Oh no here we go!

[sundog101]

Welcome to 2017 The year of The Dino's.

It seems like everybody is fighting dinos!

 

[revhtree]

Already had some Chaeto on order so today I got a huge basketball size of it and got it in the fuge! Added a Kessil LED to keep it growing. Anyone had luck with chaeto and dinos?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Currently, the successful treatments of dinos that I have seen include,added diversity and macros, peroxide, dino x/blackouts, nutrient dosing, nutrient balancing , Gfo, aggressive carbon, UV, and doing nothing.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Wouldn't there be a possible issue if nutrients are already difficult to maintain? My dinos are consuming po4 like hotcakes. If I added cheato to the mix, I would most likely have to double my nutrients.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Wouldn't there be a possible issue if nutrients are already difficult to maintain? My dinos are consuming po4 like hotcakes. If I added cheato to the mix, I would most likely have to double my nutrients.

I'm seeing dinos in many reported nutrient situations. One never can tell if these are accurate for a number of reasons..

 

[revhtree]

Wouldn't there be a possible issue if nutrients are already difficult to maintain? My dinos are consuming po4 like hotcakes. If I added cheato to the mix, I would most likely have to double my nutrients.

Who really knows? After reading there is so much mixed information. I'll keep tabs on what's happening with mine!

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Hey Rev, what kind of CUC do you have in there? In particular, snails.

 

[Reefer1978]

Dino success stories are reefer's version of fake news. I come across too many threads where dinos weren't identified in the first place, and success is celebrated 24 hours after the end of blackout.

When I had dinos (tank I ended up breaking apart), I've tried every single recommendation, including: starvation, blackout, nutrient dosing, overskimming, underskimming, peroxide, bleach, UV, pods, high magnesium, high alkalinity. 2 years all in all. Which is why I usually recommend ID first, to make sure it's not ostreopsis ovata. If it is, I honestly don't know how to treat it. Every thread I see where OP states defeating these jerks, they seem to stop logging onto the forum within 6 months.

 

[revhtree]

Hey Rev, what kind of CUC do you have in there? In particular, snails.

Nassarius Vibex
Florida Cerith
Emerald/Ruby Mithrax Crab
Dwarf Cerith
Nerite Snail
Peppermint Shrimp
Trochus Snails
Scarlet Hermit Crab
Serpent Starfish

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Nassarius Vibex
Florida Cerith
Emerald/Ruby Mithrax Crab
Dwarf Cerith
Nerite Snail
Peppermint Shrimp
Trochus Snails
Scarlet Hermit Crab
Serpent Starfish

Thats a good spread. Thank you. One commonality in most dino threads is inadequate snails.

 

[nervousmonkey]

Really, the first thing is to ID what it is. As @nvladik states, ostreopsis ovata sucks. bad.
If it is dinos, you will be OK. Try all of the suggested procedures incl. blackouts. If it is dinos, you will see marked reduction with blackouts. Then proceed with treatment, and the worst advice ever is, wait and it'll go away. But it works....

 

[reeferfoxx]

Try all of the suggested procedures incl. blackouts.

I can't agree with this. Yes, positive ID is best especially in cases where you have no idea how you got them to begin with. But mix matching procedures only prolongs things and doesn't give a definitive answer as to what helped. Nor does it help the next guy suffering from this outbreak. Other issue is know the order of operation IF multiple procedures are done. A lot of time people take one or two days and mix match blackouts with manual cleaning, water change, nutrient increase etc etc etc...and then wait to see the result. If that result wasn't what you were looking for, then what? That is what becomes the issue.

 

[nervousmonkey]

I can't agree with this. Yes, positive ID is best especially in cases where you have no idea how you got them to begin with. But mix matching procedures only prolongs things and doesn't give a definitive answer as to what helped. Nor does it help the next guy suffering from this outbreak. Other issue is know the order of operation IF multiple procedures are done. A lot of time people take one or two days and mix match blackouts with manual cleaning, water change, nutrient increase etc etc etc...and then wait to see the result. If that result wasn't what you were looking for, then what? That is what becomes the issue.

What would you suggest then? I am not trying to be difficult, seriously. What works for dinos?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Really, the first thing is to ID what it is. As @nvladik states, ostreopsis ovata sucks. bad.
If it is dinos, you will be OK. Try all of the suggested procedures incl. blackouts. If it is dinos, you will see marked reduction with blackouts. Then proceed with treatment, and the worst advice ever is, wait and it'll go away. But it works....

