Dinoflagellates my experience......h2o2 reefing tool!!!!!

[Ajayabb]

Has anyone experimented with replacing RODI water changes for tap water changes during outbreaks of Dino’s in order to help increase algae growth and outcompet Dino growth. Just a thought. Ive been battling them off and on for several months. Just started dosing silicates daily. It just kinda dawned on me about replacing RODI water with tap water for the same reason. I haven’t tried it but I wonder if it would work ?

 

[DrMMI]

Has anyone experimented with replacing RODI water changes for tap water changes during outbreaks of Dino’s in order to help increase algae growth and outcompet Dino growth. Just a thought. Ive been battling them off and on for several months. Just started dosing silicates daily. It just kinda dawned on me about replacing RODI water with tap water for the same reason. I haven’t tried it but I wonder if it would work ?

I was actually thinking the exact same thing a few days ago. I just bought silica to supplement but then I thought why not just use tap water. I guess the question is what else is in your tap? My tds going in is over 100 so there's clearly a lot more in there than just silica.

 

[Ajayabb]

Would be an interesting experiment to use tap water for top offs. If my silica dosing doesn’t work maybe I’ll try it and report back

 

[clifg]

Best microscope I could get on short notice. I know it probably doesn't help but just throwing it out there. Anyone?

 

[enb141]

Is just me or is everyone now dino free?

 

[Cory]

Uv sterilizer beat mine

 

[clifg]

Looks like the dinos are on their way out! Just a couple of stragglers. Raised my tank to 82, used UV, brought my nitrates & phosphates up from 0 with microbacter, phyto, & feeding. Stopped all chemical media except chemiclean & replaced it all with filter flosses. I've never been so happy to see GHA!!!!

 

[clifg]

Any downsides to keeping my tank at 82 or any reason for me to go back to 78ish?

 

[Cory]

Any downsides to keeping my tank at 82 or any reason for me to go back to 78ish?

82f isn't a bad thing provided your measuring device is accurate. Can you do the ice test on your thermometer? Lots of reefs in the world are this warm i wouldn't worry.

 

[cheelayqeelay]

aaaaaaarrrrrrr just wanted to share my recent battle and how i won!!!!!!!!!
"i wish i took pics but i didn't.."
so about 3 weeks ago my tank broke out pretty bad i mean bad!!!!!! my coast to coast overflow would get plugged and almost overflow my tank..... so i did my research and found numerous methods and even asked advice from top dogs like sunnyx and Mark Poletti who both recommended light's out for 3 days and raise my ph...so i tried this on 3 different occasions no luck!!!! getting ready to put a hammer through my tank i kept on looking for more info and trying to figure out why it happened.... it could have been one of 3 things...
#1 microbacter 7 od.
#2 vodka od.
#3 my ro membrane.....
im really leaning towards number 3 since i just replaced my membrane like 2 weeks before this happened.... i have a kent hi-s unit and the membrane was like 115$ to replace..arrrr so i searched around and found air water ice sold cheap ones for like 35$... keep in mind i have the hi-s meaning silicate removal.... i bought el cheapo membrane that didn't have the silicate removal or what ever the kent has."dino's love silicates".. then my problems arose... so after trying numerous things and never found anything that would kill the suckers off, i talked to a local biologist in my local club...."he recommends hydrogen peroxide 1ml per 10gallons of water daily" so i give that a shot "scared" i have a full blown sps reef, i dose .5ml per gallon on the first day... day 2 no change, so i do the recommended dose and wake up day 3 and the tank looks better.... after 5 days of dosing h202 my tank is clean again "yeah!!!!!!" i went ahead and dosed it for 7 days to make sure they don't come back lol.... i must say since adding the h202 over 9 days ago i have not had to wipe the glass once it stills sparkles!!!!! hmmmmmm got me wandering if i should dose a couple ml per day for ever lol..... thought's anyone????

This initial post... do we know if the 1ml/10gal was with the 3% hydrogen peroxide?

 

[Diver4242]

This initial post... do we know if the 1ml/10gal was with the 3% hydrogen peroxide?

I don't know about the initial poster but I cleared mine up with the 3% hydrogen peroxide at night (after dark) and 1ml/gallon of Microbacter 7 during the day, for about ten days.

My tank is clean, but if I leave the lights on for more than an hour or two I start to see small bubbles on the heater, so that scares me about a resurgence of dinos. Maybe I'm being paranoid but I don't want to go through that again! So maybe I'll keep dosing the hydrogen peroxide at night regularly (and skip the mb7) as a preventative measure.

 

[boomeraudio]

I don't know about the initial poster but I cleared mine up with the 3% hydrogen peroxide at night (after dark) and 1ml/gallon of Microbacter 7 during the day, for about ten days.

