Too many threads on dinos. Need simple advice to beat it.

[TheReefDiary]

Okay so long story short I have dino. I don't have a microscope to tell which ones but it's definitely dino.

For a month I was struggling with high phosphates (reading above .3 on hanna). Couldn't get it to come down even cutting back feeding. Added a small chaeto reactor and just like that phosphate was below .1. Only issue is it made my po4 drop to undetectable levels for what I think was a few days (between testing). Once I noticed my po4 was so low I increased feedings and got it back to where it is now at a steady range .07-.1. My nitrates are currently 10.

Now that I have my phosphates adjusted what's the best remedy to get back on track? I'm not expecting a quick fix, I understand this can take time and I view it as part of the learning process.

I'd prefer not to do an extended blackout as my corals growth has been great recently.

Should I remove the chaeto reactor despite it doing a good job at managing my nutrients?
Should I dose nopox?
Should I dose a mixture of bacterias?

Currently cleaning the sand bed daily and basting rocks. My filter floss does a great job of catching the stringy dinos and I immediately remove the floss and replace it.

My current filtration setup:
Chamber 1: filter floss, chemi pure blue, fluval bio max
Chamber 2: protein skimmer and pump for chaeto reactor

Parameters:
Salinity 1.025
Alk - 8.4
Cal - 450
Po4 - .07
Nitrate - 10

 

[TheReefDiary]

Here's a picture of tank currently. Not getting many dinos on the glass or overflow box as much as I was last week.

 

[Uncle99]

Reduce them when in the water column with UV works well.
Change filter socks daily before lights on.
Do nothing else but keep that water chemistry stable.
As your lowering their numbers, your water chemistry is allowing the good guys to populate, which at one point, outcompetes the bad guys.
Changes will just make that worse.
It’s not hard, but you go to be persistent with Dinos.

It took 4 weeks to see a noticeable difference, and in 60 days, gone, and stay gone provided I keep chemistry butt solid, and nutrients available for consumption.

 

[TheReefDiary]

Reduce them when in the water column with UV works well.
Change filter socks daily before lights on.
Do nothing else but keep that water chemistry stable.
As your lowering their numbers, your water chemistry is allowing the good guys to populate, which at one point, outcompetes the bad guys.
Changes will just make that worse.
It’s not hard, but you go to be persistent with Dinos.

It took 4 weeks to see a noticeable difference, and in 60 days, gone, and stay gone provided I keep chemistry butt solid, and nutrients available for consumption.

Should I do any water changes? My only issue is that I have a 13.5 gallon tank so I start depleting a low of elements after too long and I don't have a doser so then my levels would be all over the place with manual dosing.

 

[EricR]

Not sure there's a single, one size fits all, answer. You already noticed there's multiple threads on the topic and positive ID of specific type is usually one of the first suggestions.

A "few days" at undetectable PO4 doesn't even sound that bad to me -- I was at 0.01-0.02 for months (with occasional 0.00) trying to bring up with feeding before I finally started dosing.

So far, I'm just doing manual removal whenever possible and keeping up phosphates and nitrates with dosing and it seems to be working but I'm definitely not out of the woods so interested in what you find out.

 

[Tired]

A good way to get rid of many types of dinos is to increase biodiversity and let the dinos get outcompeted back to unnoticeable levels. Dosing copepods can help. A chunk of really nice live rock could also be good- maybe see if your LFS ever gets in the ocean-harvested stuff.

You likely want at least 0.03ppm phosphates and 5ppm nitrates. If you have at least that, no need to change anything about your nutrient management.

 

[Uncle99]

Should I do any water changes? My only issue is that I have a 13.5 gallon tank so I start depleting a low of elements after too long and I don't have a doser so then my levels would be all over the place with manual dosing.

I do water changes if I need to lower nitrates and phosphate, otherwise nope.
The system will develop faster when all 8 parameters are remaining even at all times.
The more these vary, the longer it takes.

I not much interested in any specific number provided it’s in the band, rather, then trend up/down which may need correction.

Im not sure your consumption rate, but smaller and more frequent adjustments create better stability.

