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How to fight dino, again... (1 Viewer)

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Matyas

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I broke down my old biocube after it was overwhelmed with dinoflagellates. I killed everything and sterilized the tank. I then started a new system of 75 gallons that was running smooth for a few months until i noticed a familiar sight. Dinos! ugh! Due to the chaeto, live rock, and efficient skimmer the dinos are not covering the entire tank, only the bottom and back glass. Any successful eradication methods out there? So far the livestock is unaffected.
 
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Matyas

Matyas

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I was also considering to purchase a UV sterilizer but am unsure about size and success.
 

RR-MAN

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I was also considering to purchase a UV sterilizer but am unsure about size and success.

Not yet-don’t waste your money on equipment you don’t need as of now. [emoji106]

Did you start the tank with dead rock?

How many fish are in the tank? What’s your feeding regiment?

How many hours per day do you run your light? What type of lighting?

Do you buy water or have an ro/di unit?

What are you using for flow?
 
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Matyas

Matyas

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Not yet-don’t waste your money on equipment you don’t need as of now. [emoji106]

Did you start the tank with dead rock?

How many fish are in the tank? What’s your feeding regiment?

How many hours per day do you run your light? What type of lighting?

Do you buy water or have an ro/di unit?

What are you using for flow?

Thanks.

Tank was started with dry fiji rock and seeded with 2 pieces of live rock from a fish store.

I have one clown, one foxface, one canary blenny, and two sapphire damsels. All juveniles. I feed them frozen rods food once a day, about 20 ml defrosted

I run my t5 12 hrs and my halide 6 hrs. I am building an reefbrite style led strip which will be on for about an hour at night for coral pop. Par reaches 250 at sand and 600 at top of rock structure

I have a BRS 5 stage rodi

I am using one jebao pp15 and one jebao pp8 both on wave 1 at about 30% power. Acros and sps are growing well in that flow.

I am running a fuge with chaeto, as well as a somatic 60 skimmer pulling tons of gunk
Ill send a pic later
 

Tstew32

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Hey bud, does your rodi have a TDS meter on it? Also, is that light schedule with the 6 hours included in the total 12 hours?


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Matyas

Matyas

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Hey bud, does your rodi have a TDS meter on it? Also, is that light schedule with the 6 hours included in the total 12 hours?


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Thanks. No tds meter on the unit itself. I am running 12 hrs total, of which 6hrs are MH t5, and 6 just t5
 

frankc

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I battled them for years until I got some larger fish and turned the skimmer off. Yes, it seems counterintuitive, but the only way I found to beat them was to increase nutrients. Of course, they likely will be replaced with other types of algae using that method, but to me anything is better than dinos.
 

Cody

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I battled them for years until I got some larger fish and turned the skimmer off. Yes, it seems counterintuitive, but the only way I found to beat them was to increase nutrients. Of course, they likely will be replaced with other types of algae using that method, but to me anything is better than dinos.
Exactly this. Steve is having issues with dino now so I gave him a bunch of cyano to introduce into his tank. I have a theory that it out competes dino, plus it's much easier to manage the less hostile cyano.
 
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Matyas

Matyas

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Should i try to add more fish or turn off the skimmer? I tested my nitrates and of course they are undetectable.
 

frankc

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I wouldn't add fish just for the purpose of fighting dinos, but if you were planning to add some anyway, go for it. I would turn off the skimmer until the dinos are gone.
 

RR-MAN

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Thanks.

Tank was started with dry fiji rock and seeded with 2 pieces of live rock from a fish store.

I have one clown, one foxface, one canary blenny, and two sapphire damsels. All juveniles. I feed them frozen rods food once a day, about 20 ml defrosted

I run my t5 12 hrs and my halide 6 hrs. I am building an reefbrite style led strip which will be on for about an hour at night for coral pop. Par reaches 250 at sand and 600 at top of rock structure

I have a BRS 5 stage rodi

I am using one jebao pp15 and one jebao pp8 both on wave 1 at about 30% power. Acros and sps are growing well in that flow.

I am running a fuge with chaeto, as well as a somatic 60 skimmer pulling tons of gunk
Ill send a pic later

I have never dealt with this type of algae...most of it is due to excessive nutrients in the water columns.

