I have almost completely eradicated dinoflagellates overnight.

[Radman73]

Keep in mind their claim is that it's effective on 99% of dino's, not that it's effective 99% of the time. I don't know how many strains of dino's there are, but I'm guessing there could be hundreds or more. It could be effective against nearly all but not effective against 2-3 strains that are prevalent in our aquariums. Could be other factors in play as well.

It's another tool available to us to use. I may order some lol! UV has helped me, but I haven't had the "Wow, these things were gone the next morning" experience that we all hope for. Heck, I need to scope what's left just to make sure it's not another strain or something other than dino's at this point.

My status is I finally grew algae on the back wall instead of dino's. My snails have nearly completely devoured the algae leaving only coraline, so dino's are not growing back there. I still have to blow off my rocks daily, but they don't come back as bad as they did before. On the sand, they come and go with the light but there are a couple of patches dead center that stick around, though greatly reduced, with the lights off.

I just replaced my carbon yesterday so I want to see if that has any measurable effect. Also looking into the sea lettuce as a potential solution.

 

[Radman73]

So, this is a sample from the sand bed this morning. Definitely still some Dino’s in there. Not sure which kind though. I should have paid $50 for a cheap microscope instead of $15 for the total and complete piece of crap that this one is lol!

Any guesses as to what kind these are? Still Ostreopsis or something else?

 

[dwest]

So, this is a sample from the sand bed this morning. Definitely still some Dino’s in there. Not sure which kind though. I should have paid $50 for a cheap microscope instead of $15 for the total and complete piece of crap that this one is lol!

Any guesses as to what kind these are? Still Ostreopsis or something else?

Try to compare the shape and motion of the dinos in this link:
http://www.algaeid.com/identification/

 

[Radman73]

Try to compare the shape and motion of the dinos in this link:
http://www.algaeid.com/identification/

I compared a video I took the site and they look like amphidinium to me. Plus, they look smaller than the Ostreopsis that I identified before. So that's the sand based kind right? Puts me in a pickle as I have sand dwelling fish and plan on adding more. Not removing my sand. I still need to sample what's on the rocks and identify that kind.

 

[wesman42]

I compared a video I took the site and they look like amphidinium to me. Plus, they look smaller than the Ostreopsis that I identified before. So that's the sand based kind right? Puts me in a pickle as I have sand dwelling fish and plan on adding more. Not removing my sand. I still need to sample what's on the rocks and identify that kind.

If it is in fact, amphidinium, then you'll need to remove the sand or you'll never get rid of them. There's no magical cure, and UV is NOT effective on them because they don't make it into the water column at night.

 

[Radman73]

If it is in fact, amphidinium, then you'll need to remove the sand or you'll never get rid of them. There's no magical cure, and UV is NOT effective on them because they don't make it into the water column at night.

This thread seems to show some having success without removing the entire sand bed. Nowhere near ready to do that quite yet. If I did, I'd likely split the fish between the 60 cube and 75 fuge and just reboot the DT lol!

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/amphidinium-dinoflagellate-treatment-methods.365850/page-1

 

[wesman42]

This thread seems to show some having success without removing the entire sand bed. Nowhere near ready to do that quite yet. If I did, I'd likely split the fish between the 60 cube and 75 fuge and just reboot the DT lol!

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/amphidinium-dinoflagellate-treatment-methods.365850/page-1

Oh, I've never seen that thread. Well good luck on your endeavor!

I didn't feel like reading it but I'd assume they leave it at raising nutrients and hoping for the best

 

[Radman73]

Oh, I've never seen that thread. Well good luck on your endeavor!

I didn't feel like reading it but I'd assume they leave it at raising nutrients and hoping for the best

Some have had luck with dosing silicate, dosing microbacter 7, or other things. No fool proof solution found yet besides removing the sand entirely, waiting a long time for the dino's to die off, and then adding it back.

 

[CubsFan]

Ordered a jebao 55 watt uv. Should be here Friday. Removed my sand bed a while back. Did lights out in my sump for 4 days and it killed what was growing down there. Been running a reefbrite actinic over the display only for about a week. Dinos seem to have slowed to stopped.
I have pulled the rock and and scrubbed it on several occasions for a long time now. My blind love for the hobby won't let me remember how long. I'm hoping this does the trick. If it does, the OP is my hero.

 

[Salty.reef.girl]

One day of running the jebao 36w on my IM 30L. So far I dont see much change in the dinos on my sandbed but looks like my coral is starting to open up slightly so I'm hoping that means it's working.

 

[Radman73]

Microbacter 7, silicate, and more carbon on the way. And the battle continues lol! I'm just glad that I hadn't loaded my tank up with corals yet. Still dosing with H2O2. Currently I blast the sand with a turkey baster and then dump in 30ml of H2O2. In my mind, getting the dino's into the water column and then dosing makes sense lol! Likely has no effect, but falls into the "can't hurt, right?" category.

If continued H2O2, carbon, and now microbacter7 and silicate don't work I may order a small "The Package" from Tampa Bay Saltwater. Fresh live rock and live sand from the ocean should add the biodiversity I may be missing. I could toss it all into my nearly empty 75gal fuge and not have to worry much at all about unwanted hitchhikers making it into the DT.

