Question on dino

[Picassoclown]

Hey everyone. I have a quick question about Dino. I am starting to see it in my tank in the very early stages. As suspected, my tank has very low nutrients. I just finished cycling it on June 8th. I am not doing any water changes at the moment and just vacuum out the Dino (into the filter socks. I am not removing any water and replacing) and if I see some I scrub it off the rocks. The question I have is, my protein skimmer has a massive amount of sludge it's been sucking out of the water column, would it be okay to dump that back into one of my filter socks to feed bad nutrients into the tank and help stabilize the Dino and promote the growth of the good bacteria/algae? Thank you in advance.

 

[Who me?]

No. You do not want to put anything from your skimmer cup back into the tank.

Your tank is still really new, and this is just part of the extended cycle. Even though the nitrogen cycle may be complete, there's still a lot more stages the tank needs to go through as it matures.

Best to just wait it out, you can dose beneficial bacteria like microbacter 7 /microbacter clean, which will help remove some of these uglies while your tank matures. you don't say if there's anything in the tank right now, but if you're nutrients are low, you may want to turn your protein skimmer off for a little while.
Are you testing?
What are the parameters?

 

[Who me?]

Also, if your cycle completed over a month ago, why aren't you doing regular water changes at this point?

 

[FishOkay]

Nooo why would you dump that nasty stuff back in to your tank! Add bacteria if you want to try and out compete the dinos.

 

[Spare time]

Do you know the phosphate level in the tank? Are you sure it's dinos and not cyano? Cyano is far more common in new tanks imo and can often be confused with dinos in the early stages of cyano. Dinos typically only arise when you sustain 0.00 phosphate for an extended period of time, which is often not the case in new tanks. However, cyano (which can thrive in 0 nitrate environments and preferable in those with phosphate elevated), is very common in new tanks.

Regardless, don't dump the skimmate back in. If anything, put the skimmer on a timer (off during the daytime) (assuming you have 0.00 phosphates as indicated by a quality test kit)

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hey everyone. I have a quick question about Dino. I am starting to see it in my tank in the very early stages. As suspected, my tank has very low nutrients. I just finished cycling it on June 8th. I am not doing any water changes at the moment and just vacuum out the Dino (into the filter socks. I am not removing any water and replacing) and if I see some I scrub it off the rocks. The question I have is, my protein skimmer has a massive amount of sludge it's been sucking out of the water column, would it be okay to dump that back into one of my filter socks to feed bad nutrients into the tank and help stabilize the Dino and promote the growth of the good bacteria/algae? Thank you in advance.

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

Dino tends to occur when the aquarium water reaches an extraordinary cleanliness, in which most microorganisms perishes for lack of food. With no other organisms that can stop them, this type of dinoflagellate can multiply so fast that when we realize it's late and we will find an aquarium full of brown and ochre slime suffocating fish and invertebrates. Dinoflagellates possess chloroplasts enabling them to synthesize their own food even under a minimal amount of light. Some species can form cysts called pellicles which allow them to remain in the aquarium for months although we have completely sterilized or kept in complete darkness. Once the light or the right conditions come back, they will reappear and thus problems.

 

[Picassoclown]

Hi everyone. Thank you so much for the replies! I shall not add the stuff from the protein skimmer back into the tank. Im sorry, I forgot to mention that I have 14 frags of zoanthids in there right now. I do not have any other corals in there. I know it's Dino because it looks snotty and I see the bubbles growing out of the pockets. I have not done any water changes in about 10 days, due to my parameters being very low. I do not want to remove any water and anything beneficial that would make the Dino go crazy. At the time of seeing the Dino about 5 - 6 days ago, my ammonia and nitrite were at 0, phosphate was 0.01, and nitrate at 5. As of today, phosphate is at 0.13 and nitrate is at 2ppm. Nitrite and ammonia are still at 0. PH is currently 7.8-8.0.

I also have decreased my light intensity on my Neptune skies to a max strength of 25% . I have also been moving the sand around and covering up the small pockets of Dino I see. At this stage, I do not think it will explode, as I am staying on top of it and remove as much of it as I possible can every day or 2. At this point should I refrain from doing water changes for a few more weeks and do manual removal of the Dino's? I was going to start back up with some water changes around end of August when I introduce my next set of corals. I have a 215 gallon system, so I would start off very small with the changes, maybe 15-20 gallons a week.

 

[Who me?]

Hi everyone. Thank you so much for the replies! I shall not add the stuff from the protein skimmer back into the tank. Im sorry, I forgot to mention that I have 14 frags of zoanthids in there right now. I do not have any other corals in there. I know it's Dino because it looks snotty and I see the bubbles growing out of the pockets. I have not done any water changes in about 10 days, due to my parameters being very low. I do not want to remove any water and anything beneficial that would make the Dino go crazy. At the time of seeing the Dino about 5 - 6 days ago, my ammonia and nitrite were at 0, phosphate was 0.01, and nitrate at 5. As of today, phosphate is at 0.13 and nitrate is at 2ppm. Nitrite and ammonia are still at 0. PH is currently 7.8-8.0.

