My battle with Dinos

[Blitheran]

I am making this post just to add what I did. Not looking to say what I did was right. But just to add what worked for me :)

I have not fully eradicated them but they went from being a large thick Matt to now a light dusting on the sand, so I am slowly beating them.

My Battle With Dinos

I started by testing daily and closely monitoring my levels. To keep nutrients detectable, I was dosing a capful of NeoNitro and NeoPhos. Despite that, the dinos were getting stronger every day. I was turkey basting the tank each night, but by midday the next day they were back in full force.

** I was running a 15 watt UV from day 1***

I decided to do a one-day blackout to give beneficial bacteria a chance to compete. At the same time, I dosed every bacteria product I had on hand to really kick-start the population: MicroBacter Clean, Dr. Tim’s One & Only, and Waste-Away.

In my previous tank, I beat dinos by cutting back feeding and dosing Waste-Away daily with vodka, so I went back to that approach. I now dose a capful of Waste-Away and add 1 ml of vodka to provide a carbon source for the bacteria.

I also realized my Avast feeder was running 7 times a day for 20 seconds, which turned out to be the equivalent of 10–15 cubes of food per day. I had no idea it was that much. I cut it back to 7 feedings per day at 4 seconds each, which equals about 2 cubes per day. Still on the heavier side, but I do run a filter roller and a Nyos 120 skimmer.

Since making these changes, I haven’t been checking levels as aggressively, but the dinos have been reduced dramatically. They’re still somewhat present on the sand bed, but I stir it every week or so to push them into the water column where the UV can take care of them.

I did have to leave for a three-day vacation and wasn’t able to dose anything during that time. I was nervous about what I’d come back to—but the tank was perfectly clear. No issues. The dinos are still lightly present on the sand bed, but it’s just a faint brown dusting now, nothing major.

I’ve since purchased MicroBacter 7 and will be dosing that in the mornings instead of MicroBacter Clean. My current routine is MicroBacter 7 in the morning and Waste-Away with vodka at night, really pushing bacterial competition.

I’ve also stopped doing water changes for now until the issue is fully resolved.

 

[Subsea]

Thank you for sharing. Seems like a methodical approach to complex biochemistry.

I want to address this paragraph, in how it fits into the big picture.

“I started by testing daily and closely monitoring my levels. To keep nutrients detectable, I was dosing a capful of NeoNitro and NeoPhos. Despite that, the dinos were getting stronger every day. I was turkey basting the tank each night, but by midday the next day they were back in full force.”


As you realized that bottomed out nutrients in general and phosphate specifically contribute to Dinoflagellets thriving due to opportunistic nutrient uptake and when deprived of phosphate their feeding strategies target healthy bacteria. In the ocean environment, this can culminate in
Red Tides.

However, bringing nutrients to detectable levels does not eradicate Dinoflagellets. Good sandbed maintenance along with consumers & competitors coupled with UV sterilizers. Ornamental & cryptic sponges would consume them from the water column just as UV sterilizers dissolve cell membrane, which allows their biomass to feed the microbial loop at a different level.