The dreaded Dino's. I have been fighting this for months now

[Kellie in CA]

The first time I had dinos, UV knocked them out in a couple days. Easy Peasy.

This time... no such luck. I've tried it all. Pods, Phyto, Microbacter7, blackouts, UV, raising water temp, adding silicates, more flow, less water changes, daily manual removal. It's infuriating.

 

[Crustaceon]

The first time I had dinos, UV knocked them out in a couple days. Easy Peasy.

This time... no such luck. I've tried it all. Pods, Phyto, Microbacter7, blackouts, UV, raising water temp, adding silicates, more flow, less water changes, daily manual removal. It's infuriating.

I tried the typical silicate dosing regime and had no luck. I only had success when I went way beyond what was recommended. Think 1/4 of a bottle of SpongExcel for a 60 gallon tank. Yeah, that much, lol. I DO NOT recommend dosing that much, but I do feel that if you're not seeing a dino-level diatom bloom, you're probably not dosing enough to be effectively competitive with dinos. And oh man did I get a bloom. It looked just as bad, if not worse than dinos for a few weeks and suddenly it resolved itself over the course of a week.

 

[Kellie in CA]

I tried the typical silicate dosing regime and had no luck. I only had success when I went way beyond what was recommended. Think 1/4 of a bottle of SpongExcel for a 60 gallon tank. Yeah, that much, lol. Oh man did I get a bloom. It looked just as bad, if not worse than dinos for a few weeks and suddenly it resolved itself over the course of a week.

Ahhh, ok. Maybe I need to up the dose.

 

[Crustaceon]

Ahhh, ok. Maybe I need to up the dose.

I updated my post a little but in nutshell, you want to see a nice mat of diatoms on the sand. When you take a sample and look through the microscope, it should be basically nothing but diatoms. When you get to this point, swish the sand daily and if the diatoms don't return and form a mat within a few hours, you probably need to dose more. Keep this up for a few weeks like I did to ensure dinos had LOTS of competition for an extended period of time.

 

[vetteguy53081]

The first time I had dinos, UV knocked them out in a couple days. Easy Peasy.

This time... no such luck. I've tried it all. Pods, Phyto, Microbacter7, blackouts, UV, raising water temp, adding silicates, more flow, less water changes, daily manual removal. It's infuriating.

Often the issue is, When we see zero readings, automatically we assume this is the cause but by the time you see zero numbers, its because the dino has consumed the po4 and no3 and are multiplying and in turn many dose no3 and po4 to bring numbers up not realizing they are feeding these flagellates even more. Its biological deficiencies that are causing the dino structure and tank is already doomed.
No light is first key followed by the addition of bacteria to overcome the bad bacteria allowing them to thrive. A UV is helpful in addressing new and frr floating spores but in the mean time you have to take away their sources of energy.
Prepare by starting by blowing this stuff loose with a turkey baster and siphon up loose particles. Turn lights off (at least white and run blue at 10-15% IF you have light dependant corals) for 5 days and at night dose 1ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide per 10 gallons for all 5 nights. If you dont have light dependent coral- turn all lights off. During the day dose 1ml of liquid bacteria (such as micro bacter 7 or XLM) per 10 gallons. Clean filters daily and DO NOT FEED CORAL FOODS OR ADD NOPOX
You can feed fish as normal and if doing blackout, ambient light in room will work for them

 

[Blake509]

I just went through battling them. Raised temps, added bottled bacteria, copepods, heavy feeding, and blackouts didn't work until the 3rd time when I added more live rock from another established aquarium during the last blackout and haven't seen them since. Adding a couple pieces into my tank balanced the biodiversity back out.

 

[Fishy888]

I just went through battling them. Raised temps, added bottled bacteria, copepods, heavy feeding, and blackouts didn't work until the 3rd time when I added more live rock from another established aquarium during the last blackout and haven't seen them since. Adding a couple pieces into my tank balanced the biodiversity back out.

