Reef Puncher
Active Member
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2024
- Messages
- 175
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- 56
Ok so lets start with first mistakes and what DID NOT work:
Not buying a microscope as first step. Big mistake. I wasted plenty of money on options that would work for ostreo but not for prorocentrum, which I had. I purchased a $300 UV that did nothing. If you have Ostreo this will work for you or at least help.
Dr Tims dino protocol of Refresh and Waste Away. I did the 3 day blackout and the bacteria, and at first I thought it worked, but the blackout just made them go into hiding. 4 days later they were right back.
Raising temperature to 82°. This did nothing for me except stress a couple of my fish.
Too much light. Im certain my 9 hour light window made the problem worse. The growth slowed after I reduced my light period to 6 hours.
Hydrogen Peroxide. I tried dosing this nightly with no luck.
Using dry dead rock. The dinos grew the worst on the dry rock, and while they did grow on my live rock too, I would say it was 75% less on the live rock.
Dosing amino acids like AB+. While this alone wont cause dino’s, if you do have the little jerks in any qty, even slightly, these will cause an explosion as its like rocket fuel for their growth. Stop dosing this. Use benepets or even reefroids. (watch phosphates when using reefroids though).
Too much filtration. I had socks, skimmer, and a refugium, too much filtration with not enough fish equaled too low of nutrients.
Ok now lets start with what semi worked (THE NATURAL METHOD):
Raising nutrients- Im 99.99% sure the dinos first popped up when I let my nutrients bottom out. This is not always the cause, think of dinos appearing on a bell curve chart. For 99% of the people this will be the cause. But not for everyone. Dinos appear when you have an imbalance, it could be nutrient imbalance, it could be a imbalance in the microbiome. As in no competition, no algae, no diatoms, no bacteria, etc. Or they could appear with imbalance in trace minerals. But with most cases, low nitrates and phosphates are the culprit.
Dosing silicates- This will encourage diatom growth and algae that competes with dinos for resources.
Dosing phyto and pods- This is only ever a helpful step as it just adds more biodiversity. And there is evidence of 2 species of pods actually consuming dinos. Acartia pods and Apocalypse pods. While I couldn’t find actual studies or images of Apocalypse pods eating dinos, there was anecdotal evidence on forums, and the consensus is Apocs beings so large they have an easier time consuming the dinos. However there are studies and even live videos under a microscope of Acartia pods eating dinos!!! Few people are aware of this!
Reducing light to mainly blues, and only on a 6 hour window.
No water changes. Keep nutrients up. If you manually remove the dinos with a vacuum you must put that water back in, and make sure youre using filter socks 10 microns or less or your just dumping dinos back in. Put a toothbrush on edge of small side to vacuum and brush simultaneously. See image.
Why did I say this natural method semi worked? Because this was the method I was using before the next major outcome occurred. (I will get to in a second.) This method WAS working, albeit too slowly for my impatient butt. I 100% firmly believe if I had stayed this course I would have eventually outcompeted the dinos and not lost all my coral.
What did work although regretfully.
Dino X chemical treatment- Ok. So here is the truth about dino X. It did work. I did a 2 day blackout and started dosing Dino X, and followed all the directions. First week I saw a huge reduction in dinos. All coral and fish healthy. By the 3rd and final week, all the dinos were gone. However at start of 3rd week my SPS corals started bleaching. I did one final Dino X treatment and within 3 more days all my SPS were dead. I did a water change and within one more week all my LPS except for my zoas were dead or dying. All my fish and inverts were fine.
So here is what I recommend for anyone going to try Dino X.
If you have a fish only tank, use this stuff. It works great at killing dinos.
If you have a coral tank. Remove all corals in a quarantine tank. Don’t feed the corals so you wont have to worry about nutrients rising and you can just use a cheap filter in a small 5 gallon quarantine tank. Its worth buying and separating your corals trust me.
For me after I did my water change I instantly starting putting beneficial bacteria back in, and dosing silicates so the dinos didn’t come right back. Initially I saw signs they were with a few bubbly dinos popping up there head. But with the silicate dosing and bacteria and pod dosing, so far they have not returned, mainly its just diatoms. Im one month in and knock on wood, so far so good. Unfortunately I have to buy all new corals. If just one person had told me to quarantine my corals for 3 weeks I would have beat them with no losses.
There is a lot of misconception that the death of the dino’s release toxins (which they do), and that is what killed your corals, not the dino X. This is false as I not only manually removed 95% of the dinos with a vacuum, but the majority of the few dinos left, died within the first week, which is not when my corals died.
So. What do I recommend after months of studying and trial and error?
If you have ostreo, a UV.
If you have amphidinium or prorocentrum, do the natural method I listed above, just have patience, and wait it out for the long battle.
