm at the point of being so sour that i can say this, all of the posts to follow if any, will provide me with an option:
I have already tried, wait it out (which we know does not work), or break down the tank and start over. Crazy that at this point in this hobby from where it was 10 years ago there is no real solution.

Thanks for letting me vent some i do feel better inside. Any suggestions?

Hey man, I'm sorry to hear about your trouble with Dinos. I had similar issues.

I made a post on this thread outlining what I've done to win my battles against dinos: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ready-to-throw-in-the-towel-from-dinos.652369/page-8#post-6652245

Also, I was asked some good questions by the OP, and here is my response: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ready-to-throw-in-the-towel-from-dinos.652369/page-9#post-6654253


Just so it's all listed here, take a look at what I've done. It also won't cost you a lot of extra money and worked for me after trying for months with no success.


"I've fought Dino's before about a year or 2 ago and won. I also had them pop up recently in a newer tank.

""A year or 2 ago I had a bad case of Dinoflagellates (Prorocentrum). So this is what I did. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dinoflagellates-–-are-you-tired-of-battling-altogether.293318/post-4646352

Alright so here is a the update on battle with Dinoflagellates (Prorocentrum). Like I mentioned about a week ago. I did the following protocol after about a 7-10 days of running my Ozone generator (AquaMaxx Tech-O3 UPS300 Ozonizer - 30 mg/hr) with only minimal results on the dinos. I decided to do the following as an all out attack on the dinos. I gleaned my approach from Leonard Ho ( https://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/how-i-beat-dinoflagellates-and-thelessons-i-learned ) and Sonny Harajly( http://reefsite.com/2015/01/dinoflagellates-and-the-treament-of/ ).


1. 3 day blackout. I didn't cover my tank though, just no lights. (Skimmer, Ozone, and GAC all running during the black out)

2. dosed DIY Zeo Coral Snow daily (Calcium Carbonate https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-kz-coral-snow-with-97 purity.211722/ ) This is a flocculent to help bind and remove the free floating Dino’s.

3. Turkey bast the rocks and sand to get as many dinos free floating as possible so they get bound to the Calcium Carbonate slurry. Turkey Baster combined with the blackout was key to getting the dinos free floating so they could bind to the "Coral Snow".

4. Ran my ozone. (1 hour on / one hour off; 30mg/hr is my unit and my tank is around 75 gallons total volume) Leonard Ho and Sonny in their articles both recommended Hydrogen Peroxide since neither ran Ozone, but the goal is they are doing a similar job.

5. After the 3 day blackout, most of the dinoflagellates appeared to
gone. I did a 15 gallon water change at the end of the 3 day blackout
while vacuum siphoning as much of the sand bed as possible (not removing
the sand, also there was a ton reddish-brown residue (dinos) at the
bottom of my water container), and added some Dr Tim's Eco Balance after
the water change.

6. Run GAC the entire time because some dinos are toxic and can/will smell (my prorocentrum did)

7. After the 3 day black out, I ran my lights (AI Hydra 26HD's) with only blues and violets at 50% for 4 hours total. So 1 hour ramp up, 2 hour peak, and 1 hour ramp down. Again the peak was only 50% and only blues and violets. I have then increased my peak photo period by 30 minutes to an hour each day, but am keeping the same intensity and still only running blues and violets.

8. After about 5 days or so (Friday) I did another 15 gallon water change while primarily vacuum siphoning of my sandbed again. At this point, there was not really any reddish brown color (dinos) in my waste water, just the more common lighter brown waste water color from vacuuming sand.


I am going to continue to run Ozone daily (for the same 1 hour on / 1 hour off) and dose my DIY Coral Snow every few days. I am also going to continue to slowly increase my photo period (currently at 7 hours total, with a 5 hour peak until I get to my desired 12 hours total, and will then add in my other color LEDs to get my preferred daylight look). Also that $15 microscope was a great investment in figuring out what I was fighting in the first place, thank you for the recommendation.

