The dreaded Dino's. I have been fighting this for months now

[leighton.bingham]

So I have been fighting this for months. I have done everything from H202 dosing, dino-x dosing, black outs, and everything. My nutrients are up and have been up my No3 is 16ppm and Po3 is .1, but the Dinos are still bad and keep getting worse. Pretty much killed all of my coral with the blackouts now I have zoas and two mushrooms left and 4 fish. Any advice on how to get rid of this stuff for good?

I have even taken all the rock out twice and scrubbed all the dinos off and did a freshwater dip.

 

[ElementReefer]

UV?

 

[leighton.bingham]

UV?

Thats the one thing i haven't tried. I didn't want to spend more money on something that wouldn't work.

 

[ElementReefer]

1) Now that you have Dinos established, try pushing your nutrients down, not up

2) Run UV, green killing machine is reasonable $

3) Keep cleaning them out of the tank

4) Dose beneficial bacteria

5) Be consistent and patient (easier said than done, I know lol)

 

[BetterJake]

First step. What kind of dinos? Not all are susceptible to UV. And I would not recommend the Green Killing Machine as the flow rate on those are usually too fast for dinos

This Facebook group is great for asking questions and getting advice

Log into Facebook

Log into Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family, and people you know.

www.facebook.com

 

[Dburr1014]

So I have been fighting this for months. I have done everything from H202 dosing, dino-x dosing, black outs, and everything. My nutrients are up and have been up my No3 is 16ppm and Po3 is .1, but the Dinos are still bad and keep getting worse. Pretty much killed all of my coral with the blackouts now I have zoas and two mushrooms left and 4 fish. Any advice on how to get rid of this stuff for good?

I have even taken all the rock out twice and scrubbed all the dinos off and did a freshwater dip.

Have you noticed, worse at midday, best in the am?
If yes, uv will totally work.
And I recommend keeping nutrients exactly where they are now.

 

[legionofdoon]

I tried Dr Tim's treatment. Knocked them down but not out. They started to fade but still remained in small patches. Got sick of dealing with them and decided to just ride them out. Built a nitrate destroyer a few months back and once it kicked in dinos went completely away. The destroyer doesn't leave a slime layer in my sump like the doctor Tim's (I used the gels as a maintenance for two months) did but for some reason at night and early morning I get a slight haze in the water that clears up once lights come on. I assume it's bacterial and maybe that bacteria is out competing the dinos.

 

[legionofdoon]

This is my sand bed now. Full disclosure I did find a juvenile hawks wing (I think) conch so maybe he's cleaning the sand.

 

[leighton.bingham]

First step. What kind of dinos? Not all are susceptible to UV. And I would not recommend the Green Killing Machine as the flow rate on those are usually too fast for dinos

This Facebook group is great for asking questions and getting advice

Log into Facebook

Log into Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family, and people you know.

www.facebook.com

It is the best in the am and then progressively gets a lot worse in a hurry. I should get a microscope so I know which ones I’m dealing with.

 

[leighton.bingham]

I tried Dr Tim's treatment. Knocked them down but not out. They started to fade but still remained in small patches. Got sick of dealing with them and decided to just ride them out. Built a nitrate destroyer a few months back and once it kicked in dinos went completely away. The destroyer doesn't leave a slime layer in my sump like the doctor Tim's (I used the gels as a maintenance for two months) did but for some reason at night and early morning I get a slight haze in the water that clears up once lights come on. I assume it's bacterial and maybe that bacteria is out competing the dinos.

What is the nitrate destroyer?

 

[legionofdoon]

Donovan's nitrate destroyer it's basically a tube filled with porous media that you feed with carbon (ethanol vinegar) and and slow flow. Once the bacteria that colonize the media consume the carbon and oxygen the rest of the bacteria switch to metabolizing nitrate as an energy source. They are very simple to make. Search my post history or Donovan's nitrate destroyer.

 

[BetterJake]

It is the best in the am and then progressively gets a lot worse in a hurry. I should get a microscope so I know which ones I’m dealing with.