^^^^^This! It’s a lot easier I imagine for already established/settled good bacteria to outcompete the dinos than it is for bacteria that have to combat the dinos before they can even settle onto a surface ie bottled bacteria.

 

[leighton.bingham]

^^^^^This! It’s a lot easier I imagine for already established/settled good bacteria to outcompete the dinos than it is for bacteria that have to combat the dinos before they can even settle onto a surface ie bottled bacteria.

I just went through battling them. Raised temps, added bottled bacteria, copepods, heavy feeding, and blackouts didn't work until the 3rd time when I added more live rock from another established aquarium during the last blackout and haven't seen them since. Adding a couple pieces into my tank balanced the biodiversity back out.

so it was just rock out of an established tank? Like how much I’m buying a microscope as well speak but can always use more rock. I started my tank with 100% dry cured rock.

 

[ryshark]

It’s a 110 waterbox. I’ll just buy a microscope this weekend.

The microscope is a must to determine which type you have. Using the microscope and taking pictures through it is a lot easier than I had imagined.

 

[Blake509]

For me it was just 2 pieces one on each side of the tank but that tank is a lot smaller than yours being a fluval Evo 13.5. I can't really give you a lbs per gallon or anything like that but just kinda spread some pieces through out to spread the good bacteria to the rock you already have when lights are off, temp at 82, added bottled bac daily ,and I was feeding reef roids daily (contrary to what Vetteguy said and I would 100% take his advice over mine) not a full feeding but like half and it worked for me. Also make sure the tank your getting rock from isn't dealing with any problem of their own.

 

[Blake509]

I didn't corals during blackout just once lights were back on

 

[ScottB]

The first time I had dinos, UV knocked them out in a couple days. Easy Peasy.

This time... no such luck. I've tried it all. Pods, Phyto, Microbacter7, blackouts, UV, raising water temp, adding silicates, more flow, less water changes, daily manual removal. It's infuriating.

What species?

 

[Kellie in CA]

What species?

Amphidinium

 

[taricha]

I have done everything from H202 dosing, dino-x dosing, black outs, and everything. My nutrients are up and have been up my No3 is 16ppm and Po3 is .1, but the Dinos are still bad and keep getting worse.

Thats the one thing i haven't tried. I didn't want to spend more money on something that wouldn't work.

UV is the single most dino-specific effective intervention we have. So to be blunt, you've tried everything except the best tool

 

[BetterJake]

UV is the single most dino-specific effective intervention we have. So to be blunt, you've tried everything except the best tool

This is true for a specific type of Dino, Ostreoposis. The others, LCA, SCA, Prorocentrum; do not have a measurable impact from UV.

 

[taricha]

This is true for a specific type of Dino, Ostreoposis. The others, LCA, SCA, Prorocentrum; do not have a measurable impact from UV.

Only large cell amphidinium are totally unaffected.
The others go into the water some, and with short blackouts or blasting surfaces can be coerced into the water in larger numbers.

 

[ryshark]

Amphidinium

Try this. As someone else said, you need way more silicates. SpongExcel is very watered down.

Prorocentrum Dinos - Beat in less than 2-weeks

Here is what worked for me, I wouldn't say my case was severe yet, but they were spreading all over my tank. On the microscope I already had a good amount of diatoms and could clearly see prorocentrum dinos in my slides. I think you can use this same plan of attack for Amphidinium since they...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[ScottB]

Amphidinium

Yeah those are the most difficult. As mentioned already, dosing up silicates to repopulate diatoms is a meaningful tool. On the bright side, LC Amphids are the least noxious dino you can have.

 

[BetterJake]

I would recommend this product vs SpongeExcel. It's much more concentrated and way way cheaper. Just be sure to use much less/dilute as needed.

Amazon product

 

[leighton.bingham]

I would recommend this product vs SpongeExcel. It's much more concentrated and way way cheaper. Just be sure to use much less/dilute as needed.

Amazon product

How much of this did you dose and what size of tank and sump?