 

[xCry0x]

I put a $40 UV from amazon in my 65g tank + dosed MB7 and my dinos were gone in less than a week.

Similar scenario; I bottomed out po4 and nitrates on accident and pretty quickly ended up with dinos & then cyano.

This was based on the dinos being the type that go away at night and free float in the water column. I put the UV directly in my display.

 

[TheReefDiary]

I do water changes if I need to lower nitrates and phosphate, otherwise nope.
The system will develop faster when all 8 parameters are remaining even at all times.
The more these vary, the longer it takes.

I not much interested in any specific number provided it’s in the band, rather, then trend up/down which may need correction.

Im not sure your consumption rate, but smaller and more frequent adjustments create better stability.

Right now I'm consuming .5 dkh a day. My pH is consistently between 8.3-8.5. I have to dose 2ml of red sea alk a day to keep up. My calcium doesn't go down as quickly so I can usually get away without dosing (if I have to it's not very often). I don't test magnesium currently.

 

[TheReefDiary]

I put a $40 UV from amazon in my 65g tank + dosed MB7 and my dinos were gone in less than a week.

Similar scenario; I bottomed out po4 and nitrates on accident and pretty quickly ended up with dinos & then cyano.

This was based on the dinos being the type that go away at night and free float in the water column. I put the UV directly in my display.

Yeah I have the free floating kind.

 

[Reefer Matt]

If it goes away at night, regular 3 day blackouts worked for me. And a uv sterilizer. Then add the bacteria, pods, etc after it is temporarily gone. It usually takes a couple months to get rid of for good, in my experience.

 

[Uncle99]

Right now I'm consuming .5 dkh a day. My pH is consistently between 8.3-8.5. I have to dose 2ml of red sea alk a day to keep up. My calcium doesn't go down as quickly so I can usually get away without dosing (if I have to it's not very often). I don't test magnesium currently.

That makes sense, numbers look good, .5dkh variance not an issue.
MG is important. Low MG can cause precipitation and poor skeleton formation. I put MG on 1350-1400ppm first, it don’t change much once you lock in this.
Low MG can cause testing errors in Alk and CA.

 

[TheReefDiary]

I put a $40 UV from amazon in my 65g tank + dosed MB7 and my dinos were gone in less than a week.

Similar scenario; I bottomed out po4 and nitrates on accident and pretty quickly ended up with dinos & then cyano.

This was based on the dinos being the type that go away at night and free float in the water column. I put the UV directly in my display.

I purchased one tonight on Amazon. Comes in tomorrow. We'll see how it does. Need to get mb7.

 

[Idech]

It depends on what kind you have. First kind I had went away with UV, blackout and peroxyde.

It didn’t work for the second type. I dosed silicates, microbacter, neophos, neonitro and added pods.

You need a microscope to find out but first try the UV / blackout peroxyde if you want.

 

[amazongb]

I've had dinos, and it was caused by my own stupidity. If you're 100% sure you have dinos, then get the cheapest Coralife UV. Next, if your tests show low P04, dose it. I used Neophos, and dosed it with a dosing pump. I learned much later to not react to my testing - if the corals are happy, then leave it alone. I have .20 P04 with no algae and the corals, many SPS and LPS are doing fine. It's nice to let the tank settle into what it wants to do.

 

[Reef.]

Easy, scrub rock out of water if possible, vacuum sand, add carbon and change regularly, up your nutrients if low. And add UV.

You need to scrub and remove them as often as possible, a few times a day, keep this up for a week or two and you will get results.

The reason why some find it hard to remove them is because they either can’t clean their rocks well enough or they try a couple of times, think it’s not working then try something else.

Remember to change filter socks etc after a cleaning session.

 

[Boosterman]

I also had Dinos and this article helped me eliminate in 2 weeks. I have my method outlined in that thread.

Dinoflagelates. A disruptive treatment

THE PROBLEM As is well known, dinoflagellate pests in the reef aquarium are perhaps the worst that we will face during the life of our system. These pests are quite difficult to eradicate because dinoflagellates have a great capacity for...

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