Dinos survived 5 day blackout and Dino X - Need help on ID and treatment

Spencerssparks13 · Jun 6, 2020

Dinos are a pain. I have had success with getting rid of them in 2 different tanks on 2 different occasions. Once years ago using vibrant. That took months. But more recently I followed the exact instructions following ReefDudes YouTube video on getting rid of Dino’s. You need some dr Tim’s products but following ReefDudes instuction video knocked them out in a week and haven’t seen any signs of dinos in over a year. Good luck.

DrMMI · Jun 27, 2020

Spencerssparks13 said:
Dinos are a pain. I have had success with getting rid of them in 2 different tanks on 2 different occasions. Once years ago using vibrant. That took months. But more recently I followed the exact instructions following ReefDudes YouTube video on getting rid of Dino’s. You need some dr Tim’s products but following ReefDudes instuction video knocked them out in a week and haven’t seen any signs of dinos in over a year. Good luck.

Do you know what type you had? I did 15 doses of dino x and other than losing some SPS and seriously irritating all my other corals, it didn't really help.

ScottB · Jun 28, 2020

DrMMI said:
So as the title says, the dinos in the video below survived a 5 day black out, all while dosing dino x. Does anyone have an idea as to the species? (excuse my kids popping bubble wrap in the background, you can just turn the volume down). I took some screenshots of the videos that wouldn't upload.

Long version is that I've been battling dinos since about Nov. I have a 7ft 300g mixed reef. Nutrients had bottomed out for several months combined with 2 sand sifting star fish that decimated my sand bed fauna, Despite raising nutrients, I can't seem to get rid of them. I've tried multiple 3 day black outs, Dr. Tim's recipe for dinos, dosing microbacter, elevated temps for a week, dosing silica, plumbing UV to/from display, and now I'm on dose 6 of Dino x after doing a 5 day blackout. I also got a piece of live rock from my LFS about a week ago to help change up the bacterial diversity. By the end of the blackout, the sand and rocks were completely clear. Within 2 hours of turning on my blues at only 50%, the dinos already started to come back. I'm really starting to feel defeated here. Does anyone know if there's any harm in dosing dino x and hydrogen peroxide? Or dosing microbacter on alternate days of the dino x?

I am still seeing amphidinium, but love to hear from @taricha .

Assuming I am correct, you can put the UV away as they don't enter the water column. Are the dinos mostly on the sand? That would be further evidence of amphids.

Taricha started a breakout thread from the "Are you Tired" thread to focus on this species. Honestly, I would describe the treatment methods as still quite experimental, only modestly productive, and slow.

Most would say to stop dosing Phytos and aminos; the dinos consume them first. In addition to keep NO3 and PO4 measurable, most would suggest dosing silicates to produce a diatom (competitive) bloom. Sponge Excel is common.

DrMMI · Jun 28, 2020

ScottB said:
I am still seeing amphidinium, but love to hear from @taricha .

Assuming I am correct, you can put the UV away as they don't enter the water column. Are the dinos mostly on the sand? That would be further evidence of amphids.

Taricha started a breakout thread from the "Are you Tired" thread to focus on this species. Honestly, I would describe the treatment methods as still quite experimental, only modestly productive, and slow.

Most would say to stop dosing Phytos and aminos; the dinos consume them first. In addition to keep NO3 and PO4 measurable, most would suggest dosing silicates to produce a diatom (competitive) bloom. Sponge Excel is common.

Yep, tried dosing silica too. Didn't make a difference. Never got diatoms to grow despite heavily dosing it.

ScottB · Jun 28, 2020

DrMMI said:
Yep, tried dosing silica too. Didn't make a difference. Never got diatoms to grow despite heavily dosing it.

I took another look at the Amphid thread. Here is a link to a post in it. TBH, I think this guy/gal's approach is the best I've read so far...@Bmwm235i I hope this does not curse your progress.

Amphidinium Dinoflagellate Treatment Methods

Yep! The Low Range Si, Hi705. Si is consumed by many organisms if it's present and other nutrients are not limiting. What Si level do you target? Triton recommends 100 ug/l. According to my ICP I am at 67 ug/l. It was 135 2 months before when I did the last ICP test.

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