Dinos in upgraded tank - what to do ?

[Idech]

So I upgraded my sumpless 75 gallons to a 110 gallons display + 35 gallons sump 2 1/2 months ago. I kept all the old rock that were in the tank for 2 years and added 20 lbs of live rock from another tank. I put in new (live) sand except for a handful of old sand (rinsed).

The previous tank had battled dinos 4 times (2 different types but prorocentrum 3 times). I got rid of them with silicate dosing.

The new upgraded tank started to have brown sand about 3 weeks ago. I checked it under the microscope but there were no dinos. Since the sand was getting more brown areas, I did another microscope check today and I can see about 10 dinos per slide.

Here are my parameters :
- PH : 8.1
- temp : 25.5 C (78 F)
- cal : 440
- mag : 1320
- alk : 10.4
- Nitrates : 44.3
- Phosphate : 0.53
- Salinity : 1.0265

Here are the changes I made recently :

- Scraping the hair algae in the refugium, to preserve what little chaeto I have growing (I filled the bottom of a small bucket)

- Diminishing the refugium light from 12 hours to 6 hours (too much hair algae in it)

- Increasing light from 61% to 69% over a 10 days period (I still having been able to go back to my light levels of 85% that I used in my previous tank because it browns the sand as soon as I increase). I went back to 61% today.

- I started dosing vodka 3 days ago to decrease nitrates. I dosed 0,4 ml, them 0,8 ml and then 2 ml today.

Here are the solutions I am thinking about :

- dosing silicate (again). Which I would like to avoid, as I need ridiculous amounts to get a diatom bloom and it affects corals for months.

- using Dino-X. It’s side effects scare me and I would be afraid of what it does to my urchin and other inverts. I want to avoid having to set up another tank.

I am so confused. Any idea what I should do ?

Thanks !

 

[Dan_P]

So I upgraded my sumpless 75 gallons to a 110 gallons display + 35 gallons sump 2 1/2 months ago. I kept all the old rock that were in the tank for 2 years and added 20 lbs of live rock from another tank. I put in new (live) sand except for a handful of old sand (rinsed).

The previous tank had battled dinos 4 times (2 different types but prorocentrum 3 times). I got rid of them with silicate dosing.

The new upgraded tank started to have brown sand about 3 weeks ago. I checked it under the microscope but there were no dinos. Since the sand was getting more brown areas, I did another microscope check today and I can see about 10 dinos per slide.

Here are my parameters :
- PH : 8.1
- temp : 25.5 C (78 F)
- cal : 440
- mag : 1320
- alk : 10.4
- Nitrates : 44.3
- Phosphate : 0.53
- Salinity : 1.0265

Here are the changes I made recently :

- Scraping the hair algae in the refugium, to preserve what little chaeto I have growing (I filled the bottom of a small bucket)

- Diminishing the refugium light from 12 hours to 6 hours (too much hair algae in it)

- Increasing light from 61% to 69% over a 10 days period (I still having been able to go back to my light levels of 85% that I used in my previous tank because it browns the sand as soon as I increase). I went back to 61% today.

- I started dosing vodka 3 days ago to decrease nitrates. I dosed 0,4 ml, them 0,8 ml and then 2 ml today.

Here are the solutions I am thinking about :

- dosing silicate (again). Which I would like to avoid, as I need ridiculous amounts to get a diatom bloom and it affects corals for months.

- using Dino-X. It’s side effects scare me and I would be afraid of what it does to my urchin and other inverts. I want to avoid having to set up another tank.

I am so confused. Any idea what I should do ?

Thanks !

Can you just ignore the brown sand to see what happens?

 

[Idech]

Can you just ignore the brown sand to see what happens?

I’ve already fought dinos for more than a year in my other tank and I would be really disappointed if I had an invasion in my new tank.

I started dosing a bit of silicate. This time I am going to be diligent about not dosing too much and I am going to test. I could not get the Hanna low range silicate one so I ordered Seachem.

I am going to take it slow. I almost dosed Dino-X but my fear of chemicals kept me from it.

@Dan_P you think they might go away on their own ?

 

[Dan_P]

I’ve already fought dinos for more than a year in my other tank and I would be really disappointed if I had an invasion in my new tank.

