Time to restart?

[Marine430]

Well I have been dealing with Dino's for a while. No matter what I try I am spending more and more money and causing more problems. I have tried vibrant for a few weeks, I have done water changes, 3 day black out, adjusted my light schedule, got a skimmer, upgraded my cuc, and used microbactor7. Seems like the more I do the higher my nitrates get and the darker my sand gets. I have had a reef tank for 15 years and never had a problem like this. I have gone from 10 gal to 20 gal to 40 gal without a problem. The things I have done to my tanks when I was younger should have given me problems earlier on in life. Examples would be never doing water changes, using tap water, using play sand, as my sand.
Since I upgraded to my 40 gal I have had nothing but ongoing problems. I got brand new dry sand, brand new dry rocks, and only use Rodi fresh and salt water. What do I do?

 

[DeniableArc]

G’day from Australia! The only thing that knocked my Dino’s was a oversized uv light plumed directly to display. Good luck

 

[Tamberav]

Well I have been dealing with Dino's for a while. No matter what I try I am spending more and more money and causing more problems. I have tried vibrant for a few weeks, I have done water changes, 3 day black out, adjusted my light schedule, got a skimmer, upgraded my cuc, and used microbactor7. Seems like the more I do the higher my nitrates get and the darker my sand gets. I have had a reef tank for 15 years and never had a problem like this. I have gone from 10 gal to 20 gal to 40 gal without a problem. The things I have done to my tanks when I was younger should have given me problems earlier on in life. Examples would be never doing water changes, using tap water, using play sand, as my sand.
Since I upgraded to my 40 gal I have had nothing but ongoing problems. I got brand new dry sand, brand new dry rocks, and only use Rodi fresh and salt water. What do I do?

Get a microscope (they make something inexpensive for phones) and try to get an ID. Different strains have different treatments.

If it mostly goes away at night then add a UV.

 

[Chefwheredyougo]

When I had dinos the only thing that helped even a little bit was fewer water changes and turning off my skimmer. Once my nutrients rose it started dying back pretty rapidly, but I couldn't save the majority of my livestock in time. Dinos thrive in low nutrient water, let your nutrients get up some. Fewer water changes, and the UV mentioned above should help.

Also, dinos is a bacteria, isn't vibrant for algae? I've read that some people dosing vibrant for GHA or other algaes get cyano or dinos after the algae goes away. I have no experience with it

 

[Marine430]

Get a microscope (they make something inexpensive for phones) and try to get an ID. Different strains have different treatments.

If it mostly goes away at night then add a UV.

They most definitely go away at night and come back when the lights are on.

 

[Marine430]

When I had dinos the only thing that helped even a little bit was fewer water changes and turning off my skimmer. Once my nutrients rose it started dying back pretty rapidly, but I couldn't save the majority of my livestock in time. Dinos thrive in low nutrient water, let your nutrients get up some. Fewer water changes, and the UV mentioned above should help.

Also, dinos is a bacteria, isn't vibrant for algae? I've read that some people dosing vibrant for GHA or other algaes get cyano or dinos after the algae goes away. I have no experience with it

This is what I read:
Cloudy/hazy Water- 1 dose
Diatoms - 1-2 doses
Cyanobacteria - (Yes, it will outcompete another bacteria) 1-5 doses
Dinoflagellates - 2-5 doses
Bubble algae - 3-8 doses
Hair Algae - 3-5 doses (depending on species of hair and how bad the infestation is)
Turf Algae - 8-20 doses ( again, depending on species and how bad the infestation is)
Bryopsis - 6-30 doses ( again, depending on species and how bad the infestation is)

 

[Tamberav]

They most definitely go away at night and come back when the lights are on.

Then if it is dino...add a UV. It should zap them when they go into the water column and night.

 

[Aquavaj]

I beat my outbreak with h2o2 dosing, cutting lights to 4hrs, and an oversize UV. But looks like now I have a mild case of cyano. smh

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

#1. Dont do ANTHING else until you determine what type of dino you have. You can do this with a $30 microscope.

Things NOT to do with dinoflagellates..
1. Water changes
2. Gfo
3. No VIBRANT!
4. Anything else that reduces nutrients.

Dinos are beat by competition!

 

[Marine430]

#1. Dont do ANTHING else until you determine what type of dino you have. You can do this with a $30 microscope.

Things NOT to do with dinoflagellates..
1. Water changes
2. Gfo
3. No VIBRANT!
4. Anything else that reduces nutrients.

