Documenting my fight with Dino's

Mattman1977

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I make it a point to reef so small that any misbehavior results in a 300% water change...a benefit of pico reefs lol (not any invader can withstand that, its why no picos have dino issues on the web)

but if I had a large reef where I couldnt do a total water change, Id have a pond sterilizer plumbed in, a grossly oversized UV. UV is nice here in that if he does rip cleans it burns out casted up cells in suspension from manual work, not just diurnal habits if any. I personally wouldnt try and fix it with a sandbed in place, too hard and takes too long work threads show.
I’m a big believer in oversized uv also
21987353-C90A-4A18-8136-AB13BA96EF8A.jpeg

That’s plumbed into the 24 gal cube but will go on my 180 when I get the floors redone in the house
 
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Miller535

Miller535

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I’m a big believer in oversized uv also
21987353-C90A-4A18-8136-AB13BA96EF8A.jpeg

That’s plumbed into the 24 gal cube but will go on my 180 when I get the floors redone in the house

I could run a UV. I have a pump (separate from return) plumbed into a manifold. On the manifold is a GIANT bio-pellet reactor (I don't think I'll ever run again), a GFO reactor (I'll likely never run again), and a GAC reactor. I could disconnect the Bio-pellet reactor and plumb the UV in it's place. But I think I'll try the other methods first
 

Mattman1977

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I could run a UV. I have a pump (separate from return) plumbed into a manifold. On the manifold is a GIANT bio-pellet reactor (I don't think I'll ever run again), a GFO reactor (I'll likely never run again), and a GAC reactor. I could disconnect the Bio-pellet reactor and plumb the UV in it's place. But I think I'll try the other methods first
Like I said earlier UV is only helpful for certain strains of dino that go water borne in the dark. The microscope will help. Some biodiversity will help also
 
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Miller535

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Like I said earlier UV is only helpful for certain strains of dino that go water borne in the dark. The microscope will help. Some biodiversity will help also

Right. I have a microscope coming in on Sunday, and will take a photo and try to get a ID. For now I am dosing daily microbacter7 with lights out. Peroxide is on the table. And Phyto and pods are likely. The UV is more of a last resort in my mind.
 
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Miller535

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Update. After going home from work I dosed microbacter7 again and tested NO3 and PO4. NO3 was 4ppm and PO4 was .01ppm. So I dosed NO3 to add 2ppm. And to add .04ppm to PO4. So I should be at 6ppm nitrate, and .05 phosphate. Confused why Nitrate sits pretty stable with only occasionally having to dose, and phosphate keeps bottoming out. On the plus side the there looks to be less dino on the sand bed. And what is there looks stringtier. I'll try and get a picture. I should also note I turned up both mp40s 2 nights ago
 
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Miller535

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Guess my hippo tang wanted to say hi. Tank lights are off and this was recorded with just the flash of my phone.
 

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liveround69

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I shut 2 of my tanks down that had dinos due to a poorly run LFS that didnt care what they sold. I had a brand new 40g breeder, 20l sump, 50lbs bare base rock (which I eventually cured), 2 ocellaris, 2 damsels, 1 conch , numerous snails and hermits plus a few corals. I tried all the chemicals (i.e. dinox,microbacter7 etc) , blackouts ( caused my ocellaris female to go blind during treatment), nutrient uptake , nutrient overload, manual removal and anything else that people recommended. After battling for over a year ,..what i found that worked was to practically give it all away. (over $1200 in stuff). I believe when you get that crud in your tank you're doomed. Well at least the tank and inhabitants are in for a mess of time and you get one big headache. For that matter I am a proponent of quarantine tanks now.
If you can't quarantine then do not buy anything. If you just have to buy from a pet store then the safer method is to not buy anything that hasn't been there for at least a few weeks or more. If the store tanks arent overrun by a new pest or infestation of sorts then you could be fine. (but not necessarily)
My problem was caused by not paying attention to the LFS tanks conditions closely before purchase ( turned out to be dino and bryopsis infested frag plugs, not to mention once i got brooklynella). Thus why i now toss all frag plugs that come with any coral I purchase.

Proactive is your best defense. You are in dark territory my friend....Good luck
 
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Reef Obsession

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I am documenting my fight with Dino's. Tank info, Tank is 125 Gallon, 55 Gallon sump, Reef Octopus Regal 200INT, 4 Kessil A360X's, somewhere around 115 pounds of live rock (mostly Fiji, a Pukani), about a 2" sand bed of standard sand, currently running as FOWLER. A few years back I had a bad algae problem, hair algae, all kinds of algae. My nitrates and phosphates were super high, I think NO3 was maybe as high as 30. Phosphates were WAY WAY over what the red sea kit could even test for. I then started using GFO which with GFO and using the high resolution red sea test kit I could finally get a reading. I think it was still like maybe 4 (yes 4, not .4). I then bought a large Reef octopus bio-pellet reactor. Even after I brought the bio-pellet reactor online, I continued to run GFO. Between the bio-pellet reactor and GFO, my NO3 dropped to I think about 4, and PO3 dropped to maybe .1. Tank started looking great. I thought I had fixed everything, stopped testing. Then maybe a year later everything started, started getting cyano. Problem was light but annoying. I tried correcting it with water changes. Never realizing that my NO3 had bottomed out to zero, and my PO4 to .1. I thought this was a good thing so I never considered it part of the problem. I then proceeded to use Chem-clean. Which wiped out the cyano, but within a day or two ushered in my new nemesis, Dino's. At this time (about sep 2019), I had no idea even what Dino's were. I sent away a Triton ICP test and it came back really high levels of Copper (40ppb) and a few other metals. So I thought the metals were my problem. So I dealt with the metals issue, but the DINOS persisted. I eventually came across the DINO thread on Reef2Reef. And that brings me to this week. My rock was so encrusted with dinos, my sand so covered, and the tank so covered, I knew I had to manually remove as much as I could.
 