100% it's critical that you ID the specific type. If its ostereoposis type you need UV otherwise skip the UV and it's time to dose silicates, phyto, pods

 

[BetterJake]

Also this guide is handy, it comes from the Facebook group I shared a few posts up.

 

[gbroadbridge]

So I have been fighting this for months. I have done everything from H202 dosing, dino-x dosing, black outs, and everything. My nutrients are up and have been up my No3 is 16ppm and Po3 is .1, but the Dinos are still bad and keep getting worse. Pretty much killed all of my coral with the blackouts now I have zoas and two mushrooms left and 4 fish. Any advice on how to get rid of this stuff for good?

I have even taken all the rock out twice and scrubbed all the dinos off and did a freshwater dip.

How big is the tank? For smaller tank a 100% cure is a rip clean, especially if you only have fish left.

As others have pointed out, if you want to keep fighting in the tank you need to do a positive ID or you may just be fighting yourself.

 

[leighton.bingham]

How big is the tank? For smaller tank a 100% cure is a rip clean, especially if you only have fish left.

As others have pointed out, if you want to keep fighting in the tank you need to do a positive ID or you may just be fighting yourself.

It’s a 110 waterbox. I’ll just buy a microscope this weekend.

 

[slaag]

I had them. I blasted them with a turkey baster like thing to powerwash them off the rocks, added a ton of copepods and a bunch of Astraea snails and it cleaned my tank within a week.

 

[ScottB]

It is the best in the am and then progressively gets a lot worse in a hurry. I should get a microscope so I know which ones I’m dealing with.

You are welcome to read this article I put together a while back. It covers treatments for all 5 common species. It is not unusual to have more than one species at a time, so a proper ID is pretty helpful. Good luck.

A Dinoflagellate Treatment Guide

As the title suggests, this is intended as a short guide on what to do when you suspect dinoflagellates are trying to overtake your system. It is an attempt to boil down the protocols discussed across 11,000 posts in this "Are you Tired" thread...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[gbroadbridge]

It’s a 110 waterbox. I’ll just buy a microscope this weekend.

Okay, that's the size which I consider to just over simple rip clean territory.

Microscope is a good plan. Doesn't need to be fancy, I think my student grade cost around $70.
It's quite interesting to use even when the Dino's are gone - lots of microscopic life you don't know about in the tank - another dimension to reefing

 

[Crustaceon]

I was going to ask if you had dosed silicates yet. I went that route for the last outbreak as an experiment and intentionally gave my tank the "uglies" with diatoms for a few weeks (WAY overdosed, silicates, lol). It's been four months now and no dinos in sight. I confirmed the diatom bloom and absolute eradication of dinos via microscope during the entire process. This was ALL I did. No blackouts, no chemicals, no UV, no drastic changes in nutrients (stayed at 5ppm the entire time). Just dosed enough to have the confirmed diatom bloom and swished the sand around daily to make it look nice. I have used all other methods and for me, this was the easiest to pull off.

 

[Fishy888]

100% it's critical that you ID the specific type. If its ostereoposis type you need UV otherwise skip the UV and it's time to dose silicates, phyto, pods

He said his dinos get into the water column at night and come back by day. He would definitely benefit from a UV sterilizer. I have one that cost me 50 bucks give or take and it has variable flow. I got it when I had dinos and a big time phyto bloom. It got rid of both issues. It’s got slow enough flow and a high enough wattage to kill things like ich too. I need to dig it out and let you know what brand it was and the wattage.

After 8ish months of battling dinos and posting my system at the time for sale a friend who is also a local reefer gave me a ton of chaeto which was full of pods, bristle worms, etc. She also sold me 20 lbs of TRUE live rock from her well established system. It had tons of limpets, asterinas, pods, and micro feather dusters, and even xenia on it. Within 24 hours the dinos on the sand within an inch of the two rocks was obliterated. Within a week or so they were gone from everywhere including the rocks that were absolutely infested. Sadly my limpets are no more (thanks clownfish and yellow tailed blue damsels).