Options for Combating a Dino Outbreak

[CHSUB]

Same for me. My acro and SPS are growing like crazy with great color and PE and my nitrates are around 50 and phosphates around 0.15.

Different for me…my tanks are always zero nitrates on Salifert going back to the 90’s as it very easy to keep nitrates low with maintenance and a moderate fish load. In all those tank I’ve never had a dinoflagellate problem. Recently I purchased a microscopic and found a few dinos as
expected.


Referring to corals and hobby tested zero nitrate:

 

[JonasRoman]

I tried Blackout. And I have a UV that I am running. After the blackout, the sand was clean. And then they came back. The sand does still mostly clear at night so I assume they are in the water column. But that didn't work.

Specify the UV, age of UV, wattage, circulation/h of UV pump, tank size and that your UV-pump was in display tank (as a temporary)
All these must be done correct.

 

[docscorals]

Same for me. My acro and SPS are growing like crazy with great color and PE and my nitrates are around 50 and phosphates around 0.15.

Different for me…my tanks are always zero nitrates on Salifert going back to the 90’s as it very easy to keep nitrates low with maintenance and a moderate fish load. In all those tank I’ve never had a dinoflagellate problem. Recently I purchased a microscopic and found a few dinos as
expected.


Referring to corals and hobby tested zero nitrate:

Awesome. And they look great. Mine never had great color or PE until my numbers started creeping up. I have found that trying to keep my nitrates between 25-50 and phosphates between 0.10-0.15 seems to be perfect for my tanks. Although I really don’t react much unless my nitrates get below 10 or over 50 and my phosphates are below 0.05 or over 0.25.

There are so many factors and every rank is different. That’s why they say chase consistency, not numbers .

 

[Patrick Cox]

Specify the UV, age of UV, wattage, circulation/h of UV pump, tank size and that your UV-pump was in display tank (as a temporary)
All these must be done correct.

I have a microscope but I am unable to take a picture. from the slide it looks like Prorocentrum to me. Like small pointed eggs. (like the small pointed dots in the picture above.)

UV is 25 watt Aqua Ultraviolet...

Bulb is about a year old.
Tank is 140-150 gallon total water volume
pump is in the sump
I did have it dialed up and now it is dialed down.


https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/25-w...D=9973&indexName=brs_prod_m2_default_products

 

[JWsticks]

I appreciate all of the replies and discussion on this topic. As someone said above, there are obviously different ways to be successful in this hobby. I have been in the saltwater hobby for 15 years and I still feel like a newbie. Or maybe I know just enough to be dangerous. LOL. It likely makes sense for me to choose the approach where I can get some in person support from someone who knows a lot more than I do.

@Randy Holmes-Farley ,
I asked AI about the Polyp Labs Media I just removed from my system and here is what it had to say...

"That Polyplab Genesis Rock Power Rack is an enormous amount of biological surface area. BRS says each of the four Genesis Rocks provides over 1,000 m² / 11,000 ft² of surface area, and the rack is specifically designed to move water through that media.

For your roughly 140–150-gallon system, that's substantial additional biological capacity. BRS even states that each block can support around 350 gallons, although I'd treat that as a manufacturer sizing claim rather than a literal filtration requirement. "

It sounds like I may have been over processing dissolved nutrients. And maybe that condition brought on the Dinos. It will be interesting to see how that changes over the next few days. I will report back on this point.

Thanks!

I've just recovered from a minor dino outbreak. I reintroduced bleached Marco rock and my PO4 crashed to 0. I also run a well lit refugium to export PO4 by dosing NO3 weekly which made it worse. Noticed the snots a week after rocks were in the tank and quickly dosed PO4. A week of dosing PO4 and dinos were gone. Probably fast for my case due to being barebottom and high flow. Also, I kept the refugium and skimmer running normally. NO3 and PO4 can always be dosed to desired levels.

Are you also carbon dosing with the biomedia? How are you driving PO4 lower? Are you dosing anything else to lower PO4 specifically?

For your case, I would dose PO4 to 0.10 and check the following day how much PO4 was consumed. Then dose PO4 to maintain 0.10 on a daily basis. Check daily and eventually your tank will stop consuming and will see a large excess build up and dino should've receded. Keep a log and you will see a trend develop.

 

[Patrick Cox]

I've just recovered from a minor dino outbreak. I reintroduced bleached Marco rock and my PO4 crashed to 0. I also run a well lit refugium to export PO4 by dosing NO3 weekly which made it worse. Noticed the snots a week after rocks were in the tank and quickly dosed PO4. A week of dosing PO4 and dinos were gone. Probably fast for my case due to being barebottom and high flow. Also, I kept the refugium and skimmer running normally. NO3 and PO4 can always be dosed to desired levels.

Are you also carbon dosing with the biomedia? How are you driving PO4 lower? Are you dosing anything else to lower PO4 specifically?

For your case, I would dose PO4 to 0.10 and check the following day how much PO4 was consumed. Then dose PO4 to maintain 0.10 on a daily basis. Check daily and eventually your tank will stop consuming and will see a large excess build up and dino should've receded. Keep a log and you will see a trend develop.

Thanks for sharing your experience. My current guess is that the Polyp Lab Genesis Rock Rack that I installed has been consuming all of my nutrients. My tank is ~145 gallon total water volume and this kit is advertised to "support systems up to 1400 gallons" of water volume. I removed that this morning so we will see what happens over the next few days! LOL. Thanks.