Dinos- the battle rages on! How long does this go on?!!! Help- now loosing fish!

[LesPoissons]

Hey all,
been battling dinos for 2 weeks now after my nutrients bottomed out for a few weeks. So far "treatment" wise I have only been dosing phos and nitrate daily and Dr Tims bacteria once a week. (I turn off the skimmer and UV after the bacteria for 12-24 hours).
I just changed my carbon last night as one of my cardinals is now looking bad and I had to move my Blue Throat trigger to my fuge but Im pretty sure he will be gone by tonight. :/
Ive read so many threads on things that "helped" and then in other threads those same things didnt help at all or caused casualties.
How long does it take to bring the dino population down/for the tank to get back to normal (aprox) after increasing nutrients?
What else can I do to help?
-Ive read peroxide can help but also that it can be more harmful than helpful
-Ive read balckouts can help but also can stress fish and corals and the dinos come back as soon as the light does
-Ive read adding phyto can help (which I usually feed the tank with occasionally but hadnt for a while so ive ordered some bc not many cons to adding phyto
-Ive read that just turning off white lights can help and switching to blues but that also seems suspect to me?

Im trying to find the balance since the fish and corals are already stressed and some are visibly sick , I dont want to try random things without more input because I dont want to stress them further.

Also how often should I change the carbon? I usually change it once a month but I dont know if more often would be required?

Thanks!

 

[brandon429]

how many gallons is this tank

 

[LesPoissons]

Display is 220G, whole thing is approx 250G total volume

 

[brandon429]

asking because we have manual control options that circumvents all the extended wait options above, but they're for smaller tanks/able to be cheat worked. Im still watching here to see what team recommends I know large tank dinos challenges are cutting edge stuff going on/watching to see what they recommend

 

[Uncle99]

I asuume you have turned on your UV again.
I think doing those things listed are good, you’ll need a few months though.

Some things I did.
-put nitrate in the 2-5ppm range
-put the phosphate in the 0.03-.1ppm range.
-lowered whites
-run UV
-stirred up 1/3 of the sand every few days, putting those dinos in the water column where they can be taken by the overflow, stop reproduction through UV, and some trapped by sock or floss. Change out filter/sock/floss a few hours after the stir.
-hold off water changes.

It will take time. Took me amount 7-8 weeks, but noticed change after 3, less and less each week.

Seemed to what worked for my 180g. Never seen them again, now 4 years.

 

[ScottB]

Proper dino treatment depends upon which species you have. Have you gotten an ID yet? LC Amphids can take forever to resolve. Ostreopsis can be gone in a week or two if all steps of the method are followed to a T.

Sorry about your fish, but they are struggling from something besides dinoflagellates. Take your symptoms over the Fish forum or do some research in the sticky threads for fish disease.

 

[Robert D'Amaro]

guys/gals
so i just beat down my dino's. this week end was a break through. Not wanting to get ahead of myself so... How long until i can start up my skimmer and more importantly start feeding corals again?? I'm thinking after a week start in again with skimming at night only and coral feeding by half and work my what back to recommended quantities of reef roids.

waterbox 130 About 90 gallons total
meduim bioload
maintaining under 5 No3 and under .1 Po4

 

[ScottB]

guys/gals
so i just beat down my dino's. this week end was a break through. Not wanting to get ahead of myself so... How long until i can start up my skimmer and more importantly start feeding corals again?? I'm thinking after a week start in again with skimming at night only and coral feeding by half and work my what back to recommended quantities of reef roids.

waterbox 130 About 90 gallons total
meduim bioload
maintaining under 5 No3 and under .1 Po4

Sounds like a reasonable plan. Just keep in mind that dinos are never gone, they are just hunkered down, waiting for another chance. I would advise against Amino acids for a very long time. If I walk by the tank with a bottle of AcroPower the dinos break out.

 

[Robert D'Amaro]

Thanks for the advice. I was feeding Amino Acids twice weekly before the out break. Will head your advice. I would rather sacrifice a little coral color or growth to not have the Dino's come back.
Love my tank again. Nice to see white sand for a change. the Dinos lasted about 6 months...