Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

mcarroll · Jul 20, 2017

I think there's nothing wrong with the N and P numbers we've been shooting for – just consider 0.10 ppm and 5-10 ppm as your minimums for PO4 and NO3.

There's certainly room to experiment, but I'd probably maintain this status quo as long as possible so the tank can normalize for a while before any more changes get put on it.

Velcro · Jul 20, 2017

mcarroll said:
I think there's nothing wrong with the N and P numbers we've been shooting for – just consider 0.10 ppm and 5-10 ppm as your minimums for PO4 and NO3.

There's certainly room to experiment, but I'd probably maintain this status quo as long as possible so the tank can normalize for a while before any more changes get put on it.

Plenty of SPS people have amazing success at these numbers.

reeferfoxx · Jul 20, 2017

mcarroll said:
I think there's nothing wrong with the N and P numbers we've been shooting for – just consider 0.10 ppm and 5-10 ppm as your minimums for PO4 and NO3.

There's certainly room to experiment, but I'd probably maintain this status quo as long as possible so the tank can normalize for a while before any more changes get put on it.

Darn, I was hoping you were kidding about putting N and P on the auto doser lol ;Shamefullyembarrased

Can do. And thanks for talking me out of a restart.

mcarroll · Jul 20, 2017

@reeferfoxx You're very welcome – I'm glad it worked! ;Joyful

Velcro · Jul 21, 2017

Absolutely dramatic differences overnight from adding the UV. This black eggcrate would normally have MUCH more brown on it even before lights came on. There's white dino death web all over the place.

revhtree · Jul 21, 2017

Velcro said:
Absolutely dramatic differences overnight from adding the UV. This black eggcrate would normally have MUCH more brown on it even before lights came on. There's white dino death web all over the place.

Awesome!

Velcro · Jul 21, 2017

revhtree said:
Awesome!

Lights have been on several hours and STILL 95% gone. No noticeable increase of what is left. I think this is something everyone should try if they have dinos that seem to decrease at night.

mwilk19 · Jul 21, 2017

Velcro said:
Lights have been on several hours and STILL 95% gone. No noticeable increase of what is left. I think this is something everyone should try if they have dinos that seem to decrease at night.

I'll be interested to see how this works out over the next week or so.

Velcro · Jul 21, 2017

mwilk19 said:
I'll be interested to see how this works out over the next week or so.

I'll keep things updated. Siphoned out all the dead white stuff a bit ago and added some ROX in a bag to my 1 micron filtersock. Added benefit of this UV is that my tank is stupid clear now. Just took some underwater top down shots and everything looks amazing.

Velcro · Jul 21, 2017

Sunny Ds open for the first time in over a week. This was one of the only corals that was clearly irritated by the surrounding Dino's. SPS polyp extension is much better today too. End of the daylight cycle and still no significant multiplication of the jerks.

Velcro · Jul 22, 2017

Day 2 update. 99% of Dinos gone. I can only find them in one spot on my return locline... something that I haven't cleaned off since starting UV.

jolt · Jul 22, 2017

Been watching this thread and learning. I had a bad dino outbreak about a 6 weeks ago in my 67 gallon frag setup. Based on this thread, I suspect what caused it was letting my phosphates drop to zero for a few days. Shortly after this happened I had a huge dino bloom, super snotty and bubbly. I would blow it off frags and it would be back in 5 minutes. Since then, I have knocked it 99% back and it seems to be staying down for the last 7 days. What I did was raise my nitrates and phosphates and keep them above 3ppm and 0.02ppm, respectively, at all times -- testing every day and dosing SeaChem flourish nitrogen and Brightwell NeoPhos as needed to keep levels up. I also added three kinds of pods and started dosing phyto every night. I did two large sessions of siphoning out the dinos, two weeks apart. They came back pretty strong after the first session which was when I started being more rigorous about the nitrates and phosphates and added pods. What seemed really effective for removal was turning off my gyre pump and only leaving the sump return pump running. Then I would blow the dinos off the frag rack and rocks with a turkey baster. The dinos would very quickly clump up at the top of the water. I used a siphon on the bare bottom, racks, and rocks before blasting with the baster, and I used a small plastic cup to skim clumps from the surface. I would repeat the blasting and waiting for clumps several times. It took maybe 5 minutes for reasonable sized clumps to form for skimming with the cup. I also did about a 25% water change each time, replacing all the siphoned water with fresh. Changing the water out did not seem to cause any re-bloom of the dinos this last time. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but what I think I learned from this thread is that blooms are caused by a nutrient imbalance and lack of biodiversity. Fixing the imbalance and increasing the biodiversity has seemed to really help ...

rog2961 · Jul 25, 2017

I had all levels at 0 for about a month after getting rid of them. Some acros were pale so I decided to raise no3 and po4, now I am dealing with a bloom. I was a firm believer of raising nutrients, but the opposite appears to be happening. Will be giving UV a try.

biecacka · Jul 25, 2017

what size UV are you using on your tank?

corey

Velcro · Jul 25, 2017

biecacka said:
what size UV are you using on your tank?

corey

I'm using a 55w jebao on my roughly 110 gallon system.

https://www.amazon.com/Jebao-PU-55-...6&sr=8-1&keywords=jebao+55+watt+uv+sterilizer

mwilk19 · Jul 25, 2017

Velcro said:
I'm using a 55w jebao on my roughly 110 gallon system.

https://www.amazon.com/Jebao-PU-55-...6&sr=8-1&keywords=jebao+55+watt+uv+sterilizer

How are things looking? Mine goes online today as soon as the pump is delivered.

reeferfoxx · Jul 25, 2017

I would hate to think that you would have to keep running UV to keep dinos at bay. Hopefully that isn't the case. But it seems like a short cut to fix whatever imbalance has cause them to flourish.

Velcro · Jul 25, 2017

reeferfoxx said:
I would hate to think that you would have to keep running UV to keep dinos at bay. Hopefully that isn't the case. But it seems like a short cut to fix whatever imbalance has cause them to flourish.

I wouldn't care if it was a felony shortcut. Dino's are gone and SPS looks better than ever lol.

Velcro · Jul 25, 2017

mwilk19 said:
How are things looking? Mine goes online today as soon as the pump is delivered.

I can't find a single spot of them. What hair algae is left has not hint of brown like it always has.

reeferfoxx · Jul 25, 2017

Velcro said:
I wouldn't care if it was a felony shortcut. Dino's are gone and SPS looks better than ever lol.

For s**ts and giggles, you should simulate a bad UV bulb and let it run for a month without the UV. Just curious if it's even necessary to keep running it? Personally, I like low maintenance setups, so this would be a good experiment.