Do chemical treatments for pests like dinos and other algae really help?

[Tavero]

Cyano Solution worked against cyanos. After a single treatment they disappeared after a week and never returned.
Dino x didn't work against dinos. I've seen only a bit fewer Dinos with DinoX than without. In the end I had to restart my tank. But i wanted a restart anyway.

symptoms of other issues, imbalances

Not necessarily. My cyanos appeared gradually in a healthy tank. Over several weeks they increased in amount and stared to choke out my corals. The cyanos didn't appear because of an inbalance in my tank. They created the inbalance in my tank.

 

[Fritz05]

Reeflux and Fluconozale work for Bryopsis and over time for GHA. Tried and true chemicals. However, they'll just come back if the source problem isn't dealt with. Running an algae turf scrubber for me prevented algae from coming back on my rocks after reeflux treatments even when my phosphates hit .5. My scrubber was growing algae like crazy, but, it never grew back in on the rocks. Still hasn't after 3 years since dosing Reeflux. as long as there is an ideal place for algae to grow outside the display it seems it will be content to stay there vs. in the display.

ReefFlux worked for me after everything else failed to get rid of Bryopsis. It is too early to say if the fix is permanent, as I just ended the treatment last week.

 

[MnFish1]

There is NO worse pest, IMO, like that of dinoflagellates or dinos as their friend Satan likes to call them. But dinos are not the only friend the devil has, there are also other algaes that when they take hold in your aquarium they don't like to let go! When they do take hold we scramble to find a solution to rid the tank of them and instead of treating the cause we look for a quick fix and sometimes that is a chemical one. Let's talk about it!

Do chemical treatments for pests like dinos and other algae really help, or is it all about treating the cause?

If you said YES then what has worked for you and for what algae issue?

image via @WheatToast

re those dinoflagellates/. 99.5% are algae on plants - not Dinos?

 

[Rewd]

Yes, with caveats.

Cyano - chemiclean definitely worked, but it did not fix the root cause and cyano has come back. It's not overtaking my tank and I largely just live with it now.

Dinos - DinoX definitely worked to rid my tank of amphidinium dinos. Absolutely nothing else worked and after losing many corals, I chose this road to stop the bleeding. A few corals did survive and the dinos have never returned. To prevent reoccurring, I upped my biodiversity by adding real live rock.

Bryopsis - fluconazole is a miracle cure. Full stop. I've used it twice on two different tanks without an ounce of difficulty or harm to live stock. Bryopsis has never returned, and unlike the other pest algaes, I am not convinced Bryopsis has any underlying causes. It's a macro algae that hitchhikes and sets down roots. Reeflux nuked it.

 

[Chalchi]

Dino-X killed the Dinos (Prorocentrum mostly), yes, but I wouldn't exactly call it help as I am now in the middle of a bad cyano outbreak. And what did my little eye spy under the microscope yesterday, among the Cyano? Dinoooos! (Ostreopsis)

 

[MnFish1]

I do not think they are Dinos. JMO. Im not a Dino expert. I would siphon them out - every day

 

[MnFish1]

Yes, with caveats.

Cyano - chemiclean definitely worked, but it did not fix the root cause and cyano has come back. It's not overtaking my tank and I largely just live with it now.

Dinos - DinoX definitely worked to rid my tank of amphidinium dinos. Absolutely nothing else worked and after losing many corals, I chose this road to stop the bleeding. A few corals did survive and the dinos have never returned. To prevent reoccurring, I upped my biodiversity by adding real live rock.

Bryopsis - fluconazole is a miracle cure. Full stop. I've used it twice on two different tanks without an ounce of difficulty or harm to live stock. Bryopsis has never returned, and unlike the other pest algaes, I am not convinced Bryopsis has any underlying causes. It's a macro algae that hitchhikes and sets down roots. Reeflux nuked it.

Help the immediate problem - impossible. Unless the underlying problem is fixed no. Could you get the same result with fixing the underlying problem - probably yes. (EDITED)

 

[carbasaurus]

Tried Dino x for a massive Dino outbreak out of desperation. Made a minimal dent in the Dino’s and at the end of treatment the entire tank crashed. Everything died: fish, coral, snails, all the little brittle stars, bristle worms. EVERYTHING!!!! To be fair I don’t know if it was the treatment or the Dino’s themselves as the instructions said to stop all carbon which may have been holding the Dino toxins at bay. The whole thing started when I used chemical treatment to knock out Cyanobacteria which probably tipped the tank out of balance. That was several years ago and the tank has long since recovered. No more chemical treatments for me!!!!!

