Well, I'm not sure if it's dino's or more cyano, today it came back red. And it's not all over the sandbed. Again I'm in the uglies so it's a weird area. My nitrates are usually 5-10ppm consistently and p04 has been sitting at .07 recently. I should probably buy a microscope and confirm it more.
A microscope is great to have on hand. Kind of a pain to figure out initially unless you have previous experience, but I probably use mine once a week. There is always something new to look at even though my system is "older".
If you want immediate confirmation, you could try the coffee filter test.
Yes I suppose so. Most of the protocols are not that disruptive. It is mainly about supporting competitive organisms like diatoms, film algae, film bacteria. Even cyano to some degree. And if you have a free swimming species, some strong UV.
As a new guy to the hobby, I'm going to respectfully point out something I've learned this past year about newbies vs old schoolers. I think the folks who have been doing this forever sort of forget what it's like to be a noob at this. Their tanks also followed a different path back then - you used live rock from the ocean, and if you started a tank today, you naturally seed your dry rock in your existing sumps. You're dealing with a set of new reefers who are told "use dry rock so you don't get pests, feed just a speck of food everyday, keep your nitrates and phosphates at 1 and .03, use all this equipment and chemicals in reactors so everything is sterile water" Then we're shocked to see this MASSIVE dino outbreak, and wondering what we did wrong when we kept everything so clean. I didn't even know what dinos were until after I had them for months. By then it was too late, it was worse than anything I think you saw "back in the day" and it was the new balance for the tank (just a dino farm, and everything else dead - algae can't even grow or get a foothold because the dinos have consumed every bit of nutrients in the system).
Part of every protocol I’ve read includes the addition of “beneficial bacteria”. What exactly is meant by that? Vibrant? Most of the bacteria solutions sold are nitrifying and meant for cycling at startup.
I'm willing to claim that Microbacter Clean was a major factor in getting rid if dinos for me. From the first dose I noticed a difference after seeing no change for 3 weeks previously.
I'll try to simplify the treatment protocols out there today into two major camps. The first, I understand and have deployed successfully. The second, I do not understand, but have never tried it.
Think you are right about the ability to encyst and survive blackouts depending on the species. For some though, it will encourage them to go for a swim, trying to find hospitable lighting, only then to be zapped by the UV. But you don't need 3-4 days for that to happen.
Yeah, it’s all confusing. Adding bacteria adds diversity but reduces nutrients which could starve the dinos or starve everyone else. Just like chaeto helps with nutrient control... but is a great dino factory too.
I didn’t mean nothing bad or give them bad advice. All I am really saying keep it simple. Yes I have a 75 gallon reef tank with live rock from the ocean. But in the same sense I have a Red Sea max nano set up for lps and dry rock. with all the new tech but I still keep it simple with only kalk in the top off water. And only do carbon and phosphate remover. All I am saying stop with the snake oil products and go the natural way. Am I a Dino expert now way haven’t ever had it just trying to get these new guys to take the natural approach instead of relying on the technology to take care of the tank.
Next time I see my friend that is a ocean biologist works at Tampa bay aquarium i am going to see if she will do a article on dinos she may help us all understand how to eliminate them and keep them away.
I don’t think it matters how you started Dino’s will come no matter what. I started with live rock (given it’s not the same quality as it was many years ago from what I’ve heard) and was cycled within a week. I stripped my water of N03 and P04 and didn’t keep up with dosing like I should and got dinos. Given it was a small outbreak as I noticed it in the beginning. I immediately started testing P04 and N03 daily and dosed P04 nightly (my nitrates are remaining high), lowered my photo period and light intensity, blowing off rocks, manual removal. A couple days ago I started dosing MB7, I haven’t gotten the nítrate drop that everyone sees but still monitoring in case I need to dose. Today I got in a 36w UV for a ~35 gal tank and I got it setup to run from lights off to lights on. IMO it’s all about husbandry. I have the ostreopsis strain so that’s why I went UV route at night. I also believe that another person with the same strain might not have as much luck or might have better luck then me. There’s too many variables in the hobby to say this works or that works. You have to try different things (often times a lot of money) and you’ll find your cure. The biggest thing is to act fast, don’t wait until it becomes an eye sore and starts damaging corals. That’s it I think 
