Dinoflagellates - dinos a possible cure!? Follow along and see!

domination2580 · Feb 15, 2017

sowellj said:
Just for clarification, you have diatoms or dinoflagellates? Diatoms will typically go away on their own with time. If dinos, its a different matter. People have had some success with the following approaches.
1) Lights out for three days followed by reduced photoperiod
2) Dino X
3) Dosing peroxide
4) no water changes / dirty tank method
5) manual removal where possible
6) dosing metro
7) dosing vibrant
8) dosing bleach

I have not gone the bleach route yet, but have done various combination of the others to no avail. I may end up trying bleach but my concern is that even if I kill 100% of the dinos in the tank, I am just going to be dealing with them again in the future if I have system that is dino friendly. Maybe bleach is a long term viable dosing option, I don't know.

I will say that I have been dosing 30% hydrogen peroxide vs the 3% drug store variety, and it is much more effective. I just don't like it as a long term solution.

The only way you will be dealing with them again is if you introduce them back into your tank

lviva003 · Feb 15, 2017

So I have given up with the Dino's in my tank. I have started fresh dipping my corals and placed them inside a temporary tank. The freshwater dip has definitely hurt some of my corals, especially my sps. I will wait and see what happens if the Dino's return or not. This whole process has been a pain in the butt. I will wait and see what happens next.

sowellj · Feb 15, 2017

domination2580 said:
The only way you will be dealing with them again is if you introduce them back into your tank

I agree, I just don't have a good feeling for how prevalent they are. In other words, are dinos present in every system to some degree and only become problematic when biodiversity is low? Unfortunately there is know way to really 'know' the answer to this.

domination2580 · Feb 15, 2017

sowellj said:
I agree, I just don't have a good feeling for how prevalent they are. In other words, are dinos present in every system to some degree and only become problematic when biodiversity is low? Unfortunately there is know way to really 'know' the answer to this.

Dinos can come on a frag you get, ussually they are in cyst mode since the transportation. Once introduced into the tank, they will either stay cyst or grow. They will grow when the conditions are right. Essentially any tank no matter what light can have dinos...but some just lay dormant.....

endosidney · Feb 16, 2017

I have a 4mo old 120 reef. Fairly certain of dino infection and decided to dose metroplex. second day of dosing and tank is very cloudy. All inhabitants seem unaffected. anyone else see this effect when using same?

badd · Feb 16, 2017

endosidney said:
I have a 4mo old 120 reef. Fairly certain of dino infection and decided to dose metroplex. second day of dosing and tank is very cloudy. All inhabitants seem unaffected. anyone else see this effect when using same?

I dont see dinos. not saying you dont..

i just see a pretty good looking 4 month old tank..

endosidney · Feb 16, 2017

Thanks! Large colonies moved from old tank.....this is the best image I have of it.

badd · Feb 16, 2017

endosidney said:
Thanks! Large colonies moved from old tank.....this is the best image I have of it.

Now that looks like dinos.. and I bet it goes away at night.. does it get worse right after water change? you can test by getting sample.. shake it real well.. pour it thru paper towel in to another container.. then set under light.. dinos will reform and float as string again..

endosidney · Feb 16, 2017

it does fade at night for sure but does not go away. I have a neptune DOS doing auto water changes but have turned it off for the past 5 days. I suppose ive noticed a slight decline but unsure. Its about 97% on sand substrate with virtually none on rocks. There are some tiny spots on the backside of some coral skeleton but they are always there, even at night. I will try and get a sample and see if the strings reform.

puffy127 · Feb 16, 2017

The first time I did a 3-day dose of metro, I did not get cloudy water. That was several months ago. Recently I did a 10-day dose of metro and my water got very cloudy. My euphyllia looked really bad and eventually some of my hammers died as well as some montis. Not sure if metro caused the cloudiness or the coral die off caused the cloudiness. Large water changes and carbon did not remove the cloudiness for over 1 week. Metro had no effect on the dinos either. Eventually I got a uv sterilizer and it cleared my water right up within 1-2 days. The uv is actually taming my dinos too.

endosidney · Feb 16, 2017

That's interesting.....I'm actually shopping for a UV at the moment. Trying to figure out size, placement, etc in my cabinet. Which one did you go with? The Aqua UV is one I had many years ago and always seemed pretty solid. Thinking the 25 watt for my tank

puffy127 · Feb 16, 2017

I got the 24 watt green killing machine. Silly name, but was only $60 on amazon. It is submersible and comes with its own pump.

domination2580 · Feb 16, 2017

Taking and iraticating are two different things.

endosidney · Feb 16, 2017

So......yesterday a few small patches of what is presumably dino and second day of treatment with metroplex. This morning, cloudy water. Tonight, my 3 year old slimer colony has RTN at its base!!! I'd noticed it's normally and heavily extended polyps were not out today at all......sad

JerseyReefer · Feb 18, 2017

Lowefx said:
My current frustration. It's like a dusting on the sand bed. As snails move across it, it doesn't move. I do religious water changes 15-20g per week. 000ppm (changed all cartridges last month.)

120g
Temp 79
Sg 1.026
CA 460
Mg 1420
Kh 8
Potassium-320 (Low I know)
Zeovit sysytem
Bak-5drops Monday and Thursday
Start-.3 ml 2x daily
Cyano clean-5 drops daily
Zolites exchanged 1L on 1/24/17
Lights
2x150w mh 14k phoenix bulbs on 4hr
2x54w t5 ATI super atinic 8hrs
2x54w t5 ATI 1 purple plus 1 coral plus 6hrs
Weekly 15g-20g water change with Reef Crystals
Passive BRS carbon 3 cups, replaced every 2 weeks.
Tank was started in September 2016.
Flow-2x MP40's

Please help, I've tried all recommendations. I need a drastic measure, these diatoms go away at night then get worse during lights on. I need to start dosing amino's and kballance before my corals bleach out.
Feel free to PM me too

Do you only have it on the sand bed? This is my issue as well. I clean my bed every time I do a WC and it helps for like a day. Within 2-3 days it's back and probably worse. So a few days ago I systematically removed the top 1-2 inches of sand into a large 10 micron filter sock and then washed it in the sink. The amount of garbage that came out of it was insane and it took a while for the water to run clean. I put it back in the tank after and the tank looks brand new.

I'm going to monitor and probably will clean some sections I missed to get rid of any dinos hanging around. I'm hoping since they were isolated to the sand that there was something in there they were loving. I know this did not exterminate them but it significantly reduced the population and hopefully removed some of their food source. Fingers crossed it lasts.

Jolanta · Feb 18, 2017

I removed my sand when my dino problem started but they moved to my live rock, but not so much anymore. Im trying vibrant and blackout and those are the results from my sump
Before

After

I see a great improvement and its only 4 dosis of Vibrant and one 72 hours blackout. I hope it will stay this way.

Lowefx · Feb 18, 2017

Here is my current photo. 6 days after my weekly water change. It was clean 6 days ago. SMH.

JerseyReefer · Feb 18, 2017

Jolanta said:
I see a great improvement and its only 4 dosis of Vibrant and one 72 hours blackout. I hope it will stay this way.

I took a similar approach with Dr Tim's Refresh and Waste Away. This got them off my corals and rock. I'm hoping the steam clean of my sand will do the rest.

I'm resolving myself to the fact they can never be fully exterminated and can only be managed. Reading scientific research on them, unless you chlorinate them like a swimming pool or raise the temp to like 110F, some will survive. So since I don't want to kill everything in my tank it's about learning to live with them.