Dinos! I need advice

[mrbacony]

I have been battling dinos since the first of July. I have tried multiple things. Two different times I have done the Dr. Tim's 3 day blackout followed with Refresh and Waste Away dosing. I have lowered my lights for a couple of weeks where only the blues come on and that is only for about 4-5 hours a day. I have tried dosing Dino-X multiple time. I have scrubbed the rocks clean many, many times and allowed the filtration to carry away the dinos.
Nothing has worked. I have two tanks and I am about to the point of moving the fish, and a few corals over to my 130 gallon tank and then just dump the 32 gallon and boil the rocks. If I move the corals, what are the chances the dinos will spread in my 130? It is perfectly balanced and I do not want to risk ruining it as well.
Any other remedies I could try that have not already been tried?

 

[sixty_reefer]

Could you post your po4, no3 and a tank picture?

 

[Lavey29]

Have you corrected the problem that caused your dinos in the first place?

 

[mrbacony]

The nitrate and especially the nitrate have been a roller coaster. I let them get to 0 and stay there for too long at first. That is what got me into this mess. Here are pics and screenshots of the last several phosphate and nitrate readings.

 

[Uncle99]

Do they leave the hard surfaces at night, then, reappear in the morning?

 

[Lavey29]

The nitrate and especially the nitrate have been a roller coaster. I let them get to 0 and stay there for too long at first. That is what got me into this mess. Here are pics and screenshots of the last several phosphate and nitrate readings.

Did you confirm dinos via microscope? I have seen worse infestations. I would cut lights to 6 hours with blue and UV only no whites. Get a diverse cleaner crew and siphon up what you can weekly. Seems like your nitrates and phosphate fluctuate but at least you have numbers. Dose phytoplankton daily and add pods if you don't see any. Dose PNS probio which is a natural bacteria supplement to remove organic waste which is feeding your dinos. This is not an overnight fix. Give it a month or 2 with these steps.

 

[mrbacony]

Do they leave the hard surfaces at night, then, reappear in the morning?

For the sand it does. The rocks it seems to hang around on.

 

[mrbacony]

Did you confirm dinos via microscope? I have seen worse infestations. I would cut lights to 6 hours with blue and UV only no whites. Get a diverse cleaner crew and siphon up what you can weekly. Seems like your nitrates and phosphate fluctuate but at least you have numbers. Dose phytoplankton daily and add pods if you don't see any. Dose PNS probio which is a natural bacteria supplement to remove organic waste which is feeding your dinos. This is not an overnight fix. Give it a month or 2 with these steps.

I have tried pretty much everything that you have mentioned. I realize it’s not an overnight fix. But this has been going on for three months. Read the original post to see all the steps I’ve taken.

 

[sixty_reefer]

I can’t see any signs of Dinoflagellates, there is growth of GHA that is common as the nutrient from one organism will be recycled by other if not removed from the system

 

[xabo]

See post #2

Dino ID help

Hey everyone, Got my first dino attack. I have a 10 gallon nano reef. Just started noticing three days ago what seems to be dinos. Phosphates 0 / Nitrates 5 / Ca 440 / DKh 9. Attached are some photos of what I could take with my phone over a small cheap light microscope. I’ll try to get better...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Lavey29]

I have tried pretty much everything that you have mentioned. I realize it’s not an overnight fix. But this has been going on for three months. Read the original post to see all the steps I’ve taken.

3 months or longer is very common for nuisance algae. Have you dosed PNS probio? I doubt it. Have you stayed consistent with the steps I mentioned, probably not because you expect the problem to be gone quickly. Nothing good in this hobby happens fast. I wish you the best of luck in getting rid of it.

 

[mrbacony]

I can’t see any signs of Dinoflagellates, there is growth of GHA that is common as the nutrient from one organism will be recycled by other if not removed from the system

I have looked at them under a microscope and it is defintely dinos

 

[mrbacony]

3 months or longer is very common for nuisance algae. Have you dosed PNS probio? I doubt it. Have you stayed consistent with the steps I mentioned, probably not because you expect the problem to be gone quickly. Nothing good in this hobby happens fast. I wish you the best of luck in getting rid of it.

I have been dosing Dr Tims Waste Away and Re-Fresh. Those are supposed to be bacteria that help eliminate the waste. Is PNS probio different than the Dr. Tim's bacteria?

 

[Lavey29]

I have been dosing Dr Tims Waste Away and Re-Fresh. Those are supposed to be bacteria that help eliminate the waste. Is PNS probio different than the Dr. Tim's bacteria?

I am not familiar with the other products but PNS helps eliminate organic waste which to me contributes to nuisance algae. I dose it once a week and my filter socks stay completely white now. I change it maybe one a week or 10 days. I have no nuisance algae in my tank other then a little light diatoms from the left over silicate in my RODI. The PNS and daily phytoplankton dose keep my system healthy and balanced and I went through various ugly stages also the first year.

 

[Uncle99]

For the sand it does. The rocks it seems to hang around on.

So, if they come of& the sand, then they are dinos, golden type.
They are visiting your tank because, something is out whack, normally zero in phosphate, nitrate or both. This condition is where Dino’s do very well.

