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

[Kellie in CA]

Sad to say, hydrogen peroxide didn't work for me (Proro & Amphs). Sigh! I was hopeful, but after 5 days of dosing, there was little to no improvement. Luckily I had no losses from the treatment.

I guess I'm back to Silicate dosing and Phyto (which I have already done for months with no results). My dinos are only on the sandbed, but it's had to put in so much work on the tank just to have it look ugly every day.

 

[Forty-Two]

An update on my tank and my 1.25 year long Dino battle. At long last - I think its largely done.

Hydrogen Peroxide dosing did help - but the issue for me is that while it would kill the Dino's - they would simply come back. I was ready to give up but my wife wanted to try Silicate, so we decided to give it a try - and low and behold it solved the problem. My Ostreopsis are gone, and there are some Dino's still on the sand bed but they are not going strong, and Im hoping a few more silicate doses (Ive only done 1 so far) will end those.

My best guess as to what happened is that I once had a vibrant growing tank full of SPS, and I was carbon dosing. Due to an issue with my testing mechanism - which showed I had Nitrate present in the tank (>=5.0 ppm) I actually had bottomed out and the carbon dosing destroyed all of the bacteria in my tank. Since there was no longer silicate present (my tank had consumed it all) the bacteria which feed on silicate/Diatoms (Not sure which) were unable to populate -and this it left a hole for Ostreopsis to drive through and continually destroy my tank. Now that this has been plugged Im optomistic that it can be recovered - which is pretty exciting.

For those that have Ostreopsis and cant get rid of it with Hydrogen Peroxide dosing - I would suggest looking at silicate. If you see an absence of snails in your tank, or your filter feeders are struggling that may be an indication of low silicate -especially when combined with Ostreopsis.

Now on to the sand bed Dino's to figure out whats going on there

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

An update on my tank and my 1.25 year long Dino battle. At long last - I think its largely done.

Hydrogen Peroxide dosing did help - but the issue for me is that while it would kill the Dino's - they would simply come back. I was ready to give up but my wife wanted to try Silicate, so we decided to give it a try - and low and behold it solved the problem. My Ostreopsis are gone, and there are some Dino's still on the sand bed but they are not going strong, and Im hoping a few more silicate doses (Ive only done 1 so far) will end those.

My best guess as to what happened is that I once had a vibrant growing tank full of SPS, and I was carbon dosing. Due to an issue with my testing mechanism - which showed I had Nitrate present in the tank (>=5.0 ppm) I actually had bottomed out and the carbon dosing destroyed all of the bacteria in my tank. Since there was no longer silicate present (my tank had consumed it all) the bacteria which feed on silicate/Diatoms (Not sure which) were unable to populate -and this it left a hole for Ostreopsis to drive through and continually destroy my tank. Now that this has been plugged Im optomistic that it can be recovered - which is pretty exciting.

For those that have Ostreopsis and cant get rid of it with Hydrogen Peroxide dosing - I would suggest looking at silicate. If you see an absence of snails in your tank, or your filter feeders are struggling that may be an indication of low silicate -especially when combined with Ostreopsis.

Now on to the sand bed Dino's to figure out whats going on there

When this thread just popped up, I read the first post, and saw the mention of silicate feeding dinos... I was about to be like oh hell naaahhh I dosed them to deal with several species of them, and then as I was about to post, I looked at the date haha. Went to the end to see what dug it up, and thought it was funny to see the final post on here be the use of silicates.

 

[Forty-Two]

Sad to say, hydrogen peroxide didn't work for me (Proro & Amphs). Sigh! I was hopeful, but after 5 days of dosing, there was little to no improvement. Luckily I had no losses from the treatment.

I guess I'm back to Silicate dosing and Phyto (which I have already done for months with no results). My dinos are only on the sandbed, but it's had to put in so much work on the tank just to have it look ugly every day.

Im wondering if you should take out some of your old sand and replace it with new sand which will trigger diatoms in the sand itself.

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

Im wondering if you should take out some of your old sand and replace it with new sand which will trigger diatoms in the sand itself.

Brightwell sponge excel is pretty dang cheap if its just for the silica, but there may be other bennefits to refreshing some of the sand.

 

[Salty_Northerner]

I'm seeing good results so far knock on wood.

Corals from soft to sps are fine, only the zoa's close up for a few min then open back up.
I found a 4y old video where they vodka dose blah blah but what peeked my interest is Bubbling the tank.