@CubsFan I like how you describe it. Blind love for this hobby. I'm there with you. Love it too much to give up, too stubborn to break everything down and start over. We've gone from dino's being the kiss of death to some people successfully beating it. We're learning more as every month passes by. That alone encourages me to keep tinkering and trying new things in the hope we can develop a successful playbook for others to follow in the future and dino's will then be relegated to a "nuisance" instead of the death blow.

 

[Pennywise the Clown]

Keep in mind their claim is that it's effective on 99% of dino's, not that it's effective 99% of the time. I don't know how many strains of dino's there are, but I'm guessing there could be hundreds or more. It could be effective against nearly all but not effective against 2-3 strains that are prevalent in our aquariums. Could be other factors in play as well.

It's another tool available to us to use. I may order some lol! UV has helped me, but I haven't had the "Wow, these things were gone the next morning" experience that we all hope for. Heck, I need to scope what's left just to make sure it's not another strain or something other than dino's at this point.

My status is I finally grew algae on the back wall instead of dino's. My snails have nearly completely devoured the algae leaving only coraline, so dino's are not growing back there. I still have to blow off my rocks daily, but they don't come back as bad as they did before. On the sand, they come and go with the light but there are a couple of patches dead center that stick around, though greatly reduced, with the lights off.

I just replaced my carbon yesterday so I want to see if that has any measurable effect. Also looking into the sea lettuce as a potential solution.

I'm in very much the same boat. The UV has got rid of probably 90% of my Prorocentrum but the remaining 10% is proving difficult to shift.
I've had my sand bed under the microscope where there are brown patches (this is always along the edge of the glass and rocks) and there are what looks like it was once a dino but are irregular and misshapen. Hopefully these are dead dinos. There are also a few whole dinos but not in any numbers.

 

[Salty.reef.girl]

Day 2 running the jebao 36w on my IM 30L. Looks like the dinos are a little bit better today maybe like 35% better than yesterday. My corals are also starting to look a little bit better but some of them are still a little closed up.

 

[CubsFan]

Ok. The jebao 55 watt is online. Running it with a tunze 1073.008. I had a quiet one 1200 that I purchased over a year ago and never unboxed. Planned to use that. Sure enough, it did not work. Luckily I had the tunze sitting around.

 

[OMGitsManBearPig]

So I felt like I just discovered fire and was about to bestow the benefits of my supposed genius on the forum when I found this thread. My secret? I installed a UV in my sump.

UV changed everything about the quality of my 6 month old 75 gallon. Not much to add to what's been said on the many pages of this excellent thread, here. Just throwing in my support. I had a bunch of brownish crap re-growing every day (could be dino... but probably just cyano in a young tank,) and weekly water changes of 40% and big scrub downs were only moderately helping.

Popped in a UV from Home Depot pond department and connected it to a medium/small hydor universal pump, dropped pump in the sump, and plugged it all in.

Next morning... it's like I swapped out the tank water for air... It's "there's nothing there" clear. I could prop up a book on one end of the tank and read it through the 4 foot water column It's. Crystal. Clear.

Three weeks and a bunch of tests to keep an eye on parameters later, I've decided this UV clarifier is never getting turned off. Call me sold.

 

[Velcro]

I finally upgraded to a "real" UV. After going to change the bulb in my second jebao (first one started leaking) and seeing all the black residue that was settled in it from the cheap plastic breaking down, i decided it was time to buy a quality unit.

The reason I was changing the bulb in the jebao is that I think it might have spectrum shifted, because I was having a new outbreak of ostreopsis after I had just wiped it out with the UV. I found a phillips bulb that should fit the jebao but I ended up breaking it. Perfect time to get a real UV.

I went with a pentair 40 watt, which is significantly more narrow and longer than the jebao 55w so I think the added dwell time should equal out, or improve results over the jebao.

 

[wesman42]

I finally upgraded to a "real" UV. After going to change the bulb in my second jebao (first one started leaking) and seeing all the black residue that was settled in it from the cheap plastic breaking down, i decided it was time to buy a quality unit.

The reason I was changing the bulb in the jebao is that I think it might have spectrum shifted, because I was having a new outbreak of ostreopsis after I had just wiped it out with the UV. I found a phillips bulb that should fit the jebao but I ended up breaking it. Perfect time to get a real UV.

I went with a pentair 40 watt, which is significantly more narrow and longer than the jebao 55w so I think the added dwell time should equal out, or improve results over the jebao.

Any update on the results thus far? Is the current outbreak managed?

 

[Velcro]

Any update on the results thus far? Is the current outbreak managed?

It seems to be working much better. I think the reason is better quality bulb as well as much higher flow. I did a one day blackout after installing it and they are 90% gone even after a day of lights back on.

 

[CherBear811]

It seems to be working much better. I think the reason is better quality bulb as well as much higher flow. I did a one day blackout after installing it and they are 90% gone even after a day of lights back on.

That's great to hear! Are you saying higher flow through the new UV? I forgot where you are now in terms of your setup. What size UV and what is the flow through it at this point? Are you running 24/7 or just at lights out?

 

[Velcro]

That's great to hear! Are you saying higher flow through the new UV? I forgot where you are now in terms of your setup. What size UV and what is the flow through it at this point? Are you running 24/7 or just at lights out?

40w aqua UV running what I would estimate to be around 400 gallons per hour