Dino’s

[jdpeters]

can’t imagine I’m the first person to bring this up and I see there’s a massive 7500 comment deep thread. My reef is 3.5 years old moderately stocked and under fed. I’ve had undetectable po3 and po4 for ever. Dino’s showed up possibly a year ago but in the last few months it’s gone 10x. My tank is over skimmed. I can’t afford a algae reactor or anything new really.

Can I siphon it out aggressively with a filter sock? Am I making a mistake running my tank with 0 po3 and po4? Should I turn off my skimmer? Peroxide? Blackout?

I perhaps should put more time into research like many have but I appreciate any help. I don’t want to have to tear down.

Thanks!

 

[ScottR]

can’t imagine I’m the first person to bring this up and I see there’s a massive 7500 comment deep thread. My reef is 3.5 years old moderately stocked and under fed. I’ve had undetectable po3 and po4 for ever. Dino’s showed up possibly a year ago but in the last few months it’s gone 10x. My tank is over skimmed. I can’t afford a algae reactor or anything new really.

Can I siphon it out aggressively with a filter sock? Am I making a mistake running my tank with 0 po3 and po4? Should I turn off my skimmer? Peroxide? Blackout?

I perhaps should put more time into research like many have but I appreciate any help. I don’t want to have to tear down.

Thanks!

I’ve never had dinos so I can’t really weigh in much. But, just curious, do you have much algae in your tank? Dinos seem to take over when the other stuff die out. I wonder if trying to get more algae and nutrients would slowly push out the dinos.

 

[jdpeters]

I’ve never had dinos so I can’t really weigh in much. But, just curious, do you have much algae in your tank? Dinos seem to take over when the other stuff die out. I wonder if trying to get more algae and nutrients would slowly push out the dinos.

I have a little bit of some what I would call turf algae in the more shadowed or backside of the rocks and I get film on the glass. That’s all.
It’s really upsetting but I just decided I’m gonna start combating it. It’s irritating the corals and it’s also pearling.

 

[ScottR]

I have a little bit of some what I would call turf algae in the more shadowed or backside of the rocks and I get film on the glass. That’s all.
It’s really upsetting but I just decided I’m gonna start combating it. It’s irritating the corals and it’s also pearling.

Good luck to you. I heard it’s a battle for sure. I guess changing your water chemistry where your corals won’t suffer would be a long term solution.

 

[Marlon C]

I just went through a battle with this demon also. It was depressing but didn't give up. I tried dosing peroxide that didn't help. In my opinion peroxide will also kill the other algea you want right now but not dino. So what I did was cut my light time to 6 hours. Lowered my flow didn't clean my glass. I started to feed heavily. My phos was 0 and. Nitrate was 4. A total imbalance. I bought a green killing machine uv sterilizer and for 3 days didn't see a change. 4 day I saw less. Then I got another uv sterilizer a 40 watt and now I dont sea dinos. Not all dinos are the same but the one I had started with an O forgot the name reminds me of oreo. What people here suggested was to find out what dino it was so I bought a 10 dollar microscope from Amazon and it worked. Remember nutrients are our friends. Right now my tank is running .1 phos and 7 nitrate and corals seem super happy. Best of luck but yeah find out what dino you have . Here are some pics and as you can see the first picture shows the sample packed with dino. The second micro shot doesn't show any but shows other algea or bio diversity. I see maybe 1 or 2 dino still hanging out but I know this other algea will out compete it. And honestly would rather have hair algea over dino any day. Also try to introduce biodiversity maybe another piece of live rock from someone else's tank

 

[ScottR]

+1 on getting a microscope.

 

[Sallstrom]

can’t imagine I’m the first person to bring this up and I see there’s a massive 7500 comment deep thread. My reef is 3.5 years old moderately stocked and under fed. I’ve had undetectable po3 and po4 for ever. Dino’s showed up possibly a year ago but in the last few months it’s gone 10x. My tank is over skimmed. I can’t afford a algae reactor or anything new really.

Can I siphon it out aggressively with a filter sock? Am I making a mistake running my tank with 0 po3 and po4? Should I turn off my skimmer? Peroxide? Blackout?

I perhaps should put more time into research like many have but I appreciate any help. I don’t want to have to tear down.

Thanks!

My guess is that you have all the answers already
You overskim and the nutrients are very low.
I've done the same thing in the past. Took a couple of month feeding more, skimming less and just let the tank get more "dirty".