At night the dinos leave the sand bed and I fire up the air stone next to my return pump and litterly turn my tank into a huge skimmer capturing the dinos and I leave the UV on slow flow and dose h202 into the air inlet of the skimmer and today the dinos dont look to bad. I did notice that they did try to escape in some areas along the front glass panel. I could see they were digging themselves deeper into the sand bed, but could've been me by just lightly turkey basting the sand bed just to loosen them up before the lights went out, who knows. Other wise I'll be trying it again tonight and see what Friday mid day looks like. Fingers crossed!

 

[Fish Think Pink]

wanted to get this info somewhere where it will help people fighting dinos - feel lucky we got @Jason mack recorded and he makes it simple (not that it doesn't still stink fighting dinos):

 

[Forty-Two]

An update on my tank and my 1.25 year long Dino battle. At long last - I think its largely done.

Hydrogen Peroxide dosing did help - but the issue for me is that while it would kill the Dino's - they would simply come back. I was ready to give up but my wife wanted to try Silicate, so we decided to give it a try - and low and behold it solved the problem. My Ostreopsis are gone, and there are some Dino's still on the sand bed but they are not going strong, and Im hoping a few more silicate doses (Ive only done 1 so far) will end those.

My best guess as to what happened is that I once had a vibrant growing tank full of SPS, and I was carbon dosing. Due to an issue with my testing mechanism - which showed I had Nitrate present in the tank (>=5.0 ppm) I actually had bottomed out and the carbon dosing destroyed all of the bacteria in my tank. Since there was no longer silicate present (my tank had consumed it all) the bacteria which feed on silicate/Diatoms (Not sure which) were unable to populate -and this it left a hole for Ostreopsis to drive through and continually destroy my tank. Now that this has been plugged Im optomistic that it can be recovered - which is pretty exciting.

For those that have Ostreopsis and cant get rid of it with Hydrogen Peroxide dosing - I would suggest looking at silicate. If you see an absence of snails in your tank, or your filter feeders are struggling that may be an indication of low silicate -especially when combined with Ostreopsis.

Now on to the sand bed Dino's to figure out whats going on there

I thought it was time for another update or follow up on the state of my tank. My Dino’s have not returned. About 2-3 months ago I thought I might have seen some - but I continued to dose silicates, and all traces have vanished. I did reduce the amount of silicates Im dosing to half the recommended amount - but regardless - my Dino problem is gone.

A friend had a similar issue - I recommended silicates. It took 3-4 months but it did work eventually and he also got rid of his Dino’s. If anyone is struggling with it - it’s a strong candidate for resolution to your Dino problems - specifically Ostreopsis.

 

[Waldek M.]

I thought it was time for another update or follow up on the state of my tank. My Dino’s have not returned. About 2-3 months ago I thought I might have seen some - but I continued to dose silicates, and all traces have vanished. I did reduce the amount of silicates Im dosing to half the recommended amount - but regardless - my Dino problem is gone.

A friend had a similar issue - I recommended silicates. It took 3-4 months but it did work eventually and he also got rid of his Dino’s. If anyone is struggling with it - it’s a strong candidate for resolution to your Dino problems - specifically Ostreopsis.

Have you used water glass? How much did you dose while fighting the dino and now, in how many liters and every how many days?

 

[reef’r]

Bumping this thread, started my peroxide dosing this afternoon and will continue for a week or so. I have ostreopsis which according to previous post up above didn’t subside from the peroxide but what the heck, why not try it. It seems for every person that try’s something and the Dino’s go away there’s another saying it didn’t even faze their Dino’s. Mine are limited as I’ve been proactive at beating them back since the start with the good ole manual removal and turning the lights off… if this doesn’t work I’ll just break the tank down and restart it but even that doesn’t seem to always fix them, or I’ll try silicate dosing but that only appears to work sometimes as well lol

Current nutrient levels in case anyone sees this and is wondering
P04- .03-.09
N03- <10
Been battling for a couple months

 

[eggie]

Bumping this thread, started my peroxide dosing this afternoon and will continue for a week or so. I have ostreopsis which according to previous post up above didn’t subside from the peroxide but what the heck, why not try it. It seems for every person that try’s something and the Dino’s go away there’s another saying it didn’t even faze their Dino’s. Mine are limited as I’ve been proactive at beating them back since the start with the good ole manual removal and turning the lights off… if this doesn’t work I’ll just break the tank down and restart it but even that doesn’t seem to always fix them, or I’ll try silicate dosing but that only appears to work sometimes as well lol

Current nutrient levels in case anyone sees this and is wondering
P04- .03-.09
N03- <10
Been battling for a couple months

I had Dinos recently
First I change My RO Filters to Max Cap and Silica Buster
Then I started Using AquaForest Life Source alternate with DIY Coral Snow and Bacteria
at night with everything off for 30 minutes only power heads on
I placed a bag of Chemiclean Elite in my sump make sure to get the correct one for the size of your tank this has Carbon and Silicate remover
I Also Dosed Nitrates to raise them and the Dinos are gone

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

It sounds like a good method for established tanks. For younger tanks experiencing dinos I wouldn't expect it to be the best choice in the long run, however, because youd kill off many bacteria which had just started becoming established. Again, I'm talking about in young tanks experiencing dinos here, not mature, well established tanks.

