It's time for a hammer. DinoX...

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BetterJake

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Day 4 running UV. Still no major reduction in dinos, I believe it's made a small dent. The glass is not getting coated with dinos so that's good.

I'll give it about another week, if dinos persist, I will make flow adjustments.
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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You needed to remove them then install uv

Leaving them in as a benthic matted community short changes the goal


You can't remove dinos very well with an untouched sandbed in the tank, you have ways to amplify the UVs abilities by removing the target cells from places they exist or mass

It's sole purpose should be prevention of regrowth, not removal.
 
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You needed to remove them then install uv

Leaving them in as a benthic matted community short changes the goal
The osteoporosis dinos that I have all go swimming at night, my sand is white as can be once the lights turn off. In the water column should be good enough to get passed through the UV and zapped.
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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Not nearly as efficient as you could be doing, that mode is just saving you some work


A hammer would be removing your sandbed, beating them, then putting a sandbed that doesn't have dinos back.

Your first three approaches are indirect low work methods, if you try a physical hammer we have threads of that working better than cycling between invasions.

These are not obligate pelagic phase organisms... only some go into suspension diurnally

The rest stay in the rocks and sand, where they're permitted.

if you reposition your UV as prevention vs remover it becomes a hammer

your invasion isn't particularly bad right now compared to some, that part is good. its a low volume of dinos to remove via the sterilizer at least.
 
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vetteguy53081

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Skimmer was off when I tried your method. Bacteria was added daily and H202 in the evening. Lights were off as specified. No need to change filters as I have a fleece roller.
While not significant - you wanted to run skimmer.
 

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Im with you buddy. Battling amphidinium for over two months.
- Blackouts- no effect
- Dr. Tims refresh and waste away- no effect
- h202 dosing- no effect
- MB7 + phyto+pods- no effect
- Si dosing- grew only cyano and aggravated the dinos so diatoms could not keep up
- Full rip clean and replacement of sand bed- dinos are growing back- albeit much weaker

I dosed my first Dino X yesterday, reduced lights to 6 hours blue only, skimming 24/7, slowly raising temp to 82*F.

As of this morning all of my fish and corals are fine (only soft and LPS).
 

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I am (hopefully) past an Osteo battle that started in August following an extended international trip and an inexperienced tank sitter.

Running a ridiculously oversized UV along with multiple times per day turkey basting made a rapid impact on the large patches, but the matting kept creeping back on the rocks for months. Each week the quantity was lower but the same regimen was continued.

I run a roller which saved a lot of time.

I should note I lost almost all of my sps over the course of the infestation, the dinos had a habit of growing right up to the bases which I blew off the rocks, and then while I was at work they came back and slowly marched up the corals killing them a little bit more each day from the base up. I shifted my light cycle so that the lights were on less while I was away so I could monitor and that helped a bit. Miraculously all of the corals that I really didn't want in the tank survived (encrusting montipora predominantly) and all of the LPS, while all but two Acropora perished. Aiptasia also seemed completely unaffected :(

I am down to 2 or 3 trouble areas smaller than a quarter in size, and algae is finally growing again on the rocks which is a good sign.

Good luck on the continued fight!
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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this portion was in line with our findings:

I should note I lost almost all of my sps over the course of the infestation


we find that making a reef tank free of dinos by manual work first, hard manual work vs internal upwelling of them is ideal

we don't leave dinos to irritate corals in rip clean threads, they're hammered out. first day they're hammered.


the dinos battle thread using methods in this thread is up to about 600 pages in the nuisance algae forum. we can see in a high % of posts, not a low %, that tradeoff invasions (going between dinos to GHA and Cyano cyclically) are very likely in any setting where dinos are seen, then left in a tank to proliferate.


contrast that approach with these fifty pages, how many dinos outbreaks came after our deep manual cleans? that's eight years running tests...how many tanks lost sps there, or went between dinos/cyano/hair algae


correct physical hammering has benefits, wanted to post what a hammer looks like.

Jake commented once that not addressing the source of the problem is a guaranteed dinos issue, I agree. the source of the problem are cells left in the tank vs removed

it's not about added doser meds, or adjusting N and P using wildly varying test kits, work threads and logged outcomes speak volumes on what causes and fixes varying conditions in the reef.


it is highly accurate to say, based on solid results above, that if Jake removes his sandbed, fights dinos among cleaned rocks not even rocks still left covered in them, installs UV in the clean condition vs the invaded condition, he would get those same results we've been earning.

he would then install back the sandbed much later after the system runs without UV and without dinos for eight weeks. we would do opposite of what people do in the 600 page dinos thread, which is clearly risking a lot of reef tanks to tradeoff invasion losses and sps coral losses.

scroll through that thread above and look at just the before and after pictures.


compare the before and after pictures to this big dinos thread, which nearly always leaves dinos in the tank massed and does not permit direct removal:


in that indirect removal study of 600 pages, they routinely are adjusting N and P and they do not recommend cleaning nor water changes out of fear of upwelling dinos. I rate their cure rate at 10% happy reefers. 60% reinvasions / benthic succession of invasions and 40% works in process still not very many shocking after pics of total clarity.

between those two starkly different threads studying invasion control, which one is the hammer-go solely off the after pics posted on each page of the two threads. select the name of any poster in the two threads, select 'find all posts' and review their thread history after trying the two different means to a clean tank.

