I have a ton of pods coming with phyto. Ill start dosing mb7 today. My nitrate and phos are already high. But i still dose them.
How do you all figure out how much mb7/clean to dose? Follow the bottle?
Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?
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How do you all figure out how much mb7/clean to dose? Follow the bottle?
For bacteria, I dosed only MB7 daily at the full strength according to the bottles directions for a high nutrient tank. This will lower your PO4 and NO3 so another reason why I daily dosed both of those. I turned my Skimmer off for around 4-hours after dosing bacteria.
How were you dosing mb7 and clean. Alternating every day?
If I remember correctly, the owner of Brightwell talks about that here and says that MB7 is more for Dino's but if you want to dose them both, them separate by at least (x-hours, I can't remember) apart from each other.
certain_code
Active Member
My battle with Dinos has started and I am really hoping to avoid UV due to limited space. If I have to go UV I will likely end up hard plumbing it for running it regularly but that will only be if I cannot beat Dinos through other means or if they really take over uncontrollably. Right now it's mostly the time I would need to replan my sump/cabinet layout.
I identified a light case of ostreopsis a week ago via a microscope. Parameters are a bit higher than I would like on a tank that is roughly 10 months old. Phosphate was originally at .32ppm and Nitrates at 13.2 at the first sight of Dinos, both measured with Hanna checkers.
I did recently switch salts to Fritz from NeoMarine using my auto-water change system and think it created another sort of imbalance that triggered the Dinos ultimately. I was changing roughly 10% of my system volume each week and coincidence or not, I immediately noticed the fresh salt mix was leaving a heavy residue and then noticed a start of Dinos in my display tank.
Treatment plan:
1. I added a cup of GFO in a media bag and in 30 hours my Phosphate dropped from .32ppm to .03ppm. I have now pulled the GFO to not hit 0 phosphates. I am a bit shocked by this drastic decrease, to be honest, as I am typically used to a much slower change over time with GFO. I will continue to monitor this to identify a trend direction. Not chasing numbers but instead a good N
ratio.
2. I pulled my auto feeder and will slowly feed manually a slightly smaller amount. Fish are well fed but the Neptune auto feeder tends to either feed too much or too little based on its set points. Until I can better control nutrient levels I will go back to hand-feeding pellets and continue hand-feeding frozen foods every other day.
3. I stopped my AWC system. I was working on the right balance to have AWC control my Alk levels before jumping into starter corals. I stopped this for now as I feel like it was feeding the Dinos more than anything and throwing away the beneficial bacteria I have been adding.
4. I have been adding Microbacter7 daily to help bring down Nitrates with an ideal goal of 5-10ppm. I am not far from this today but that has been the levels I have been targeting all along for this tank as I am planning high flow, high light, high nutrient SPS in the long run. Again, not chasing but hoping that is where things settle out and that Dinos are not a factor in that range.
So the questions I am hunting for answers to are:
1. Is UV the only option in the long run here?
2. Are water changes going to help or hurt at this point?
3. Should I dose MB7 along with anything else such as Microbacter Clean to start bringing down Nitrates? Aiming for lower N and P to start before slowly finding a balance the tank settles into?
4. Should I add Pods to help fight the Dinos? This is likely going to be the next step but curious other's thoughts on this tactic.
5. Is raising temps above the currently stable 79 degrees beneficial?
6. Did I add too many Brightwell bricks to my sump (2 currently) that are contributing to an imbalance in nutrients at this point? There is some talk around that too much surface area in a sump can contribute to Nitrates actually being "converted" into Phosphates when the bacteria in the bricks are too effective. (poor layman's explanation here, can link to better references)
Tank quick stats:
55 gallons total water volume
No fuge/macro
2 Brightwell bricks in sump
Skimmer and filter floss- changed every 2 days
Temp: 79 and stable within 1 degree
Alk: 7.5-8 dKH
Phosphate: 0.03ppm
Nitrate: 13.7ppm
So what would everyone here suggest? Big water change to knock down nutrients a bit? Dosing Nitrates or Phosphate to get things into a specific ratio? Dosing silicates to promote detritus to overpower the Dinos? Stay the course with current treatment? Head toward the light and get UV going?
Any input is greatly appreciated as this is not seemingly a standard "low nutrient" dinos issue so I am a bit unclear on the best path forward.
I identified a light case of ostreopsis a week ago via a microscope. Parameters are a bit higher than I would like on a tank that is roughly 10 months old. Phosphate was originally at .32ppm and Nitrates at 13.2 at the first sight of Dinos, both measured with Hanna checkers.