I also have decreased my light intensity on my Neptune skies to a max strength of 25% . I have also been moving the sand around and covering up the small pockets of Dino I see. At this stage, I do not think it will explode, as I am staying on top of it and remove as much of it as I possible can every day or 2. At this point should I refrain from doing water changes for a few more weeks and do manual removal of the Dino's? I was going to start back up with some water changes around end of August when I introduce my next set of corals. I have a 215 gallon system, so I would start off very small with the changes, maybe 15-20 gallons a week.

You mentioned your nutrients are low but you don't mention what they are testing at?

If you could post those results that would help out tremendously.

Also, I strongly believe dosing microbacter 7 and microbacter clean will get you through this.

 

[Picassoclown]

You mentioned your nutrients are low but you don't mention what they are testing at?

If you could post those results that would help out tremendously.

Also, I strongly believe dosing microbacter 7 and microbacter clean will get you through this.

Hi reefer. I did mention what the nutrients were at; at the time I saw the first signs of Dino, ammonia was at 0 along with nitrite. Nitrate was at 5 and phosphate was at 0.01. I am using Red Sea and hanna testing equipment for everything. As of today my phosphate is at 0.13 and nitrate is at 2ppm. Is this the information you are looking for? I will absolutely check out some of that microbacter 7! Thanks for the help!

 

[Who me?]

Hi reefer. I did mention what the nutrients were at; at the time I saw the first signs of Dino, ammonia was at 0 along with nitrite. Nitrate was at 5 and phosphate was at 0.01. I am using Red Sea and hanna testing equipment for everything. As of today my phosphate is at 0.13 and nitrate is at 2ppm. Is this the information you are looking for? I will absolutely check out some of that microbacter 7! Thanks for the help!

Yes sorry Don't know how I missed that info lol.
So the numbers look good, I would just try to wait it out and dose some bacteria to help outcompete and clear the rock.

 

[Picassoclown]

Yes sorry Don't know how I missed that info lol.
So the numbers look good, I would just try to wait it out and dose some bacteria to help outcompete and clear the rock.

Lol, not a problem. What about the water changes? Should I still be holding off on them until Dino's start to die down?

 

[Who me?]

I would stop the skimmer, at least not run all day. And start the water changes.

 

[Picassoclown]

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

Dino tends to occur when the aquarium water reaches an extraordinary cleanliness, in which most microorganisms perishes for lack of food. With no other organisms that can stop them, this type of dinoflagellate can multiply so fast that when we realize it's late and we will find an aquarium full of brown and ochre slime suffocating fish and invertebrates. Dinoflagellates possess chloroplasts enabling them to synthesize their own food even under a minimal amount of light. Some species can form cysts called pellicles which allow them to remain in the aquarium for months although we have completely sterilized or kept in complete darkness. Once the light or the right conditions come back, they will reappear and thus problems.

Wow. That's some fantastic information! I actually screenshoted this and printed it out lol. I have pretty much done about 50% of what you said so far from my own past knowledge. I feel confident I am on the right track! I have heard of dipping corals in hydrogen peroxide, but never dosing it to the tank, that is very interesting! Have you used this in the past for yourself? Any pictures of this? That would awesome to see how that worked out!

 

[Picassoclown]

I would stop the skimmer, at least not run all day. And start the water changes.

Will do, I will do a 4 hour cycle with the protein skimmer and start doing small water changes again in the 15-20 gallon range. Thanks! I also just ordered some of the microbacter 7

 

[Picassoclown]

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

Dino tends to occur when the aquarium water reaches an extraordinary cleanliness, in which most microorganisms perishes for lack of food. With no other organisms that can stop them, this type of dinoflagellate can multiply so fast that when we realize it's late and we will find an aquarium full of brown and ochre slime suffocating fish and invertebrates. Dinoflagellates possess chloroplasts enabling them to synthesize their own food even under a minimal amount of light. Some species can form cysts called pellicles which allow them to remain in the aquarium for months although we have completely sterilized or kept in complete darkness. Once the light or the right conditions come back, they will reappear and thus problems.

For a 215 gallong system, would 1ml of the microbacter 7 for 5 days be enough?

 

[Who me?]

For a 215 gallong system, would 1ml of the microbacter 7 for 5 days be enough?

You're going to want to do about 20 to 25ml of microbacter 7 daily for 7 to 10 days.

 

[Nemosis]

If you have a UV sterilizer, run it at night when the dinoflagellates are suspended in the water collumn. You should see results the following morning if you have your tank on a lighting cycle. And start dosing bacteria. I use Microbacter 7 but there are many others such as Microbacter XLM, Instant Ocean BIO Spira, Dr. Tims One and Only, etc..

 

[Picassoclown]

You're going to want to do about 20 to 25ml of microbacter 7 daily for 7 to 10 days.

Thanks reefer!

 

[Picassoclown]

If you have a UV sterilizer, run it at night when the dinoflagellates are suspended in the water collumn. You should see results the following morning if you have your tank on a lighting cycle. And start dosing bacteria. I use Microbacter 7 but there are many others such as Microbacter XLM, Instant Ocean BIO Spira, Dr. Tims One and Only, etc..

I unfortunately cannot run a UV sterilizer. My circuit breaker will pop if I run one. In the future I will absolutely have one!