Still struggling with dinos, need advice please!

[TheReefDiary]

okay so I've read so many threads on dinos.

my current parameters are
.05 po4
5 nitrate
1.025 salinity
8.5 alk
430 calcium

I have been dosing mb7 and seachem pristine on opposing days. I run uv sterilizer at night (free floating dinos). my lights arent on that strong (250 par at the top of the tank)

I did a blackout a few weeks ago. I dosed hydrogen peroxide during that time.

I clean the tank daily and remove filter floss.

still cannot for the life of me figure out why I haven't seen a reduction in dinos despite this.

it hasn't been a short amount of time either. I know this can take a while to figure out, but I assumed by now I would have less buildup. they seem a bit less stringy now, but that's about it.

any advice would be appreciated. I'm not defeated, but just hate having to clean like crazy daily.

 

[jasrivas]

did you figure out why you got dinos in the first place? it is usually caused by no po4 or
nitrate when got dinos it was because my po4 bottomed out and i had to maintaind around .1 for over a mouth. at first it did not go away it just grew slower and over time the patches got smaller and smaller until there was nothing left. also i don't think the black out method works at all they just grow back after a couple of days when the treatment is over.

 

[jmichaelh7]

Have you tried plumbing a uv directly from your display and back in?

Search the forums here you will find a method that has worked for me as well as others

 

[TheReefDiary]

Have you tried plumbing a uv directly from your display and back in?

Search the forums here you will find a method that has worked for me as well as others

I have a aio.

 

[TheReefDiary]

did you figure out why you got dinos in the first place? it is usually caused by no po4 or
nitrate when got dinos it was because my po4 bottomed out and i had to maintaind around .1 for over a mouth. at first it did not go away it just grew slower and over time the patches got smaller and smaller until there was nothing left. also i don't think the black out method works at all they just grow back after a couple of days when the treatment is over.

it was caused by my nutrients dropping to 0. I've had them up for a couple weeks now though. guess just need more time. just sucks to clean daily, but it is what it is. my new tank starts in a month anyway so will be making sure my nutrients don't plummit in that tank.

 

[WallyTime7]

I thankfully had a quick battle with them. I for some reason, decided to change my flow and lower my refuge hours to not display pink/purple at night through the back of the tank. Over the next 2 months it came quickly.

Did a massive water change, up tick the flow, extended the hours back and it's 80% gone and still retreating thankfully. It's been about 3-4 weeks since my changes.

if it's not broke don't fix it - but as others said, try to stem the 'why' before treating blindly.

 

[TheReefDiary]

I thankfully had a quick battle with them. I for some reason, decided to change my flow and lower my refuge hours to not display pink/purple at night through the back of the tank. Over the next 2 months it came quickly.

Did a massive water change, up tick the flow, extended the hours back and it's 80% gone and still retreating thankfully. It's been about 3-4 weeks since my changes.

if it's not broke don't fix it - but as others said, try to stem the 'why' before treating blindly.

100% know it was from my crashed nutrients because right when I realized they were low it came a few days after. I haven't done a water change in about 3 weeks, based off what I've been reading, but at this point I think I'm going to do one mostly because my calcium is dropping finally and the water is just a bit too stinky.

 

[TheReefDiary]

I thankfully had a quick battle with them. I for some reason, decided to change my flow and lower my refuge hours to not display pink/purple at night through the back of the tank. Over the next 2 months it came quickly.

Did a massive water change, up tick the flow, extended the hours back and it's 80% gone and still retreating thankfully. It's been about 3-4 weeks since my changes.

if it's not broke don't fix it - but as others said, try to stem the 'why' before treating blindly.

also I had a algae reactor hooked up that became a breeding ground for dinos and I quickly got rid of it once I realized the chaeto was being suffocated by dinos. Weird thing is that I have a ton of copepods pop up every few days. see them all over the glass when it's clean then it gets dirty they eat the dinos and then obviously have die off. just weird because I assume I wouldnt see any pods.

 

[olonmv]

I think next step will be to identify which dinos you have. You’ll need a cheapo microscope to do so. When you get magnified look at the Dino the great people on here will let you know what type you got and you’ll be able to proceed with the right treatment.

 

[WallyTime7]

also I had a algae reactor hooked up that became a breeding ground for dinos and I quickly got rid of it once I realized the chaeto was being suffocated by dinos. Weird thing is that I have a ton of copepods pop up every few days. see them all over the glass when it's clean then it gets dirty they eat the dinos and then obviously have die off. just weird because I assume I wouldnt see any pods.