I did recently switch salts to Fritz from NeoMarine using my auto-water change system and think it created another sort of imbalance that triggered the Dinos ultimately. I was changing roughly 10% of my system volume each week and coincidence or not, I immediately noticed the fresh salt mix was leaving a heavy residue and then noticed a start of Dinos in my display tank.
Treatment plan:
1. I added a cup of GFO in a media bag and in 30 hours my Phosphate dropped from .32ppm to .03ppm. I have now pulled the GFO to not hit 0 phosphates. I am a bit shocked by this drastic decrease, to be honest, as I am typically used to a much slower change over time with GFO. I will continue to monitor this to identify a trend direction. Not chasing numbers but instead a good N
ratio.2. I pulled my auto feeder and will slowly feed manually a slightly smaller amount. Fish are well fed but the Neptune auto feeder tends to either feed too much or too little based on its set points. Until I can better control nutrient levels I will go back to hand-feeding pellets and continue hand-feeding frozen foods every other day.
3. I stopped my AWC system. I was working on the right balance to have AWC control my Alk levels before jumping into starter corals. I stopped this for now as I feel like it was feeding the Dinos more than anything and throwing away the beneficial bacteria I have been adding.
4. I have been adding Microbacter7 daily to help bring down Nitrates with an ideal goal of 5-10ppm. I am not far from this today but that has been the levels I have been targeting all along for this tank as I am planning high flow, high light, high nutrient SPS in the long run. Again, not chasing but hoping that is where things settle out and that Dinos are not a factor in that range.
So the questions I am hunting for answers to are:
1. Is UV the only option in the long run here?
2. Are water changes going to help or hurt at this point?
3. Should I dose MB7 along with anything else such as Microbacter Clean to start bringing down Nitrates? Aiming for lower N and P to start before slowly finding a balance the tank settles into?
4. Should I add Pods to help fight the Dinos? This is likely going to be the next step but curious other's thoughts on this tactic.
5. Is raising temps above the currently stable 79 degrees beneficial?
6. Did I add too many Brightwell bricks to my sump (2 currently) that are contributing to an imbalance in nutrients at this point? There is some talk around that too much surface area in a sump can contribute to Nitrates actually being "converted" into Phosphates when the bacteria in the bricks are too effective. (poor layman's explanation here, can link to better references)
Tank quick stats:
55 gallons total water volume
No fuge/macro
2 Brightwell bricks in sump
Skimmer and filter floss- changed every 2 days
Temp: 79 and stable within 1 degree
Alk: 7.5-8 dKH
Phosphate: 0.03ppm
Nitrate: 13.7ppm
So what would everyone here suggest? Big water change to knock down nutrients a bit? Dosing Nitrates or Phosphate to get things into a specific ratio? Dosing silicates to promote detritus to overpower the Dinos? Stay the course with current treatment? Head toward the light and get UV going?
Any input is greatly appreciated as this is not seemingly a standard "low nutrient" dinos issue so I am a bit unclear on the best path forward.
You have the water bound Dinos. Why not get a cheap jebao uv and run a pump into the main display. Just sit the uv on the back of the tank and add some elbows or something. Just run it at night to you don’t have to look at it. But I would definitely raise your phosphates. Hanna reads low so when your are .03-.05 it might be zero.My battle with Dinos has started and I am really hoping to avoid UV due to limited space. If I have to go UV I will likely end up hard plumbing it for running it regularly but that will only be if I cannot beat Dinos through other means or if they really take over uncontrollably. Right now it's mostly the time I would need to replan my sump/cabinet layout.
I identified a light case of ostreopsis a week ago via a microscope. Parameters are a bit higher than I would like on a tank that is roughly 10 months old. Phosphate was originally at .32ppm and Nitrates at 13.2 at the first sight of Dinos, both measured with Hanna checkers.
I did recently switch salts to Fritz from NeoMarine using my auto-water change system and think it created another sort of imbalance that triggered the Dinos ultimately. I was changing roughly 10% of my system volume each week and coincidence or not, I immediately noticed the fresh salt mix was leaving a heavy residue and then noticed a start of Dinos in my display tank.
Treatment plan:
1. I added a cup of GFO in a media bag and in 30 hours my Phosphate dropped from .32ppm to .03ppm. I have now pulled the GFO to not hit 0 phosphates. I am a bit shocked by this drastic decrease, to be honest, as I am typically used to a much slower change over time with GFO. I will continue to monitor this to identify a trend direction. Not chasing numbers but instead a good N
2. I pulled my auto feeder and will slowly feed manually a slightly smaller amount. Fish are well fed but the Neptune auto feeder tends to either feed too much or too little based on its set points. Until I can better control nutrient levels I will go back to hand-feeding pellets and continue hand-feeding frozen foods every other day.