My tank is clean, but if I leave the lights on for more than an hour or two I start to see small bubbles on the heater, so that scares me about a resurgence of dinos. Maybe I'm being paranoid but I don't want to go through that again! So maybe I'll keep dosing the hydrogen peroxide at night regularly (and skip the mb7) as a preventative measure.

1ml per gallon of microbacter7? I've been dosing 1ml per 10 gals so far along with phyto and feeding to raise up nitrates phosphates. Running at 77 degrees. Might raise the temp back up to around 80 and see if that helps. Sticking to a weekly 20% water change as well for consistency. It's just in the sand now for me.

 

[nano reef]

1ml per gallon of microbacter7? I've been dosing 1ml per 10 gals so far along with phyto and feeding to raise up nitrates phosphates. Running at 77 degrees. Might raise the temp back up to around 80 and see if that helps. Sticking to a weekly 20% water change as well for consistency. It's just in the sand now for me.

I havnt done a water change in weeks. I heard that made them worse. How often do you dose MB7. I have only been dosing 2 x a week but also vibrant 2 times and it has done nothing at all. Do you syphon daily or blow of rocks or add peroxide or just mb7 and phyto?

 

[Diver4242]

1ml per gallon of microbacter7? I've been dosing 1ml per 10 gals so far along with phyto and feeding to raise up nitrates phosphates. Running at 77 degrees. Might raise the temp back up to around 80 and see if that helps. Sticking to a weekly 20% water change as well for consistency. It's just in the sand now for me.

OMG no - sorry about that. It was 1ml per 10 gallons, so I was putting in about 1.3ml of Microbacter7 and 1.3ml of hydrogen peroxide. I wish I could edit my previous post but don't seem to be able to.

 

[boomeraudio]

I havnt done a water change in weeks. I heard that made them worse. How often do you dose MB7. I have only been dosing 2 x a week but also vibrant 2 times and it has done nothing at all. Do you syphon daily or blow of rocks or add peroxide or just mb7 and phyto?

@nano reef It seems like there isn't one 'fix all' for dinos. I've been battling for quite some time and they always seem to pop up at lower nutrient levels. To my knowledge (and I'm still a noobie) Microbacter7 will reduce the nitrate and phosphates so if you're regularly dosing along with vibrant and reducing nutrients, then the dinos will outcompete any other 'good' bacteria.

I'm only running a 20 gal nano tank and the dinos seem to be in the sand only. I'm running a UV Sterilizer and try to get the dinos into the water column daily via turkey baster. So far I've dosed MB7 and Phyto 2ml (20 gal) / daily.

I continue to read about this complicated topic and try and learn as much as possible. I'm determined to beat it! The good news is that all of my coral is extremely happy and growing SO fast. I noticed a huge difference after starting to dose phyto.

OMG no - sorry about that. It was 1ml per 10 gallons, so I was putting in about 1.3ml of Microbacter7 and 1.3ml of hydrogen peroxide. I wish I could edit my previous post but don't seem to be able to.

@Diver4242 ha ha you scared me for a second. Thanks for clarifying. That dosing schedule seemed to beat the dinos? Have you continued with that dosing? How long did you do it for? Were you doing water changes along the way as well?

 

[Diver4242]

I had originally beat the dinos down by doing the Dr. Tim's regime (without the Refresh, since it's bad for the shrimp, crabs, snails). I went through that twice, two blackouts followed by the dosing. That made a big difference, but they weren't completely gone and kept coming back if I kept the lights on too long.

Then I did the other recommended procedure here - the MB7 and hydrogen peroxide. That seemed to clean the rest of it up - sand now completely white, no evidence of dinos anywhere. I did that for ten days, as recommended, the did the water change. I'm also mixing my own salt water now, I don't trust the LFS water anymore. Coral Sea Pro is fantastic.

That said, I'm still nervous about leaving the lights on too long. After a few hours I do see small bubbles forming on the heater or other places, so I get nervous and shut the lights. I don't leave it go long enough to see if they truly form into dinos, maybe just harmless normal small bubbles of air on that stuff?

 

[boomeraudio]

I had originally beat the dinos down by doing the Dr. Tim's regime (without the Refresh, since it's bad for the shrimp, crabs, snails). I went through that twice, two blackouts followed by the dosing. That made a big difference, but they weren't completely gone and kept coming back if I kept the lights on too long.

Then I did the other recommended procedure here - the MB7 and hydrogen peroxide. That seemed to clean the rest of it up - sand now completely white, no evidence of dinos anywhere. I did that for ten days, as recommended, the did the water change. I'm also mixing my own salt water now, I don't trust the LFS water anymore. Coral Sea Pro is fantastic.