Perhaps you could remove the skimmer cup(if you have the skimmer in the sump) or let the drain from the cup go back to the sump. That way you'll still have the gas exchange but not removing so much from the water.

 

[SynGraves]

Just started my battle. Been feeding heavily, dosed bacteria every 3 days, and seeded my tank with copepods and phyto to add some biodiversity... This is the first tank I set up without any live rock from a mature system and also the first tank I was diligent with regular water changes and water testing. I guess I kept it too clean... I saw my phosphates spike to 1ppm and ran some GFO which dropped the phos to 0 or undetectable. Thats when the dinos first appeared and got worse each day.

1 week in and I'm noticing less dinos on the glass compared to previous days.

 

[Marlon C]

Water changes can spike dino up

 

[brandon429]

also, gallons / volume of your tank matters tremendously in your fix options. how large is this tank

anyone with a smaller tank can just take it apart and clean it and beat the dinos that way, its why you don't see pico reefs w dinos invasions

pretty much any size tank that can drain its water off into a brute container and then be accessible for cleaning can mimic the same action/outcome

 

[skyrne_isk]

also, gallons / volume of your tank matters tremendously in your fix options. how large is this tank

anyone with a smaller tank can just take it apart and clean it and beat the dinos that way, its why you don't see pico reefs w dinos invasions

pretty much any size tank that can drain its water off into a brute container and then be accessible for cleaning can mimic the same action/outcome

so i’m in the boat here, no nitrates and .2 phosphate that comes and goes. if the goal is more silicates / nutrients, should I switch my topoff to dechlorinated tap water? when I think back to my earlier days of reefing, when I only had a cheap RO system from a hardware store I don’t ever remember having Dino’s or fighting anything and I definitely know I use tapwater for everything top off and otherwise . And I certainly had worse equipment back then. Even before I had the cheap RO system I don’t remember dino problems...now this 7 stage guy seems like it’s make the water too clean....

 

[skyrne_isk]

forgot to add, my chaeto looks terrible, has clear and green segments alternating - like the chloroplasts are all clumping together - it certainly doesn’t grow...

 

[nbd13]

Just started my battle. Been feeding heavily, dosed bacteria every 3 days, and seeded my tank with copepods and phyto to add some biodiversity... This is the first tank I set up without any live rock from a mature system and also the first tank I was diligent with regular water changes and water testing. I guess I kept it too clean... I saw my phosphates spike to 1ppm and ran some GFO which dropped the phos to 0 or undetectable. Thats when the dinos first appeared and got worse each day.

1 week in and I'm noticing less dinos on the glass compared to previous days.

What type of bacteria? Did you turn off your skimmer during bacteria dosing?

 

[SynGraves]

What type of bacteria? Did you turn off your skimmer during bacteria dosing?

Been dosing Dr. Tims nitrifying bacteria. No skimmer on my tank. Been seeing excellent results after bacteria and phyto dosing along with the copepods. I have also been filtering the water through a 10 micron filter sock every night and putting the filtered water back. Dinos are slowly clearing off rocks and sand bed. I actually have a few areas of clean white sand.

 

[skyrne_isk]

Been dosing Dr. Tims nitrifying bacteria. No skimmer on my tank. Been seeing excellent results after bacteria and phyto dosing along with the copepods. I have also been filtering the water through a 10 micron filter sock every night and putting the filtered water back. Dinos are slowly clearing off rocks and sand bed. I actually have a few areas of clean white sand.

How long have you been dosing Dr. Tims?

 

[SynGraves]

Today is two weeks dosing 2 cap fulls every 48 hours.

 

[skyrne_isk]

and what is your tank size?

 

[SynGraves]

10 gallon

 

[MaryL]

I'm having these same problems with my fishless coral QT tank. I swear I'm never going to get corals into my display. Does anyone know, will a peroxide dip or some other dip kill dinos on corals? Some of the corals are ready to go, but I don't want to transfer the dino's to the display. Ugh!

 

[skyrne_isk]

I'm having these same problems with my fishless coral QT tank. I swear I'm never going to get corals into my display. Does anyone know, will a peroxide dip or some other dip kill dinos on corals? Some of the corals are ready to go, but I don't want to transfer the dino's to the display. Ugh!

I feel pretty strongly that a peroxide dip and scrubbing with a toothbrush the affected areas will remove/kill the dinos on the coral. My general understanding is that dinos are present in every system, but so long as your setup doesn’t favor their growth, they won’t become rampant.