If you do want them gone fast and want to do Dino X, QUARANTINE YOUR CORALS FOR 3 WEEKS!
Not buying a microscope as first step. Big mistake. I wasted plenty of money on options that would work for ostreo but not for prorocentrum, which I had. I purchased a $300 UV that did nothing. If you have Ostreo this will work for you or at least help.
Dr Tims dino protocol of Refresh and Waste Away. I did the 3 day blackout and the bacteria, and at first I thought it worked, but the blackout just made them go into hiding. 4 days later they were right back.
Raising temperature to 82°. This did nothing for me except stress a couple of my fish.
Too much light. Im certain my 9 hour light window made the problem worse. The growth slowed after I reduced my light period to 6 hours.
Hydrogen Peroxide. I tried dosing this nightly with no luck.
Using dry dead rock. The dinos grew the worst on the dry rock, and while they did grow on my live rock too, I would say it was 75% less on the live rock.
Dosing amino acids like AB+. While this alone wont cause dino’s, if you do have the little jerks in any qty, even slightly, these will cause an explosion as its like rocket fuel for their growth. Stop dosing this. Use benepets or even reefroids. (watch phosphates when using reefroids though).
Too much filtration. I had socks, skimmer, and a refugium, too much filtration with not enough fish equaled too low of nutrients.
Ok now lets start with what semi worked (THE NATURAL METHOD):
Raising nutrients- Im 99.99% sure the dinos first popped up when I let my nutrients bottom out. This is not always the cause, think of dinos appearing on a bell curve chart. For 99% of the people this will be the cause. But not for everyone. Dinos appear when you have an imbalance, it could be nutrient imbalance, it could be a imbalance in the microbiome. As in no competition, no algae, no diatoms, no bacteria, etc. Or they could appear with imbalance in trace minerals. But with most cases, low nitrates and phosphates are the culprit.
Dosing silicates- This will encourage diatom growth and algae that competes with dinos for resources.
Dosing phyto and pods- This is only ever a helpful step as it just adds more biodiversity. And there is evidence of 2 species of pods actually consuming dinos. Acartia pods and Apocalypse pods. While I couldn’t find actual studies or images of Apocalypse pods eating dinos, there was anecdotal evidence on forums, and the consensus is Apocs beings so large they have an easier time consuming the dinos. However there are studies and even live videos under a microscope of Acartia pods eating dinos!!! Few people are aware of this!
Reducing light to mainly blues, and only on a 6 hour window.
No water changes. Keep nutrients up. If you manually remove the dinos with a vacuum you must put that water back in, and make sure youre using filter socks 10 microns or less or your just dumping dinos back in. Put a toothbrush on edge of small side to vacuum and brush simultaneously. See image.
Why did I say this natural method semi worked? Because this was the method I was using before the next major outcome occurred. (I will get to in a second.) This method WAS working, albeit too slowly for my impatient butt. I 100% firmly believe if I had stayed this course I would have eventually outcompeted the dinos and not lost all my coral.
What did work although regretfully.
Dino X chemical treatment- Ok. So here is the truth about dino X. It did work. I did a 2 day blackout and started dosing Dino X, and followed all the directions. First week I saw a huge reduction in dinos. All coral and fish healthy. By the 3rd and final week, all the dinos were gone. However at start of 3rd week my SPS corals started bleaching. I did one final Dino X treatment and within 3 more days all my SPS were dead. I did a water change and within one more week all my LPS except for my zoas were dead or dying. All my fish and inverts were fine.
So here is what I recommend for anyone going to try Dino X.
If you have a fish only tank, use this stuff. It works great at killing dinos.
If you have a coral tank. Remove all corals in a quarantine tank. Don’t feed the corals so you wont have to worry about nutrients rising and you can just use a cheap filter in a small 5 gallon quarantine tank. Its worth buying and separating your corals trust me.
For me after I did my water change I instantly starting putting beneficial bacteria back in, and dosing silicates so the dinos didn’t come right back. Initially I saw signs they were with a few bubbly dinos popping up there head. But with the silicate dosing and bacteria and pod dosing, so far they have not returned, mainly its just diatoms. Im one month in and knock on wood, so far so good. Unfortunately I have to buy all new corals. If just one person had told me to quarantine my corals for 3 weeks I would have beat them with no losses.
There is a lot of misconception that the death of the dino’s release toxins (which they do), and that is what killed your corals, not the dino X. This is false as I not only manually removed 95% of the dinos with a vacuum, but the majority of the few dinos left, died within the first week, which is not when my corals died.
So. What do I recommend after months of studying and trial and error?
If you have ostreo, a UV.
If you have amphidinium or prorocentrum, do the natural method I listed above, just have patience, and wait it out for the long battle.
If you do want them gone fast and want to do Dino X, QUARANTINE YOUR CORALS FOR 3 WEEKS!
