DR Tim Dino Treatment plant

Reeferbo619 · Sep 29, 2020

I am on my second round of the DR. Tim treatment process for dinos
My tank is currently wrapped up blocking all light sources.
I've dosed refresh for 3 days in a row. while lights off
tomorrow is the big day I take off the plastic and turn on the lights. I'd imagine the dinos would have taken a big step back at this point.
The treatment process isn't clear and very vague.
Day 4 instructions: "manually remove any organic material"
What exactly does this mean?
I'm adamant about defeating dinos once and for all. been battling them since February.
I'd appreciate any advice to continue fighting off the dinos for good.

DIno Treatment - https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/80-gallon-dinoflagellate-treatment-bundle-dr-tim-s-bundle.html

LiveWire · Sep 29, 2020

I went through this battle recently for the first time in my many years of reefing and it was a nightmare. Everything I tried and looked up for the most part did not work. I made sure that I had some phosphate and nitrate in the system and then had 4 days lights off here and then back on and then outbreak and then dead corals next day add this bacteria and then outbreak and add a uv sterlizer and so on and so on and driving me crazy.

Then I saw a post from @Jake Adams (https://reefbuilders.com/2020/05/11/dinoflagellate-aquarium-treatment/) about raising your temp up kinda high and it took care of the issue. Could it be the cure? I tried that and it did help but did not take care of the issue all together. So after many coral losses and wanting to throw the towel in I decided to try a combo of them all and it worked well for me.

My daughter looked under the microscope to see what Dyno we had and we knew that UV would make a large impact in fighting them. I added a 55 Watt Jabeo UV pond sterilizer to a 110 gallon frag system. I know overkill is what I was thinking also. But it was much less expensive than most reef UV units so it was worth a shot. My tank was at the high temp of 82.6 degrees already. After adding the jumbo UV unit I saw a major difference.

I added a lot more flow to the point I thught I may have had too much. I then kept my PO4 basically at just a readable level .01 and my PO3 was at about 5ppm. I then removed any algae that I could. My PH was steady at about 8.1 and I started adding MicroBacter 7. I bought the biggest bottle I could get and dosed every 4 days per instructions. I left the temp high for a few days and slowly started to bring it down as I dosed. I settled on a temp of 79 and have kept my system there.

I now have no signs of dyno and continue to does the MB7 once a week. The flow is still pretty strong but I have dialed it down a little. I honestly tried so many different bacteria's and methods and lights out remedy's and I was still ready to break the system down and start over.

End the end I think a strong UV with semi heavy MB7 dosing and get your parameters leveled out will take care of the Dynos. I feel your frustration and I hope that the info I have provided can help you like it did myself.

Happy Reefing my friend!!

DrMMI · Sep 29, 2020

I've tried multiple treatments for it. Everything from Dr. Tims, blackouts, dino x, manual removal, uv, and rasing temps. What finally worked for me was getting live rock from an 8 year old neglected tank that was covered in gha, raising nutrients and making sure I never hit 0, 3 weeks in a row of elegance corals dino method (which I think was the most effective treatment), followed immediately by Dr. Tims. I haven't seen dinos in my tank since.

Reef man 89 · Sep 29, 2020

I tried dr Tim’s/multiple day black outs/ raised temp and add UV to no Advil I am at the point of doing a full reset with all live rock. Good luck to you and your battle.