I have almost completely eradicated dinoflagellates overnight.

[rockstarta78]

So I installed a Coralife Turbo Twist UV Sterilizer 9w in my 40gl breeder this weekend. My dino's are on my sandbed. I have 2 questions:

1. is this enough for a 40g tank?
2. Since I don't seem to have Dino in the water column, and all algae are clumped on the sand bed, should I blow off my sand with a turkey baster?

I am not seeing any difference since adding the UV.

 

[brandon429]

The tank should be hand cleaned, including the sandbed if possible, cleaned, and then the UV is focused on growback. I wont take them off the sand well by itself

if the unit was properly oversized, they wont grow back in the ideal setup

 

[zachxlutz]

Last night we implemented a few new methods for eliminating these dinoflagellates. UV sterilization and diatom filtering.

I hacked the UV system together in an effort to quickly get it up and running. If I see results from it, I'll need to come up with a plan to pull water from the display and run it through the UV unit and return it back to the display without looking like a toddler put it together.

It's a simple setup, 520 gph pump resting on the sandbed running through 3/4" tubing with a ball valve and returning directly to the display. Thoughts on cleaning this up?

This is the Marineland Magnum filter. I put the micron cartridge in it and charged it with 6 tablespoons of diatomaceous earth while running it in RO/DI water in a 5 gallon bucket. I'm not super impressed with this piece of equipment, yet. It was blowing lots of microbubbles and making lots of noise this AM. I'll pull it out tonight and double check everything and see if I can get it running quieter and get the air out of the system.

 

[Caleb740]

Last night we implemented a few new methods for eliminating these dinoflagellates. UV sterilization and diatom filtering.

I hacked the UV system together in an effort to quickly get it up and running. If I see results from it, I'll need to come up with a plan to

How are your multiple methods working out for you?

 

[zachxlutz]

How are your multiple methods working out for you?

Fantastic, to say the least. The tank looks like it hasn't in a long, long time.

The UV filter literally changed my tank over night. It's still on top of the tank hacked together but the results have been amazing. My dino problem is almost completely gone. The nitrate/phosphate consumption has dropped SIGNIFICANTLY and the dinos barely show up on the sand bed in just a few places. I don't even have to blow the rocks off or agitate the sand-bed anymore, it just doesn't show up! My coral have gotten loads of color back, the stn on the birdsnest has stopped, polyp extension on SPS like I haven't ever seen in my tank before. Softies and LPS looking happy and healthy, too. It's safe to say the UV has made a HUGE difference. I'll be moving it to the sump soon to help maintain pristine water quality once I'm certain the dinos aren't going to rear their head again. Unfortunately, I haven't been using the diatom filter because it creates a lot of microbubbles and I haven't diagnosed the issue, although the need for it seems less, now.

Thanks for checking in. I just made this gif of the last year or so with my tank. Not the best photos, but neat to see it's progression.

120 Reef Resurgence GIF

• zachxlutz
• Oct 13, 2017

 

[Caliguy1983]

Awsome thread. I ran one years ago but haven't thought of plumbing one into my tank until now. My have to size up one for my new 120gal.

 

[drawman]

Any recommendations on a UV size/brand for 30-40 gallons of total tank volume?

 

[bo0sted2g]

Any recommendations on a UV size/brand for 30-40 gallons of total tank volume?

I went with the Big Ol 55W. I was told to oversize for dinoflagellate eradication, I posted back in this thread earlier but measure where you want to mount this thing because it is huge.

It did work for me though so having to work around finding a space to mount this behemoth was worth it.

 

[brandon429]

I once had cyano problems until they were just cheated out of existence. it even removed gha (due to my pre removal/growback prevention focus) and from then on = best cheat ive ever seen. People mention about them heating the water, mine never did I don't recall any degree of temp issues whatsoever from such a gross rating, perhaps it applies elsewhere.

 

[Velcro]

I went with the Big Ol 55W. I was told to oversize for dinoflagellate eradication, I posted back in this thread earlier but measure where you want to mount this thing because it is huge.

It did work for me though so having to work around finding a space to mount this behemoth was worth it.

Yes I think oversizing and low flow is the key. I did remove my UV about a month ago before leaving town for a week. I just don’t trust jebao haha. It just so happens that I removed it in the middle of an extremely minor Dino infestation (maybe 5 small strands) due to my phosphate falling to 0 (0 ppb phosphorous on Hanna checker) while carbon dosing. I kept carbon dosing and started dosing phosphate to hold 0.05-0.1 ppm phosphate and they went away even without UV. I think UV absolutely plays a huge role in wiping out blooms of waterborne Dino’s but phosphate and nitrate may play just as important of a role.

 

[drawman]

Yes I think oversizing and low flow is the key. I did remove my UV about a month ago before leaving town for a week. I just don’t trust jebao haha. It just so happens that I removed it in the middle of an extremely minor Dino infestation (maybe 5 small strands) due to my phosphate falling to 0 (0 ppb phosphorous on Hanna checker) while carbon dosing. I kept carbon dosing and started dosing phosphate to hold 0.05-0.1 ppm phosphate and they went away even without UV. I think UV absolutely plays a huge role in wiping out blooms of waterborne Dino’s but phosphate and nitrate may play just as important of a role.

Yeah I think hitting it from multiple directions like you're doing is key but UV is the likely uppercut for your strain. I thought I was getting a recurrence of dinos but checked under the scope last night and it appears to be a weird form of diatoms most likely.

 

[taricha]

Any recommendations on a UV size/brand for 30-40 gallons of total tank volume?

1 watt UV per 2 gallons has worked for many as a target number 1 watt per 3-5 gallons has been hit and miss.
Would love to see more reports on this rule of thumb.

 

[five.five-six]

Went ahead and ordered a Emperor 80 watt Uv sterilizer and a Sicce silent 2.0 pump today, if this dont work im going to give up.

Did you give up?

 

[mwilk19]

Did you give up?

UV worked for me but from what I've seen, it all depends on what strain of dinos you have. Good luck.

 

[five.five-six]

I’m letting them grow all over the glass while I’m figureing this out. One thing I have nboticed is that when they are covering the glass they tend to leave the coral alone. Hopefully they just consume all of something they need and DIAF at once.

 

[BurgerFish]

I'll try 9W UV for 13.5G soon. Hope it'll wipe out my dinos.

 

[Swingline77]

I'll try 9W UV for 13.5G soon. Hope it'll wipe out my dinos.

Any updates?

 

[BurgerFish]

Any updates?

Yes.
UV 9W
Micro Bubble treatment
Algae Turf Scrubber

Dinos are gone.

 

[wesman42]

Just hooked up the 55w jebao to my 75g. Dino's identified as coolia/ostreopsis combo. Nitrates and phosphates are both elevated to 0.1, and 5ppm respectively. I'll continue updating!

 

[OhDumb]

Just hooked up the 55w jebao to my 75g. Dino's identified as coolia/ostreopsis combo. Nitrates and phosphates are both elevated to 0.1, and 5ppm respectively. I'll continue updating!

How is it going with the dino's?