How to Beat Dinoflagellates once and for all by julian sprung

[Dan_P]

That should help as dinos thrive in low nutrient systems. I'm battling them now. Last week I dosed 30 ppm in my 40 breeder and still not detectable.

How old is 40 breeder?

 

[Dr Jimmy]

How old is 40 breeder?

It got wet in March. Dry rock and sand. Mostly working on getting more biodiversity in the tank.

 

[merereef]

I dont even pretend to understand what is fueling my dino's anymore. My nutrients are not low (nearly 20ppm no3, 0.06-0.08ppm po4), ive dosed enough bottle bacteria from various brands to seed a million gallon tank. Ive done weekly vacuuming of the sand. I've done daily vacuuming, ive gone months without vacuuming. Ive done waterchanges, ive done no waterchanges. Ive done black outs of various lengths, up to 7 days. Ive blasted the sand with flow, ive went with little flow. They continue to thrive in this tank.

I have beaten them before in a different tank, but cant seem to do anything with these. Im not far from just going bare bottom which I REALLY don't want to do. Or just tearing the tank down altogether.

Ok since you have decided to try the sand rinse just thought id share a little advice i got from world wide corals.. they mention to get rid of dinos the ones that hug the sand is to syphone ONLY the top laer of sand in to a bucket.. rinse in RO water really well a few times and then re add the sand. Hope that helps. Looking at your tank it does seem like a tank thats still in its early stages...

 

[Dan_P]

It got wet in March. Dry rock and sand. Mostly working on getting more biodiversity in the tank.

OK thanks. I was wondering whether this was a new or old set up. It seems new setups are susceptible to dinoflagellates but not older systems.

 

[cedwards04]

Ok since you have decided to try the sand rinse just thought id share a little advice i got from world wide corals.. they mention to get rid of dinos the ones that hug the sand is to syphone ONLY the top laer of sand in to a bucket.. rinse in RO water really well a few times and then re add the sand. Hope that helps. Looking at your tank it does seem like a tank thats still in its early stages...

Why do you say it looks like it is in its early stages? I guess maybe it is. Tank is over a year old.

 

[Dr Jimmy]

OK thanks. I was wondering whether this was a new or old set up. It seems new setups are susceptible to dinoflagellates but not older systems.

Likely owing to the reduced biodiversity. That's also why I included the dry rock/sand.

 

[Swanky]

Far from an experienced reef tank keeper here, but my 55 gallon lps & softy tank had a nasty bout with Large Cell Amphidinium. I was ready to shut things down and had no idea what to do with the conflicting info and posts. A more "hands-off" approach worked for my tank. I quit siphoning the sand bed, minimized any agitation of the rocks, (other than when my ornery wrasse kicks sand up over them when he finds himself a tasty treat somewhere) and added as many types of flora and fauna I could find. (Thanks Indo Pacific Sea Farms)

Tank has never started to look better a year in, and I'm even noticing a long standing brown "film" of sorts on the rocks disappearing quickly.

Personally a huge fan of letting nature take it's course and just giving a nudge in a general direction once in a while.

 

[merereef]

Why do you say it looks like it is in its early stages? I guess maybe it is. Tank is over a year old.

i posted a question once... that how do sps keepers know when something is wrong with just their eyes... and experience tells you i guess.. looking at your tank... the rocks the glass you can tell. Try the method i mentioned see how that goes

 

[Dolphins18]

As previously stated, I tried the leave it undisturbed method for a long time. This is an ongoing issue i have been battling for upwards of 9 months. I am going to continue rinsing the sand to see if that works, as there are people who have had success with it. Nothing else I have tried has worked, and I've tried about everything you can imagine or find through research online.

Magfloat with razor attached isn't touching this stuff. Also tried a flipper max with metal blade. My glass is really thick, so i think the magnets are not strong enough.

