Dinos and low nutrients

[Davisc1293]

Ive been battling dinos for awhile now. At first i just stopped dosing aminos, coral food and turned the whites down which did help.... after 5 days of that i did a 3 day blackout... which significantly knocked them back but now im still seeing some patches towards the end of the night and im considering rasing the phosphates and nitrates as they are above zero but barley detectable. Im afraid this may just feed the dinos more and make it worse, ive heard both.

 

[blaxsun]

You can try some ring cowries.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Ive been battling dinos for awhile now. At first i just stopped dosing aminos, coral food and turned the whites down which did help.... after 5 days of that i did a 3 day blackout... which significantly knocked them back but now im still seeing some patches towards the end of the night and im considering rasing the phosphates and nitrates as they are above zero but barley detectable. Im afraid this may just feed the dinos more and make it worse, ive heard both.

This program works:
Prepare by starting with a water change and blow 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 bacter 7 or XLM) per 10 gallons.
Clean filters daily and DO NOT FEED CORAL FOODS OR ADD NOPOX as it is food for dinos.
Day 5,, you can start with blue lights - ramping up and work your white lights up slowly

 

[Davisc1293]

This program works:
Prepare by starting with a water change and blow 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 bacter 7 or XLM) per 10 gallons.
Clean filters daily and DO NOT FEED CORAL FOODS OR ADD NOPOX as it is food for dinos.
Day 5,, you can start with blue lights - ramping up and work your white lights up slowly

Thank you, I did this for three days. do you suggest waiting a day or two before restarting the blackout to give the coral a little time to recoup from its three day blackout? They did have light today for the first time since Saturday.

 

[Spare time]

Just dose phosphate and go from there. That should have been the first step. I don't think anyone here knows why dinos seem to be most prevalent with 0.00 phosphates, but there definitely is a decent correlation.

 

[Spare time]

Dry rock, 0 nitrate, white light, and coral foods, carbon dosing, etc. don't appear to have any relation to dinos as 99% of the dino threads here are unified by 0 phosphate. If any of those were strongly related to dinos, then more dinos threads should pop up without 0.00 phosphate. I can easily trigger a dino outbreak in my tank if I strip the tank of phosphate (by not dosing phosphate, stopping coral foods, etc.)

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thank you, I did this for three days. do you suggest waiting a day or two before restarting the blackout to give the coral a little time to recoup from its three day blackout? They did have light today for the first time since Saturday.

Yes

 

[vetteguy53081]

Dry rock, 0 nitrate, white light, and coral foods, carbon dosing, etc. don't appear to have any relation to dinos as 99% of the dino threads here are unified by 0 phosphate. If any of those were strongly related to dinos, then more dinos threads should pop up without 0.00 phosphate. I can easily trigger a dino outbreak in my tank if I strip the tank of phosphate (by not dosing phosphate, stopping coral foods, etc.)

Dry rock, phos at .03 and Orpheks at medium white intensity and no Dino in my tank

 

[Davisc1293]

Since my last post, I've just been running blue lights which has helped more then anything so far in fact the dinos are almost undetectable except in a few low flow areas between rocks However my battle with dinos has lead to a drastic reduction in nutrients from daily syphoning, daily filter replacement, and the addition of bacteria's. Of course i should have been checking nitrates but adamantly was not. went from 5ppm to around .5 and caused a few corals to bleach. Would the addition of nitrates be ok. I'm less worried about the dinos and more concerned about the coals survival at the moment.

 

[ncjeepguy75]

Howdy...I too am currently battling dinos...Had a little bit of hair algae that died off and it looks like it just sent the tank haywire...I am starting today with @vetteguy53081 regime of 10-15% blue light only (because I have light dependent corals/anemones), dosing microbacter during the day, and H2O2 after lights out...We shall see!...Will keep ya' posted!
Parameters:
pH 7.7-7.9
salinity 35.5-35.9
alkalinity 9.75
phosphate .08
nitrate 12.8
calcium 450
magnesium 1500 (boosted to help rid hair algae)