How effective/safe is dino x?

[DrMMI]

I've had enough of these dinos and nothing I do seems to work long term (rasing nutrients, multiple 3 day blackouts, running only blue lights, siphoning sand daily, blowing off rocks, UVs plumbed to and from display, adding pods, dosing microbacter, Dr. Tim's recipe for dinos, dosing silica, and most recently the rasing temp method). At this point, I'm willing to try something a little more drastic. For those of you who have used dino x, what has your experience? Did it get rid of the dinos for good? Did you suffer any livestock loss as a result of it? I know sea urchins and clams can be sensitive to it so I've already moved my urchins to another tank. As far as SPS, I just have a few acro frags and some Monti caps.

 

[Reeferstin]

I've had enough of these dinos and nothing I do seems to work long term (rasing nutrients, multiple 3 day blackouts, running only blue lights, siphoning sand daily, blowing off rocks, UVs plumbed to and from display, adding pods, dosing microbacter, Dr. Tim's recipe for dinos, dosing silica, and most recently the rasing temp method). At this point, I'm willing to try something a little more drastic. For those of you who have used dino x, what has your experience? Did it get rid of the dinos for good? Did you suffer any livestock loss as a result of it? I know sea urchins and clams can be sensitive to it so I've already moved my urchins to another tank. As far as SPS, I just have a few acro frags and some Monti caps.

Tank is full of SPS only took 3 doses of dino X to completely killed all dinos i tried UV adding pods and raising nutrients as well corals are doing great

 

[jacobc1199]

Both of my tanks went through a dino phase that went away with DinoX. For me it took two courses of treatment for it to go away completely. I didn't notice any livestock loses but I did get bacterial blooms so a UV sterilizer might be useful to use. Good luck!

 

[DrMMI]

Good to know! It's supposed to arrive tomorrow. I'm looking forward to finally being dino free!

 

[SMSREEF]

Good to know! It's supposed to arrive tomorrow. I'm looking forward to finally being dino free!

How is Dino X working for you?

 

[DrMMI]

I'm 5 doses in as of last night. I was a little conservative with the first 3 doses and I had my UV off because I didn't know you could run it while using Dino X. I also still had my refugium light on for 12 hours with the chaeto in there. So I wasn't seeing any difference. Then I turned off the refugium light, took the chaeto out, completely blacked out the tank, and upped the dose a little. I'm on my last 12 hours of the blackout and there's no sign of dinos when I look with a flashlight. However, I'm being cautiously optimistic because blackouts usually get rid of them for 1-2 weeks, but then always come back. I'm hoping the combination of the blackout and the dino x will finally do them in. I do notice that the tank and skimmate are pretty smelly though so maybe that's all the dead dinos. As far as live stock, the ones I can see with the flashlight look ok.

 

[SMSREEF]

I'm 5 doses in as of last night. I was a little conservative with the first 3 doses and I had my UV off because I didn't know you could run it while using Dino X. I also still had my refugium light on for 12 hours with the chaeto in there. So I wasn't seeing any difference. Then I turned off the refugium light, took the chaeto out, completely blacked out the tank, and upped the dose a little. I'm on my last 12 hours of the blackout and there's no sign of dinos when I look with a flashlight. However, I'm being cautiously optimistic because blackouts usually get rid of them for 1-2 weeks, but then always come back. I'm hoping the combination of the blackout and the dino x will finally do them in. I do notice that the tank and skimmate are pretty smelly though so maybe that's all the dead dinos. As far as live stock, the ones I can see with the flashlight look ok.

Good luck and thank you for the update!

 

[DrMMI]

How is Dino X working for you?

Just an update. It didn't help. I started out dosing pretty conservatively but it wasn't helping at all. So I kept upping the dose and I guess I ended up overdosing. It severely irritated my euphyllias to the point that they're all retracted, I lost 3/4 of my acro frags and two of my Monti's. Even my zoa's and leathers are seriously irritated.

 

[SMSREEF]

Just an update. It didn't help. I started out dosing pretty conservatively but it wasn't helping at all. So I kept upping the dose and I guess I ended up overdosing. It severely irritated my euphyllias to the point that they're all retracted, I lost 3/4 of my acro frags and two of my Monti's. Even my zoa's and leathers are seriously irritated.

That’s a bummer, I’m sorry you lost corals and others are not doing well.