Your nutrients are in good shape. Do you run a fuge? I might suggest planting some macro algae if you do, you can even plant it in your display. It will compete with the Dino’s.
If nothing else, an algae scrubber would Likely take care of it, that’s a pretty expensive fix though. Time is everything, first 10 years on my 90 was plagued with issues. I now change the water 3 times a year and don’t do much else. Thats just my 2 cents I don’t mind what you do with it, just sharing.

 

[FlexingFishSticks]

I have a almost 5 month old tank and mannn Dinos make everything look terrible and it sucks when it starts to affect your corals. I did a lot of things as others have stated. Nutrients never bottomed out I was always at nitrates 5-10 and phosphate 0.5 or less. What I recently did that has helped for a couple of weeks now I know too soon to speak but jus wanted to share lol. I raised temp to 82-83 and man they like melted off all the rock and sand. Along with this steady temp I also blacked tank out for 7 days and had a Uv sterilizer running as well and yeah so far so good but only time will tell....

 

[badams.one]

The ones we both had were amphidinium dinos hugged sand

This has pretty much been my experience exactly.. except my dumb butt decided to do a water change. I had stopped water changes entirely for about a month and a half.. corals were starting to look better, started to see more sand breaking through the patches of dino and boom.. another bloom. Now I'm just sitting back and waiting it out. Still adding microbacter7 daily and feeding only.

I have however, thought about increasing my light intensity as Im running at 30%. Curious if this would help speed up the process. Thinking the dinos might grow at first and perhaps absorb/eat all they can faster and disappear? Curious to hear your thoughts/feedback on this. I don't recall if it was you or another that mentioned this in the thread. Cheers!

 

[merereef]

This has pretty much been my experience exactly.. except my dumb butt decided to do a water change. I had stopped water changes entirely for about a month and a half.. corals were starting to look better, started to see more sand breaking through the patches of dino and boom.. another bloom. Now I'm just sitting back and waiting it out. Still adding microbacter7 daily and feeding only.

I have however, thought about increasing my light intensity as Im running at 30%. Curious if this would help speed up the process. Thinking the dinos might grow at first and perhaps absorb/eat all they can faster and disappear? Curious to hear your thoughts/feedback on this. I don't recall if it was you or another that mentioned this in the thread. Cheers!

Yes i think its a good idea to run the lights higher as i did this to get as much of the dinos out as possible.

 

[jmichaelh7]

I wish i was smart enough to answer your questions in far greater detail lol im just sharing a different point of view that dinos may occur when there is a disturbance in the system which personally ive not seen anyone else mention. Secondly his advice about letting the system mature ALSO worked for me.. in fact it was the ONLY thing that worked for me..

methods ive tried that didnt work
- increase nutrients
-black out
-hydrogen peroxide
-Remove sand
-Uv
-elegent corals method
-Silicate dosing

Battling this for 10 months none of thes emethods worked for me however just listening to his advice.. took it on board.. thats the only thing that worked for me.

This worked for you??

 

[Micro-Reefs Aquarium]

I just started fighting my dinoflagellates in my 3 systems. All three are connected to a UV, all have skimmers and two grow cheato third one have not statted it.

Purchased tiger conch for 30 gallon with 15 cerith snails.

The conch is literally eating all the dino off my sandbed.

The other two 12 gallons each have 6 ceroth snails each.

Dinos are not getting worse but have slowed down.

However once or twice a day I blow on the sand with my reef roids feeder. Sand turns white and I kick up a lot pf dinos into water column and it passes through the UV


I have also just started increasing feedings I run the smaller tanks as ULNS.

 

[Bouncingsoul39]

The short and easy answer to Dino’s is don’t start a tank with dry dead rock or any artificial rock. Use real aquaculture ocean live rock and with standard maintenance practices you won’t see Dino or even an ugly phase.

This tank is two months old. Loaded with SPS, Clam, Long tentacle Nem, all happy and growing. No dinos no ugly phase.

 

[jmichaelh7]

The short and easy answer to Dino’s is don’t start a tank with dry dead rock or any artificial rock. Use real aquaculture ocean live rock and with standard maintenance practices you won’t see Dino or even an ugly phase.