Dinos are beat by competition!

So stop water changes
Take out chemi pure blue
Stop the vibrant
That is your recommendation?
Can I ask why?

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

There is an excellent thread on Dinos on this forum. I just got done successfully battling them. (Ostreoporis). Dinos come about when nutrient levels are extremely low. For whatever reason they are more adept at surviving in low nutrient conditions. It is believed, and makes sense, that when nutrient levels are at their lowest other organisms decline and allow the dinos to become dominant.

When you do a water change, you are essentially feeding them nutrients. They love new water.

Vibrant is very well known to combat alage but it also cause bacterial activity bloom that can crater nutrient levels. And thus..dinos.

This is one of those cases where the age old advice about algae, etc, is "reduce nutrients" is not appropriate.

The species of dino I have (ostreoporosis) can encyst to survive harsh conditions. That is why black outs and h2o2 wont work.

I have a 120 watt UV unit. So I basically nuked them with that. It knocked them back quite a bit. I then added rocks from another system (biodoversity) and added phyto plankton..which helps the corals and some of the species of phyto plankton feed on the dinoflagellates. Lastly, I ran carbon as the species I have are toxic and I wanted to absorb those toxins.

Does that make sense?

Here is the thread I spoke of:

Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

I don't know what percentage of folks had luck battling dinos with any of the methods in the old Dino thread but it's obviously a very low percentage, so I'd like refresh folks on the natural alternatives and lay out three areas of info: some of the factors that contribute to a dino outbreak...

www.reef2reef.com

I would say good luck, but you dont need luck, just a better understanding.

 

[brandon429]

removed

 

[brandon429]

.

 

[jda]

You will probably do more by buying some real live rock than all of those chemicals. Dinos were never a huge deal until people started putting sterlie stuff into their tanks instead of living things.

 

[Marine430]

There is an excellent thread on Dinos on this forum. I just got done successfully battling them. (Ostreoporis). Dinos come about when nutrient levels are extremely low. For whatever reason they are more adept at surviving in low nutrient conditions. It is believed, and makes sense, that when nutrient levels are at their lowest other organisms decline and allow the dinos to become dominant.

When you do a water change, you are essentially feeding them nutrients. They love new water.

Vibrant is very well known to combat alage but it also cause bacterial activity bloom that can crater nutrient levels. And thus..dinos.

This is one of those cases where the age old advice about algae, etc, is "reduce nutrients" is not appropriate.

The species of dino I have (ostreoporosis) can encyst to survive harsh conditions. That is why black outs and h2o2 wont work.

I have a 120 watt UV unit. So I basically nuked them with that. It knocked them back quite a bit. I then added rocks from another system (biodoversity) and added phyto plankton..which helps the corals and some of the species of phyto plankton feed on the dinoflagellates. Lastly, I ran carbon as the species I have are toxic and I wanted to absorb those toxins.

Does that make sense?

Here is the thread I spoke of:

Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

I don't know what percentage of folks had luck battling dinos with any of the methods in the old Dino thread but it's obviously a very low percentage, so I'd like refresh folks on the natural alternatives and lay out three areas of info: some of the factors that contribute to a dino outbreak...

www.reef2reef.com

I would say good luck, but you dont need luck, just a better understanding.

I have not read the article yet but I can say my nitrates have been sky high, I have only used vibrant 3 weeks now. Is it possible somehow 2+ years ago I didn't clean my dry rock and sand good enough? When I do vacuum my sand it does get really dirty. I vacuum 5 gallonsat a time once a month. I am OK with getting more live rock but I didn't want to mess with my 2+year old reef. I am going to need to move rock's around to make room.

 

[Chefwheredyougo]

Are you sure its dinos your battling then?

 

[Marine430]

You will probably do more by buying some real live rock than all of those chemicals. Dinos were never a huge deal until people started putting sterlie stuff into their tanks instead of living things.

I am OK with getting more live rock but I didn't want to mess with my 2+year old reef. I am going to need to move rock's around to make room.

 

[Marine430]

2/7 photos

 

[Marine430]

Photos from today 5/7

 

[Cell]

I think for awhile now it seems like, "It's Dino's" is the go to response for any and all remotely stringy or even just persistent, unknown algae. But as it has always been, the only surefire way to diagnose dinoflagellates is under a microscope. I do think the filter/shake/observe method is helpful though.