Lower feeding amount slighty, I also dosed some MB7. I also lowered my 2 part dosing to slowly drop levels to desired parameters, I think they got out of whack because of my salinity issue and having several coral deaths as a result of the dinos.""





I also have Dino's that popped up in a new tank I have, running bare bottom. Goal is an SPS focused mixed reef. I will add sand after I move. So from my previous lessons, this is my new plan going forward that I essentially started last night.

Again, I gleaned my approach from Leonard Ho ( https://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/how-i-beat-dinoflagellates-and-the-lessons-i-learned ) and Sonny Harajly( http://reefsite.com/2015/01/dinoflagellates-and-the-treament-of/ ), but with some alteration from my last experience.


Dino battle in 45G Shallow Reef:

-3 day blackout. I didn't cover my tank though, just no lights. (Skimmer, Ozone, and GAC all running during the black out)

-dosed DIY Zeo Coral Snow daily (Calcium Carbonate https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-kz-coral-snow-with-97-purity.211722/ ) This is a flocculent to help bind and remove the free floating Dino’s.

-Turkey bast the rocks and sand to get as many dinos free floating as possible so they get bound to the Calcium Carbonate slurry. Turkey Baster combined with the blackout was key to getting the dinos free floating so they could bind to the "Coral Snow".

-Run Carbon, and Skimmer!

-Siphon out all visible Dino’s with water changes and/or fine filter sock into sump.

-3% Hydrogen Peroxide(1ML per 10GL) & Ran my ozone per usual; Leonard Ho and Sonny in their articles both recommended Hydrogen Peroxide since neither ran Ozone, but the goal is they are doing a similar job. Ozone I don't believe is necessary as I have had the ozone on my tank for the past few months, but I only run it a little for each day. I didn't do H2O2 last time, but will try it on my current run.

-Add good bacteria (I have some MB7 and Seachem Stability on hand, both are cheap)

-After the 3 day black out, I will run my lights (AI Hydra 26HD's) with only blues and violets at 20-25% for 12 hours total, and do acclimation mode for 7-14 days after.

-Using Kalk as I normally do for Ca/Alk. I am using kalk on this new tank for the pH buffering and simplicity. I think Kalk is highly underutilized by most people.

-After the 3 day blackout, most of the dinoflagellates should appear to gone. I will do a water change at the end of the 3 day blackout while vacuum siphoning as much as possible, and add some bacteria Dr Tim's/MB7/etc.

-After about 4-7 days or so do another water change while primarily vacuum siphoning of my sandbed/rocks. At this point, there should not really be any reddish brown color (dinos) in my waste water, just the more common lighter brown waste water color from vacuuming sand/rocks.


I hope this helps. I've found that by going and looking at and using the methods a lot of the OG's (Anthony Calfo, Leonard Ho, Sonny, Dan Riggle, Ali from Amazing Aquariums & Reefs, WWC, etc) I've had the most success. "

 

[ScottB]

I really appreciate you taking the time to respond to my post. That is a very interesting scenario you got there with the 3 tanks and 1 sump and only one is impacted by DINOs.

Once I modify my setup so that the UV is running in the display, I am going to give that a week or two in order to evaluate the results. After that, if needed, I will proceed with a lengthy blackout. I will also see about capturing some video so that I can get a positive ID on these things.

I'm really trying hard not to break down the whole tank, but I am running out of options so I hope this works.

I think we can get your tank cleared a lot easier and cheaper than a break down. Let's hope it is just ostreopsis as it is typically easiest to remedy.

Lets start with the microscope. Here is a link to a nice one -- a little over your $50 budget, but the phone holder is worth it. I bought a crazy expensive one, but I get to use it frequently.


If you are not already dosing to get your nitrates & phosphates up, I worked with these:



U can google to find solution and dosing directions here or reefcentral.

Here is a pic of my ostreopsis frag tank complete with the UV on the left, the dosers in the back, and the filter floss flying in the flow. Ostreopsis likes to cling onto it and I just rinse them each evening. Put them in high flow and light locations. Helps keep the dinos off the corals.