I have Dino-x in my cabinet unopened because I’m afraid to use it. The UV took care of my Dino’s. But now I’ve got chrysophytes. definitely not as bad as the Dino’s, but a pain in the rear and make tank look horrible.

I think it’s just the dead Marco rock that is causing problems because the 2 pieces of live rock in the tank look great.

 

[DrMMI]

That’s a bummer, I’m sorry you lost corals and others are not doing well.

I have Dino-x in my cabinet unopened because I’m afraid to use it. The UV took care of my Dino’s. But now I’ve got chrysophytes. definitely not as bad as the Dino’s, but a pain in the rear and make tank look horrible.

I think it’s just the dead Marco rock that is causing problems because the 2 pieces of live rock in the tank look great.

I actually bought a piece of live rock from my LFS to try to increase the diversity and now that's covered in dinos too.

 

[paul01609]

I used it once and all my Xenia died

 

[SMSREEF]

What kind of Dino do you have?
Any pic from under microscope?

what are you keeping Nitrate and Phosphate levels at?

 

[DrMMI]

What kind of Dino do you have?
Any pic from under microscope?

what are you keeping Nitrate and Phosphate levels at?

I supposedly have large cell amphidium confirmed by a few different people on here. Nitrates have been anywhere from 5-20. If it drops to 2ppm, I dose nitrate to get it back up to at least 5. Phosphates have been high around 0.25-0.5ppm ever since I took my gfo offline about 4 months ago.

 

[DrMMI]

I used it once and all my Xenia died

Funny thing is that my xenia are the only ones still going strong. I wouldn't have minded if some of it had melted away. It's getting a little out of control.

 

[SMSREEF]

I supposedly have large cell amphidium confirmed by a few different people on here. Nitrates have been anywhere from 5-20. If it drops to 2ppm, I dose nitrate to get it back up to at least 5. Phosphates have been high around 0.25-0.5ppm ever since I took my gfo offline about 4 months ago.

Oh No! That’s the difficult one as I read about it on here. I’m not good with microscope ID’s but there are some really good mibrobe experts on R2R that helped ID mine too.
I was lucky and had Ostreopsis so UV and increasing nutrients got rid of them pretty quickly.
There is a good amphidium thread with lots of people collaborating. Hopefully someone comes up with a cure that will help you out.

 

[Chayo]

Any updates?

 

[DrMMI]

Any updates?

Dino x didn't help at all. It killed my torch, acro frags, and Montis. Stressed out the rest of my euphyllia. I'm pretty sure it also killed my cleaner shrimp, peppermint shrimp, and brittle star. Eventually whatever wasn't killed did recover. What finally worked for my dinos was doing elegant corals dino treatment 3 weeks in a row and adding a bunch of live rock covered in gha from an 8 year old reef tank that was being broken down. I was good until I did a series of large water changes to bring my nitrates down to over 100 to less than 10 in a week. Dinos were coming back but no where near as bad as they used to be. I don't know if the 80w pentair UV had anything to do with that or the fact that I never let my nutrients get to 0. Before it gets any worse, I'm doing a 3 day blackout followed by another course of elegant corals treatment. Moral of the story, I'm never using dino x again.

 

[taricha]

thanks for the report @DrMMI

 

[Kindanewtothis]

Tank is full of SPS only took 3 doses of dino X to completely killed all dinos i tried UV adding pods and raising nutrients as well corals are doing great

So dinos did not come back? My tank is full of dinos for 2 months now. When I remove them they come back in a day or 2. Phosphate and nitrate are high. Added pods and dosing phyto, doesn't work....

Thinking about trying dino-x but many argue against it saying that it will also kill the good stuff. So it worked good for you?

 

[Reef Puncher]

So dinos did not come back? My tank is full of dinos for 2 months now. When I remove them they come back in a day or 2. Phosphate and nitrate are high. Added pods and dosing phyto, doesn't work....

Thinking about trying dino-x but many argue against it saying that it will also kill the good stuff. So it worked good for you?

im on dose 8 of dino X. initially i was being conservative with treatment and only dosing 4ml per 26 gallons. directions say 5. i had no issues. i started being an idiot and dosing 7ml because im stupid, and its def hurting my favia and xenia. all my inverts and fish are fine. It did kill everything beneficial, like copepods, phyto, diatoms, but it is also definitely killing my dino lol. dino is all but gone. the question now is, should i keep going and for how long. i think imma cut back on dose to 4ml per 26gallons again and do a couple more treatments.