That said, I'm still nervous about leaving the lights on too long. After a few hours I do see small bubbles forming on the heater or other places, so I get nervous and shut the lights. I don't leave it go long enough to see if they truly form into dinos, maybe just harmless normal small bubbles of air on that stuff?

I just ordered some NeoPhos and NeoNitro because my readings are back to 0ppm for both. That seems to be another leading factor. I'm not sure why that's happened as I haven't done a change since March 7th and have stuck to the feeding schedule. I'll likely do one this Saturday to get some clean mixed water in there and only 5 gallons of the tank. I attribute much of that to the Microbacter7 reducing the nutrients NO3 PO3.

I just raised up the temp to 80 degrees last night and this morning the sand looks MUCH different than yesterday. It's like a night and day difference. No brown yet this morning, which is typically when the dinos start to come out. I'm going to monitor the coral I have over the next few days as well to ensure that it stays happy after raising up the temperature.

Here's my lighting schedule with the AI Prime:

7 hours total - 2 hours ramp up and only 2 hours at full. Coral seems happy. If raising the temperature helps solve this, I'm going to extend the full timeframe to 3 hours to give the coral more light. Some of the zoas, while happy, are reaching a bit so I want to ensure they stay happy and healthy.

If they come back, I'm going to follow the same procedure as you have. 10-day dose of 2ml Microbacter7 and H2O2. I'll continue to dose Phyto as well - the coral seems to absolutely love it. I also turn off the UV sterilizer when I dose the MB7 and Phyto for 4 hours to give it some time to live in the tank and not get blasted by the UV.

I'm the furthest thing from an expert here and not looking for an overnight fix. Thankfully it's been controlled chaos and I've been able to manage it well. Getting closer to the endgame with these terrors and learning A LOT along the way.

 

[Diver4242]

I raised my temp to 80F also, and I think that helped. I'm pretty sure I've seen guidance to stop dosing corals while doing this though, so be careful there. Same with avoiding water changes until done. Nitrates and phosphates may have dropped due to the dinos consuming them?

 

[boomeraudio]

I raised my temp to 80F also, and I think that helped. I'm pretty sure I've seen guidance to stop dosing corals while doing this though, so be careful there. Same with avoiding water changes until done. Nitrates and phosphates may have dropped due to the dinos consuming them?

Not dosing for corals - just dosing phytoplankton. The NO3 and PO4 could have dropped because of that, you're right. But I'm thinking the MB7 could have also caused this? Not quite sure...

 

[MagicMiller72]

aaaaaaarrrrrrr just wanted to share my recent battle and how i won!!!!!!!!!
"i wish i took pics but i didn't.."
so about 3 weeks ago my tank broke out pretty bad i mean bad!!!!!! my coast to coast overflow would get plugged and almost overflow my tank..... so i did my research and found numerous methods and even asked advice from top dogs like sunnyx and Mark Poletti who both recommended light's out for 3 days and raise my ph...so i tried this on 3 different occasions no luck!!!! getting ready to put a hammer through my tank i kept on looking for more info and trying to figure out why it happened.... it could have been one of 3 things...
#1 microbacter 7 od.
#2 vodka od.
#3 my ro membrane.....
im really leaning towards number 3 since i just replaced my membrane like 2 weeks before this happened.... i have a kent hi-s unit and the membrane was like 115$ to replace..arrrr so i searched around and found air water ice sold cheap ones for like 35$... keep in mind i have the hi-s meaning silicate removal.... i bought el cheapo membrane that didn't have the silicate removal or what ever the kent has."dino's love silicates".. then my problems arose... so after trying numerous things and never found anything that would kill the suckers off, i talked to a local biologist in my local club...."he recommends hydrogen peroxide 1ml per 10gallons of water daily" so i give that a shot "scared" i have a full blown sps reef, i dose .5ml per gallon on the first day... day 2 no change, so i do the recommended dose and wake up day 3 and the tank looks better.... after 5 days of dosing h202 my tank is clean again "yeah!!!!!!" i went ahead and dosed it for 7 days to make sure they don't come back lol.... i must say since adding the h202 over 9 days ago i have not had to wipe the glass once it stills sparkles!!!!! hmmmmmm got me wandering if i should dose a couple ml per day for ever lol..... thought's anyone????

So out of curiosity just so I'm on the same page as everyone else....you added that directly to your main tank, right?
And if so, did it affect any inverts?
I have a Bristle Star, 2 Snails, 3 Anemones and a Leather Coral in my 55 gallon that is starting to get an abundance of algae, although I did manage to acquire some clean Chaeto and put in the tank which helped tremendously along with the Algae Blenny(Lawnmower). But still have lingering algae growing in the sand like grass.
Just curious if it's ok to add directly to the DT or should I QT something or just pull my live rock and do dips along with manual? I have 3 decent size pieces of live rock.
Here are some pics for you