Battling dino with elevated nitrates, thoughts?

[fixedwing]

So over the past couple months I have been battling dinoflagellates and I'm starting to get a little frustrated. What I've done; started with a water change removing as much as possible (bad idea I know), followed by a 72hr lights out while dosing aquavitro balance to increase PH. After this things looked good for awhile, but the dino started coming back a couple weeks ago. Instead of a water change this time, I decided to purchase a canister filter to remove the dino (used carbon of coarse). I also started dosing 1ml to 10 gallon of hydrogen peroxide (great post Troylee). I'm on day 5 of the hydrogen dosing and the dino is still growing.

I normally dose 2 part, so last night I decided to mix kalk with my ATO and will supplement with 2 part where I need. I'm doing this because even though I used Balance to raise my PH before, I never maintained the recommended 8.4 to 8.5 PH levels. My normal levels are 7.9 - 8.0 so I'll give the kalk a few days to raise things. Now to get to my question. I've read a ton of information regarding dinos over the past couple months and it's mentioned that dinos are more frequently found in low nutrient tanks. My tank has been up for over 8 months now and I've always, unintentionally, have had very low nutrients. I have several fish (a dozen or so) and still no luck in raising my nitrates. This is why I'm considering dosing calcium nitrate, along with the other measures I mentioned above. I figured I'd do an "all in" fight against these single celled #$%&@. My plan is to raise my nitrates to around 2 (pending your help), PH 8.4-8.5, continue dosing hydrogen peroxide and spot cleaning with the canister. What are your thoughts?

Tank Specs
SPS dominate
90 Gal 3 x 2 x 2
(1) MP40
2 stage reactor w/ BRS Rox 0.8 & BRS GFO High Cap.
Vertex Omega 150 skimmer
Refug w/ Cheato and 12lbs of Fiji Mud
4 stage RO/DI, TDS reads 0
Feed 1.5 cubes every other day.

Tank Parameters
Nitrates: undetectable
Phosphates: 0 on hanna checker
Mag: 1390
Alk: 9.4
Cal: 430-440

 

[Reefing Madness]

With your system, I'd try feeding everything more to get the nitrate levels up to where you want them, instead of dosing. And continue with your Hydrogen Peroxide dosing.

 

[fixedwing]

With your system, I'd try feeding everything more to get the nitrate levels up to where you want them, instead of dosing. And continue with your Hydrogen Peroxide dosing.

Over the coarse of the past several months I've tried increasing feeding with very little luck in raising levels. Along with the 1.5 of cubes every other day I also dose Red Sea Reef Energy A/B. I have a running log of my tank's parameters since start up and the highest I've seen my nitrates were .5. I feed Rods and PE.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Im talking about feeding every day, even going to twice a day if that will help.

 

[TriggerThis]

Dino's are exploding in my tank right now too. Started just at the end of February.
It's an annual thing I've read...
I'm going to start dosing peroxide tonight and see where that takes me.
I feed a ton and have a ton of fish.
Did a 20gal water change the other day. Made it worse.:/
Tagging along

 

[fixedwing]

Dino's are exploding in my tank right now too. Started just at the end of February.
It's an annual thing I've read...
I'm going to start dosing peroxide tonight and see where that takes me.
I feed a ton and have a ton of fish.
Did a 20gal water change the other day. Made it worse.:/
Tagging along

Unfortunately the peroxide didn't rid my system of dino. However, it did seem to prevent things from growing any further. I stopped dosing my tank a few days ago and ordered Continuum Aquatics Bacter Clean-M. I was speaking with a local forum member that had great success battling dino using this product. I should get it in the next day or two, so will keep you posted on how well it works for me.

 

[TriggerThis]

Small update. It's been 6 days dosing and I'm noticing a significant decrease in Dino.
Where it has died off cyano grows there now, but then the cyano starts to die off a little after that.
Growth on glass every day is significantly less.
Seems I'm over the hump at the moment and am slowly winning the fight.
I also bumped my ph up and super cleaned my skimmer so I'm back to peak performance with it.
All corals are now open again and some reproducing even.
Let me know how the bacteria thing goes.

 

[fixedwing]

Small update. It's been 6 days dosing and I'm noticing a significant decrease in Dino.
Where it has died off cyano grows there now, but then the cyano starts to die off a little after that.
Growth on glass every day is significantly less.
Seems I'm over the hump at the moment and am slowly winning the fight.
I also bumped my ph up and super cleaned my skimmer so I'm back to peak performance with it.
All corals are now open again and some reproducing even.
Let me know how the bacteria thing goes.

Glad to hear.

I received the Continuum, but haven't used it yet. I did a water change and ever since the dinos are staying in check. If for some reason things start to bloom again I'll start using the continuum. I don't know if this helped, but I was able to get my nitrates up to 2-5 (salifert), by dumping in both coral and fish food.

Attached a pic.

 

[TriggerThis]

Dang looking good!

I've still got this left on my sand as of now and some turf algae in places on the rocks. Looks like normal algae is taking over finally and taking what the Dino's were feeding on.

 

[fixedwing]

Dang looking good!

