Battling Dino’s! Timeline?

[jhadaway117]

So the battle has begun against Dino’s in my fairly new 35 gallon reef tank. These are the stringy kind with bubbles at the tip that progress as the day goes by, and disappear for the most part at night. It’s on my rocks and the sand. This all happened when my nutrients bottomed out. Zero Nitrates and Phosphates.

It all started a week or so ago and so far I have begun dosing nitrates, phosphates, and microbacter 7. Nitrates are stable at 10ppm, but phosphates are still at zero. I suppose this is because I only used dry rock to start this tank and it’s soaking it all up. I also bought and inexpensive Amazon UV sterilizer that is up and running. I baste them off the rock as often as possible to hopefully get them to pass through the UV. I turned my skimmer off and switched back to filter socks instead of the black foam filters. I’ve also turned off all white lights and am only running my blues for the most part.

I have also confirmed these are Dino’s by way of the coffee filter test.

So I guess my question is…how long after I get my phosphates up should I expect to keep battling these? Does macro algae need to establish itself to outcompete them? I also dose AFR and am starting to see coraline algae pop up on rocks and my Nero 3 screen. I was excited when this started happening and then a week later these showed up! What else do you recommend to help me battle this crap?

 

[billyocean]

For ostreopsis
Keep doing what ypure doing but also Put a piece of floss on an algae clip in a high flow area of the display. Let it sit over night....rinse in the morning and put it back in for the day...repeat.

 

[vetteguy53081]

So the battle has begun against Dino’s in my fairly new 35 gallon reef tank. These are the stringy kind with bubbles at the tip that progress as the day goes by, and disappear for the most part at night. It’s on my rocks and the sand. This all happened when my nutrients bottomed out. Zero Nitrates and Phosphates.

It all started a week or so ago and so far I have begun dosing nitrates, phosphates, and microbacter 7. Nitrates are stable at 10ppm, but phosphates are still at zero. I suppose this is because I only used dry rock to start this tank and it’s soaking it all up. I also bought and inexpensive Amazon UV sterilizer that is up and running. I baste them off the rock as often as possible to hopefully get them to pass through the UV. I turned my skimmer off and switched back to filter socks instead of the black foam filters. I’ve also turned off all white lights and am only running my blues for the most part.

I have also confirmed these are Dino’s by way of the coffee filter test.

So I guess my question is…how long after I get my phosphates up should I expect to keep battling these? Does macro algae need to establish itself to outcompete them? I also dose AFR and am starting to see coraline algae pop up on rocks and my Nero 3 screen. I was excited when this started happening and then a week later these showed up! What else do you recommend to help me battle this crap?

In reality, nutrients didnt bottom out but rather when we see zero readings, automatically we assume this is the cause but by the time you see zero numbers, its because the dino has consumed the po4 and no3 and are multiplying and in turn many dose no3 and po4 to bring numbers up not realizing they are feeding these flagellates even more.
Its biological deficiencies that are causing the dino structure and Its important though to identify the type of dino for most effective battle. UV helps but will not address what is preexisting but rather what passes through the channel of the unit
Regarding timeline, No light is first key followed by the addition of bacteria to overcome the bad bacteria allowing them to thrive
Prepare by starting by blowing this stuff loose with a turkey baster and siphon up loose particles. Turn lights off (at least white and run blue at 10% IF you have light dependant corals such as SPS) for 5 days and at night dose 1ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide per 10 gallons for all 5 nights which works as an oxidizer. If you dont have light dependent coral- turn all lights off. During the day dose 1ml of liquid bacteria (such as micro bacter 7 or XLM) per 10 gallons. Clean filters daily and DO NOT FEED AMINO OR ADD NOPOX which is food for dinos, however you can feed coral, food which will help no3 and po4 to increase. If increasing nutrients, try to keep no3 to about 5 until you are done battling these cells.
Doing a daily siphoning will help greatly But . . . . . Siphoning will reduce nutrients , so siphon the water into/through a filter sock and save the water and return it back to tank. Obviously clean the filter sock each time.
You can feed fish as normal and if doing blackout, ambient light in room will work for them

 

[rdirtytwo]

When I had dinos, I took basically the same approach. Additionally, I was dosing h2o2 at 1ml/10g during lights off and it helped with algae and dinos. It took around 2 weeks to see a noticeable difference. You'll want to dose po4 until you get a detectable level as well before it makes a difference. Other than that, like the other poster said, keep on top of it.

I'm also not sure, but the two times that I've dealt with ostreopsis dinos in the past, it seems like water changes were counterintuitive. It could just be my anecdotal experience.

 

[jhadaway117]

In reality, nutrients didnt bottom out but rather when we see zero readings, automatically we assume this is the cause but by the time you see zero numbers, its because the dino has consumed the po4 and no3 and are multiplying and in turn many dose no3 and po4 to bring numbers up not realizing they are feeding these flagellates even more.
Its biological deficiencies that are causing the dino structure and Its important though to identify the type of dino for most effective battle. UV helps but will not address what is preexisting but rather what passes through the channel of the unit
Regarding timeline, No light is first key followed by the addition of bacteria to overcome the bad bacteria allowing them to thrive
Prepare by starting by blowing this stuff loose with a turkey baster and siphon up loose particles. Turn lights off (at least white and run blue at 10% IF you have light dependant corals such as SPS) for 5 days and at night dose 1ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide per 10 gallons for all 5 nights which works as an oxidizer. If you dont have light dependent coral- turn all lights off. During the day dose 1ml of liquid bacteria (such as micro bacter 7 or XLM) per 10 gallons. Clean filters daily and DO NOT FEED AMINO OR ADD NOPOX which is food for dinos, however you can feed coral, food which will help no3 and po4 to increase. If increasing nutrients, try to keep no3 to about 5 until you are done battling these cells.
Doing a daily siphoning will help greatly But . . . . . Siphoning will reduce nutrients , so siphon the water into/through a filter sock and save the water and return it back to tank. Obviously clean the filter sock each time.
You can feed fish as normal and if doing blackout, ambient light in room will work for them

Thanks for this info. I do have some SPS so I’ll refrain from a complete blackout. I’ve got a good amount of CUC, a cleaner shrimp, and a pistol shrimp with my goby. Will the peroxide kill my inverts? This is the only reason I haven’t tried this yet.

