How did YOU beat Dinos?

[ScottB]

Help? I've been fighting Ostreopsis Ovata since early spring and nothing has worked. Tried everything, multiple blackouts, raising nutrients, adding oversized UV, Dino-X, H2O2, copepods, phyto, 10 micron filter sticks -everything I've read.

I'm especially frustrated because the Ovata go into the water column and put a 40w Aqua Ultraviolet (tank is 120) and that hasn't helped. After all this is just worse than ever!
Any idea what flow rate I should use on the UV? I've tried 150 gph. 300 gph, 700 gph and even 1350 gph.
What gives? Beside my endurance and ability to stay in the hobby?

That is a properly sized UV. I would confirm the bulb is good. With slow flow, ostreopsis should be gone by now as long as your nutrients remain elevated. What are they? (NO3 and PO4)

Next, I would confirm it is still ostreopsis. It is common to have more than one species. Lastly, no amino acids

 

[BillFish Coral Lover]

Thank you for your response. The bulb was pretty much brand new when I put it on but I probably should get a new one now. It's been about 6 months since I employed it. However, I also fixed a leak from my Vecton2 25W UV and included it in the flow just before the AquaUV. That bulb is brand new so I would think that should do it. I'll slow the flow a bit. Currently about 700 gph.
Nitrates are ridiculous from overfeeding to raise nutrients. Currently 65-100 ppm.
Phosphates are okay at .06 -.10 ppm. The system is over 13 years old.
Now, Amino Acids? Ha! I'll stop immediately. Thank you!

 

[BillFish Coral Lover]

That is a properly sized UV. I would confirm the bulb is good. With slow flow, ostreopsis should be gone by now as long as your nutrients remain elevated. What are they? (NO3 and PO4)

Next, I would confirm it is still ostreopsis. It is common to have more than one species. Lastly, no amino acids

Sorry, I quoted you instead of replying. Also, they're still Ovata. About 9-10 months now... Really want to start a new tank!

 

[ScottB]

Thank you for your response. The bulb was pretty much brand new when I put it on but I probably should get a new one now. It's been about 6 months since I employed it. However, I also fixed a leak from my Vecton2 25W UV and included it in the flow just before the AquaUV. That bulb is brand new so I would think that should do it. I'll slow the flow a bit. Currently about 700 gph.
Nitrates are ridiculous from overfeeding to raise nutrients. Currently 65-100 ppm.
Phosphates are okay at .06 -.10 ppm. The system is over 13 years old.
Now, Amino Acids? Ha! I'll stop immediately. Thank you!

Dropping the aminos should help. I swear if I walk by the tank with a bottle of AcroPower the tank would break out.

 

[ScottB]

Thank you for your response. The bulb was pretty much brand new when I put it on but I probably should get a new one now. It's been about 6 months since I employed it. However, I also fixed a leak from my Vecton2 25W UV and included it in the flow just before the AquaUV. That bulb is brand new so I would think that should do it. I'll slow the flow a bit. Currently about 700 gph.
Nitrates are ridiculous from overfeeding to raise nutrients. Currently 65-100 ppm.
Phosphates are okay at .06 -.10 ppm. The system is over 13 years old.
Now, Amino Acids? Ha! I'll stop immediately. Thank you!

Ah yes. Flow. Most dinos have some armor (theca) that offer some protection from UV. Bacteria and algae don't have this. Most free swimming fish pests don't have much either so the manufacturers don't seem to have caught on to flow recommendations for dinos. Slow it down to 300 or so.

Said all that, are you running 1 watt for every three gallons? That is recommended.

Edit: never mind on sizing. You are good there now that I look back.

 

[SaltISlife]

Never had dinos. I feel its because you guys have too much equipment and rely too much on rodi making water (too clean)

Some of you know i use tap. Have 100+ corals 135g tank. 5 tangs. And 10 other fish. Nitrates range from 20-40ppm depending on how much i feed. Never checked phosphates other than through a api kit which just says .25 but all it goes too is .25 so it might be .25 or might be lower.. no idea. Dont care

My tap has silicates in it. No heavy metals, besides small traces of iron and aluminum. And these traces are litterally traces like micrograms per liter..

Tds i believe was like 90 micrograms per liter or something. Was small in the water report.

Regardless i cant grow algae. I have no hair algae but some that hrows on my hang on backs water fall outlets. I have no real coraline. No algae on the sand. Nothing. The coraline i do have only grows on my rocks in some spots and its a red flourescent type which i hear is a rarer type.

I wish i could grow algae lol my snails wouldnt die and seaurchin would have more food lol but hey im not complaining. See how clean my rocks and sand are. Only algae i ever get is diatoms on the glass every 2 or 3 days. And the occasional green.brown coraline in 1 or two spots after like weeks.