This tank is two months old. Loaded with SPS, Clam, Long tentacle Nem, all happy and growing. No dinos no ugly phase.

thats great advice.

the thread is about "how to" beat dinos when you have them. However, Your measure is a great preventative method.

 

[Micro-Reefs Aquarium]

The short and easy answer to Dino’s is don’t start a tank with dry dead rock or any artificial rock. Use real aquaculture ocean live rock and with standard maintenance practices you won’t see Dino or even an ugly phase.

This tank is two months old. Loaded with SPS, Clam, Long tentacle Nem, all happy and growing. No dinos no ugly phase.

My rocks are all from KP Aquatics, I have three tanks two are 6 months and the other about 1 month.

All three got cyano first then that phase went away on its own, but I run a ULNS on two of them.

Trying to dial in my cheato, I bottomed out on Phosphates a couple times and ran really low nitrates while taping in Bright Wells Neo Phos and Neo Nitro.

So, dinoflagellates showed up, I tested with coffee filter test and they regrouped into snot within 20 mins of being left on the window with natural light.

The dinos ravaged my white sand bed, but they stayed there, they did not colonize live rock at all.

I feel the live rock having organisms living on them the dinos find it easier and suitable to take the surface of live sand instead.

I watched hours and days full of YouTube videos on how to beat them.

I decided and purchased 27 cerith snails, 15 in my 30 gallon 6 in each of my 12 gallon system plus one tiger conch for the 30 gallon.

That cuc literally has eaten almost all of my dinos.

I also do stir up the sand and get the dinos water borne so they run through my UV's. Each system has it dedicated UV and skimmer.

No chemicals, just cuc from LFS and UV and me hitting the sand twice a day and I upped my feedings to .05-.09 phosphates and 5-10ppm nitrates.

All corals look great and undisturbed. No black out bags, no raising temp, no reduction of light schedule, no adding bacteria.

If I beat Dinos it will have been UV + CUC + water blasting sand twice a day.

 

[boomeraudio]

Far from an experienced reef tank keeper here, but my 55 gallon lps & softy tank had a nasty bout with Large Cell Amphidinium. I was ready to shut things down and had no idea what to do with the conflicting info and posts. A more "hands-off" approach worked for my tank. I quit siphoning the sand bed, minimized any agitation of the rocks, (other than when my ornery wrasse kicks sand up over them when he finds himself a tasty treat somewhere) and added as many types of flora and fauna I could find. (Thanks Indo Pacific Sea Farms)

Tank has never started to look better a year in, and I'm even noticing a long standing brown "film" of sorts on the rocks disappearing quickly.

Personally a huge fan of letting nature take it's course and just giving a nudge in a general direction once in a while.

Did you do water changes through the process?

 

[brandon429]

I’ve been beating dinos by doing sandbed rinses for pages and pages this year. its not true about destabilizing siphoning or water changes, because a rip clean is the most insulting water change possible and it’s been working great for everyone


So I must disagree with post #1

 

[MinnieMouse2]

Saying this... the only thing i would do is if i had dinos smothering corals then i would only blow them off and leave everything else undisturbed

I got dinos that smother my corals every day. They already have killed all my plate corals, now working on the elegance coral, and softies. I blow them off and an hour later brown is forming on them. I dose nitrates, phos, bacteria, and still they come. They are on every surface in the tank. I beat them once then I got cyano which started to smother corals, so I took it down and dinos came again. They are the Ostreopsis. I have a UV running. Creepy at night my tank water turns brown. I am getting so tired of them. Even when you beat them they hide out in places like the green hair algae on the tanks walls. I found out when the cyano came the dinos were not really gone, they hid in the green hair algae on the back wall and side of the tank. It pays to a microscope. I never dreamed they were in the hair algae waiting for a weakness to come. I also feed my clams food. I can not change water forever, I have reef clams, and they have needs.