This is my second round (well maybe third; there was a small relapse last time) and only the first time did it travel through the sump to a different tank. But I was slow in reacting and actually did some stuff to make it worse.

 

[RMS18]

Hey man, I'm sorry to hear about your trouble with Dinos. I had similar issues.

I made a post on this thread outlining what I've done to win my battles against dinos: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ready-to-throw-in-the-towel-from-dinos.652369/page-8#post-6652245

Also, I was asked some good questions by the OP, and here is my response: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ready-to-throw-in-the-towel-from-dinos.652369/page-9#post-6654253


Just so it's all listed here, take a look at what I've done. It also won't cost you a lot of extra money and worked for me after trying for months with no success.

Hey thanks for this. So i do believe in multiple tactic approaches for amphidinium and this is a combination iv'e never used before. I have a few questions to clarify before i start:

How much h202 per gallon?
How often and when to dose?
How much carbon did you run extra or recommend amount per gallons?
Should i stir sandbed daily?
Should i remove filter socks?
Keep cheato reactor on?
Should i filter the water from the w/c through a 5 micron sock and pump water back in or use new like you did?
Does it matter on the type of bacteria used? i asked because i have 4 8oz bottles of Bio-Spira on hand and Waste Away.

 

[HomeSlizzice]

Hey thanks for this. So i do believe in multiple tactic approaches for amphidinium and this is a combination iv'e never used before. I have a few questions to clarify before i start:

How much h202 per gallon?
How often and when to dose?
How much carbon did you run extra or recommend amount per gallons?
Should i stir sandbed daily?
Should i remove filter socks?
Keep cheato reactor on?
Should i filter the water from the w/c through a 5 micron sock and pump water back in or use new like you did?
Does it matter on the type of bacteria used? i asked because i have 4 8oz bottles of Bio-Spira on hand and Waste Away.

"How much h202 per gallon?" 1ML per 10GL

"How often and when to dose?" For H2O2, I would dose at once a day at night, you could do twice a day if you'd want. I simply use a syringe to dose it under the water level.

"How much carbon did you run extra or recommend amount per gallons?" Recommended amount is fine, just swap it out at least once a week

"Should i stir sandbed daily?" Stirring the sand would be a good idea, but ideally I would gravel vac the sand bed instead into either the 5 micron filter sock or via a water change.

"Should i remove filter socks?" I don't run socks personally, but if you change them often then they might be helpful. I just find them to be too much work, and the best tanks I've seen in person don't use them.

"Keep cheato reactor on?" I don't run a fuge or chaeto reactor on my new tank, so idk... if it is growing I say yes. If it's struggling or dying off I'd take it offline.

"Should i filter the water from the w/c through a 5 micron sock and pump water back in or use new like you did?" I know recently most people have advised against water changes when fighting Dinos. You'll notice that in the two articles I linked that those authors also disagreed on water changes. Personally I liked doing them because of mainly the manual removal of the dinos, but also the added benefit of removing any potential toxins. Make sure your water change water is on point with the correct salinity obviously. Doing a daily water change is a lot of work though and could be excessive, so you could do a mixture of both if you wanted to. However, I didn't do that much work haha.

"Does it matter on the type of bacteria used? i asked because i have 4 8oz bottles of Bio-Spira on hand and Waste Away." I don't think it matters too much, I have used a mix. I am using MB7 and Seachem Stability this time around on my new tank. I ran out of MB7, so only going to use Stability from now on because I have it on hand. Any good bacteria supplements should be sufficient, just use what you have on hand and is affordable.

Also, don't forget to use the DIY Coral Snow, as I believe was an important part in winning this. Do the DIY version, its way cheaper. This and turkey basting the rocks, along with everything else I listed made a difference for me when nothing else worked. I think the multi part approach is important.

I hope this all helps!

 

[RMS18]

"How much h202 per gallon?" 1ML per 10GL

"How often and when to dose?" For H2O2, I would dose at once a day at night, you could do twice a day if you'd want. I simply use a syringe to dose it under the water level.

