I BEAT DINOS!!! You can too... Heres how to do it.

[waynel]

Purely anecdotal from my personal experience, but the first blackout I did had no UV sterilizer running, and it didn't really do much to help. The second blackout with UV seemed to do the trick. I just used on the of inexpensive sterilizers from PetSmart and it worked a treat.

Thank you. I'll give that UV a look.

 

[rantipole]

There's some serious serendipity here. I was about to post about my frustrating battle with dinos and ask about what to do next. I've tried the Dr. Tim's with blackout, raising phosphate, and adding pods and plankton with no lasting results.

I have a nano, AIO tank. I can get a UV sterilizer for it. I'm not sure how I'd add a DE filter. Any ideas? Could I be successful without one?

Thanks!

Cheers,
rant

 

[Dj City]

Please forgive me if these are dumb or repetitive questions, but I'm "battling" dinos myself (no microscope at the present, so can't confirm the type, see my latest posts on my build thread for some pictures). Is a three-day blackout enough, or is UV absolutely necessary? My tank is running TBS liverock, has been up about 6 mos, and I'm wondering if this isn't just something we all have to go through and I need to be more patient. Siphoning it out only makes it look better until the next morning. I can see why so many exhausted with it.

Blackouts alone do absolutely nothing.
Siphoning out does nothing.

You need a multi pronged approach to tackle this problem. You have to weaken them. Blackout helps to weaken them slightly. You need to get them into the water column to be sterilized by the UV light. I CAN'T stress this enough though. You need a properly sized, properly plumbed UV sterilizer with the CORRECT flow rate. If you miss on any of those 3, your UV will NOT work.
You need bacteria to counter and to get your tank back in a balance that does NOT favor dino.

The whole raise your nitrates and phosphates thing... I'm NOT a fan of unless you have zeros for them.
Adding silicates to grow diatoms is a bad idea in my opinion and from what i've read does not work well to counter dinos but raising nutrients and adding silicates DOES make other pest algae grow so your tank STILL will not be in balance.

Please re-read the original post. It gives clear instruction on what worked for me and a looooong list of what did NOT work.

 

[Dj City]

There's some serious serendipity here. I was about to post about my frustrating battle with dinos and ask about what to do next. I've tried the Dr. Tim's with blackout, raising phosphate, and adding pods and plankton with no lasting results.

I have a nano, AIO tank. I can get a UV sterilizer for it. I'm not sure how I'd add a DE filter. Any ideas? Could I be successful without one?

Thanks!

Cheers,
rant

I believe you can be successful without DE filter but I believe the DE filter helped in my case.

 

[rantipole]

I believe you can be successful without DE filter but I believe the DE filter helped in my case.

Thank you. Do you have any advice on the wattage of UV I'd need for a 13 gallon?

Cheers,
rant

 

[Dj City]

Diatomaceous earth filter (DE Filter)
This filter comes with the polishing filter cartridge needed to add Diatomaceous earth.

Amazon product




Diatomaceous earth powder.

Amazon product

 

[Dj City]

Thank you. Do you have any advice on the wattage of UV I'd need for a 13 gallon?

Cheers,
rant

I would check out Bulk Reef Supply.
They have UV sterilizers that actually work and can advise you on which size would be best for your tank.
You really can't get one too big but you CAN get one too small that won't be effective.

 

[Dj City]

And the 300 some odd pages of the dino thread, comes to the same conclusion.

Blackout, raise nutrients, and UV. Nothing new here we haven't been doing for years to beat back dino's.

Now if the current trend of everything being pristine white, 0 anything we didn't actually physically put in the tank, and wanting to keep it that pristine white would die off, maybe ha;f the dino threads would never have been made.

Notice I did NOT say to raise nutrients?
I actually said NOT to go crazy adding nutrients and silica to the tank. It only adds other problems and knocks the tank further out of balance.

 

[Dj City]

Thank you. Do you have any advice on the wattage of UV I'd need for a 13 gallon?

Cheers,
rant

Honestly, I think this one should work best for you.

8 Watt Advantage 2000 UV Sterilizer with Hanger Spout

Aqua Ultraviolet UV Sterilizers will eradicate algae, bacteria, and protozoa without any harmful chemicals or additives! UV lamps emit a wavelength that will alter and disrupt the DNA or RNA of single-celled organisms. Combining the UV lamp into a large housing allows for maximum contact time...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

 

[joe0813]

Nice write up... I went with the raising nutrients on my wifes tank.... It only did one thing, gave the tank crazy hair algae and still had Dinos.

 

[rantipole]

Honestly, I think this one should work best for you.

8 Watt Advantage 2000 UV Sterilizer with Hanger Spout

Aqua Ultraviolet UV Sterilizers will eradicate algae, bacteria, and protozoa without any harmful chemicals or additives! UV lamps emit a wavelength that will alter and disrupt the DNA or RNA of single-celled organisms. Combining the UV lamp into a large housing allows for maximum contact time...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Thanks so much for your advice. I'll look into that one and reach out to BRS. If this gets my tank back in shape, I will send you a case of beer/wine/cookies/whatever.

Cheers,
rant

 

[Aswswild]

My phosphate is 0 I used this bena pet and I get this. Also had to use CBB while my hydra was in for warrant work. Can u look at the pic to see it it’s Dino by chance
Thanks guys

 

[Privateye]

Has anyone here tried just adequately-sized UV alone? It seems to be the common factor in these success stories.

