Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

[CDavmd]

Any noticeable differences in using this?

Hard to say. I’ve been using it for years alternating with waste away. I think anecdotally that the Dino’s are suppressed for a longer period when I use it (7-10 days vs 4-5 days) but hard to be sure given everything else I’ve been doing.

I will say that I’ve never had any fish diseases or outbreaks while using it.

I do notice that waste away does have an effect on the cleanliness of the tank and sand in general.

 

[Javamahn]

Regarding UV. Would this not be a case of contact time with the UV against the quartz sleeve.

The larger the organism the longer the exposure time and stronger the wattage is required.

Absolutely correct! My turbo twist 12x has a graph from 290 gph out. At slow rates the UV helps rid parasites at faster rates algae and highest rates bacteria.
https://coralifeproducts.com/Files/Product/turbotwist-instructions.pdf

 

[bh750]

Im having such a hard time here. I seem to be in this endless battle between dinos and cyano fighting it out. Sometimes they're both visible but usually its one or the other taking over my tank. Increase nutrients, dinos, recede but then get Cyano. Decrease nutrient levels, cyano recedes but dinos come back!

 

[reeferfoxx]

Im having such a hard time here. I seem to be in this endless battle between dinos and cyano fighting it out. Sometimes they're both visible but usually its one or the other taking over my tank. Increase nutrients, dinos, recede but then get Cyano. Decrease nutrient levels, cyano recedes but dinos come back!

Don't fight the cyano. Keep changing gac and do small weekly vacuum with water change.

 

[reeferfoxx]

@bh750
Here this might encourage you.
Cyano on the 4th


Cyano on the 14th


Water change on the 20th

And this evening the 22nd 30 minutes before white lights out.

 

[mcarroll]

Nice!

 

[bh750]

Don't fight the cyano. Keep changing gac and do small weekly vacuum with water change.

Ok. I think that's all there is left to do. I do get lazy on the vaccuming. But did one last night with a small WC.

 

[bh750]

@bh750
Here this might encourage you.
Cyano on the 4th


Cyano on the 14th


Water change on the 20th

And this evening the 22nd 30 minutes before white lights out.

Thats nice and thanks for the encouragement. Yep mine has been like the 1st picture, but usually its more like the 2nd before I do a vacuum. And it never lasts as long as yours. Ok, will keep my head down and keep goin. This is when I wish I didnt have a 220g tank!

 

[Sebae]

I beat my dinos (Ostreopsis) by cleaning my UV sleeve and then letting it run. The first time I had UV on the system it did nothing. Months later I cleaned the sleeve and set it back up and they were gone in 2 days.

I now have a lot of cyano. Well, just on certain rocks really. I also seem to still have a massive phosphorus sink somewhere. It could be the cyano but the cyano isn't really spreading. It is a thick mat on certain rocks that comes and goes with the light/dark cycle. My SPS are still fairly stagnant in growth and I have yet to see green hair algae. Something still just seems off.

I am wondering if something else could be acting as the sink for phosphorus? I can dose my phosphorus up to .1 ppm and the next day it will be down to .01 ppm. Originally I thought this was the dinos but the dinos are now gone.

I thought it could be due to the ratio of N to P but dosing nitrate/overfeeding doesn't seem to be making a difference. My nitrates are at 50 ppm now.

If anyone has opinions I would be very grateful.

 

[sfin52]

Rocks will absorb po4. How much rock is in your tank. Do you have algea your using for nutrient control that could do it as well.

 

[Sebae]

Rocks will absorb po4. How much rock is in your tank. Do you have algea your using for nutrient control that could do it as well.

Originally probably 60 lbs in 80 gallons of water. I removed quite a bit and now have ~10 lbs in the tank. I may remove more but I worry about removing too much microfauna via the rocks.

 

[mcarroll]

@Sebae what are your nitrate levels now? Are they also near-zero or zero?

If you still have "plenty" of nitrates I'd consider continuing to dose phosphates to maintain at least a non-zero value...but 0.10 ppm should still be a fine target as well.

 

[sfin52]

I would leave rocks in. They are one the major homes for bacteria that consume ammonia and nitrite.

 

[Sebae]

My nitrates are above 50 (salifert). I want to believe increasing nitrate will get things in order as I've seen this in other tanks in the past. However, at what point do I say enough is enough? 75 ppm, 100 pmm NO3?

 

[reeferfoxx]

Thats nice and thanks for the encouragement. Yep mine has been like the 1st picture, but usually its more like the 2nd before I do a vacuum. And it never lasts as long as yours. Ok, will keep my head down and keep goin. This is when I wish I didnt have a 220g tank!

Ya I've been experimenting with different approaches. I also had a fish disappear. I think thats why mine got so bad. Its on the right path now and i should have dr tims eco balance arriving any day now. I'll update on that also.

 

[mcarroll]

Originally probably 60 lbs in 80 gallons of water. I removed quite a bit and now have ~10 lbs in the tank. I may remove more but I worry about removing too much microfauna via the rocks.

Wait, you're down to 10 pounds of live rock in an 80 gallon system? Is this a brand new system, or is it a functioning system with livestock in it?

 

[sfin52]

I think they removed 70 lbs of lr and only have 10 left

 

[Sebae]

Sorry for the confusion. The system is about 8 months old with a low bioload. It is a frag tank few a few chromis and anthias in it. I added ~70 lbs of live rock in an attempt to increase biodiversity and drive out dinos a few months ago. I recently removed approximately 70 or so lbs (leaving about 10 lbs) when removing the sand bed and detritus.

 

[sfin52]

@Sebae what are the po4 and No3 numbers

 

[Sebae]

NO3 ~50 ppm, PO4 = 0.088 ppm