Also i use no sump or skimmer. I habe 3 reef tanks in my house. None get dinos and they all use hang on backs and tap water..

 

[Piranhapat]

Very surprised not one person mention raising the temperature to 81.No higher than 82. Within a 24 hours you should at least improved. Also shut skimmer for 2 to 4 hours during day. Maintain Po4 and No3. Add some bacteria. Within a week you should see an improvement. No chemicals. UV is very good in controlling Dino’s. There always in your tank. They waiting for perfect condition.

 

[Kongar]

DinoX

I tried it all and nothing worked. UV was the only thing that sort of worked. It knocked it back, but didn't kill the dinos off completely. Really caused havok in my tank and I was at my breaking point. I then tried DinoX and it wiped them out in 8 doses. It's been a couple of months now and no dinos in sight.

 

[ReefRusty]

My tank has been up and running for 6 weeks now. Yet to have any algae or dinos or any signs of it. Only running blues on my lights. And have been turned on for 3 or 4 weeks now. Touch wood I don't get it now

 

[Doglips56]

Total blackout x3 days including cardboard all the way around. Would definitely add an air stone next time as I lost a gorgeous tang to oxygen deprivation and would run carbon entire time to detox the dying off dinos. I don’t plan on having a “next time” because I will do some things differently to prevent dinos

 

[JAIME_MTY]

Blackout 3 days , air stone , dr tims waste away and microbacter7 .

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

I never confirmed what type I had but it was starting to smother things and wouldn’t disappear at night. I forgot to turn my light back on and noticed it greatly receded so I just left it off for three days an that appears to have done the trick!

 

[ReefRusty]

I never confirmed what type I had but it was starting to smother things and wouldn’t disappear at night. I forgot to turn my light back on and noticed it greatly receded so I just left it off for three days an that appears to have done the trick!

Did you have fish or corals when you turned lights out? How did they respond and survive?

 

[ReefBeta]

I took cared of the dino by dosing phosphate and cleaning the sleeve of my UV. By the end I dosed vodka once before it's all gone. But I don't think vodka is the primary factor.

More details are in my build thread, https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/180-gallon-sps-focus-build.747550/post-8239626

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

Did you have fish or corals when you turned lights out? How did they respond and survive?

I don’t have any fish but I do have inverts and a bunch of coral, the inverts couldn’t care less and the corals just didn’t really open. I didn’t have to do a very intense one, lights where still on in the room etc

 

[Joe's 220 Reef]

The only thing that worked for me was this: no water changed with the exception of replenishment. Each day I looked for dinos and sucked them out of the tank. One I started to make progress I would turn off the water and shoot peroxide on the effected rocks and let sit for 10 minutes before sucking that out as well (did areas at a time). I am basically Dino free with the exception of once and I while I see them start to pop up and suck them out before they spread. It has really worked well for me. Previous to this I tried blackouts, general peroxide dosing, nutrient increases, and Dino x none of which worked for me.

 

[DrMMI]

In addition to raising nitrate and phosphate, Elegant corals dino treatment worked for me.

 

[Quietman]

Just about finished with another outbreak here. My first "significant outbreak" since I cleared up the issue last July. I've had a few minor outbreaks but a little increase in UV (return) flow and a cleaning would take care of it for several weeks.

My rankings:
Minor - some patches visible during day - disappear at night
Significant - patches spread and cover sand, no longer disappear fully at night
Major - moves to rock and corals and visible signs of stress/death of livestock (corals/fish)

A "minor" turned into a "significant" this last time (3-4 weeks ago) and normal actions only lasted a week or less. Confirmed with microscope still was Ostreopsis. Since I already had UV (for appropriate types of dinos can work wonders) I simply cleaned off the UV glass shield, increased the flow a bit, dialed down my lights to 60% from 80% and removed all but blue spectrum and broke out the DinoX (following directions). Two weeks later and all is well. I'll go another week/10 days with the low lights and DinoX but no losses, no stress to livestock, no excessive cleaning (some but really not needed soon as started treatment). All in all...a pain, but a manageable one now.

Not like my first outbreak when lost almost all my coral and 2 fish.

 

[chadfish]

I was just curiuos. There are so many different methods. I had success by raising my nutrients and dosing live phyto!

How much live phyto and how long did it take?

 

[chadfish]

I managed to get rid of dinos a while ago, and it hasnt shown up again.
I ran UV through the display, I stopped doing water changes, I dosed beneficial bacteria and I siphoned as much dinos as I could through a 20 micron filter. I then poured the clean water back into the system.
All this and just time, time for the system to stabilize and time for all the different approaces to take effect.

Your mechanical filtration method is key and not discussed a lot. Dinos of a certain size can be knocked down significantly by just filtering them out. The remaining ones get a dose of UV and whatever is left has to compete with live phytoplankton.