Dino confusion

[TheWalkman99]

My first saltwater tank is still going through it’s uglies phase about 3 months in now. Not a huge deal been dealing with diatoms and some hair alage.
But Tuesday I noticed Dino’s. I’ve been researching on best how to handle the problem before making changes. But I keep finding different answers and no real help. I was going to increase my water change frequency. But I heard that can make the problem worse.
Any help is appreciated.
Nitrates reading 0 I need to open my low range kit tonight
Need to open my phosphate kit tonight also.
Alk: 8.1
Salinity 1.026

 

[dansreef]

How did you come to the conclusion that you have Dinos?

A tank as young as yours is will go through some crazy ugly stages and blooms... I would stay patient and let the tank settle in and mature. It doesn't mean you don't have them. They can come in on just about anything.

The best way to determine 100% is to put a small sample under a microscope and determine if you have a mass of small independently moving organisms. If you do, you have Dinos. If not... most likely an algae, a bacteria or a diatom bloom.

 

[TheWalkman99]

It’s brown long and mucusy looking not in strands like a hair alage.

 

[hart24601]

Get those nitrate and phosphate kits out and make sure you are above 0 is what worked for me feeding or dosing until it rises above 0. I can tell if nutrients start to bottom out as I get strings.

 

[Smite]

Don't be surprised if you are 0-0 for nitrate and phosphate. Everytime I've encountered dinos that was the case. Dino blooms happen quickly and they strip the water of nutrients because of that quick uptake/growth.

3 day total blackout is my go to for treatment. Remove what you can with a water change. Fresh carbon for blackout to remove toxins. Skim very wet to remove die off. Kill refugium light. After blackout large water change, replace carbon and set skimmer and lighting back to normal.

Make sure your rodi is 0 TDS and bins are clean

 

[TheWalkman99]

Get those nitrate and phosphate kits out and make sure you are above 0 is what worked for me feeding or dosing until it rises above 0. I can tell if nutrients start to bottom out as I get strings.

This is where some of my confusion comes in I hear that if your 0&0 you’ll get Dino but also in creasing nutrients such as feeding or dosing NOPOX can increase the Dino.
I feel stuck

 

[hart24601]

This is where some of my confusion comes in I hear that if your 0&0 you’ll get Dino but also in creasing nutrients such as feeding or dosing NOPOX can increase the Dino.
I feel stuck

A lot will depend on the strain, increasing nutrients for my systems and the strain(s) I had, which I never confirmed, nutrients were they key 100%. Even if temporarily worse, getting any other sort of competition in there was key with higher nutrients and while not 100% effective there are many similar reports. I remember someone casually saying they never saw dinos in a system with hair algae. Im sure there are cases, but overall I think that is pretty accurate particularly with strains that thrive at low nutrient conditions.

You will see a lot of threads where people drive to reduce any scraps of nutrients but it exacerbates the dino problems until they are able to get competition and it's generally with detectable levels of N and P.