I can't agree with this. Yes, positive ID is best especially in cases where you have no idea how you got them to begin with. But mix matching procedures only prolongs things and doesn't give a definitive answer as to what helped. Nor does it help the next guy suffering from this outbreak. Other issue is know the order of operation IF multiple procedures are done. A lot of time people take one or two days and mix match blackouts with manual cleaning, water change, nutrient increase etc etc etc...and then wait to see the result. If that result wasn't what you were looking for, then what? That is what becomes the issue.

What would you suggest then? I am not trying to be difficult, seriously. What works for dinos?

One difficult is raised by reeferfoxx there.

And having followed so maybif these threads it's exactly as I listed above. Many may mixed methods but many actually seem to be working.
One of our mods is actually one that had Dino's explode and they went away. That was a VIbrant od.

Currently I personally am leaning more towards bacterial food sources as most commonly it's in newer tanks Esp it seems ones with fishless cycling methods. Add that to a lack of snails and lack of anaerobic bacteria and micro fauna to both competed and consume the Dino's. So like pods or bugs there's no competition so the poulation blooms.
In minor out breaks peroxide is working like it does on Cyano. In larger embedded populations it doesn't but the same is said for Cyano

My .02.

 

[reeferfoxx]

What would you suggest then?

Trying one procedure and letting it resonate for awhile. Often times something in the tank changed which allowed these organisms to flourish. So back to your last sentence-

and the worst advice ever is, wait and it'll go away. But it works....

Actually becomes more clear or makes more sense. In my case, I know how mine started, and I know that part of it wasn't something I could control or foresaw coming. But my procedure for example, is to keep things consistent. Not to jump into trends of mix matching procedures and just let it ride. If down the road, in say a month or two, things don't change, I will change something. In the meantime my focus is to keep thinking about areas that could improve, look at water change reactions, keep a journal of parameter tests and look for patterns or discrepancies. My goal is to figure what works for my situation so that I can share that with others.
For instance Rev told us about adding cheato. I questioned it because my cheato died at the first sign of dinos. The last bit that was left was covered in brown slime. On the other hand, we don't know what caused his, no pictures, or ID.

 

[Reefer1978]

One procedure I invented is a natural, non-chemical way to drastically lower dino population - dino scrubber. In my testing, dinos like to attach (can be observed by free swimming dinos at night, that start to form strings when lights come on) to inorganic substances. An example that perplexed me - why a brand spanking new piece of eggcrate was brown and filthy within 24 hours, while liverock wasn't.

Dino Scrubber:
Any inorganic cloth, filer sock, filter floss, anything white and with plenty of surface area, inside the main DT right infront of the powerhead. Many reefers came up with unique ways to accomplish this, mine was a suction cup clip with filter floss on the glass panel across my powerhead. The material will collect dino colonies, all you have to do is wash it in fresh water every day about an hour before lights sunset. I removed 90% of ostreopsis infestation through this method over a month. Drawback of this fix - it's not permanent, and you have to keep on doing daily. Once population is down significantly, a daily dose of peroxide at 1.2 ml per 10 gallons will keep them from overtaking the tank.

I would start this procedure prior to adding more life to the tank, as dino's toxicity (if a toxic species) will kill most new lifeforms; don't waste the money like I did on pods and additions CUC.

 

[reeferfoxx]

don't waste the money like I did on pods and additions CUC.

Then you have this lol... Granted my tank still had an existing CUC. I did purchase pods and phyto. Whether its right ot wrong, I'm not going to freak out and start mixing other recommendations. Time will tell if this addition was the wrong approach.

 

[Reefer1978]

Then you have this lol... Granted my tank still had an existing CUC. I did purchase pods and phyto. Whether its right ot wrong, I'm not going to freak out and start mixing other recommendations. Time will tell if this addition was the wrong approach.

Like I said - I tried everything But yeah give it a go, I hope, trully hope it works and no one goes through what I went through.

Btw, to add to the list of things I tried that didn't work on my strain of dinos - Vibrant.

 

[revhtree]

Really, the first thing is to ID what it is. As @nvladik states, ostreopsis ovata sucks. bad.
If it is dinos, you will be OK. Try all of the suggested procedures incl. blackouts. If it is dinos, you will see marked reduction with blackouts. Then proceed with treatment, and the worst advice ever is, wait and it'll go away. But it works....

When lights start to dim the tank looks better and first thing in the morning it looks minimal. As the day goes it gets worse and worse.

 

[Reefer1978]

When lights start to dim the tank looks better and first thing in the morning it looks minimal. As the day goes it gets worse and worse.

Yep, they start to swim looking for a new energy source. Throw a filter sock in there on a suction cup or a magnet, and take a look at it mid-day tomorrow. I wonder if you will see what I saw, and if it gets filthy very very quickly.