My Plan to Deal with the Dinos - A diary

[Siberwulf]

So, it's me. The guy with Dinos. The tank is a month old and somehow, here we are. It's tempting to break it all down and start over, since there's nothing really in there to lose. That said, I'm confident I can kick it's butt. Here's my approach:

Phase 1: Physical and Photo

The hope for this is to knock them down enough to where the other biomass in the system can out-compete them. It may not work. It's worth a try since it's free, though. Free sounds appealing.

1. 25% WC
2. Clean off Sand
3. Clean off LR (and the poor snails bless their hearts)
4. Pull Chaeto and then rinse it clean in a bucket. Gonna lose some pods through this, but I do love the folks at Algaebarn and wouldn't mind giving them more business.
5. Skimmer set to super wet, since this is going to look kinda ugly
6. Both Sump and DT lights are off for a week. Chaeto may get grumpy, but I'd rather have to buy new Chaeto if that's my biggest loss here.
7. Continue to dose Phyto daily to feed the pod population
8. Give this two total weeks to see if it did any good.

Phase 2: Chemical

If things don't work the way I'm hoping, it's going to get a little more drastic. I'll repeat the steps above for the manual clean, and then go with this guide: https://s3.amazonaws.com/brsinstructions/brsDrTims/DrTims_Dinoflagellate_Recipe_BRS.pdf. I realize I'll want to pull my snails out, and throw them in QT. That's fine with me. They can chillax in a 5.5g with some fresh nori to munch on. They'll survive. This should take about a month, since I'll repeat it twice if I need to.

Phase 3: Nuclear Blast

If this still doesn't help, I'll splurge on a UV sterilizer. I can't say I planned things well enough, and this is going to be a hang it over the side" solution which...doesn't thrill me. I'll go Pentair 25W (for this 90g tank, it's fine) and let this run about a month.

Phase 4: Cry a little

I'm hoping that I don't get to this phase, but it could happen. Here's where you'll find me in the fetal position in the corner. Send cookies. Or Rum. Maybe both.

Either way, I'll keep this post updated with progress, since I'm well aware I'm not the only one dealing with these suckers.

 

[Biglew11]

Dinos after 1 month? Are you sure it's not diatoms? Dinos usually occur in nutrient starved systems, 0ppm nitrates 0ppm phosphate. This is very rare in a new tank. As these are usually elevated from the cycling process. At 1 month old the tank is just starting the ugly face. Diatoms, algae.

 

[Siberwulf]

Dinos after 1 month? Are you sure it's not diatoms? Dinos usually occur in nutrient starved systems, 0ppm nitrates 0ppm phosphate. This is very rare in a new tank. As these are usually elevated from the cycling process. At 1 month old the tank is just starting the ugly face. Diatoms, algae.

I get the skepticism. I was a little shocked, too. All the symptoms are there... they are brown, like snot. They go away at night, come back during the day. Can blow them off with a turkey baster. And they look like this under the microscope:

 

[ggNoRe]

Good luck! Been battling them for a month myself.

 

[Biglew11]

that's definitely dinos, don't do water change they love fresh clean water.
do you have any live stock other than clean up crew?

scratch number 1
if no live stock 1 week lights out is fine.
get some microbacter7 and start dosing it right away.
id recommend uv right away since this species goes into the water column at night.
give this at least one month.

lots of great info in this thread long read though.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dinoflagellates-–-are-you-tired-of-battling-altogether.293318/

Phase 1: Physical and Photo

The hope for this is to knock them down enough to where the other biomass in the system can out-compete them. It may not work. It's worth a try since it's free, though. Free sounds appealing.

1. 25% WC
2. Clean off Sand
3. Clean off LR (and the poor snails bless their hearts)
4. Pull Chaeto and then rinse it clean in a bucket. Gonna lose some pods through this, but I do love the folks at Algaebarn and wouldn't mind giving them more business.
5. Skimmer set to super wet, since this is going to look kinda ugly
6. Both Sump and DT lights are off for a week. Chaeto may get grumpy, but I'd rather have to buy new Chaeto if that's my biggest loss here.
7. Continue to dose Phyto daily to feed the pod population
8. Give this two total weeks to see if it did any good.

 

[Aqua Man]

that's definitely dinos, don't do water change they love fresh clean water.
do you have any live stock other than clean up crew?

scratch number 1
if no live stock 1 week lights out is fine.
get some microbacter7 and start dosing it right away.
id recommend uv right away since this species goes into the water column at night.
give this at least one month.

This is what I’d do too. Wait, this is exactly what I did, pretty much!!

Both Sump and DT lights are off for a week. Chaeto may get grumpy, but I'd rather have to buy new Chaeto if that's my biggest loss here.

Osteoporosis right? UV is your best friend! IMO, would ditch the chaeto till Dino resolved. It’s just taking away nourishment from competition that you want, Giving Dino more leverage.

 

[WVNed]

Nothing in the tank?
Turn the wave pumps up to 100% and the lights down half way. In a week they will be gone.