"How much carbon did you run extra or recommend amount per gallons?" Recommended amount is fine, just swap it out at least once a week

"Should i stir sandbed daily?" Stirring the sand would be a good idea, but ideally I would gravel vac the sand bed instead into either the 5 micron filter sock or via a water change.

"Should i remove filter socks?" I don't run socks personally, but if you change them often then they might be helpful. I just find them to be too much work, and the best tanks I've seen in person don't use them.

"Keep cheato reactor on?" I don't run a fuge or chaeto reactor on my new tank, so idk... if it is growing I say yes. If it's struggling or dying off I'd take it offline.

"Should i filter the water from the w/c through a 5 micron sock and pump water back in or use new like you did?" I know recently most people have advised against water changes when fighting Dinos. You'll notice that in the two articles I linked that those authors also disagreed on water changes. Personally I liked doing them because of mainly the manual removal of the dinos, but also the added benefit of removing any potential toxins. Make sure your water change water is on point with the correct salinity obviously. Doing a daily water change is a lot of work though and could be excessive, so you could do a mixture of both if you wanted to. However, I didn't do that much work haha.

"Does it matter on the type of bacteria used? i asked because i have 4 8oz bottles of Bio-Spira on hand and Waste Away." I don't think it matters too much, I have used a mix. I am using MB7 and Seachem Stability this time around on my new tank. I ran out of MB7, so only going to use Stability from now on because I have it on hand. Any good bacteria supplements should be sufficient, just use what you have on hand and is affordable.

Also, don't forget to use the DIY Coral Snow, as I believe was an important part in winning this. Do the DIY version, its way cheaper. This and turkey basting the rocks, along with everything else I listed made a difference for me when nothing else worked. I think the multi part approach is important.

I hope this all helps!

Thanks for much for this. I already ordered The snow it should arrive today.

One last question, what dosage of bacteria should I do? Did you dose only after w/c?

Thanks again!

 

[taricha]

"Does it matter on the type of bacteria used? i asked because i have 4 8oz bottles of Bio-Spira on hand and Waste Away." I don't think it matters too much, I have used a mix. I am using MB7 and Seachem Stability this time around on my new tank. I ran out of MB7, so only going to use Stability from now on because I have it on hand. Any good bacteria supplements should be sufficient, just use what you have on hand and is affordable.

My take on this (probably way too simple, but may be useful) is that there are a couple of important role differences.
Some of these bacterial products are shorter-term grunge eaters - Waste Away etc. Probably most accurate to call these aerobic heterotrophs. They go in, break down and consume waste of a few different forms. After a few days to a week or two - based on product directions, for whatever reason (waste is mostly gone? not suited to long-term reef tank survival?) are no longer abundant and active. They swim in the water a lot in addition to finding goodies on surfaces and can be found under the microscope as super active wiggling free swimming cells. These products warn about cloudy water bacterial blooms, and the danger of overdosing.

A separate class of products is the ones that are all about colonizing surfaces and establishing bacterial biofilter. These are your tank cyclers, ammonia oxidizers: nitrification, denitrification etc. These are long term slow actors, they form the biofilms in the tanks and can set up shop permanently if conditions are right. Seachem Stability, Dr, Tims One and Only, etc. They aren't swimmers, under the microscope observation they are pretty much always clumps and move about as much as a knot on a log. These products don't really warn as strongly about overdosing or bacterial blooms.

Some products descriptions make it sound like they are a mix: MicroBacter7 etc. I don't know if a mix compromises anything in the quality of the population of either type, and I haven't observed these under the microscope.
I believe that both kinds of bacterial actors could be important in remediating a tank with problems. My very thin evidence for this is that I examined a strong cloudy-water bloom (intentionally) caused by Waste Away, and found many zooming swimming bacteria that had shapes totally unlike the Waste Away cells, in addition to a few that did look like what came out of the bottle. So I think that a grunge eater type causes other unrelated bacteria to also increase due to liberated food sources, so I'd totally add a stabilizing surface colonizing type if I were adding a grunge-eating type.

