I have almost completely eradicated dinoflagellates overnight.

[saltyhog]

I don’t know salty. That’s a great question. I moved my from DT to sump return, only to put it back in DT, where I plan to keep it for the foreseeable future. I hung mine off the back so the only thing I see in my tank is the mj1200 powerhead in the corner. Not too bad on a 180 gallon tank. I do know that others had success moving it on the sump return. Some eliminate it altogether.

Your UV is very large. I suspect that if you have high sump turnover you can get away with it soon. How lucky do you feel?

Mine is in the top left corner. Excuse the reflection...

Not feeling too lucky right now. LOL (I read your question in Clint Eastwood voice)

Would it be ok to pump out of the DT and return it back in to the sump? I'm thinking the important part is taking the water directly from the DT not returning it there? If I could hang an MJ right up against the overflow it would be pretty inconspicuous and then I could pretty easily route the return from the UV to the sump. Now you have me thinking.

I think I'm going to leave it as is for at least a couple of more weeks. Everything looks too good to take any chances just yet.

 

[dwest]

Not feeling too lucky right now. LOL (I read your question in Clint Eastwood voice)

Would it be ok to pump out of the DT and return it back in to the sump? I'm thinking the important part is taking the water directly from the DT not returning it there? If I could hang an MJ right up against the overflow it would be pretty inconspicuous and then I could pretty easily route the return from the UV to the sump. Now you have me thinking.

I think I'm going to leave it as is for at least a couple of more weeks. Everything looks too good to take any chances just yet.

I think you are smart waiting. If you pump from DT back to sump, I agree that would take care of dino issue. But, I would be real nervous about that. You would have to think through power outages, etc. My sump would be too small. They might make them bigger in Arkansas.

 

[saltyhog]

I think you are smart waiting. If you pump from DT back to sump, I agree that would take care of dino issue. But, I would be real nervous about that. You would have to think through power outages, etc. My sump would be too small. They might make them bigger in Arkansas.

Very legitimate concern. Not too familiar with the MJ pumps but if I can position the intake about the same level or just slightly higher than my return lines it shouldn't be a problem should it, I.E. no additional water would drain to the sump, just an additional pathway?

Another dumb question, how did you secure the line returning water to the tank to keep it from falling or getting knocked out? I'm using a heater holder that has two suction cups but I don't trust it very much.

 

[Radman73]

Tell ya, the struggle with low nutrients is real. I feed what I consider to be too much as it is. 2-3 cubes worth per day for 14 smaller fish. PO4 was at .08 on Sunday, .02 today. I'm going to need a much bigger bottle of flourish at this point or find another safe form of phosphate to add. Nitrate is looking to be 0-5, so need to bump that up too.

 

[JerseyReefer]

My Jeboa 55w comes from Amazon today. I've been dealing with Ostreo for almost 3 years, but kept it under control on the sand bed. If this works I'll be psyched! I've tried so many other methods but the brown sand always comes back.

Well the UV filter did nothing. Very frustrating. It turns out I misdiagnosed my strain of dinos. I thought it was Ostreo but it’s actually Amphidinium. They look so similar but I should’ve been clued in by the fact that it’s mostly in my sand bed.

I found this great blog post. Super informative.
http://atransgenicworld.blogspot.com/2018/05/dinoflagellates-in-reef-tank-what-why.html?m=1

I’m going to research silica dosing now. I’d really rather not remove my sand bed. I have so many critters living in there.

 

[Gobi-Wan]

Ok here goes nothing. I bought the jebao pond uv sterilizer. It arrived today and I plumbed it up, in line with my phosban 150 reactor (filled with GAC). It is a split off of the return from the sump so hopefully enough of the dinos will go down the display overflow to be processed through the sterilizer. Ill attach some pics of dinos and my angry corals/anemone hiding.

 

[saltyhog]

Anxious to see how running it out of the sump goes. I've been running mine 2 weeks out of the DT back to the DT and hope to plumb it to the sump in a couple more weeks.

 

[dwest]

Very legitimate concern. Not too familiar with the MJ pumps but if I can position the intake about the same level or just slightly higher than my return lines it shouldn't be a problem should it, I.E. no additional water would drain to the sump, just an additional pathway?

