Dinoflagellates - dinos a possible cure!? Follow along and see!
- Thread starter twilliard
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K. Steven
Well-Known Member
Just an update on my situation; I still can't see any dinos in my tank and after my waterchange yesterday they still did not appear when previously their population would have exploded in numbers within hours.
I'm also happy to see small sections of GHA
Are you dosing N and P or feeding more and reducing nutrient export?
rog2961
Active Member
so after i bleached my tank for another 3 days. Added a clean up crew and changed water and somehow there are no dinos. I did notice all my chaeto died off so that may have contributed to increased nutrients.
DesertReefBoy
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What are you guys using to increase your nitrates/phosphates?
K. Steven
Well-Known Member
I'm feeding more often and stopped skimming. I'm seeing more cyano in the sump, which I'll take over Ostreopsis. Dosing phyto daily and sucking out dino slime with turkey baster. All snails are still alive, but my urchin is looking like it's dying.
mcarroll
10K Club member
Except that's not what's going on here. This is a thread about tanks that are getting balanced, so in most cases only one nutrient is lacking.
The product you mentioned would be a good product for a relatively healthy, balanced tank.
mcarroll
10K Club member
K. Steven
Well-Known Member
I visually confirmed Ostreopsis from another site
Last edited:
rog2961
Active Member
Fishless. To be honest it was all over the place, I tried not to go past 14ml on 280 gallons daily. I usually redosed once the chlorine smell went away. This would usually take anywhere from 6-12 hours depending on dose amount.
Of all the things i've tried, I believe hitting them with bleach in the beginning gives you the upper hand compared to other methods. It bring them down to manageable levels for you to try other methods. I believe other methods are effective, but are not effective enough for strong blooms, this is where bleach helps.
Timeline of events
-Moved everything from 90g to 220g with new sand, existing rocks, and another 200lb from someone breaking down their tank.
-Diatom bloom that never really went away, dinos started appearing now.
-Added a couple of fish
-Got velvet, went fallow
-Dinos were never really bad when fish were in tank, but once they were removed it got worse everyday. This agrees with the view that too clean of a tank causes them, since they didn't show up immediately rather a couple days later.
-Up until this point I was doing normal water changes weekly. I stopped them once I realised dinos were starting to bloom.
-Dosed bleach at recommended amount for 3 days, dino dissapeared
-Stopped bleach and began dosing nitrates. I went for 1ppm per day, increasing daily. This was done with no test kit.
-Dinos got alot worse, was only on plastic overflow and smooth surfaces, now they began to show up on rocks and sand, The typical dino bloom that takes over the tank.
-Stopped dosing nitrates
-Dosed bleach again, slightly stronger dose depending on bloom.
-Added clean up crew, hermits, snails, starfish, and cucumber.
-Stopped dosing bleach, 4 days dosing at this point.
-Got nitrate/phosphate test kit, nitrates off the charts 50ppm+, phosphates at hard 0.
-Tank looks the cleanest it has been, but since phosphates were at 0 I decided to add a bit of seachem phosphorus to raise it to .05. Only added 10ml/day which equates to ~.03ppm.
-Some algae is beginning to grow, doesnt look like dinos.
Hope this helps someone battling them. This is the 2nd time dealing with them and I take the slow approach. Drastic measures tend to cause dino blooms to get way worse in my experience. There is no quick fix, unless you are willing to remove fish and bleach your tank. This is the quickest way to defeat them, but requires either low dose with fish, or complete removal.
Of all the things i've tried, I believe hitting them with bleach in the beginning gives you the upper hand compared to other methods. It bring them down to manageable levels for you to try other methods. I believe other methods are effective, but are not effective enough for strong blooms, this is where bleach helps.
Timeline of events
-Moved everything from 90g to 220g with new sand, existing rocks, and another 200lb from someone breaking down their tank.
-Diatom bloom that never really went away, dinos started appearing now.
-Added a couple of fish
-Got velvet, went fallow
-Dinos were never really bad when fish were in tank, but once they were removed it got worse everyday. This agrees with the view that too clean of a tank causes them, since they didn't show up immediately rather a couple days later.
-Up until this point I was doing normal water changes weekly. I stopped them once I realised dinos were starting to bloom.
-Dosed bleach at recommended amount for 3 days, dino dissapeared
-Stopped bleach and began dosing nitrates. I went for 1ppm per day, increasing daily. This was done with no test kit.
-Dinos got alot worse, was only on plastic overflow and smooth surfaces, now they began to show up on rocks and sand, The typical dino bloom that takes over the tank.
-Stopped dosing nitrates
-Dosed bleach again, slightly stronger dose depending on bloom.
-Added clean up crew, hermits, snails, starfish, and cucumber.
-Stopped dosing bleach, 4 days dosing at this point.
-Got nitrate/phosphate test kit, nitrates off the charts 50ppm+, phosphates at hard 0.
-Tank looks the cleanest it has been, but since phosphates were at 0 I decided to add a bit of seachem phosphorus to raise it to .05. Only added 10ml/day which equates to ~.03ppm.
-Some algae is beginning to grow, doesnt look like dinos.
Hope this helps someone battling them. This is the 2nd time dealing with them and I take the slow approach. Drastic measures tend to cause dino blooms to get way worse in my experience. There is no quick fix, unless you are willing to remove fish and bleach your tank. This is the quickest way to defeat them, but requires either low dose with fish, or complete removal.
rog2961
Active Member
raised phosphates to .02 over two days. Dinos are coming back on the smooth surfaces again. What I thought was hair algae/bryopsis was taken over by dinos. Im going to keep dosing phosphates and if they get uncontrollable again, clorox again. If the raising the phosphates dont work, im going to bleach and do nothing. In the times i've bleached it always involved dosing, never left it alone after dosing.
Good luck Jolanta. All the best. Whilst the diatom filter keeps them out of the water column it was always going to fall flat getting them off rocks etc. Still you tried and that all adds up to helping others.
As for nitrate and phosphate you all know my stance on it. Never been convinced on dirty methods. Having
Said this I've found adding skimmate back to the tank out of skimmer cup really colours up the corals. Try it seriously in two weeks they went from pale to full on colour. Sadly it's too easy to pull too much good stuff out of the tank.
I seemed to have got lucky and my short dose of vibrant got the few dinos I had.
Been clean weeks now.
All the best guys and gals.
As for nitrate and phosphate you all know my stance on it. Never been convinced on dirty methods. Having
Said this I've found adding skimmate back to the tank out of skimmer cup really colours up the corals
. Try it seriously in two weeks they went from pale to full on colour. Sadly it's too easy to pull too much good stuff out of the tank.I seemed to have got lucky and my short dose of vibrant got the few dinos I had.
Been clean weeks now.
All the best guys and gals.
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