Dinos?

[scotty333]

Guys

Dinos have taken over my sand and rocks , last week I had a few small patches but this week I changed a few things that might have fuelled complete sand coverage

My temp went from a steady 26.5 - 27.5 after I played with the heater
My salinity was down to 1.024 so I raised it to 1.026
I turned my skimmer off for a day to try and raise nitrates from 0.5 + but don’t have a kit to know if it worked
Then I set my skimmer to off for 3 hours daily so I dose phyto
I got water on my maxspect psu so dried it out a few days and reinstalled


Now, I know it’s a lot of changes and difficult now to pinpoint but what do I do to get rid of them?
I’m waiting on my lfs to tell me if they have a microscope

 

[PharmrJohn]

How old is your tank and do the dinos dissappear at night only to reappear in the morning?

 

[scotty333]

6 years
Yes they disappear overnight and build back up in the morning- afternoon

 

[scotty333]

I’ve got a few blobs of cyanogen (red) in my sump

 

[PharmrJohn]

Gotcha. Well, do you have an interest in getting a UV set up? If not there are other ways of dealing with it. Here are some notes I took on the subject.......

1.) Looks like bubbly brownish snot that reduces or disappears at night then reappear when lights come on
2.) Not a quick fix. 2 months in, 2 months out.
3.) A properly tuned UV sterilizer is an end game solution on its own in some cases (when Dinos disappear and reappear). Pentair units best as they can be tuned for both bacteria and protozoa. 25W system good for up to 130G at 470 to 780G/hr flow rate to cycle water ever 10 to 15 minutes. It's a four step process

Step 1: Test NO3 & PO4. Double zeros might be at least part of the problem. Dinos outcompete bacteria in this case. Bring NO3 & PO4 up by decreasing fuge light, dialing back skimmer or feeding a bit more. You can add NO3 & PO4 using Brightwells Neo-Nitro and/or Neo-Phos. Good NO3 test kit is Nitrate NYOS and Hanna Low PO4 Checker. Stop carbon dosing or bio-pellets to let nutrients rise as well as there being indications that carbon may play a role with Dino outbreaks.

Step 2: Starting dosing Microbacter 7, Dr. Tim's Waste-Away or Vibrant. Can use together or dose on alternate days. Try one and scale up with dosing over time and if no result, move to next product.

Step 3: Physically remove as much as possible as often as possible, preferably daily. Those Colonies that live in sandbed or on rocks may not work well to siphon out (getting distributed to water column not good). Change out FS daily. Roller mats VERY effective, especially when combined with UV. Also a BRS Reactor with a 5 micron depth Sediment filter such an ROSave.Z (better than FS).

Step 4: Wrap tank for ZERO light for 3 to 4 days. Bacteria will colonize over Dinos. Should see progress in a matter of weeks.

 

[PharmrJohn]

My notes are a tad incomplete. With NO3 and PO4, just bring those up to above ZERO. Not much more. I got this info from a BRS video on the issue.

 

[ryanjohn1]

I’ve had very good success with just shutting off lights for 3 days and adding “good” bacteria.

 

[scotty333]

According to this article I should bottom out nutrients and turn lights off for 1-3 days
Question is do I turn sump light out too?

Dealing with Dinoflagellates - Reef Aquarium

dinoflagellates

www.reefaquarium.com

 

[scotty333]

Quite the opposite of what you say

 

[Dan_P]

Guys

Dinos have taken over my sand and rocks , last week I had a few small patches but this week I changed a few things that might have fuelled complete sand coverage

My temp went from a steady 26.5 - 27.5 after I played with the heater
My salinity was down to 1.024 so I raised it to 1.026
I turned my skimmer off for a day to try and raise nitrates from 0.5 + but don’t have a kit to know if it worked
Then I set my skimmer to off for 3 hours daily so I dose phyto
I got water on my maxspect psu so dried it out a few days and reinstalled


Now, I know it’s a lot of changes and difficult now to pinpoint but what do I do to get rid of them?
I’m waiting on my lfs to tell me if they have a microscope

Movie did not play on my oPad

 

[scotty333]

I’ll upload to YouTube

 

[scotty333]

So

Uv
Filter sock
Lights out
Run catbon
Nutrients above 0
Add bacteria
More?

 

[scotty333]

Notice a dead snail

 

[PharmrJohn]

That's about it. It MAY take longer than you expect, but that's normal for at least some sorts of Dinos. A UV unit should take care of the disappearing and reappearing pretty much immediately. Just do your research on flow rate through the UV and how much time per day to run it. I'm a tad weak on that aspect.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Guys

Dinos have taken over my sand and rocks , last week I had a few small patches but this week I changed a few things that might have fuelled complete sand coverage

My temp went from a steady 26.5 - 27.5 after I played with the heater
My salinity was down to 1.024 so I raised it to 1.026
I turned my skimmer off for a day to try and raise nitrates from 0.5 + but don’t have a kit to know if it worked
Then I set my skimmer to off for 3 hours daily so I dose phyto
I got water on my maxspect psu so dried it out a few days and reinstalled


Now, I know it’s a lot of changes and difficult now to pinpoint but what do I do to get rid of them?
I’m waiting on my lfs to tell me if they have a microscope

While appearance is a first indicator, its important though to identify the type of dino for most effective battle. Its biological deficiencies that are causing the dino structure and when we see zero readings, automatically we assume this is the cause but by the time you see zero numbers, its because the dino has consumed the po4 and no3 and are multiplying and in turn many dose no3 and po4 to bring numbers up not realizing they are feeding these flagellates even more.
No light is first key followed by the addition of bacteria to overcome the bad bacteria allowing them to thrive
Prepare by starting by blowing this stuff loose with a turkey baster and siphon up loose particles. Turn lights off (at least white and run blue at 10% IF you have light dependant corals such as SPS) for 5 days and at night dose 1ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide per 10 gallons for all 5 nights which works as an oxidizer. If you dont have light dependent coral- turn all lights off. During the day dose 1ml of liquid bacteria (such as micro bacter 7 or XLM) per 10 gallons. Clean filters daily and DO NOT FEED AMINO OR ADD NOPOX which is food for dinos, however you can feed coral, food which will help no3 and po4 to increase. If increasing nutrients, try to keep no3 to about 5 until you are done battling these cells.
Doing a daily siphoning will help greatly But . . . . . Siphoning will reduce nutrients , so siphon the water into/through a filter sock and save the water and return it back to tank. Obviously clean the filter sock each time.
You can feed fish as normal and if doing blackout, ambient light in room will work for them

 

[scotty333]

after a 3 days blackout I knocked them back a lot , tonight 10ltrs of pods are going in to see if that works , fingers crossed eh

 

[PharmrJohn]

after a 3 days blackout I knocked them back a lot , tonight 10ltrs of pods are going in to see if that works , fingers crossed eh

That's great. I absolutely LOVE solutions that are simple!

 

[scotty333]

I hope it works and will update as soon as it changes

 

[scotty333]

Dinos 90% gone , I think the biggest impact was getting my no3 to 8 and po4 to 0.08
Maybe the pods did some sweeping, I just done know