Losing battle w/ Dinos

[Just John]

This document by @taricha should help you ID them. Make sure to read the text descriptions too:

 

[ggNoRe]

I feel your pain dinos really kicked my butt as well. Thankfully I have reached the other side. I as well tried the everything under the sun approach as they were very persistent and stubborn. If I were to do it all over again I would have just install the UV(what size UV are you running? What's your total system water volume? How have you plumbed it in? GPH?), do consistent manual removal (it's dreadful I know), and after 3 months or so if I saw no end in sight possibly do the Elegance Corals Regimen. This Regimen is very effective but can be harsh on some corals as they don't react well to peroxide. Also it is a complete reset on your systems bacteria basis so it kind of resets you to 0 in a way. So I would consider this to be a nuclear option of sorts one step short of breaking down and rebuilding the system. Hope any of this could be of help and best of luck.

 

[reefapple4328]

18w on a 149g redsea 525. Putting through about 400 gallons per hour.

I am half tempted to go nuclear, I've lost a good deal of high dollar pieces. If it wasn't so in convenient I would consider a break down and start fresh. I'm just attached to what is left and I don't have any room for another tank.

 

[vetteguy53081]

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

Prepare by starting with a water change and blow this stuff loose with a turkey baster and siphon up loose particles.
Turn lights off (at least white and run blue at 10-15% IF you have light dependant corals) for 5 days and at night dose 1ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide per 10 gallons for all 5 nights. If you dont have light dependent coral- turn all lights off.
During the day dose 1ml of liquid bacteria (such as bacter 7 or XLM) per 10 gallons.
Clean filters daily and DO NOT FEED CORAL FOODS OR ADD NOPOX as it is food for dinos.
Day 5,, you can start with blue lights - ramping up and work your white lights up slowly

What test kits are you using ?

 

[reefapple4328]

Prepare by starting with a water change and blow this stuff loose with a turkey baster and siphon up loose particles.
Turn lights off (at least white and run blue at 10-15% IF you have light dependant corals) for 5 days and at night dose 1ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide per 10 gallons for all 5 nights. If you dont have light dependent coral- turn all lights off.
During the day dose 1ml of liquid bacteria (such as bacter 7 or XLM) per 10 gallons.
Clean filters daily and DO NOT FEED CORAL FOODS OR ADD NOPOX as it is food for dinos.
Day 5,, you can start with blue lights - ramping up and work your white lights up slowly

What test kits are you using ?

Red sea for everything but phosphate. For it I use API. And cross check mag alk and Calc with the apex trident.

 

[131696]

Clean sand bed to many nutrients in there but do Alittle at a time looks that where it coming from by the way the tank looks.dont need no chemicals just rountine maintenance on sand or to het rid of them in a few weeks use a UV sterilizer Better then chemicals

 

[vetteguy53081]

Red sea for everything but phosphate. For it I use API. And cross check mag alk and Calc with the apex trident.

See if you can get a second phos test with a NON-Api kit from a trusted LFS

 

[bobnicaragua]

My dino situation improved after adding several pieces of liverock, some with sponges, and turning the heater up to 82 f. Dino x pretty much wiped out my acros, but not my dinos. I also turned down lights and shortened photoperiod to 8 hours. UV sterilizer probably helped a little. I went through 4 blackouts. Dinos lasted maybe 9 months. After dinos I got cyano...

 

[ffmurray]

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

Yikes!

 

[dwest]

They seem to be moving and more oval shaped

Thinking ostreopsis now based off newer scope shots.

 

[dwest]

I know you said you run UV in and out of the tank and I believe you also mentioned the mega thread. Is your UV large enough (at least 1 watt per 3 gallons) and are you running slow enough (about 2-3 tank volumes per hour). Often, but not always, the right UV setup can eliminate ostreopsis rather quickly.

 

[dwest]

18w on a 149g redsea 525. Putting through about 400 gallons per hour.

I am half tempted to go nuclear, I've lost a good deal of high dollar pieces. If it wasn't so in convenient I would consider a break down and start fresh. I'm just attached to what is left and I don't have any room for another tank.

See my earlier comments about UV. I personally would try a 55 jebao as a temporary (6 months or so) solution. Unless you want to go permanent UV with a more expensive brand.

 

[Smoke-Town]

The UV sterilizer is by far your best tool. Took me 6-9 months to beat dinos and I got a handle on it without uv but once I added the uv it was a game changer... BTW I still have bits on my sand but the uv does wonders. And definitely keep your phosphates where they are. Don't lower them. Dinos don't need them to flourish and you want other algaes and bacteria to compete with them and they need the po4.

I saw and interesting idea to run green and red lights to promote algae growth. That's a unique approach I've never heard of people trying but sounds like it might have some merit. But at the end of the day UV is absolutely worth the investment

 

[ggNoRe]

18w on a 149g redsea 525. Putting through about 400 gallons per hour.

I am half tempted to go nuclear, I've lost a good deal of high dollar pieces. If it wasn't so in convenient I would consider a break down and start fresh. I'm just attached to what is left and I don't have any room for another tank.

For me the Jebao 55W on my 200G system worked wonders.

 

[rantipole]

I had a horrible problem with dinos a little more than a year ago. I almost gave up on the tank. Then I found this thread: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/i-beat-dinos-you-can-too-heres-how-to-do-it.776086/

I followed the instructions there precisely. Then, a week later, I did the whole process again. I also added a UV sterilizer. Since then, I haven't had any dinos and my tank has been mostly doing great.

Good luck! I know how heartbreaking dinos can be.

Cheers,
rant

 

[SlugSnorter]

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...

wouldn't dinos poison them? they poisoned mine...

 

[SlugSnorter]

if they dissapear at night use UV. Killed them overnight for me

 

[reefapple4328]

Appreciate all of the responses and guidance from everyone. I've always been more of a spectator on this forum since I started in the hobby for the irrational fear of being ridiculed for asking a dumb question lol...

I think after reading through the response I am going to try vetteguy's method. On top of running two 18w UV's(until the jebao 55w comes in the mail)

I am also going to "borrow"some live rock from a local friend who is also in the hobby to stick in the sump. Can't hurt right?

Let you all know how it goes!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Appreciate all of the responses and guidance from everyone. I've always been more of a spectator on this forum since I started in the hobby for the irrational fear of being ridiculed for asking a dumb question lol...

I think after reading through the response I am going to try vetteguy's method. On top of running two 18w UV's(until the jebao 55w comes in the mail)

I am also going to "borrow"some live rock from a local friend who is also in the hobby to stick in the sump. Can't hurt right?

Let you all know how it goes!

One other thing ive noticed. The tank is adjacent to a window which is defeating the blackout. UV from sun will penetrate blinds/shades/curtains. Place Black construction paper from Walmart on the end of tank facing window- will reduce light drastically

 

[chadfish]

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

Have you tried filtering them? They are about 20-50 microns. You could try filtering at 5-10 microns.

What is your UV set at? Dinos are highly resistant to UV so you either need a high power bulb, low flow or both. More likely or not you are killing everything BUT the dinos.