I have been battling dinos since I began this hobby about a year ago. It all started when I dosed fluconazole for bryopsis early on in the tanks lifecycle and then had to leave for about a month for work. When I got back, the tank was completely sterile it seemed. Good coraline growth but no green algae whatsoever. Soon after came the dinos. I believe the rock from my main LFS is also cursed because I started another tank out of quarantine boredom and got the same rock and had bryopsis early on. This time I just let it ride, but dinos came shortly after that as well. So something is up with that source rock.
The first tank I have truly tried everything. Chemicals, blackouts, full tank teardown and rebuild, etc. You've seen it on here, I did it. UV sterilizers seemed to work quite well, but there is always a little bit left that won't be killed, usually as a brown film on the glass. Eventually, if I let it go, it takes over the tank and I need to do a reset by doing a three day blackout. I've noticed dinos like to grow on a sterile environment - glass or a new piece of dry rock I added. I even chipped a piece off a well matured dino free rock, and dinos shortly inhabited the fresh portion that wasn't exposed before. I haven't noticed any impact of nitrates or phosphates. I am in the team that diversity affects dino growth the most. Dinos thrive in a monoculture. I created this 'monoculture' by dosing chemicals early on and really messing with my ecosystem. I have noticed with this tank very poor pod growth and a lack of green dust and film algae. I get some hair algae when I overfeed.
My second tank I did very little to battle and won (it seems). I turned off the light for about a week. When I turned the lights back on I added some chaeto in a corner, and two pieces of LR from a different LFS. The dinos came back initially, but eventually I started getting healthy green dust algae. I just let it grow everywhere. I didn't do water changes. As of now, there is healthy green dust algae on all glass surfaces and great coralline growth. The pod population is insane. They are crawling over everything. The few corals I have look better than my other more cared for system.
My main point here - is my uv sterilizer in my main tank helping maintain this monoculture? It is running 24/7 and may explain why I can only grow coraline, dinos and hair algae? As of just now, I shut off the UV sterilizer, moved a rock from the healthy tank into the affected tank, moved some chaeto over and have been scraping off the glass and pipetting up the algae/pod mixture and putting it into the affected tank.
The first tank I have truly tried everything. Chemicals, blackouts, full tank teardown and rebuild, etc. You've seen it on here, I did it. UV sterilizers seemed to work quite well, but there is always a little bit left that won't be killed, usually as a brown film on the glass. Eventually, if I let it go, it takes over the tank and I need to do a reset by doing a three day blackout. I've noticed dinos like to grow on a sterile environment - glass or a new piece of dry rock I added. I even chipped a piece off a well matured dino free rock, and dinos shortly inhabited the fresh portion that wasn't exposed before. I haven't noticed any impact of nitrates or phosphates. I am in the team that diversity affects dino growth the most. Dinos thrive in a monoculture. I created this 'monoculture' by dosing chemicals early on and really messing with my ecosystem. I have noticed with this tank very poor pod growth and a lack of green dust and film algae. I get some hair algae when I overfeed.
My second tank I did very little to battle and won (it seems). I turned off the light for about a week. When I turned the lights back on I added some chaeto in a corner, and two pieces of LR from a different LFS. The dinos came back initially, but eventually I started getting healthy green dust algae. I just let it grow everywhere. I didn't do water changes. As of now, there is healthy green dust algae on all glass surfaces and great coralline growth. The pod population is insane. They are crawling over everything. The few corals I have look better than my other more cared for system.
My main point here - is my uv sterilizer in my main tank helping maintain this monoculture? It is running 24/7 and may explain why I can only grow coraline, dinos and hair algae? As of just now, I shut off the UV sterilizer, moved a rock from the healthy tank into the affected tank, moved some chaeto over and have been scraping off the glass and pipetting up the algae/pod mixture and putting it into the affected tank.