 

[ClownSchool]

Whether it’s cyano, GHA, or even Bubble Algae, I’ve had great results with Reef Flex without any of the issues other reefers have shared with products like Vibrant.
Caution: if running a refugium, remove your chaeto from the system until after the water change prescribed by the Reef Flex or it will all melt away, raise nutrients in your tank and lower your pH.
Place it in a container with an air stone and light until after the water change.

 

[Spare time]

Considering the algae is made of chemicals, and the waste products, algae predators, and food are made of chemicals, I don't think its fair to say that chemicals won't solve algae issues

 

[Richsoar]

I've used Chemiclean to rid my 45g of Red Cyanovacteria. Following the dosing instructions the stuff is cleared out in 4 to 6 days.

 

[RLucas50]

Started a new tank which got overrun by dinos about the 3-4 week point. Tried many ‘natural’ solutions but nothing made a dent. Finally broke down an got some DinoX, turned temp up to 80f, and after 1 treatment dinos were on the run. Didn’t use any more DinoX but kept temp up and skimmer running strong with frequent sock changes and after a week dinos were 95-98% gone.

 

[Quietman]

They work of course, but to me it's the 'nuclear option'. Poisons are never the first thing I reach for and I only use them if it's worth possibly wiping out the tank. Sometimes it is worth the risk and I have both on hand. Much prefer maintenance and managing competition for nutrients, but sometimes that doesn't always work.

 

[ReefBo]

Chemiclean works on Cyano. I have a reef tank with softies and lps, shrimp, crabs, snails, no losses.

Follow the directions. Increase the flow and do a water change.

 

[xCry0x]

I feel like people strongly opposed to chemical treatments either have never had an invasive algae.

I killed all the lps in my tank trying to starve out bubble algae.

Then I got a bottle of vibrant and killed all the bubble algae in about two weeks. That was years ago, never came back.

Similarly, was developing a gha problem and a single dose of fluc + manual removal had it gone in a week. And two weeks later im testing 0.0 nitrate and 0.06 phosphates so it's not like I had some massive nutrient saturation issue.. I'm fully on the other end where I desperately need more nutrients.

 

[Gobi-Wan]

I had an infestation of Dino’s that would never go away. I had it for almost a year. Only on the sand, and I did verify under a microscope. I fixed the nutrient load so that there was a steady .08-.1 phosphate and around 20 nitrate. It was stable that way for many months and Dino’s never left. I finally broke the tank down due to a house fire so hopefully the problem will not return when I am able to get the tank up again and start over.

 

[Chalchi]

I do not think they are Dinos. JMO. Im not a Dino expert. I would siphon them out - every day

Well, I'm pretty sure they are.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Considering the algae is made of chemicals, and the waste products, algae predators, and food are made of chemicals, I don't think its fair to say that chemicals won't solve algae issues

By considering everything in the world a chemical you defeat the whole purpose of the post. Yes, you can TECHNICALLY say that algae is a chemical but generally a chemical refers to a substance which is artificially derived. I'm pretty sure "chemical" was intended to refer to an artificially derived substance in the post...

 

[jhuntstl]

I had a major byropsis infestation. I spent well over $200 on various CUC members that are known to possibly munch on this algae. I saw no impact. I was manually removing a cereal bowls worth of bryopsis weekly. I spent $60 raising magnesium(similar to the old kent-m method) and saw no success. My nutrients were low, my coral were stressed and so was I. In the end I used $15 worth of Reef-Flux and within 2 weeks my problem was solved. Will it return? Maybe. If it ever makes a come back as strong as before, I know how I'll be treating it.

We often tout the K.I.S.S. methodology. In my situation, was fluconazole not the most simple treatment? Or should I have plumbed in an ATS or setup a chaeto refugium? Should I have chased even lower nutrients, reduced my photo period, and changed my whiter spectrum to more blue? Perhaps it would have helped slow the bryopsis, but how would these changes impact other livestock?

Not necessarily advocating the use of chemical algae treatments. But I do think it's important to compare cost, time investment, added complexity to your system, and stress on livestock whether it be a natural or unnatural treatment.

 

[Charles Zinn]

I'm using pods and Live Rerf Enhance to get rid of my dinos. So animal and bacteria seems to be working and the pods are good for your corals