manual physical decisive controls clearly win, and hold sustains better than hands off modes, the truth is that out method is only helpful for medium to small sized reef tanks, large tanks simply can't do the surgical means necessary to control so those hands off means still are a valid science in development. Jakes tank wouldnt be hard to fix manually given its layout and stocking density.

given the small % invasion as UV is installed there's also a good change they'll die back in a week or so, the real test comes 60 days after turning off the UV>
 
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this portion was in line with our findings:

I should note I lost almost all of my sps over the course of the infestation


we find that making a reef tank free of dinos by manual work first, hard manual work vs internal upwelling of them is ideal

we don't leave dinos to irritate corals in rip clean threads, they're hammered out. first day they're hammered.


the dinos battle thread using methods in this thread is up to about 600 pages in the nuisance algae forum. we can see in a high % of posts, not a low %, that tradeoff invasions (going between dinos to GHA and Cyano cyclically) are very likely in any setting where dinos are seen, then left in a tank to proliferate.


contrast that approach with these fifty pages, how many dinos outbreaks came after our deep manual cleans? that's eight years running tests...how many tanks lost sps there, or went between dinos/cyano/hair algae


correct physical hammering has benefits, wanted to post what a hammer looks like.

Jake commented once that not addressing the source of the problem is a guaranteed dinos issue, I agree. the source of the problem are cells left in the tank vs removed

it's not about added doser meds, or adjusting N and P using wildly varying test kits, work threads and logged outcomes speak volumes on what causes and fixes varying conditions in the reef.


it is highly accurate to say, based on solid results above, that if Jake removes his sandbed, fights dinos among cleaned rocks not even rocks still left covered in them, installs UV in the clean condition vs the invaded condition, he would get those same results we've been earning.

he would then install back the sandbed much later after the system runs without UV and without dinos for eight weeks. we would do opposite of what people do in the 600 page dinos thread, which is clearly risking a lot of reef tanks to tradeoff invasion losses and sps coral losses.

scroll through that thread above and look at just the before and after pictures.


compare the before and after pictures to this big dinos thread, which nearly always leaves dinos in the tank massed and does not permit direct removal:


in that indirect removal study of 600 pages, they routinely are adjusting N and P and they do not recommend cleaning nor water changes out of fear of upwelling dinos. I rate their cure rate at 10% happy reefers. 60% reinvasions / benthic succession of invasions and 40% works in process still not very many shocking after pics of total clarity.

between those two starkly different threads studying invasion control, which one is the hammer-go solely off the after pics posted on each page of the two threads. select the name of any poster in the two threads, select 'find all posts' and review their thread history after trying the two different means to a clean tank.

manual physical decisive controls clearly win, and hold sustains better than hands off modes, the truth is that out method is only helpful for medium to small sized reef tanks, large tanks simply can't do the surgical means necessary to control so those hands off means still are a valid science in development. Jakes tank wouldnt be hard to fix manually given its layout and stocking density.

given the small % invasion as UV is installed there's also a good change they'll die back in a week or so, the real test comes 60 days after turning off the UV>
I did use this method (exactly a week ago actually) and my amphidinium dinos dramatically improved. However, they are growing back (weaker and slower) and I am now continuing the battle.
 

Keko21

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Fyi this is what im dealing with after the rip clean and new sand

C6279A92-8BE0-4C65-BDAF-324F737BBA13.png
 
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Update. Day 11 after starting UV treatment, I've also been broadcast doing h202 after lights out each night. Replacing activated carbon every few days to help against the osteoporosis toxicity.

Dinos are improving each day. Macro algae is growing in nicely for the first time on the pieces of live rock I got from TBSaltwater. The glass is getting coated in some kind of green algae every few days.

My tuxedo urchins are wearing shells random items again for the first time in a while, I think they are happy with the reduction of the toxic dinos :)

Going on another work trip this week... When I get back I will begin dosing phyto and pods again with some MB7.

It's a slow journey, I feel like the tank is on the right path for the first time in months. Can't wait to get past this so I can start adding more coral
 
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Cautiously optimistic...

Four days ago, I turned down the flow on the pump feeding the UV. I have seen a massive reduction. Lights have been on full blast for two days and the sand is white as snow for the first time since early November.

Crossing my fingers that I'm in the homestretch. My Phosphate is about 0.3 and Nitrate at 15. I'd like to keep nitrates at the same and bring Phosphate down by 50%. I want to do this slowly.. I can deal with cyano and GHA, I just don't want to shock and bring things down to quickly and give the dinos a chance to return.

Other things I've noticed:

  • Macro algae growth on the live rock I put in the tank has exploded in recent days
  • Hammer coral is fluffy again for the first time in weeks
  • Urchins are active and picking stuff up again
  • Some small green cyano patches on rocks
 
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You won't believe it! After beating Osteoporosis, I did a water change after one week. Bam! I get more brown gunk growing! This time it's Small Cell Amphidinium. So this is the 3rd strain I have dealt with since the start of this back in late 2022. That being said, the battle with the SCA dinos is pretty much over. I dosed silicates to fight them. I'm now having a cyano outbreak, which is expected. The first year of reefing is tough!
 

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