 

[Siberwulf]

that's definitely dinos, don't do water change they love fresh clean water.
do you have any live stock other than clean up crew?

scratch number 1
if no live stock 1 week lights out is fine.
get some microbacter7 and start dosing it right away.
id recommend uv right away since this species goes into the water column at night.
give this at least one month.

lots of great info in this thread long read though.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dinoflagellates-–-are-you-tired-of-battling-altogether.293318/

Well, I posted this, and then did a WC. Whoops. Might set me back a little, but we'll see!

So far, the sand looks clean, rocks look clean...which is what you'd expect, I suppose. No light, no growth.

I'll snag a bottle of that microbacter7, and get on it. I'm hoping that if I go chemical, it'll be the good kind, not the nukey kind. UV is def an option, but honestly, I don't have any good space for it...and wild I'd love to plumb it into the return...not an option due to flow requirements

 

[Aqua Man]

not an option due to flow requirements

Too much or too little flow? The recommendation for Dino is slower flow than for alga or bacteria bloom. 3X tank volume an hr.

 

[Siberwulf]

Too much or too little flow? The recommendation for Dino is slower flow than for alga or bacteria bloom. 3X tank volume an hr.

Doing Triton method right now, so it's about 10x tank volume. It moves a LOT of water.....

 

[Siberwulf]

Alright, quick update:

Day 4: Lights are still off, added first dose of Microbacter7. Have been continuing to dose phyto. Sand still looks clean but Chaeto in the sump looks a little ugly. Sump looks very clean though, as the snails in there seem to be running low on food stuffs.

 

[Siberwulf]

Day 6: Lights out still, dosing Microbacter7 and phyto on the daily. Noticed quite a few copepods with the naked eye last night. Previously they have always been little white specks on the glass that jump around a bit. Plan to turn the lights back on Day 9. Nitrates and Phosphates haven't come down a bit. (20 NO3 / .12 PO4)

Side note: Noticed a green algae growing on the rocks right now. I can't blow it off the rocks and it's not wavy at all. Assuming the Chaeto will someday win the algae war. Coraline is starting to spread, too, which is good to see.

 

[Siberwulf]

Day 9:

Ok, I got the lights back on today. Here's an updated pic:

For reference, here's what it was before:

Did a quick round of tests:

Alk -> 9.5
Nitrates -> 20
Phosphates -> .12 (high, I know)



Do I think the Dinos are gone? Probably not. I'm hoping though I've knocked them down enough where other systems will start out-competing them for nutrients.

 

[Siberwulf]

Day 10:

I took a peek at the sump this morning with the lights on. It looks like 60% of my Chaeto is "gone". I'm assuming the lack of light for 9 days was not exciting for it. Wondering if this is why Nitrates and Phosphates didn't drop off during this thing...

 

[Siberwulf]

Day 17:

I see things starting to revert back. Still dosing MB7 on the daily, though that's supposed to stop today. I've noticed tons of pods running around, and some harder nuisance algae growing on the front of the glass. It seems other things are trying to compete to win, but just aren't. I'm going to give it the rest of the week to see how things start to fare, but it might be moving into a step 2, shortly.

 

[Siberwulf]

Day 21:

The dinos are for sure back. They're not latching into the sand as much as before, but the gyos are looking pretty ugly. I've moved to MB7 dosing twice a week, based on the recommendations on the bottle.

My tests were a little interesting this morning...

Alk: 10.2 dKH (this is slowly rising, up from 9.0 back on 5/17. Attribute that to the nitrification process... see next line as to why I think so...

NO3: 0ppm. I was a bit shocked to see this honestly. I'm going to look at something to dose low nitrates since that whole "zero nitrates can cause dinos to pop" deal.

PO4: .12. I'm not sure why this hasn't come down honestly. I thought it would. With a ball of Chaeto, you'd think it would be sucking some of this out.

At any rate, going to clean my chaeto (getting wicked overrun) and wash my powerheads. I've already dropped the lighting schedule and figure I can drop it a little further to keep things under control for another week.

 

[Siberwulf]

Day 24:

Ok, slight change in approach. I picked up a Green Machine 24w and plugged that into my DT. It's not the most robust UV, but it's going to be better than nothing. I fed the crabs a little bit, and going to see if that leads up to some more nitrates tomorrow or the day after. If not, it's either some neophos or ammonia to get to detectable nitrate levels.

 

[Siberwulf]

Day 25:

Crab food didn't seem to poke the Nitrates up to a measurable level, so I add a half dose of Ammonium Chloride which should end up as Nitrates tomorrow sometime. The UV in my DT has dinos all on the outside of it, which is kinda comical.

 

[Siberwulf]

Day 26:

Doing the math, yesterday's dose of Ammonia was 1ppm. After running the tests this am, I fully expected Ammonia to be zippo, and probably nitrites to be zippo. Turns out I wasn't wrong, but Nitrates were zippo, too. Is this because they're getting consumed by the dinos and algae I have growing?

Picked up a bottle of NeoNitro to boost these a little more intentionally, and it should be here Day 28. I guess I'm happy the tank is super cycled.

 

[Ajayabb]

Maybe it’s me being a pessimist but after dealing with Dinos previously I would reset the tank .If you have been up and running for only a month, you will be much happier knowing you have a fresh start. Dinos nearly made me quit this awesome hobby. Cut your losses