 

[taricha]

Thank you taricha, I did exactly that, and they seem to have vanished when turning off the light for 18 hours... Not sure what will happen if I turn the lights back on, should the UV have killed them all off? Any other idea how to get them out of the water once floating?

If ostreopsis disappear from all surfaces under light-out, that means they are in the water, and if you are running UV in the display, then you are killing them. When lights come back on, whatever cells are living will recolonize surfaces and you can see how much you are still dealing with.

usually, they will do a nightly cycle of going into the water, so blackouts not typically needed.

 

[Barracuda85]

If ostreopsis disappear from all surfaces under light-out, that means they are in the water, and if you are running UV in the display, then you are killing them. When lights come back on, whatever cells are living will recolonize surfaces and you can see how much you are still dealing with.

usually, they will do a nightly cycle of going into the water, so blackouts not typically needed.

Hello again

In a previous post we were talking about prorocentrum, and indeed they only went into the water column when blasting them, would not go into column by their own at night.

So I guess i will keep blasting they come back with the lights. How long would it take to kill them with lights out?

Thanks for all the advice

 

[taricha]

In a previous post we were talking about prorocentrum, and indeed they only went into the water column when blasting them, would not go into column by their own at night.

So I guess i will keep blasting they come back with the lights. How long would it take to kill them with lights out?

sorry about confusing the type, I thought I correctly followed our comment thread back. Oops.

I wouldn't try to hammer the blackouts. Dinos can survive blackouts longer term than a lot of the things you'd want to keep alive and supporting. But yes, blasting surfaces, and some cells still will go into water at night. Wait and see what comes back before you jump straight in to doing more blackouts.

 

[HomeSlizzice]

Thanks for much for this. I already ordered The snow it should arrive today.

One last question, what dosage of bacteria should I do? Did you dose only after w/c?

Thanks again!

On my first go around I only did it after water changes. I just followed the standard dosage, or dosed a little under. You could probably dose daily if you wanted, but if so I'd only do like half the dosage or maybe even a 1/4. TBH I didn't put too much thought into it.

 

[Xavier434]

If ostreopsis disappear from all surfaces under light-out, that means they are in the water, and if you are running UV in the display, then you are killing them. When lights come back on, whatever cells are living will recolonize surfaces and you can see how much you are still dealing with.

usually, they will do a nightly cycle of going into the water, so blackouts not typically needed.

Quick question. I see people talk about Ostreopsis "disappearing" when the lights are out a lot. What exactly does this look like though?

Are we talking beautiful white sand with the lights off and almost zero visible signs of Dinos anywhere? Or are we talking about a lot of brown "stuff" on the sand with the lights off, but it is obvious that the Dinos are not as active (ie no bubbles, no strains of Dinos stretching from the sand towards the light, etc)?

 

[HWDylan]

Ok I am joining this thread now after banging my head against a wall for weeks trying to figure out what was wrong with my tank. Its a 400ish gallon system (300 display)

Very high Cal and Alk usage with no corals in the tank, also no coralline algae to speak of (small amounts grown and then immediately die).

Thread here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/high-alk-consumption-with-very-few-corals.653216/

I began dosing PO4 and NO3 to drive up nutrients in a tank that was reading 0 for both (should have been my first hint that this was a dino issue). I had what looked like brown powder on the rocks and bottom (its a bare bottom tank with ABS plastic). I always assumed it was diatoms. I have a BIG Pentair UV sterilizer (the 80w HO unit rated for 600 gallons) that is hard plumbed into my system. I took it offline for a week and boom... thats when the dinos really started to show themselves. everything got covered in a few days. Whole tank was brown, you guys know the drill here.

So I got a microscope and got a positive ID from @taricha. Prorocentrum with a smattering of coolia. At least I have a name to my problem now. Pics attached

Here is what I am doing as of right now:

-Keeping nutrients up. NO3: ~12ppm and PO4: 0.6ppm (went out of town for a few days and kept the dosing going and kinda over shot my mark)

- I have my UV back up and running pushing somewhere in the 3500gph range through it (the recommended amount for killing algae). This is plumbed in straight off of my return pump. I know this is not ideal for Dino fighting but I cant really change it with out some major plumbing work.