Dinos are not difficult to control.
You must first put nitrate and phosphate in the normal bands and salinity and Alk should not budge. This condition favors the replication of the good guys, and, over a month or two will outcompete the bad guys, namely, Dino’s and cyanos.

Dinos replicate fast, so manual removal is required to keep there numbers low all the way through the process, until, they slowly disappear from the sand with lights on.

A light dusting of the sand bed through a fine filter sock every day after lights on, keep the water and return to DT so we keep nutrients, instead of removing them.

Change/Clean filter floss, sock every day before lights on.

UV helps a ton in stopping their reproductive systems.

No chemicals are required, just water chemistry stability and time.

Don’t know what’s on your rock, but it will go over time too.

 

[mrbacony]

So, if they come of& the sand, then they are dinos, golden type.
They are visiting your tank because, something is out whack, normally zero in phosphate, nitrate or both. This condition is where Dino’s do very well.

Dinos are not difficult to control.
You must first put nitrate and phosphate in the normal bands and salinity and Alk should not budge. This condition favors the replication of the good guys, and, over a month or two will outcompete the bad guys, namely, Dino’s and cyanos.

Dinos replicate fast, so manual removal is required to keep there numbers low all the way through the process, until, they slowly disappear from the sand with lights on.

A light dusting of the sand bed through a fine filter sock every day after lights on, keep the water and return to DT so we keep nutrients, instead of removing them.

Change/Clean filter floss, sock every day before lights on.

UV helps a ton in stopping their reproductive systems.

No chemicals are required, just water chemistry stability and time.

Don’t know what’s on your rock, but it will go over time too.

What kind of light schedule would you do? I have been doing blues and UV only for about 4-5 hours a day. Should I keep it at this level, or increase / decrease?

 

[vetteguy53081]

The nitrate and especially the nitrate have been a roller coaster. I let them get to 0 and stay there for too long at first. That is what got me into this mess. Here are pics and screenshots of the last several phosphate and nitrate readings.

Im seeing diatoms and hair algae- not dino which mainly show a slimy snot like appearance with tank bearing Zero nitrate and phosphates. Pulling what you can by hand, then reducing white intensity and hours of light with addition of snails such as : Astrea, turbo grazers, nerite, cerith and about 10 Carribean blue leg hermits will address this

 

[Uncle99]

What kind of light schedule would you do? I have been doing blues and UV only for about 4-5 hours a day. Should I keep it at this level, or increase / decrease?

I did not change my light settings, this would upset my corals.
Bring chemistry absolutely stable with the smallest flux in 24 hours as possible.
Keep it there, day after day, especially Alk, and that stuff will go forever, or until chemistry fluxes out of whack.
While your waiting, take a toothbrush to those rocks weekly
Maybe a few Astrea snails or Mexican turbos. Redirect them to those most affected areas when they go astray.
The best algae is also the slowest to populate.

 

[Tathamet]

I had some develop the day after water change day a few months back on my old tank. It was the type that disappeared over night (ostreo or something I think?).

I did a few things and had them visually gone within a week of the first sighting.

day 1 I noticed a tiny brown bubbly patch and immediately knew what it was (I had them before when I first setup my tank 3 years ago). I still waited till morning to confirm it disappeared over night. It did and came back during daylight on day 2.

day 2 the patch quadrupled in size and there were a bunch of new patches on the sand bed. Did some tests and phosphates got a bit too low. I couldn’t find my bottle of PO4 so I dosed a tiny amount of guillards f2 fertilizer to at least get some po4 back in there. The f2 also contains silicates which feed diatoms that supposedly can also help outcompete the Dinos. I turned my skimmer off on this day as well.

day 3 maybe 3/4 of the sandbed was covered in dinos. Luckily I didn’t have too many issues with it taking hold on the 3 year old rock work. It mostly just grabbed on at the base of the rocks where it met the sand but didn’t climb too much. At this point I borrowed my brothers mini uv sterilizer and tossed it in the display. I also started dosing 1ml of h2O2 per 10gallons of tank water in the morning (a few hours before lights on) when everything was suspended in the water column.

day 4 the whole sandbed was completely covered. I continued with the uv and h2O2.

day 5 - it was either this day or day 6 and the Dinos just didn’t come back at all when the lights came on. It was weird because it looked like a full on outbreak the day before and the next day they were just gone lol. I think I continued with h2O2 for a couple extra days and left the uv on an extra week just to be safe. Haven’t had them back since. Luckily I didn’t have to mess with my lights to fix the issue.

 

[mrbacony]

Im seeing diatoms and hair algae- not dino which mainly show a slimy snot like appearance with tank bearing Zero nitrate and phosphates. Pulling what you can by hand, then reducing white intensity and hours of light with addition of snails such as : Astrea, turbo grazers, nerite, cerith and about 10 Carribean blue leg hermits will address this

I did have nitrate and phosphate at 0 for too long which got me into the mess. I looked at them under the microscope and confirmed that it was Dino’s, at least initially. I have scrubbed those rocks at least 15 times, but they keep coming back. I will give it a little more time and try to keep everything stable as possible