Here we go again…Dinos :(

[MVsea1]

Here we go again. Recently started a new 140gl back in July. Battled Dinos in my previous nano because I started with dry rock and ran that system wayyy to clean, eventually bottoming out nitrate and phos which led to Dinos. This time around I started with real live rock from the Florida keys to avoid previous mistakes. Have a decent bioload (feed heavy) and my last test results were 1.0 nitrate and .13 phos. Noticed a tiny dusting of stringy brown algae the other day on my rock that looked eerily familiar to Dinos…and a very light dusting on the sand bed. Looked under a scope and sure enough…hello darkness my old friend. what the heck am I doing wrong??? My question now is how do I deal with this? Do I go aggressive? Or just continue to elevate my nutrients? I know my tank is still maturing, but typically you deal with diatoms/GHA ect…not Dinos! So bummed out …help! (Also the pics are crappy but any idea what type of Dinos I have?)

 

[Stevorino]

I don't see coral in this tank, so I would personally:

- Turn down the lights to moonlights or reaaalllly low
- Add some Dr Tims, Microbacter 7, or something with some more bio
- Add a ton of pods
- Increase feeding 50% until your Nitrate is above 10

Wait 2 months and slowly ramp up the lights again. This should give the tank a chance to mature a bit and get rocking so that next time Dinos comes back, there is something to beat the **** out of it

 

[MVsea1]

Also forgot to mention that I had a bryopsis outbreak after my initial cycle and cleared it up with flucanozole. Thinking that might have killed off all the competing algae which gave Dinos a foothold. What I’ve done so far is lowered my lighting, increased my temp to 81, turned off the the skimmer, and increased feeding. (Will prob put skimmer on a timer to go on only at night or day). I think the next step will be to start dosing bacteria like Dr. Tim’s waste-away. Want to try all the least invasive steps before I go to aggressive and majorly disrupt anything. Again, it’s not really out of control yet but I’ve noticed the dusting on the sand bed is getting a little worse each day…and I know from experience how quickly Dinos can replicate and take over the tank.

 

[MVsea1]

I don't see coral in this tank, so I would personally:

- Turn down the lights to moonlights or reaaalllly low
- Add some Dr Tims, Microbacter 7, or something with some more bio
- Add a ton of pods
- Increase feeding 50% until your Nitrate is above 10

Wait 2 months and slowly ramp up the lights again. This should give the tank a chance to mature a bit and get rocking so that next time Dinos comes back, there is something to beat the **** out of it

I actually have 2 small Zoa frags..wouldnt be the end of the world if I lost them. Just glad I don’t have a tank full of expensive corals. Want to get this fixed because that’s the goal . Also ordered some pods from algae barn.

 

[Reefer Matt]

I would start with a good stock of fish to get nutrients where you want them.

 

[exnisstech]

Also forgot to mention that I had a bryopsis outbreak after my initial cycle and cleared it up with flucanozole. Thinking that might have killed off all the competing algae which gave Dinos a foothold.

I had similar results with flucanizole only I ended up with cyano rather than Dino.. I think it's a bad idea to add chems to newer tanks. I think it's better to let the tank mature in a natural way. At least for me it seems to work out better. When I add chems to a new tank I just end up chasing my tail adding this then something else comes along so add that etc.

 

[Stevorino]

I actually have 2 small Zoa frags..wouldnt be the end of the world if I lost them. Just glad I don’t have a tank full of expensive corals. Want to get this fixed because that’s the goal . Also ordered some pods from algae barn.

Sounds like you are taking all the right steps!

I agree to not worry about those zoas… small sacrifice for the long term good!

 

[thedon986]

Get your nitrate and phosphates up, dose silcates (waterglass), dose phyto, add copepods and wait it out. Looks like you used live rock but not gulf live sand? So that sand was either not populated or barely populated with the good guys and dinos have moved in. You'll have to give the sand time to build a "defense" to them. I have bryopsis on some of my TBS rock but am resisting the chemical approach for these reasons. I am pulling it and hoping one day my herbivores finish it off.

You could also go and buy some real live sand since you're in FL.

 

[Rick's Reviews]

I would avoid the 'chemical additives' these may be competing with each other and again providing 'to clean' of an aquarium, to begin the cycle, I'm unsure how Dino's work as I've never had them but could GHA out compete them? Force the ugly phase?

 

[Dan_P]

Here we go again. Recently started a new 140gl back in July. Battled Dinos in my previous nano because I started with dry rock and ran that system wayyy to clean, eventually bottoming out nitrate and phos which led to Dinos. This time around I started with real live rock from the Florida keys to avoid previous mistakes. Have a decent bioload (feed heavy) and my last test results were 1.0 nitrate and .13 phos. Noticed a tiny dusting of stringy brown algae the other day on my rock that looked eerily familiar to Dinos…and a very light dusting on the sand bed. Looked under a scope and sure enough…hello darkness my old friend. what the heck am I doing wrong??? My question now is how do I deal with this? Do I go aggressive? Or just continue to elevate my nutrients? I know my tank is still maturing, but typically you deal with diatoms/GHA ect…not Dinos! So bummed out …help! (Also the pics are crappy but any idea what type of Dinos I have?)

Since you haven’t started stocking coral, just let the ecology play out. After all you spent good money on live rock to introduce biodiversity. Let it do its thing.

 

[Lavey29]

You got some nice live ocean rock but you killed it off and your biome by adding harsh chemicals to the tank. As others mentioned, reduce lights a few weeks. Get a conch or 2 to stir your sand or a goby. Add fish, get your low nutrients up. No more harsh chemicals. Tank still looks to clean even for 3 months.