Preventing Dinos from taking over

[ssagar89]

Hi Everyone,
Hope everyone’s doing great. I want to understand how can one prevent Dino’s from taking over the tank eventually? Current I battled dinos in my 10 gallon and it wiped out all my corals. I am planning to switch to a 50g lagoon tank but kinda scared to make a move cuz I think I’ll get dinos back in my tank. There have been post stating battling Dinos but I can hardly find posts about preventing a Dino outbreak in the first place. What different methods should once be mindful of while setting up a tank to avoid an outbreak? Thanking everyone in advance.

 

[Ajayabb]

I would say keeping your nutrient levels from bottoming out is very helpful in preventing Dinos.

 

[Gup]

Hi Everyone,
Hope everyone’s doing great. I want to understand how can one prevent Dino’s from taking over the tank eventually? Current I battled dinos in my 10 gallon and it wiped out all my corals. I am planning to switch to a 50g lagoon tank but kinda scared to make a move cuz I think I’ll get dinos back in my tank. There have been post stating battling Dinos but I can hardly find posts about preventing a Dino outbreak in the first place. What different methods should once be mindful of while setting up a tank to avoid an outbreak? Thanking everyone in advance.

 

[Gup]

Dinos and cynos seem to be inevitable in new set ups, especially. One product I found to be very effective was DinoX. Following the directions closely, I'm confident that product will be as helpful to you as it was to me.

 

[NeSsyAqua]

I heard Dr. Tim talked about this in SaltwaterAquarium most recent youtube vid. It starts at around 6:30

 

[vtecintegra]

After dinos wiped out my corals and last tank (dry rock/sand), I did this:

Not wanting any pest from live rock, I got 15# of live sand from the gulf. I set up my rock in a tub with circulation and heat, and poured the sand in all over it. I added ammonia and fish food for three months before setting up the tank.

I believe microbe diversity is the key to keeping dinos in check. And the nitrifying bacteria in a bottle doesn't cut it.

 

[ssagar89]

After dinos wiped out my corals and last tank (dry rock/sand), I did this:

Not wanting any pest from live rock, I got 15# of live sand from the gulf. I set up my rock in a tub with circulation and heat, and poured the sand in all over it. I added ammonia and fish food for three months before setting up the tank.

I believe microbe diversity is the key to keeping dinos in check. And the nitrifying bacteria in a bottle doesn't cut it.

That’s pretty smart man. So just to be sure, you cycled the rocks in a tub. Where did you get your live rocks from? Did you use live sand or dry sand? How did you then setup you tank. Did it become messy to add all that sand back into a new tank? How many gallons is your tank?

 

[dvgyfresh]

Dino’s are photosynthetic so blackout period will lower their numbers drastically , that plus UV and introducing a lot of micro fauna through microbacter 7, live rock, high nutrients, and live phytoplankton. This is what worked for me and got rid of Dino’s visibly

 

[vtecintegra]

That’s pretty smart man. So just to be sure, you cycled the rocks in a tub. Where did you get your live rocks from? Did you use live sand or dry sand? How did you then setup you tank. Did it become messy to add all that sand back into a new tank? How many gallons is your tank?

Cycled rocks in a tub (water trough). I had to change tanks due to silicone failing, so I bought all new caribsea liferock shapes. While cycling rocks I dumped in live sand from the gulf, waited three months. When I set up the new tank, I used Tropic Eden Reeflakes. The live sand was too fine for my taste and would probably blow around. Reeflakes was clean when I set up the tank, so no mess. I rinsed the rock off between going from the tub to the new tank, so no live sand was transferred. Tank is 48"L x 24"H x 29"W. Actual volume with rock is 110g + 20g in sump.

So far I'm getting green film algae (thankfully). With the dinos, all it was, was nasty brown slime everywhere. I tried every method except Dr. Tims, and nothing worked. Dinos dominated no matter what I did. I started with dry rock/sand, and made the mistake of starting up an algae scrubber from the get go. Then one day, scrubber died off from the lack of phosphate/nitrate (0/0), and dinos went crazy. If I hadn't had to change tanks, I would have probably bleached it anyway. Corals were almost all dead or not growing, and the tank was just nasty. I buy into the theory of never letting phosphate/nitrate go to zero in a dry rock/sand environment. A tank needs a marine micro biome to be stable. There are different ways, I did it buy seeding my rock with sand from the ocean. Another technique that's been coming up, is stocking coral from the get go which brings in microbes.