I've still got this left on my sand as of now and some turf algae in places on the rocks. Looks like normal algae is taking over finally and taking what the Dino's were feeding on.

Thx, next is to tackle the patches of bryopsis that just started to show up. Cranking up the Mg, so hope that will take care of that.

I was always having a hard time keeping my sand in check, so I decided to add a diamond goby. As you can see I have some things on my sand bed, but it's not a lot. He created his cave and messed up the area around his home, but he seems to be leaving anything else alone. Don't know if you have one, but I'm glad I added mine.

 

[TriggerThis]

I have a DSB in my tank so a diamond goby is a no go for me. I need all my sand critters and not some fish stirring it up all the time
My hippo does a good enough job of that already

 

[jservedio]

A little over a year ago I battled dinos and it took quite a bit to get rid of them. I ended up buying a pH probe to accurately monitor my pH and brought the pH up to 8.6 using Kalk and sustained it there during treatment. During that time, I threw everything I possibly could at it: elevated pH, H2O2, polyfilter, manual removal, complete blackout followed by reduced lighting, and a complete vac of sand and cleaning of the rocks. Not attacking it on EVERY possible avenue won't work - you have to go all out to beat back dinos and sustain that attack for a few weeks.

Here was the timeline for me:
Day 1-7: Raise pH up to 8.6 - make sure you are measuring it with a calibrated probe and sustain until treatment is over.
Day 7: Do a normal weekly water change
Day 7-14: Start dosing H2O2 and ramp it up to 1ml/10g (at least, increase at your own risk) within a few days and sustain throughout treatment.
Day 14: Do a normal weekly water change and remove as many dinos as possible manually - this should be the last time you ever remove them so be thorough..
Day 14-16: Complete blackout, cover the tank with a towel. Make sure you keep your skimmer on and continue to dose H2O2 at 1ml/10g.
Day 16: Do a large water change and make sure to vacuum the sand thoroughly and use the baster to blast every crevice in the rocks. Add polyfilter to sump.
Day 16-19: Actinic lighting only (LED back off to 50%), dose H2O2 at half dose (0.5ml/10g).
Day 19-21: Bring lighting back up to full, taper off H2O2.
Day 21: Remove polyfilter, small water change. Allow pH to slowly return to normal over next few weeks.

 

[TriggerThis]

OMG I was afraid of that

 

[phillrodrigo]

I also had issues with dinos. I did a 72 hour blackout while dosing peroxide. It completely melted them away. I read alot on the raising of the nutrient level but didnt want to find out the hard way it didnt work. If I would have just let the tank go to raise the nitrates it could have completely taken over. The issue with dinos it seems no one has any idea what causes it. Ive read to high or to low of nutrients the stuff in the salt mix causes it thats why water changes seem to make it worse. I think in some way it has to do with the lighting we use. Ive noticed a bunch of people say I switched to led and a fee weeks later I have dinos.

 

[TriggerThis]

It has to be a lighting switch coupled with some other common X factor that sets it off.
I had just purchased a massive 6 bulb T5 fixture with all new ATI bulbs in it and slapped it over my tank.
I exactly doubled my lighting output in one afternoon.
I set the light fixture up high and shortened the cycle to prevent bleaching.
However the Dino's came within the next week.

 

[TriggerThis]

Been dosing for almost 10 days now. 1ml per gallon. It slowed or stopped the spread and brought my corals back from being over run.
However it's still maintaining a strong presence in the tank.
Cyano is forming from the excess nutrients and the Dino die off. So now I have both.
Three day blackout is the next step. It goes away 100% at night and comes back when the lights come on.
I think that's going to be the key but didn't want to try it until last resort.
Will keep posted

 

[MHG]

This worked for me In two different tanks....

1)remove carbon and blow off rocks with a turkey baster.
2)turn off skimmer and dose with Chemi Clean
3)manually blow off rocks daily
4) turn on skimmer (It will overflow for about a hour so be prepared to deal with that) and add carbon.
5)treat daily with Pohls (KZ) Coral snow and Zeoback or MB7 (mixed before dosing)

Remember to blow the rocks off every day and change the socks every day...

3 weeks it was gone in both systems and never returned. Treat with coral snow at the first sign of a bubble....

No problem with chemi clean in a sps tank...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfI4pT-Rz7E

 

[TriggerThis]

Awesome
I'm looking those up right now

 

[fixedwing]

MHG, stunning!!!!!

Maybe you can help me:

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/ge...th-most-my-frags-help-please.html#post1817511

This worked for me In two different tanks....

1)remove carbon and blow off rocks with a turkey baster.
2)turn off skimmer and dose with Chemi Clean
3)manually blow off rocks daily
4) turn on skimmer (It will overflow for about a hour so be prepared to deal with that) and add carbon.
5)treat daily with Pohls (KZ) Coral snow and Zeoback or MB7 (mixed before dosing)

Remember to blow the rocks off every day and change the socks every day...

3 weeks it was gone in both systems and never returned. Treat with coral snow at the first sign of a bubble....

No problem with chemi clean in a sps tank...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfI4pT-Rz7E

 

[fcad]

Try coral snow from zeovit system