 

[Dj City]

My phosphate is 0 I used this bena pet and I get this. Also had to use CBB while my hydra was in for warrant work. Can u look at the pic to see it it’s Dino by chance
Thanks guys

I'm not sure what I'm seeing. It could be dino, cyano or diatoms.

Need more info about your tank.
How old is it?
What are your other parameters?
Does what you see dissappear at night with lights off?
What filtration do you have?

I don't understand "Also had to use CBB while my hydra was in for warrant work"

What do you mean by that?

 

[Dj City]

Has anyone here tried just adequately-sized UV alone? It seems to be the common factor in these success stories.

I've tried.
Uv alone did not work for me.

 

[Fink]

Has anyone here tried just adequately-sized UV alone? It seems to be the common factor in these success stories.

I'm no biologist but I feel like DJ is right, you need the blackout to get the dinos into the water column so the UV can do its work.

 

[Aswswild]

I'm not sure what I'm seeing. It could be dino, cyano or diatoms.

Need more info about your tank.
How old is it?
What are your other parameters?
Does what you see dissappear at night with lights off?
What filtration do you have?

I don't understand "Also had to use CBB while my hydra was in for warrant work"

What do you mean by that?

Tank is 2.5years
Perams are all normal except phos at 0
Yes but not all the way
It has filter floss bio balls an I run carbon rox8.0.thanks
i used a Chinese black box led light while I sent my light in to get repaired. I was on the same light schedule for over a year and when I had to switch lights for a week this pop up.

 

[Dj City]

Tank is 2.5years
Perams are all normal except phos at 0
Yes but not all the way
It has filter floss bio balls an I run carbon rox8.0.thanks
i used a Chinese black box led light while I sent my light in to get repaired. I was on the same light schedule for over a year and when I had to switch lights for a week this pop up.

CBB... I thought you were trying to say copper band butterfly.
Lol
Chinese Black Box.

From what you described and phosphates being zero, I think you may have dinos.

If I were you, I would do what I described in this thread to hopefully rid yourself of them.

Do you have a UV Sterilizer?
How big is your tank?
What do you feed?
How often and how much?
What livestock do you have?

 

[SaltISlife]

If you truly had dinos, I doubt they would "just go away on their own"
as for thinking the tank is does not have biofilm or it is just "new" you would be wrong.
Did you read the whole post?

I keep my sump and system clean. How can you try to judge a system from how clean the sump is?

Rude much ? Ill judge all i want. Your system is too clean. Thats your problem. Lack of a bio film means oportunistic pest algae aka dino. Hair algae ect take over a tank. I have 40ppm nitrates and crazy amounts of phosphates, also use straight tap water and i dont get any pest algae whatso ever.

Lol and yes i had dinos. Looked just like yours did. It went away over time on its own. I know the difference between diatoms and dinoflaggelets.

My tank is dirty as hell water chemistry wiae compared to your tank. And my rocks have a good bio film on them meaning my rocks are dark colored. Not bleach white like yours.. I get no dinos at all whatsoever once my rocks got that and then it disspeared on the sand bed as well

Remember youre the one crying here about the problem. Not me, i may have been wrong on it being a new tank. But im not wrong on it being too clean. The general consensus these days is dinos is caused by a tank thats way to squeeky clean.

They sell pills for ocd and anger issues btw get some.

 

[Dj City]

Rude much ? Ill judge all i want. Your system is too clean. Thats your problem. Lack of a bio film means oportunistic pest algae aka dino. Hair algae ect take over a tank. I have 40ppm nitrates and crazy amounts of phosphates, also use straight tap water and i dont get any pest algae whatso ever.

Lol and yes i had dinos. Looked just like yours did. It went away over time on its own. I know the difference between diatoms and dinoflaggelets.

My tank is dirty as hell water chemistry wiae compared to your tank. And my rocks have a good bio film on them meaning my rocks are dark colored. Not bleach white like yours.. I get no dinos at all whatsoever once my rocks got that and then it disspeared on the sand bed as well

Remember youre the one crying here about the problem. Not me, i may have been wrong on it being a new tank. But im not wrong on it being too clean. The general consensus these days is dinos is caused by a tank thats way to squeeky clean.

They sell pills for ocd and anger issues btw get some.

I'm sorry you found my reply to be rude. That was not my intention.
I was pointing out that my system was not brand new and the problem was not lack of biofilm or a system that was too clean.
You can't judge from how clean someone keeps their sump or equipment.

I'm happy I beat dinos. I don't have the problem anymore. I hope I can help others beat dinos without trading dinos for algae or trading dinos for diatoms or cyano.

1st, I'm not crying about anything. I'm trying to be helpful for anyone that might need help or guidance in fighting dinos.

2nd, if you had dinos and they went away on their own, I'm very happy for you. That was not my experience and is not the experience for most.

3rd, you have no idea how clean or dirty my system is. I keep my equipment clean. I keep my sump clean. I keep my skimmer clean.
You have no idea what my parameters were then or are now. You have no idea what my nitrates, phosphates, ph, alk, cal, mag, iodine, iron, potassium or anything else is
I have both nitrates and phosphates. I don't dose them. What I do is feed my fish, corals and tank.

This thread was made to help others who may be going through dinos. I beat dinos and want to share what worked for me so hopefully it can help others.

I don't like trolls and you are trolling and trying to pick a fight with me.
please stop.

I'm m trying to be nice and polite.

I won't try for much longer.