- I am on day 2 of a complete black out. covered the tank and keeping the fuge light off as well (cheato is just dying anyway). The only light on this tank right now is inside the UV sterilizer.

- Changing filter socks daily (Its amazing how gross they get in just 24hrs)

- Dosing H2O2 (1ml per 10gal) 2x a day.

Lights come back on tomorrow evening. Any suggestions to help keep this menace down? I have a 2L jug of Microbacter7 that I intend to start dosing when the lights come back on.

I am somewhat following @HomeSlizzice 's approach since that seemed to work for Prorocentrum for them.

 

[taricha]

I see people talk about Ostreopsis "disappearing" when the lights are out a lot. What exactly does this look like though?

Sand is lighter brown, people get up every morning and think "oh. It's getting better." By early afternoon, it's just as bad as before. Not clear white, but noticeably less brown.

 

[drawman]

@taricha and others can you help with a positive ID (this is at 1200x)? I've been dealing with a cyano issue and just took a new sample to find out I have dinos mixed in as well. I've been battling low nutrients even though my only export is a skimmer. I just started dosing 1mL/10gallons of H202 2x/day because of the cyano. Looks like I need to get some more NO3/PO4 in the water...

 

[Xavier434]

Sand is lighter brown, people get up every morning and think "oh. It's getting better." By early afternoon, it's just as bad as before. Not clear white, but noticeably less brown.

That sounds like my situation. I just ordered a microscope that is coming tomorrow (Thanks ScottB!). I will take video and post here for an expert opinion on the ID if you don't mind.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Hey everyone. I really do hate this thread but am so glad it is here. I am on treatment 3 of DinoX so day six with tonights dose. Mh lights are off and only running mininal blues with a 30w LED bar. Going to ride it oit and see if DinoX will work. If not going to do increased no3 and po4, bacterial and h2o2 dosing and blackout method again. Seems to be the most effective method, may add a UV also but I am trying not too. Any other tips or help from the hive mind to help me on this. I will try to get a vid of the dino tonight.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Vid of dinos. Sorry its so crappy, ot was hard to keep my phone lined up with the microscope.

 

[ScottB]

Hey everyone. I really do hate this thread but am so glad it is here. I am on treatment 3 of DinoX so day six with tonights dose. Mh lights are off and only running mininal blues with a 30w LED bar. Going to ride it oit and see if DinoX will work. If not going to do increased no3 and po4, bacterial and h2o2 dosing and blackout method again. Seems to be the most effective method, may add a UV also but I am trying not too. Any other tips or help from the hive mind to help me on this. I will try to get a vid of the dino tonight.

Welcome to the club no one wants to join. At the very least we offer empathy. And several folks here can offer confident advice -- IF YOU HAVE A SPECIES ID.

PROVEN treatment methods depend upon the species of dinos. So get a basic student microscope and use your phone camera to post a video here. I bought another (more expensive) microscope but this model looks like it should do as well or better.




I would also recommend scouting out UV (1 watt per 3 gallons) but hold on pulling the trigger until ID if managing costs.

 

[cerveza4lu]

Looking for an ID. I was dealing with the classic "snotty" dinos on the rocks and sand. After installing a 55W UV the rockwork cleaned up but there's a rusty looking outbreak in the sand. Tried siphoning to a 10 micron sock but they were back next day. Original outbreak was due to zero nutrients but I've been running PO4 .20 - .39 NO3 5 - 10 ppm.

Dino ID

 

[Xavier434]

I setup the microscope and took some pictures and videos. I recommend clicking fullscreen for the videos.

If anyone can ID I will greatly appreciate it. This is my first time producing content using a microscope so if I need to try and record something better for a more accurate ID then just let me know and I will be happy to do so.

I really appreciate all of you for taking the time to help people like me.

@taricha