 

[reef’r]

It sounds like a good method for established tanks. For younger tanks experiencing dinos I wouldn't expect it to be the best choice in the long run, however, because youd kill off many bacteria which had just started becoming established. Again, I'm talking about in young tanks experiencing dinos here, not mature, well established tanks.

My tank is 6 months old, so definitely on the younger side, but not sure what else to try. @eggie has an enticing strategy also, just a lot of moving parts

 

[reef’r]

I had Dinos recently
First I change My RO Filters to Max Cap and Silica Buster
Then I started Using AquaForest Life Source alternate with DIY Coral Snow and Bacteria
at night with everything off for 30 minutes only power heads on
I placed a bag of Chemiclean Elite in my sump make sure to get the correct one for the size of your tank this has Carbon and Silicate remover
I Also Dosed Nitrates to raise them and the Dinos are gone

How long have they been gone?

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

My tank is 6 months old, so definitely on the younger side, but not sure what else to try. @eggie has an enticing strategy also, just a lot of moving parts

I've heard good experiences from using UV sterilizers. Maybe worth a shot?

 

[reef’r]

I've heard good experiences from using UV sterilizers. Maybe worth a shot?

Yes ive seen people have success and I’ve considered it. My tank is an AIO so would have to rig up a closed loop system to be able to run a large oversized UV, and they’re expensive. Not trying to make excuses, just was hoping for another fix before dropping a few hundred for a pump, sterilizer and plumbing.

 

[reef’r]

I had Dinos recently
First I change My RO Filters to Max Cap and Silica Buster
Then I started Using AquaForest Life Source alternate with DIY Coral Snow and Bacteria
at night with everything off for 30 minutes only power heads on
I placed a bag of Chemiclean Elite in my sump make sure to get the correct one for the size of your tank this has Carbon and Silicate remover
I Also Dosed Nitrates to raise them and the Dinos are gone

I see you have two methods of removing silicates, however a lot of people have posted success with dosing silicate. Also, chemipure elite contains gfo if im not mistaken which lowers phosphate which is direct opposite of increasing nutrients in the tank which again you see in every Dino post everywhere. I’m not being negative towards your post at all, just outlining what I mean by how people will use tactics on complete opposite ends of the spectrum and some have success, some don’t. So weird… I have no idea which path to take

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

I see you have two methods of removing silicates, however a lot of people have posted success with dosing silicate. Also, chemipure elite contains gfo if im not mistaken which lowers phosphate which is direct opposite of increasing nutrients in the tank which again you see in every Dino post everywhere. I’m not being negative towards your post at all, just outlining what I mean by how people will use tactics on complete opposite ends of the spectrum and some have success, some don’t. So weird… I have no idea which path to take

Do you know what kind of dinos you have? Im just spitballing here and havent tried this, but it seems like it would work...raise your nutrient levels a good bit and then dose a product like Zeovit ZeoFood that quickly establishes biofilm. Dosing that afterwards would colonize vacant surfaces and also reduce nutrient levels to where you want them as long as you monitor them closely at first.

 

[Salty_Northerner]

Yes ive seen people have success and I’ve considered it. My tank is an AIO so would have to rig up a closed loop system to be able to run a large oversized UV, and they’re expensive. Not trying to make excuses, just was hoping for another fix before dropping a few hundred for a pump, sterilizer and plumbing.

I bought the aqua ultraviolet 15w hang on for my AIO and it worked quite well. Just put a small regulated pump into the 2nd chamber and the output into the return chamber. Just had to regulate the pump so the 2nd chamber didn't run low.

 

[eggie]

I see you have two methods of removing silicates, however a lot of people have posted success with dosing silicate. Also, chemipure elite contains gfo if im not mistaken which lowers phosphate which is direct opposite of increasing nutrients in the tank which again you see in every Dino post everywhere. I’m not being negative towards your post at all, just outlining what I mean by how people will use tactics on complete opposite ends of the spectrum and some have success, some don’t. So weird… I have no idea which path to take

Some people that have dosed silicates aswell had No success with dinos. Dinos are to be said that could be because an imbalance of nutrients which is Nitrate and Phosfate. In My Case My Po4 were a little bit on the high side meanwhile Nitrate was a little low so I lower Po4 while raising No3. Im just posting how I manage my case and it work for me.