Agree.

Another dumb question, how did you secure the line returning water to the tank to keep it from falling or getting knocked out? I'm using a heater holder that has two suction cups but I don't trust it very much.

If I understand your question, I used a murlock 1/2 inch fitting on the mj1200 pump outlet, then ro line to the sterilizer. I ran ro tubing back from the uv to the tank. I am using my aqua Uv sterilizer which I retrofitted with 1/2 inch threaded connections. I’m going to try to attach my brs parts list. Let me know if I can clarify.


PRODUCT SKU PRICE QTY SUBTOTAL
Subtotal $16.13
Shipping & Handling $2.99
169 Reward points -$1.69
Grand Total $17.43
G.A. Murdock
1/2" X 1/2" STRAIGHT UNION PUSH CONNECT - BLACK
100020 $2.99
Ordered: 1
Shipped: 1
$2.99
Mur-Lok
PUSH CONNECT FITTING RELEASE TOOL
211036 $3.49
Ordered: 1
Shipped: 1
$3.49
Mur-Lok
1/2" BLACK MUR-LOK POLYETHYLENE RO TUBING
100014 $0.89
Ordered: 3
Shipped: 3
$2.67
G.A. Murdock
1/2" MALE NPT X 1/2" PUSH CONNECT

 

[dwest]

Well the UV filter did nothing. Very frustrating. It turns out I misdiagnosed my strain of dinos. I thought it was Ostreo but it’s actually Amphidinium. They look so similar but I should’ve been clued in by the fact that it’s mostly in my sand bed.

I found this great blog post. Super informative.
http://atransgenicworld.blogspot.com/2018/05/dinoflagellates-in-reef-tank-what-why.html?m=1

I’m going to research silica dosing now. I’d really rather not remove my sand bed. I have so many critters living in there.

Yes. At a minimum, you can get a bottle of sponge excel and follow directions. I wish I would have done that before I removed my sand.

 

[saltyhog]

Agree.


If I understand your question, I used a murlock 1/2 inch fitting on the mj1200 pump outlet, then ro line to the sterilizer. I ran ro tubing back from the uv to the tank. I am using my aqua Uv sterilizer which I retrofitted with 1/2 inch threaded connections. I’m going to try to attach my brs parts list. Let me know if I can clarify.


PRODUCT SKU PRICE QTY SUBTOTAL
Subtotal $16.13
Shipping & Handling $2.99
169 Reward points -$1.69
Grand Total $17.43
G.A. Murdock
1/2" X 1/2" STRAIGHT UNION PUSH CONNECT - BLACK
100020 $2.99
Ordered: 1
Shipped: 1
$2.99
Mur-Lok
PUSH CONNECT FITTING RELEASE TOOL
211036 $3.49
Ordered: 1
Shipped: 1
$3.49
Mur-Lok
1/2" BLACK MUR-LOK POLYETHYLENE RO TUBING
100014 $0.89
Ordered: 3
Shipped: 3
$2.67
G.A. Murdock
1/2" MALE NPT X 1/2" PUSH CONNECT

I like that set up. I'm not sure I can duplicate it. I have the Jaebo and the smallest barb is 3/4" . I'm running 1"od/3/4"id clear tubing from my Sicce pump and from the UV back to the tank. Using this heater holder to secure the return line a little better.

 

[Gobi-Wan]

Well so far, 24 hours running the sterilizer out of the sump seems to have made little difference. I may open up the ball valve to get more flow tonight.

 

[dwest]

Well so far, 24 hours running the sterilizer out of the sump seems to have made little difference. I may open up the ball valve to get more flow tonight.

Not likely to help out of the sump I’m afraid. You’ll have a much better chance from DT back to DT. It’ll be ugly but effective. 1-3 tank volumes per hour of flow, assuming at least 1 watt of UV for every 3 gallons of water.

 

[CherBear811]

Yes. At a minimum, you can get a bottle of sponge excel and follow directions. I wish I would have done that before I removed my sand.

Just curious, have we seen success with dosing silicates to eradicate amph dinos?

