Stable parameters, happy corals/fish, but still battling dinos.

TheReefDiary

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So just recently went through a 5 day ultra low light period (5% blue for photosynthetic corals). I've been running a uv the entire time as well. I've been dosing seachem prime. I also dosed hydrogen peroxide for those 5 days at 1ml per 10g.

After this I noticed a slight reduction in the strength of the dinos but not much. My phosphate readings on my hanna are steady at
08-.1 currently, my nitrates have been locked in at 10 for a while, my corals are absolutely thriving in the tank, yet I have dinos.

My only thought is that the chaeto Im using had dinos on them when I purchased it. When my phosphates accidentally dropped to 0 a few weeks ago without me noticing they took over. My chateo seems to hold onto a lot of them as well (it's in a reactor which I'm actually cleaning tonight).

Is chaeto possible my problem? Could it be a place the dinos are thriving? Should I get rid of the chaeto? My filtration is filter floss, purigen and chemipure blue, fluval biomax, chamber 2 is a protein skimmer and currently a pump to my chaeto reactor.
 
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TheReefDiary

TheReefDiary

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Here is a picture of what I assume to be my dino infested chaeto. Think it's time to ditch the algae reactor for a bit.
 

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sfin52

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Honestly got lazy and forgot to even check the chaeto because it usually takes a few weeks to grow to the point I need to remove some.
Dinos are in every tank. It's a problem when we enable them to bloom.
 
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TheReefDiary

TheReefDiary

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Have you checked what kind you have on a microscope slide ? The method you use to fight them differs depending on what type they are.
They disappear into the water column at night. haven't confirmed what exact type they are. Pretty sure they are living in the chaeto. They started a bit after I added the reactor. And they started to thrive once phosphates bottomed out.
 

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They disappear into the water column at night. haven't confirmed what exact type they are. Pretty sure they are living in the chaeto. They started a bit after I added the reactor. And they started to thrive once
Remove the chaeto and do a quick rinse and clean water and put back in. Do this everyday till you don't see the dinos. And keep a close eye on the phosphates and nitrates. Don't want them to bottom out again.
 

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removing the reactor cut down on the dinos almost overnight. still present clearly but about 50% compared to the previous 2 weeks.
Pull cheato and preform a good rinse and place it back in.

Zooxanthellae is a type of dinoflagellates. This is why using a chemical to fight them may harm corals.
 
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TheReefDiary

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Pull cheato and preform a good rinse and place it back in.

Zooxanthellae is a type of dinoflagellates. This is why using a chemical to fight them may harm corals.
I completely removed the reactor from the setup. the chaeto was actually dead and had grown so much dinos in it there was no saving it. going to run the system without the chaeto for a while as I don't even think I really need it.
 
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dinos are finally starting to recede a bit. still not over, but half way through the day almost and build up is a lot less than previous weeks. started getting better once I bought mb7 and started dosing that.

also started cleaning the tank after lights out and that's seems to help a bit as well since by the point most of the dinos are into the water column and running through the uv filter.

PXL_20221125_162022721.jpg
 

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