My fuge has turned into chaeto and nuisance algae. I was worried about it before but my DT is perfectly fine, so I let it run it's course. At the end of the day, I care about my DT solely.

 

[leighton.bingham]

This is what was suggested and I did for mine with one minor change.


Prepare by starting with a water change and blow this stuff loose with a turkey baster and siphon up loose particles.
Turn lights off (at least white and run blue at 10-15% IF you have light dependant corals) for 5 days and at night dose 1ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide per 10 gallons for all 5 nights. If you dont have light dependent coral- turn all lights off.
During the day dose 1ml of liquid bacteria (such as bacter 7 or XLM) per 10 gallons.
Clean filters daily and DO NOT FEED CORAL FOODS OR ADD NOPOX as it is food for dinos.
Day 5,, you can start with blue lights - ramping up and work your white lights up slowly

Only thing I did differently from what was suggested is I dosed peroxide every twelve hours even if lights were on.

 

[TheReefDiary]

My fuge has turned into chaeto and nuisance algae. I was worried about it before but my DT is perfectly fine, so I let it run it's course. At the end of the day, I care about my DT solely.

I don't think the reactor had enough flow so the chaeto was just a breeding ground and ended up being suffocated. started to die off.

 

[beesnreefs]

Sorry you’re dealing with dinos. They are awful.

This group on Facebook was life changing for me. Super helpful in my small cell amphidinium battle. https://www.facebook.com/groups/259474048655429/?ref=share&mibextid=S66gvF

 

[TheReefDiary]

This is what was suggested and I did for mine with one minor change.


Prepare by starting with a water change and blow this stuff loose with a turkey baster and siphon up loose particles.
Turn lights off (at least white and run blue at 10-15% IF you have light dependant corals) for 5 days and at night dose 1ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide per 10 gallons for all 5 nights. If you dont have light dependent coral- turn all lights off.
During the day dose 1ml of liquid bacteria (such as bacter 7 or XLM) per 10 gallons.
Clean filters daily and DO NOT FEED CORAL FOODS OR ADD NOPOX as it is food for dinos.
Day 5,, you can start with blue lights - ramping up and work your white lights up slowly

Only thing I did differently from what was suggested is I dosed peroxide every twelve hours even if lights were on.

yeah vetteguy told me the same thing. I had done exactly that, but nothing really changed unfortunately. again because my nutrients were really low when I did this. during the blackout period it was slightly better, but clearly the blackout didn't work. also, I clean the tank like a madman (you'd think my tank was dino free by the time im done).

 

[TheReefDiary]

Sorry you’re dealing with dinos. They are awful.

This group on Facebook was life changing for me. Super helpful in my small cell amphidinium battle. https://www.facebook.com/groups/259474048655429/?ref=share&mibextid=S66gvF

yeah it stinks, but part of the learning process. my only problem is cleaning daily is time consuming. I own my own business so even the extra 20-30 minutes of cleaning is a lot. I knew to expect this just figured after following direction on here I'd see some sort of recession in the strength after a few weeks.

 

[Reefer Matt]

I think next step will be to identify which dinos you have. You’ll need a cheapo microscope to do so. When you get magnified look at the Dino the great people on here will let you know what type you got and you’ll be able to proceed with the right treatment.

I agree with this. There are many species of dinoflagellates, and identifying which ones you have will help with treatment. Not all dinos respond to blackouts and uv. Some will require diatoms to compete with them by raising silicates.

 

[beesnreefs]

yeah it stinks, but part of the learning process. my only problem is cleaning daily is time consuming. I own my own business so even the extra 20-30 minutes of cleaning is a lot. I knew to expect this just figured after following direction on here I'd see some sort of recession in the strength after a few weeks.

FWIW most people on that Facebook group do not recommend cleaning as it has little to no impact. I’ve been following their instructions for about two weeks now…other than occasionally sucking up strings directly on/irritating corals, I’ve not cleaned the sand or rock. I’ve also not done any water changes. In just two weeks I’ve seen a 70% reduction in dinos

 

[TheReefDiary]

I agree with this. There are many species of dinoflagellates, and identifying which ones you have will help with treatment. Not all dinos respond to blackouts and uv. Some will require diatoms to compete with them by raising silicates.

thanks any recommendation on a cheap one that will work?

 

[beesnreefs]

thanks any recommendation on a cheap one that will work?

This microscope came highly recommended and has worked like a charm for me: AmScope M150C-I 40X-1000X...

 

[TheReefDiary]

This microscope came highly recommended and has worked like a charm for me: AmScope M150C-I 40X-1000X...

thanks!