My fight with dinoflagellates begins...

[Max Rackstraw]

Begin the epic battle music...

So I've got dinos, but I've beaten aiptasia, green hair algae, cyanobacteria, ich and velvet... time for the final boss. This garbage cant beat me!

Stage 1: begin extreme maintenance... filter socks changed every day, as much dinos removed as possible via siphon daily. Turnover speed of UV sterilizer increased for targeting dinos. Nitrates to be kept at 5ppm and phosphates at 0.3-0.5ppm. Identify particular type of dino using a microscope at school...

Stage 2 : begin dosing microbacter 7 to out compete dino population.

Stage 3 (if all else fails) : lights out until improvement. Possible H202 dosing.

They've already killed a load of astreas and turbos (initially i thought it was diatoms)... my remaining astreas and turbos seem lethargic and slow however the nassarius seem completely unaffected, they've even been laying loads of eggs on the glass lately, are they immune to the dino's toxin? Im worried since my foxface has started eating some of the dinos occasionally...

Lastly, for the record my dinos only occupy the sandbed under high intensity light. 90% of them also disappear into the water column during lights out and when you disturb them from the sandbed, they float around in stringy clumps.

Lets here how other's experience with dinos was and how you dealt with them. It's something I, to be honest, never thought I would get. But that's always the way isn't it... what you don't think you'll ever get, is what you get...

 

[doubleshot00]

Not experienced at all but know a you need a microscope to battle dinos properly and siphoning the sand bed doesn't do much either.

Join "Mack's reef dinoflagellates" page on Facebook.

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

Not experienced at all but know a you need a microscope to battle dinos properly and siphoning the sand bed doesn't do much either.

Join "Mack's reef dinoflagellates" page on Facebook.

See 'Stage 1'. OP indicated as such.

Good luck OP. I hate dinos more than I hate the red sox!!!

 

[Reefing Reefer]

I’m just getting over dinos, but it’s been a back and forth battle - low nutrients seemed to be the culprit in my situation. I’ve since starting dosing Nitrates and Phosphates, and I’ve found success. I’m hitting them with a 2-week cycle of Dr. Tim’s Refresh and Wasteaway.

Also, a picture of me battling Dinos.

 

[Max Rackstraw]

I’m just getting over dinos, but it’s been a back and forth battle - low nutrients seemed to be the culprit in my situation. I’ve since starting dosing Nitrates and Phosphates, and I’ve found success. I’m hitting them with a 2-week cycle of Dr. Tim’s Refresh and Wasteaway.

Also, a picture of me battling Dinos.

Haha yeah I've heard battling dinos is quite the task... But its going to die...

 

[ReefJunkie1989]

Begin the epic battle music...

So I've got dinos, but I've beaten aiptasia, green hair algae, cyanobacteria, ich and velvet... time for the final boss. This garbage cant beat me!

Stage 1: begin extreme maintenance... filter socks changed every day, as much dinos removed as possible via siphon daily. Turnover speed of UV sterilizer increased for targeting dinos. Nitrates to be kept at 5ppm and phosphates at 0.3-0.5ppm. Identify particular type of dino using a microscope at school...

Stage 2 : begin dosing microbacter 7 to out compete dino population.

Stage 3 (if all else fails) : lights out until improvement. Possible H202 dosing.

They've already killed a load of astreas and turbos (initially i thought it was diatoms)... my remaining astreas and turbos seem lethargic and slow however the nassarius seem completely unaffected, they've even been laying loads of eggs on the glass lately, are they immune to the dino's toxin? Im worried since my foxface has started eating some of the dinos occasionally...

Lastly, for the record my dinos only occupy the sandbed under high intensity light. 90% of them also disappear into the water column during lights out and when you disturb them from the sandbed, they float around in stringy clumps.

Lets here how other's experience with dinos was and how you dealt with them. It's something I, to be honest, never thought I would get. But that's always the way isn't it... what you don't think you'll ever get, is what you get...

Goodluck my friend this Boss stands no chance!

 

[Lavey29]

Why not just add some silicate to the tank to encourage diatom bloom which eradicates dinos? Then diatoms go away on their own in a few weeks.

You need to address the underlying problem that caused your dinos too.

 

[Max Rackstraw]

See 'Stage 1'. OP indicated as such.

Good luck OP. I hate dinos more than I hate the red sox!!!

I think everyone does... Nobody likes brown garbage all over their pearl white sand!

 

[Max Rackstraw]

Goodluck my friend this Boss stands no chance!

No chance whatsoever

 

[Max Rackstraw]

Yeah

Why not just add some silicate to the tank to encourage diatom bloom which eradicates dinos? Then diatoms go away on their own in a few weeks.

You need to address the underlying problem that caused your dinos too.

pretty sure my test kit was inaccurate... Long story. But I've been chasing lower nitrate and phosphate for a while... I think it may have bottomed out at some point hence the dinos.

