How many of you have had a dinoflagellate infestation? (and beat it)

[fishmonkey]

Dinos have probably been my worst experience with reefing. Has anyone gone without Dino’s before? Maybe you guys can give some tips in the comments.

My fix was to lower light intensity and photoperiod, raise nitrates/phosphates a bit, siphon out Dino’s into filter sock, no water changes, raise temp to 78-80, dose microbacter7.

 

[Brymac1]

I never had Dino’s until last December. They kinda of just went away after a couple months, all I did was raise nutrients. I had large cell amphidinium.

 

[Tonycass12]

Let the tank get dirty and ran UV. Lost a lot of my frags early on to dinos

 

[CK00020]

I dosed up phos and used Dino x which worked wonders

 

[gbroadbridge]

Dinos have probably been my worst experience with reefing. Has anyone gone without Dino’s before? Maybe you guys can give some tips in the comments.

My fix was to lower light intensity and photoperiod, raise nitrates/phosphates a bit, siphon out Dino’s into filter sock, no water changes, raise temp to 78-80, dose microbacter7.

Tank had it bad, had tried UV and Dino X. Ostreopsis.

Had to spend 3 weeks in hospital - tank got very filthy, Cyano and Algae everywhere.
Got home, water change and cleaned the mess.

Dinos magically disappeared and have not come back after 6 months. lol.

 

[131696]

Get uv

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Mine are not completely beaten, but almost. Dosed nitrates to get back up to 5ppm. Nitrates had gone to 0, while phosphate sat at 0.1... now phosphates are at 0.05, and dinoflagellates are almost gone. We also installed a UV sterilizer, and began harvesting the macro from the sump more frequently. Also stopped dosing CoralAmino, at least until the dinos are completely gone. We cut back water changes to every 2 weeks, but did have to increase the amount of calcium and alkalinity we are dosing as a result.

Overall, tank is looking much better, and they're almost completely gone. Just a little left on the sand bed.

 

[fishmonkey]

Get uv

I had the Dino’s that didn’t dissipate at night and stay in the sand bed so I don’t think uv would work for that

 

[Miami Reef]

I battled coolia. It took exactly one month to beat it completely, but that month felt like the longest month of my life.

It’s hard to know exactly what got rid of them. I kept nutrients elevated 0.10ppm phosphates and I think that’s what did it.

But initially raising nutrients by feeding reef roids made the Dinos worse. I also dosed micro bacter 7 on and off for a few days during the beginning but that didn’t do anything IMO.

Black outs didn’t do anything either. They just came back as soon as lights came back.

My filter socks removed a lot of dinos. I didn’t even use a UV.

 

[Duncan62]

I had the Dino’s that didn’t dissipate at night and stay in the sand bed so I don’t think uv would work for that

Stir them up. It helps.

 

[saltyhog]

Yes beat Ostreopsis and then LCA in my big tank and Coolia in my nano.

Dinos have probably been my worst experience with reefing. Has anyone gone without Dino’s before? Maybe you guys can give some tips in the comments.

My fix was to lower light intensity and photoperiod, raise nitrates/phosphates a bit, siphon out Dino’s into filter sock, no water changes, raise temp to 78-80, dose microbacter7.

What type of dinos did you have? You haven't tried the most important methods but they are somewhat specific to what type you have.

 

[Nick Steele]

I’m a believer in that many Dino issues are because of an imbalance in the system. Not always just low nutrients.

I’ve fought Dino’s twice in the 2.5 years I’ve been reefing and most where due to a big change I made.

First time I was trying to get sps to grow and color up nicely so I started to dose phos and nitrate (had 0,0 before dosing) which I guess threw things off and I had Dino’s for 6+ months where I tried everything (uv, dosing, no water changes, blackouts, increase in temp etc) towards the end I was considering a complete rip clean (removing sand and 100% water change) and that is what help push me over the edge.

About 4 months between these two incidents

Second time I kept up with dosing from the earlier battle and since I was dosing and levels where staying up (.08 phos and 5 nitrate) I decided I didn’t need to feed my fish every night like I was as tank was getting a little dirty (not algae just nasty grey/brown dust under and around rocks). Nothing happened for a few weeks then slowly Dino’s on my sandbed. I went a few weeks trying to figure it out and then I got some news and decided tank will take the back burner for awhile and all sps hopes went out the window so now I was only going to do lps/zoas so I lowered my lighting and decided to start feeding my fish half a cube every night again. I swear overnight I seen I difference after feeding half a cube and lowering my light.

Sometimes we tinker with our tanks to much and just need to let them tell us how they need to be run.

 

[CK00020]

I noticed when I dose flux I get Dino’s on the sand just a little around the edges of the tank. When I am done with the flux and do water change and carbon it’s gone.