Check out reefbum’s video regarding Dino’s:

 

steveb

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Exactly this. Steve is having issues with dino now so I gave him a bunch of cyano to introduce into his tank. I have a theory that it out competes dino, plus it's much easier to manage the less hostile cyano.

Yeah the nutrients in my frag tank went to 0 while I was sick & in the hospital. Gave the little turds the perfect environment to flare up.

Between your cyano and some that I apparently had in the tank + raising the PO4 up + a 24watt UV, I am seeing the Cyano take over the egg crate now. Still seeing some Dino's but not the extent I was.

I just got some 1µ filter socks for the sump that should help with the floaters.

@Matyas what are your nitrate + phosphate levels at?

Do you have the ability to run a bluer 20k spectrum?
 
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Matyas

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Yeah the nutrients in my frag tank went to 0 while I was sick & in the hospital. Gave the little turds the perfect environment to flare up.

Between your cyano and some that I apparently had in the tank + raising the PO4 up + a 24watt UV, I am seeing the Cyano take over the egg crate now. Still seeing some Dino's but not the extent I was.

I just got some 1µ filter socks for the sump that should help with the floaters.

@Matyas what are your nitrate + phosphate levels at?

Do you have the ability to run a bluer 20k spectrum?

Thanks steve. Good to hear yours is dying down. I might be seeing mirages but after feeding super heavy for a few days i see fewer bubbles forming.

I cant run a bluer spectrum bulb at the moment, but if thats whats needed i can order from brs. Current bulb is 10k

Salinity-1.025
Mg-1300(Salifert)
Cal-400(Salifert)
Alk-8.3(Salifert)
Po4-0.03(Salifert)
No3-between 5and 0 but more toward 0
 

steveb

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I would try to get the NO3 to 5 and PO4 to 0 .1. Do it over several days. It will darken/brown out your SPS and may cause some HA and Cyano (which is what you want).

How many watts is your MH and is it single ended or double ended (I may have a 20k one laying around)?
 
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Matyas

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DE 250w MH. Par hits about 300 20” down midday.
Ill work the nutrients up
 
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Matyas

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Update:

After heavy double feedings and new fish my tank is almost clear of dinos. I now see cyano covering most of the spots where there was dino. I am hesitant to do a water change as i heard it can reignite these guys, but my bottom is getting quite ugly from poop and cyano...
So far so good!
 
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Just be sure to keep your nitrates and phosphates up above 0 or they will likely come back. I fought them for 3 months and beat them, but let my nutrient levels fall to undetectable when testes for a couple months. I noticed a couple small patches of dinos start to develop in lower flow areas as a result. I raised my nitrates back up to 5 and phosphates back up to .03-.08, and turned the UV back on for a few weeks. I also made the biggest change to the feeding ever. I stopped rinsing the frozen foods I fed my fish. I wanted more bio-diversity in the tank not only to strengthen my fish and coral's immune systems, but to naturally out compete the dinos and cyano for available resources. Along with my standard food mix I started adding in fresh oyster, mussels, etc. and minced whole silversides. I wanted to introduce a broader variety of food as well as more natural bacterial cultures to the tank environment. For the food prep I crack open the shellfish mince them up juice and all along with the silversides and add all that together with my frozen food and a bit of tank tater to make a slurry. Then put the mix in some silicone mini ice-trays and freeze it for later use. Since shifting to heavy feeding with my own mix and keeping the nutrients slightly elevated, I have not seen any return of the dinos, or cyano at all in either of my tanks.
 

steveb

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Update:

After heavy double feedings and new fish my tank is almost clear of dinos. I now see cyano covering most of the spots where there was dino. I am hesitant to do a water change as i heard it can reignite these guys, but my bottom is getting quite ugly from poop and cyano...
So far so good!

How is the battle going?


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Matyas

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Thanks steve. Bottom glass is clean, other than a little inevitable detritus. Still a few strings and bubbles along the glass and back wall but so far so good. I purchased seachem flourish products to boost nutrients, which are as follows
Po4- 0.07
No3-10
How is your battle?
 

steveb

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Mostly cyano now. I need to check my N&P. All corals are out into other frag tanks.


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