I started dosing a bit of silicate. This time I am going to be diligent about not dosing too much and I am going to test. I could not get the Hanna low range silicate one so I ordered Seachem.

I am going to take it slow. I almost dosed Dino-X but my fear of chemicals kept me from it.

@Dan_P you think they might go away on their own ?

Yes, to your question, but…I am no good at predicting whether your system is going to be the type in which nuisance algae just goes away. The most that I do if something crops on the sand in the aquarium is to rake the sand just to annoy what’s growing on it

Good idea about going slow and not freaking out.

 

[liddojunior]

Honestly I would try the temperature method.

Is This the Dinoflagellate Treatment We’ve all been Hoping for? | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog

Being a reef aquarists, means dealing with nuisance algae, parasites, and other pests… Cyanobacteria, AEFW, Red Bugs, and who here remembers that pink cotton candy algae (Callithamnion)?

reefbuilders.com

 

[Idech]

Honestly I would try the temperature method.

Is This the Dinoflagellate Treatment We’ve all been Hoping for? | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog

Being a reef aquarists, means dealing with nuisance algae, parasites, and other pests… Cyanobacteria, AEFW, Red Bugs, and who here remembers that pink cotton candy algae (Callithamnion)?

reefbuilders.com

I might try it. I wish they would tell what type of dinos they had though. It might not work for all types.

 

[DDenny]

Have you confirmed with microscope? I have been fight LCA and SCA Dino’s for the last 2 months or so. Dosed silicates everyday 3ppm of waterglass. Didn’t seem to be doing much so I bought some pods 3 bags from reefcleaners and bumped up cleanup crew to fight the algae. Kept nitrates at 20 and Phosphates at .2 or as close to that as possible. Not much was happening. Put the filter sock back in as I have been traveling during the week for the last three weeks so I haven’t been around to dose silicates. Took it back out after the first week algae was mowed down and tonight I pulled out 1/4c sand shook it up in a jar and nothing but diatoms. Took another 1/4c from second location same thing. Only thing I can think of was pods cleanup crew addition and as you mention I bumped the temp to 80f vs 78f. Not sure what it was I was just throwing everything including the sink at the little turkeys. Going to do the first water change in 2.5 months on Saturday and see what happens. Only going to siphon out 1/4 of the sand bed to keep nutrients up. Hope you beat these fast I would wish Dino’s on anyone they are a pain.

 

[Tritie]

I have coolia which stubbornly refuses to enter the water column at night, so my UV is useless. I had bryopsis in the tank, and some other weird algae so I did a fluc treatment, which got rid of the bryopsis, but the other algae remained. That's when I pulled out the rocks and did an H2O2 treatment on them. I started noticing reddish brown on sand and rocks. Thinking it was cyano, I did a chemi clean treatment, but it didn't work. That's when I pulled out the scope and found the coolia. I didn't have many corals, so i put them into my coral QT tank and did a 3 day blackout with the Dr. Tims method. When they started coming back, I pulled my sandbed. Pulling the sandbed really set them back, and I stopped putting peroxide on the rocks. I just let the algae do its thing. The algae has been dying off and the snails are starting to clean up more of it. Interestingly, the dinos have returned, but not on the rocks that had the severe algae. I put some new rocks in and they are living on that. Looks like there might be a light dusting on the bottom glass too, but not much. I'm thinking that when my latest round of fish come out of QT, I'm going to bleach the tank, let it dry, fill it back up, throw dino rocks in there, and start cultivating some algae growth on it. I hope that will exclude the dinos.

 

[Idech]

Have you confirmed with microscope?

Yes I have. Some of my corals are not liking the silicate dosing too much, or maybe it’s something else. I hate dinos with a passion.

 

[DDenny]

Yes I have. Some of my corals are not liking the silicate dosing too much, or maybe it’s something else. I hate dinos with a passion.

Same, made the tank ugly just a nasty pest. Wouldn’t wish them on my worst enemy honestly. I can’t say if it was the silicates, MicroBacter, pods or exactly what but when it started to get warm weather wise and I bumped temps up to 80-81 that is when I noticed the big differences but it is also the time that I dosed the 3 bags of pods.