Losing battle w/ Dinos

[reefapple4328]

I have been struggling with dinos since about December and feel like I have tried everything.

Dino x

Dirty'ing the tank

3 day black out (while dosing dino x)

Running uv(I've always ran uv) as well as re plumbing it to hang off of the display.

Tried raising the temp. To +/-84⁰ F

I've been dosing beneficial bacteria, phyto and copepods regularly

And short of holding an exorcism just about every other method I have found online with no real headway.

I think I have narrowed it down to Ostreopsis dinos based off of the stringy, bubbly nature of them and looking at them under a microscope. Photos attached.

Anyone have any other ideas? I'm starting to see why people give up on the hobby after dealing with them...

Parameters are as follows..

Nitrates - 5-10ppm
Phosphate - .75 to 1
Calc - 420
Alk - 11
Mag 1400ish
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Ph hovers between 8.2-8.3 daily

 

[blaxsun]

Ring cowries may help to make a dent - but you'll probably need 20 or so. They typically like sticking to the rockwork, so they may not do a lot with the substrate. Do you have any conches or anything else that cleans your sand bed?

Barring that, there's always the fish exorcism...

 

[Lavey29]

You try dosing silicate to bring on a diatom bloom?

 

[ffmurray]

Have you tried sucking/ scrubbing it off? What about lowering your phosphate?

 

[ffmurray]

I’m dealing with red Dino’s, I get a lot of afternoon light through a window. I’m going to get some covers

 

[reefapple4328]

Have you tried sucking/ scrubbing it off? What about lowering your phosphate?

Every day or two I turkey baste and scuba rocks and have been siphoning through a 10 micron sock once a week. And I haven't tried lowering the phosphate. I was under the assumption that it was better to keep it elevated?

 

[reefapple4328]

You try dosing silicate to bring on a diatom bloom?

I have, but tell me more about the diatom bloom? If I kicked dinos in this process only to mistake diatoms for dinos after they went away I'm going to scream...

 

[reefapple4328]

Ring cowries may help to make a dent - but you'll probably need 20 or so. They typically like sticking to the rockwork, so they may not do a lot with the substrate. Do you have any conches or anything else that cleans your sand bed?

Barring that, there's always the fish exorcism...

Will ring cowries eat the dinos? And no coach's, dinox seemed to have put a hurting on my cleanup crew.

 

[Sebastiancrab]

Turn off your green and red lights. It worked for me.

 

[ffmurray]

What about TDS of your RO water?

 

[ffmurray]

Every day or two I turkey baste and scuba rocks and have been siphoning through a 10 micron sock once a week. And I haven't tried lowering the phosphate. I was under the assumption that it was better to keep it elevated?

I try and keep mine lower than .5 but still detectable.

 

[ffmurray]

Going to Ty this… till I get some sort of shutters

 

[Kongar]

It took me just short of a year before they stopped plaguing my tank. Patience. Three months is nothing. Hardest thing about dinos is what works for me, may not work for you, or the dinos that other person has. I would:

• Read the mega thread
• Get a positive id
• Three day blackout to knock them down
• If a type that responds to uv, then plumb in a properly sized uv
• Dose to keep nutrients up
• Daily manual removal
• No cleaning up algae
• No disturbing the sand
• Loads and loads of patience
• If there’s no algae at all in the tank, and things have been 100% completely overrun, and you’re losing corals - the. I’d give it a dinox regimen. Follow the directions exactly. Be prepared to lose some corals from dinox.
• Keep repeating for a year. Strive for biodiversity. Go get a chunk of live rock and throw it in there even temporarily to get your diversity up. Don’t do anything that majorly shocks the system.

 

[dwest]

The scope shot is unclear but it looks like it could be chrysophytes. @taricha

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

The scope shot is unclear but it looks like it could be chrysophytes. @taricha

Do they move or look like perfectly round balls that stay still and have space between them?

 

[blaxsun]

Will ring cowries eat the dinos? And no coach's, dinox seemed to have put a hurting on my cleanup crew.

Off the rocks, yes. Not sure about the substrate.

 

[Lavey29]

I have, but tell me more about the diatom bloom? If I kicked dinos in this process only to mistake diatoms for dinos after they went away I'm going to scream...

Diatoms outcompete dinos and kill it off then when you eliminate the silicate source diatoms simply fade away.

 

[reefapple4328]

Do they move or look like perfectly round balls that stay still and have space

 

[reefapple4328]

They seem to be moving and more oval shaped

 

[reefapple4328]

What about TDS of your RO water?

‍ just changed all of the cannisters and am reading 8ppm.. buying a 5th stage tonight