saltyhog

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Update. After going home from work I dosed microbacter7 again and tested NO3 and PO4. NO3 was 4ppm and PO4 was .01ppm. So I dosed NO3 to add 2ppm. And to add .04ppm to PO4. So I should be at 6ppm nitrate, and .05 phosphate. Confused why Nitrate sits pretty stable with only occasionally having to dose, and phosphate keeps bottoming out. On the plus side the there looks to be less dino on the sand bed. And what is there looks stringtier. I'll try and get a picture. I should also note I turned up both mp40s 2 nights ago

How are you measuring PO4 (Hanna ULR phosphate?). I would aim a little higher on PO4 at 0.06 to 0.10. For nitrate, 5-10. Adding biodiversity seems to help. Strongly agree with trying to get an ID, if your strain is amphidinium you would be pretty much wasting your money on UV.
 

2Wheelsonly

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I feel like since you don't have corals why not just take the rock out and put them in home depot buckets as you rinse each one out? As mentioned before, do the same with the sand. Completely clean it out dry it off. Scrape the surface of the tank and put new water in it. This should be a 3 hour job max... once everything is back in, I would dose Dr Tim refresh/waste away and make sure you have po4/no3 in the tank at all times moving forward (fish should take care of that problem).

3 hours to be completely free of these; at most you would have to buy a box of salt and a brute trash can to hold new mixed water for a complete full system water change but that would be the same as what you're going to pay over time for chemicals that will force water changes anyway.

I have seen several posts today from people with 40-70G tanks where they said they shut them down over all this. Just rip clean the tank, problem solved...I just don't understand how this a problem on tanks that are not 5+ year established reefs at 150G+.
 

Acrofiend

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One method that has helped me is placing an air pump in front of my power head and using a turkey baster to blow the dinos off the rocks. Then use a filter sock or net to capture the floating dino’s. It also helps to have a UV but definitely not needed
 

Nicholas Dushynsky

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I'm going through this on a small tank as In a fluval 13.5. I have 2 clowns, 2 nems and a few hammers. This weekend I'm going to take out the sand bed, rinse and leave it to dry out. Clean the glass and siphon out what I can through a filter sock. Then continue dosing the peroxide that I have been for the last week. The peroxide has been helping a little.
I'm currently only running a low blue light schedule so the nems dont go for a walk. I think it is mainly in my 3/4 inch deep sand bed, so I'm going to take it out for now. The dinos I have In are horrible long stringy bits that disappear nearly completely at night. I dont have a scope to do a proper I.d. but this is my plan at the moment.
In 14 years of having tanks. out of the 3 tanks I currently run. The one I'm having issues with is the youngest and the one I started with dry rock. I put it down to the lack of diversity.
 

Mattman1977

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I’m gonna leave you some reading cause you can’t quarantine against dinoflagellates. Dinoflagellate is in the cells of coral so there always present in your tank. Same with algae.


 

Mattman1977

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lack of diversity.
You hit the nail on the head right there. Can you switch rocks out with one from a different tank?
I’ve had dino in 3 tanks and no bottle anything cured it, neither did removing the sand bed or taking rocks out and scrubbing them. I tried it all. Balancing the system and allowing it to mature was the only way I got dino to die back, cause it’s impossible to “cure”
 

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Go to fishofhex.com. You can send a water sample and he will identify the type of Dino you have and recommend the best way to resolve the problem. I think it’s like 29 bucks.

I have Dino’s too.
 
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Miller535

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How are you measuring PO4 (Hanna ULR phosphate?). I would aim a little higher on PO4 at 0.06 to 0.10. For nitrate, 5-10. Adding biodiversity seems to help. Strongly agree with trying to get an ID, if your strain is amphidinium you would be pretty much wasting your money on UV.

Yes, hannah ULR, and Red sea Nitrate test. My Nitrate should have been 6ppm after I dosed last night. PO4 should have been .05ppm. I agree it should be higher, but brightwell's directions for NEOPHOS said to not add more then .04 per day. I would like to get my PO4 closer to .1

I will check both again tonight and dose accordingly. Tomorrow I am vacuuming the sand. I noticed this morning the sandbed looked a little less covered, and what was there looked stringier and looks like it's slowly dissolving. So I do think having the lights off is having a positive affect on it. I am anxious to get my microscope on Sunday and hopefully get an ID.
 
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Miller535

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Go to fishofhex.com. You can send a water sample and he will identify the type of Dino you have and recommend the best way to resolve the problem. I think it’s like 29 bucks.

I have Dino’s too.

I saw his video on this last week. If I can't ID it myself, I think I will do this.
 
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