Does encouraging diatoms outcompete dinos? Ive never heard of this method before. But id much rather have diatoms than dinos...

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Yeah

pretty sure my test kit was inaccurate... Long story. But I've been chasing lower nitrate and phosphate for a while... I think it may have bottomed out at some point hence the dinos.

Does encouraging diatoms outcompete dinos? Ive never heard of this method before. But id much rather have diatoms than dinos...

How old is the tank?

 

[mermaid_life]

My 2 cents.... This is what I used to battle:

- Microbactr daily
- Phyto daily
- Daily siphon through 10um filter sock back into sump
- Hydrogen peroxide dosing for only a few days because it killed one of my shrimp
- This is key:. Clip a piece of filter floss to algae clip and put it next to your powerhead. Dinos are super attracted to the texture. Change it daily at end of day before dinos return back to water column.

I didn't do anything with my lights because of coral. It wasn't until I implemented all this did the madness stop. Dinos eliminated in less than 2 weeks. Was previously battling it for months using chemicals, manual removal, light adjustments, etc.

 

[Max Rackstraw]

How old is the tank?

The tank itself is probably only 4 or 5 months old, but it had all of the real live rock from my old tank in there aswell as some live sand and beneficial bacteria additive. This is a part of the reason the dinos appeared, while the tank isnt cycling anymore, its also not as stable as something a few years old such as the system the rock was from.

 

[Max Rackstraw]

My 2 cents.... This is what I used to battle:

- Microbactr daily
- Phyto daily
- Daily siphon through 10um filter sock back into sump
- Hydrogen peroxide dosing for only a few days because it killed one of my shrimp
- This is key:. Clip a piece of filter floss to algae clip and put it next to your powerhead. Dinos are super attracted to the texture. Change it daily at end of day before dinos return back to water column.

I didn't do anything with my lights because of coral. It wasn't until I implemented all this did the madness stop. Dinos eliminated in less than 2 weeks. Was previously battling it for months using chemicals, manual removal, light adjustments, etc.

Nice, ill give that alge clip with filter floss thing a go, it would certainly export a fair amount of them dinos. Im also going to be using a method including bacteria additives, i certainly believe in theory that would be an affective method

 

[Lavey29]

Yeah

pretty sure my test kit was inaccurate... Long story. But I've been chasing lower nitrate and phosphate for a while... I think it may have bottomed out at some point hence the dinos.

Does encouraging diatoms outcompete dinos? Ive never heard of this method before. But id much rather have diatoms than dinos...

I have not used it personally but my RODI has residual silicate in it so I have light dust of diatoms here and there on my sandbed and I've never had dinos. If you google search it here you will find threads where reefers used diatoms to defeat dinos.

 

[Max Rackstraw]

I have not used it personally but my RODI has residual silicate in it so I have light dust of diatoms here and there on my sandbed and I've never had dinos. If you google search it here you will find threads where reefers used diatoms to defeat dinos.

I like the sound of it. Outcompeting the dinos with whatever possible, such as other algae and bacteria does seem to give quite a number of people success. I have noticed where I have a nice population of green macro algae and coraline on the rockwork, there seems to be a much smaller population of dinos, I'ts present on the rockwork, but in low enough populations where its only really visible due to its air bubbles. On the sandbed however, It's thick brown.

I'm thinking maybe i should dose silicates manually somehow? Since I don't plan on doing water changes as my nutrients are already low enough to have caused this issue presumably...

 

[Uncle99]

Your doing the right things, hit their numbers wherever you can, UV very effective when lights out, suck them out as well.
Change socks when lights on.
Trust you mean 0.03-0.05ppm phosphate.
If you just keep water chemistry on point with your posted nutrients availability, they go on their own, no magic.

 

[Max Rackstraw]

Your doing the right things, hit their numbers wherever you can, UV very effective when lights out, suck them out as well.
Change socks when lights on.
Trust you mean 0.03-0.05ppm phosphate.
If you just keep water chemistry on point with your posted nutrients availability, they go on their own, no magic.

thanks mate, yeah i mean 0.03-0.05... im gonna be hitting them hard where ever possible, i think victory is going to be mine...

 

[Lavey29]

I like the sound of it. Outcompeting the dinos with whatever possible, such as other algae and bacteria does seem to give quite a number of people success. I have noticed where I have a nice population of green macro algae and coraline on the rockwork, there seems to be a much smaller population of dinos, I'ts present on the rockwork, but in low enough populations where its only really visible due to its air bubbles. On the sandbed however, It's thick brown.

I'm thinking maybe i should dose silicates manually somehow? Since I don't plan on doing water changes as my nutrients are already low enough to have caused this issue presumably...

I saw a thread where Randy gave some advice on dosing silicate and the correct amount to dose. Do a thread search on dosing silicate.

 

[Max Rackstraw]

I saw a thread where Randy gave some advice on dosing silicate and the correct amount to dose. Do a thread search on dosing silicate.

nice, ill do some reasearch and see if i come across that thread