tank overrun with dinos...

[samrggzy]

Hello everyone this is my first post on here and i would greatly appreciate some guidance on what to do next. To give some background, I’m 21 and decided last year i wanted to get into the hobby so i did all my research and eventually set up a biocube 32 in october of 2020. The tank ran great for about 7 months, I had a pair of clowns, a royal gramma, a coral beauty amongst a cleaner shrimp, handfull of snails and a gsp frag. About 7 months into the tank running i started noticing dinos popping up on the sand bed and rocks. I did loads of research on here and youtube on ways to battle them knowing that they can get out of hand quick. First i tried the Dr tims method using the waste away and blacoout etc. That didn’t work so then i started dosing neonitro and neophos because the levels were down in the tank and i know that is a direct cause of dinos forming. I did this for weeks while checking my parameters every other day and saw no improvement. Its been a few months since the issue began and the tank is seemingly overrun by the dinos and i dont know what to do. Do i start the whole tank off fresh if thats even possible or is there any other way. I feel like ive failed my fish who i did such a careful and good job of making sure they were living in the best conditions. The fish are still alive but the tank looks rereally bad and i know that they cant live in there much longer, please if anyone has any suggestions let me know thank you guys.

 

[brandon429]

You should rip clean it, best fix:

 

[brandon429]

Algae/Cyano Issue Not Improving, Help Please?

Hi all, I have a Red Sea Reefer 250 that has been up and running for 8 months now. My issue is a strange black algae\cyano growth that has plagued me for the last two months+. I have been treating as follows: cleaning gravel twice weekly 20% water changes twice a week Addition of beneficial...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[samrggzy]

You should rip clean it, best fix:

so just take everything out and start over pretty much?

 

[cww81]

My advice is to see what kind of dinos you have first. A cheap microscope would achieve this. Then once you know which kind (or mix) of dinos you have you can follow the ideal methods for treatment. Many people go through the battle with dinos so I say don’t give up unless nothing else works.

Dino identification- https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dinoflagellate-identification-guide.671466/

 

[CK00020]

How is this an emergency, seems like at least half the people on here have dinos. Including me

 

[gentlefish]

Picture would help.
Often phosphate and nitrate are 0 and fuel the Dino bloom. No skimming, heavy feeding or dosing may help to outcompete. Many dose bacteria,
still a big fan of UV sterilizer.
Dino’s are a long battle….

 

[CK00020]

How big is your tank, maybe some parameters?

 

[brandon429]

When reading the link, look at his updates

And how simple cleaning isn't anything but the results you want in a nano

His updates don't leave room to draw any negatives from the take back your investment yesterday option.

What big tankers do regarding partial actions and months wait isn't required in nanos, it takes two hours to earn the above condition. We didn't ask about parameters or id as those are hesitations... he just caused the ideal condition without excuse or delay.

 

[CK00020]

I agree, rip that thing!

 

[Gup]

PLEASE, PLEASE, Do Not start over just yet. Buy a bottle of Dino X. Follow the directions rigidly. I'll guarantee that will save you a lot of money and unnecessary work

 

[brandon429]

The reason a rip clean isn't any type of alarm for a nano reef is two fold:

- it isn't possible to draw alarm off the best after pics in the thread

- this is how you move aquariums to new homes and make them transfer safely. The act doesn't become bad just because the tank isn't moving. To dose something and kill the masses internally and rot them in tank isn't as long term effective as exporting the mass before it rots. Matching the concern to the after pics is best. Using dosers and capturing mass internally to decomp is why dino challenges in large tanks cycle between tradeoff invasions like dinos- cyano-gha etc plus coral bleaching. Dino x has killed tanks before, searches show. Rip clean is the ironic safe mode.

A good reason not to rip clean a nano would be to keep the current look of the tank because it's preferred to the outcome on page three of that example clean above.

Starting over is buying new rocks and a new tank, cleaning is cleaning... it's hard not to make up negative outcomes from a pristine example but you can see how that's the tendency. Being invaded another day is a matter of choice now, not biology. The fix is as clear as it can be for you. We have a thread of two hundred rip cleans but they all have the same outcome so that one above will do. You can be fixed by lunch time today but only if you want your tank to shine.

 

[samrggzy]

You should rip clean it, best fix:

how would i go about doing this? Is there a step by step guide anywhere i can check out?

 

[Dolphins18]

how would i go about doing this? Is there a step by step guide anywhere i can check out?

I don't think you should "rip it clean and start over." Frankly I think that is terrible advice, almost every new tank started with dry rock these days goes thru dinos...
Raise your po4 and nitrates for 1-2 weeks prior to adding an oversized UV sterilizer and they will be gone. A somewhat difficult/time consuming but incredibly effective method of raising po4 and nitrates is by dosing to your water change water, testing there and verifying po4 and nitrates are elevated, and then doing water changes with this higher po4 and nitrate water.
Large Jebao UV's are cheap and will take care of the job.

 

[Cell]

Rip clean isnt really starting over per se. It's just concentrating the weeks/months of maintenance cleaning required to deal with certain algae outbreaks into a single afternoon.