Dumb Mistake Caused A Dino Outbreak

[RMS18]

Someone once told me this hobby was supposed to be fun and rewarding!

Unfortunately I can only blame this one on myself and now a long road to recovery.

After a ICP test I found I had some metals and silicon was off the chart. After ruling out equipment I came back to the 4 Brightwell Bio Blocks. After searching more about the blocks they ended up being the suspect.

I removed one block every 5 days and replaced with dry rock.
I guess I went to fast and or should have supplemented with bacteria. To the contrary my system is not ULN. Po4 ranges from .05-.08ppm and Po3 8-10ppm.

I truly think Dino's are in every tank, but once a big biological swing occurs they can take over.

I'm not sure what species I have but they are not killing snails so that's good! My Pod population is also strong. This stuff produces long clear strands in the sump and brown strands in the DT. I do not have a scope so I'm not sure what species I have. Unfortunately the sea fans will suffer the most. I'm not confident they will make it. Once I blow them clear they are covered up within a few hours. I have not seen any polyp extension on them since seeing Dino's about a week ago.

The game plan:

No Water Changes
Dino-X
Stop all Coral Foods
Lots of Bacterias
Manual Removal

2 Days Ago: I stopped reef roids and acro power. Scrubbed the rocks, glass, pumps and cleaned the sand. Dosed DinoX for the first time. While scrubbing I had mirco bubbles going to bring all the crap to the overflow.

Tonight - another scrubbing and second dose of DinoX.

On the way Dr. Tim's Eco Balance and IO Bacteria. 4x the amount for 120g.

I plan to continue DinoX, lots of bacteria and manual scrubbing. I do have a big UV system I never installed (Possibly another dumb move) unfortunately I cannot use it with DinoX.

I never took a before shot but since the first cleaning and dose the rocks are 30-40% better sand is about 10% better. The Dino's were so bad they were growing on most of the fish's fins .

I'll continue to update the thread throughout the process and hope it's over soon.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Someone once told me this hobby was supposed to be fun and rewarding!

Unfortunately I can only blame this one on myself and now a long road to recovery.

After a ICP test I found I had some metals and silicon was off the chart. After ruling out equipment I came back to the 4 Brightwell Bio Blocks. After searching more about the blocks they ended up being the suspect.

I removed one block every 5 days and replaced with dry rock.
I guess I went to fast and or should have supplemented with bacteria. To the contrary my system is not ULN. Po4 ranges from .05-.08ppm and Po3 8-10ppm.

I truly think Dino's are in every tank, but once a big biological swing occurs they can take over.

I'm not sure what species I have but they are not killing snails so that's good! My Pod population is also strong. This stuff produces long clear strands in the sump and brown strands in the DT. I do not have a scope so I'm not sure what species I have. Unfortunately the sea fans will suffer the most. I'm not confident they will make it. Once I blow them clear they are covered up within a few hours. I have not seen any polyp extension on them since seeing Dino's about a week ago.

The game plan:

No Water Changes
Dino-X
Stop all Coral Foods
Lots of Bacterias
Manual Removal

2 Days Ago: I stopped reef roids and acro power. Scrubbed the rocks, glass, pumps and cleaned the sand. Dosed DinoX for the first time. While scrubbing I had mirco bubbles going to bring all the crap to the overflow.

Tonight - another scrubbing and second dose of DinoX.

On the way Dr. Tim's Eco Balance and IO Bacteria. 4x the amount for 120g.

I plan to continue DinoX, lots of bacteria and manual scrubbing. I do have a big UV system I never installed (Possibly another dumb move) unfortunately I cannot use it with DinoX.

I never took a before shot but since the first cleaning and dose the rocks are 30-40% better sand is about 10% better. The Dino's were so bad they were growing on most of the fish's fins .

I'll continue to update the thread throughout the process and hope it's over soon.

I just got over the battle myself. In a new tank, I was dosing NOxPO4 as a safety and was in fact feeding and breeding Dino. What a war and few lost coral later, tank looks fantastic. I used Peroxide during day and DinoX at night, increased water flow and decreased lighting drastically.