 

[jhadaway117]

When I had dinos, I took basically the same approach. Additionally, I was dosing h2o2 at 1ml/10g during lights off and it helped with algae and dinos. It took around 2 weeks to see a noticeable difference. You'll want to dose po4 until you get a detectable level as well before it makes a difference. Other than that, like the other poster said, keep on top of it.

I'm also not sure, but the two times that I've dealt with ostreopsis dinos in the past, it seems like water changes were counterintuitive. It could just be my anecdotal experience.

Thanks for the insight. I’ll definitely refrain from water changes until this is cleared up. When you dosed peroxide, did it hurt your inverts?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thanks for this info. I do have some SPS so I’ll refrain from a complete blackout. I’ve got a good amount of CUC, a cleaner shrimp, and a pistol shrimp with my goby. Will the peroxide kill my inverts? This is the only reason I haven’t tried this yet.

Peroxide safe and serves as an oxidizers for the dino cells

 

[jhadaway117]

For ostreopsis
Keep doing what ypure doing but also Put a piece of floss on an algae clip in a high flow area of the display. Let it sit over night....rinse in the morning and put it back in for the day...repeat.

Just ordered some clips that’ll be here tomorrow. Appreciate the advice.

 

[rdirtytwo]

Thanks for the insight. I’ll definitely refrain from water changes until this is cleared up. When you dosed peroxide, did it hurt your inverts?

I have SPS frags, snails, crabs and a cleaner shrimp also. I dosed up to 1.5ml/10g with zero issues. I actually followed Vetteguys advice for dinos and everything he's saying is great advice.

 

[jhadaway117]

I have SPS frags, snails, crabs and a cleaner shrimp also. I dosed up to 1.5ml/10g with zero issues. I actually followed Vetteguys advice for dinos and everything he's saying is great advice.

Good to know! Thanks!

 

[jhadaway117]

Peroxide safe and serves as an oxidizers for the dino cells

Last question. Do you have to turn off flow when dosing peroxide?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Last question. Do you have to turn off flow when dosing peroxide?

No

 

[jhadaway117]

Just a little update. The Dino’s are all but gone. I’d say about 95% have completely disappeared and the only strings I see left are on the filter floss that I attached to a nori clip. Even that has dwindled down to almost nothing but a few specs. So far no inverts have been harmed and my coral doesn’t look too bad.

From your experience, when can I start ramping the lights back up? I don’t want to jump the gun and restart this cycle. Tonight will be day 5 of peroxide dosing by the way.

 

[jhadaway117]

In reality, nutrients didnt bottom out but rather when we see zero readings, automatically we assume this is the cause but by the time you see zero numbers, its because the dino has consumed the po4 and no3 and are multiplying and in turn many dose no3 and po4 to bring numbers up not realizing they are feeding these flagellates even more.
Its biological deficiencies that are causing the dino structure and Its important though to identify the type of dino for most effective battle. UV helps but will not address what is preexisting but rather what passes through the channel of the unit
Regarding timeline, No light is first key followed by the addition of bacteria to overcome the bad bacteria allowing them to thrive
Prepare by starting by blowing this stuff loose with a turkey baster and siphon up loose particles. Turn lights off (at least white and run blue at 10% IF you have light dependant corals such as SPS) for 5 days and at night dose 1ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide per 10 gallons for all 5 nights which works as an oxidizer. If you dont have light dependent coral- turn all lights off. During the day dose 1ml of liquid bacteria (such as micro bacter 7 or XLM) per 10 gallons. Clean filters daily and DO NOT FEED AMINO OR ADD NOPOX which is food for dinos, however you can feed coral, food which will help no3 and po4 to increase. If increasing nutrients, try to keep no3 to about 5 until you are done battling these cells.
Doing a daily siphoning will help greatly But . . . . . Siphoning will reduce nutrients , so siphon the water into/through a filter sock and save the water and return it back to tank. Obviously clean the filter sock each time.
You can feed fish as normal and if doing blackout, ambient light in room will work for them

Vetteguy, so far everything is working perfect and my Dino’s are almost completely gone! But….I am now developing red cyano on my sand bed and one rock. My nitrates are 10PPM and my phosphate is .09. What do you recommend? Should I keep this process going with the peroxide?

 

[thedon986]

Don’t use any chemical or anti biotic treatment! Siphon out the cyano or just keep blowing it off. Things will take a while to stabilize.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Vetteguy, so far everything is working perfect and my Dino’s are almost completely gone! But….I am now developing red cyano on my sand bed and one rock. My nitrates are 10PPM and my phosphate is .09. What do you recommend? Should I keep this process going with the peroxide?

Continue. If you have bumped up light intensity, reduce the lights even to zero and increase liquid bacteria

 

[jhadaway117]

Continue. If you have bumped up light intensity, reduce the lights even to zero and increase liquid bacteria

I have not increased light intensity just yet. I’ll definitely double up on bacteria and decrease the lights even more.