 

[dwest]

Just curious, have we seen success with dosing silicates to eradicate amph dinos?

Some have reported it.

 

[Gobi-Wan]

Not likely to help out of the sump I’m afraid. You’ll have a much better chance from DT back to DT. It’ll be ugly but effective. 1-3 tank volumes per hour of flow, assuming at least 1 watt of UV for every 3 gallons of water.

Statistically I dont see how it's any more likely to circulate through a power head sucking it directly out of the display than it is to drain down the overflow which is taking the whole system volume through the sump about 7 times an hour, right? I mean if they're in the water column at night shouldn't they be evenly distributed through all system water just like salt, nutrients etc. are by the mixing of the return pump and power head flow? I calculated the flow rate of the manifold valve that feeds the sterilizer and it was flowing about 65 gph, so I cranked that way up. It's a hair under 100 gallons total system volume so at 36 watts that puts me right at 1 watt to 3 gallons so that's good. I suspect the low flow rate was one hindrance at least. If that doesnt help I'll try to figure out how to plumb it up in the display instead. I have dinos in the fuge as well so I figure they must be making the circuit.

 

[dwest]

Statistically I dont see how it's any more likely to circulate through a power head sucking it directly out of the display than it is to drain down the overflow which is taking the whole system volume through the sump about 7 times an hour, right? I mean if they're in the water column at night shouldn't they be evenly distributed through all system water just like salt, nutrients etc. are by the mixing of the return pump and power head flow? I calculated the flow rate of the manifold valve that feeds the sterilizer and it was flowing about 65 gph, so I cranked that way up. It's a hair under 100 gallons total system volume so at 36 watts that puts me right at 1 watt to 3 gallons so that's good. I suspect the low flow rate was one hindrance at least. If that doesnt help I'll try to figure out how to plumb it up in the display instead. I have dinos in the fuge as well so I figure they must be making the circuit.

I agree the UV sizing is good.

I understand your argument. If your sump turnover is that high, it might not matter. It sure would be easier to keep it in the sump. If it doesn’t work there, you can try DT.

 

[Salty.reef.girl]

Just ordered a jebao 36w uv sterilizer to test out for getting rid of my dinos. They go into the water column at night so I'm really hoping this works!

 

[Gobi-Wan]

Day 2 with the sterilizer running out of the sump. (Day 1 with much higher flow rate) seems like the sterilizer had a big impact last night. Not a 99% reduction I dont think, as others have reported from running it out of the display. The sand was always covered in strands of dinos before and today it's completely clean. Hard to tell how much of it is from my diamond goby though, who has remained diligent throughout the whole thing. Hard to tell on the rocks as well since the gunk is left there even when dinos are out for the night. The anemone was way more open today as well as the duncans. All my euphyllia are pretty mad still. Tonight I will try blowing the rocks off before lights out now that it looks like I have a foothold.

 

[JerseyReefer]

Yes. At a minimum, you can get a bottle of sponge excel and follow directions. I wish I would have done that before I removed my sand.

Just shipped today from BRS along with a silica test kit. I’ll let you know in a few weeks what happens.

Interesting back story. I bought this tank 3 years ago already setup. Just a couple fish, frags and live rock. Now the tank is thriving and is overgrown with corals. But I’ve always been battling these dinos.

I was curious and looked back at pics from the original owner. I saw dinos on the sand!!! He told me he hadn’t cleaned the sand in a while. So I guess I inherited this problem. I was a newbie and had no way of knowing. If this works I will be super psyched.

 

[dwest]

Day 2 with the sterilizer running out of the sump. (Day 1 with much higher flow rate) seems like the sterilizer had a big impact last night. Not a 99% reduction I dont think, as others have reported from running it out of the display. The sand was always covered in strands of dinos before and today it's completely clean. Hard to tell how much of it is from my diamond goby though, who has remained diligent throughout the whole thing. Hard to tell on the rocks as well since the gunk is left there even when dinos are out for the night. The anemone was way more open today as well as the duncans. All my euphyllia are pretty mad still. Tonight I will try blowing the rocks off before lights out now that it looks like I have a foothold.

You have GAC right?