All Gone thank goodness and tank looks super clean.

 

[RMS18]

I just got over the battle myself. In a new tank, I was dosing NOxPO4 as a safety and was in fact feeding and breeding Dino. What a war and few lost coral later, tank looks fantastic. I used Peroxide during day and DinoX at night, increased water flow and decreased lighting drastically.

All Gone thank goodness and tank looks super clean.

That's great to hear. My system is also new 9 months and I also used NoPox. Once off NoPox my Coraline took off. This was 2 weeks about before I removed the blocks.

 

[RMS18]

Unfortunately after last night's second dose of DinoX and manual cleaning this morning the Dino's are so much worse lol. They are back to how they were before any cleaning or treatments. Not sure why. I decided to buy a scope from Amazon last night, it will be here tomorrow for a proper ID. I may stop DinoX and hook up the UV after the scope ID.

 

[Bryson.bobby]

I recommend you set up that uv sterilizer and do a 3 day blackout

 

[dwest]

If you already have a UV, why not run it? I agree with the ID process, but if I already had a UV, I’d crank it up!

 

[RMS18]

If you already have a UV, why not run it? I agree with the ID process, but if I already had a UV, I’d crank it up!

With DinoX you cannot use the UV per directions. I think I'm going to get it on line this Friday.

 

[Dom]

Did you cycle your dry rock before adding it to the tank?

 

[RMS18]

Did you cycle your dry rock before adding it to the tank?

The dry rock I added in place of the bio blocks no. I never cycle my dry rock I deal with any uglies. But I also never add rock to an established tank.

 

[Dom]

The dry rock I added in place of the bio blocks no.

I'm inclined to think that may be the source of your problem.

I never cycle my dry rock I deal with any uglies. But I also never add rock to an established tank.

I can see making the dry rock cycle part of a new tank. I once made the mistake of adding new pieces of dry rock to my tank. What a nightmare... LOL

 

[RMS18]

I'm inclined to think that may be the source of your problem.



I can see making the dry rock cycle part of a new tank. I once made the mistake of adding new pieces of dry rock to my tank. What a nightmare... LOL

Oo yea I'm sure of it. I removed so much good bacteria and added dry rock lol. Hence the title of the thread. Okay I caved in and hooked up the UV like this temporary until I mount it in the sump. Only because I saw no improvement after DinoX. It maybe that they are just to serve of a case for Dinox. I heard direct pulling and feeding into DT is better than sump.

So new plan is to zap as many as possible and saturate the system with new bacteria once it arrives.

 

[vetteguy53081]

If you have a UV, plug it in ASAP. Always better than anything chemical. I had total luck with peroxide during day and DinoX at night. I won that battle.

 

[RMS18]

If you have a UV, plug it in ASAP. Always better than anything chemical. I had total luck with peroxide during day and DinoX at night. I won that battle.

I did plug it in check out the post above yours

I'll scope them tomorrow I'll need someone to provide a ID.

 

[RMS18]

Ok here they are.

What species do I have?

 

[dwest]

Ok here they are.

What species do I have?

Can you get a closer shot? A video would be better. Are these moving? Did your UV help at all?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Ok here they are.

What species do I have?

Dinoflagellates Amphidinium

 

[RMS18]

Can you get a closer shot? A video would be better. Are these moving? Did your UV help at all?

So far I don't think I noticed anything with uv. These were not moving. I captured these from the brown string. I then scoped the white strings in the sump and they were moving.

 

[RMS18]

Dinoflagellates Amphidinium

Well that's not good.

 

[Mark Gray]

I am just getting through a dino out break. The odd thing that seemed to help most was micro bubbles coming in through my return pumps, give it a try.

 

[Idoc]

Amphidinium don't respond as well to UV since they mainly stay in the sand. But, I've read they do come into the water column at night time somewhat. I've been battling them for the past year and finally have them under control.