3. I stopped my AWC system. I was working on the right balance to have AWC control my Alk levels before jumping into starter corals. I stopped this for now as I feel like it was feeding the Dinos more than anything and throwing away the beneficial bacteria I have been adding.
4. I have been adding Microbacter7 daily to help bring down Nitrates with an ideal goal of 5-10ppm. I am not far from this today but that has been the levels I have been targeting all along for this tank as I am planning high flow, high light, high nutrient SPS in the long run. Again, not chasing but hoping that is where things settle out and that Dinos are not a factor in that range.
So the questions I am hunting for answers to are:
1. Is UV the only option in the long run here?
2. Are water changes going to help or hurt at this point?
3. Should I dose MB7 along with anything else such as Microbacter Clean to start bringing down Nitrates? Aiming for lower N and P to start before slowly finding a balance the tank settles into?
4. Should I add Pods to help fight the Dinos? This is likely going to be the next step but curious other's thoughts on this tactic.
5. Is raising temps above the currently stable 79 degrees beneficial?
6. Did I add too many Brightwell bricks to my sump (2 currently) that are contributing to an imbalance in nutrients at this point? There is some talk around that too much surface area in a sump can contribute to Nitrates actually being "converted" into Phosphates when the bacteria in the bricks are too effective. (poor layman's explanation here, can link to better references)
Tank quick stats:
55 gallons total water volume
No fuge/macro
2 Brightwell bricks in sump
Skimmer and filter floss- changed every 2 days
Temp: 79 and stable within 1 degree
Alk: 7.5-8 dKH
Phosphate: 0.03ppm
Nitrate: 13.7ppm
So what would everyone here suggest? Big water change to knock down nutrients a bit? Dosing Nitrates or Phosphate to get things into a specific ratio? Dosing silicates to promote detritus to overpower the Dinos? Stay the course with current treatment? Head toward the light and get UV going?
Any input is greatly appreciated as this is not seemingly a standard "low nutrient" dinos issue so I am a bit unclear on the best path forward.
Yamaha1634
Active Member
Yamaha1634
Active Member
Something new to Google! Never heard of it
Yamaha1634
Active Member
Looks possible. The sand bed does look better after lights out although not entirely clean….. see pictures, same day, both under just whites. One just before lights on, the other just before lights off.
For an initial attack plan. Increase number of snails, clean and syphon out as much as possible, add UV and do a 3 day black out?
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No snail additions. This type is often a snail killer, that will just add dead matter for it to grow on. Also I would try a shorter blackout first, like 36-48 hours.
You're just trying to increase the amounts that go into the water to meet the uv. You aren't trying to use darkness to kill them.
Yamaha1634
Active Member
Thanks for the reply! Looks like my current CUC is tough as nails to have survived this long then! I’ll get the UV set up and then try a few lights out sessions
Found a “cost effective” UV all in one unit which is 24w and 120gph which should be ample for my 50gal tank. I’ll install it in the display and run it 24/7 to start. Then move it to the sump and run it as and when needed in future. That sound ok?
Should I do full black out as in wrap the tank in black bags or try just lights off for a day or two and keep the room dark as a first attempt?
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I like this idea. You just want to convince the cells that they need to go swim around to find better conditions.
Yamaha1634
Active Member
Thanks for your help! I will update on my results! UV arrives tomorrow
Ammy
New Member
So I Finally bought a microscope to see what's causing my thank to look bad.
And as expected I have dino's. From what I can tell these are SCA, but an confirmation would be great.
At the same time it looks like I also have chrystophytes. I have read that SCA is best treated with silicates (water glass) as these dino's don't enter the water column. But is this also the best method when having chrystophytes? and what should be treated first.
And as expected I have dino's. From what I can tell these are SCA, but an confirmation would be great.
At the same time it looks like I also have chrystophytes. I have read that SCA is best treated with silicates (water glass) as these dino's don't enter the water column. But is this also the best method when having chrystophytes? and what should be treated first.
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Marshall53
Community Member
Marshall53
Community Member
Yamaha1634
Active Member
@taricha
so my uv has been running for nearly 2 weeks 24/7 and I’ve done 3x 2 day with lights off and the problem looked to be getting better! But in the last few days they’re coming back on the sand bed… harder to get a sample now as all I keep picking up is sand! But here’s a video at 100x same as before, can’t see any dinos or at least nothing the same size as before…..
youtube.com
so my uv has been running for nearly 2 weeks 24/7 and I’ve done 3x 2 day with lights off and the problem looked to be getting better! But in the last few days they’re coming back on the sand bed… harder to get a sample now as all I keep picking up is sand! But here’s a video at 100x same as before, can’t see any dinos or at least nothing the same size as before…..
Dino 171122
youtube.com
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