Dinos and UV Flow.

[Siberwulf]

I've had some recent flareups with Dinos (Ostreopsis) and even though I have closed-loop UV in the DT, they keep coming back. I can get them to go away with periodic lights-out modes...but they always return.

I'm wondering if my flow on my UV is too fast to be harming them. Is there any risk to dropping flow 10% and watching for a couple weeks to see if that helps? I'm worried I might kill "good things" in the water...

 

[Quietman]

No risk. The good things are usually too big (pods) or do not live in the water column (good bacteria). Dino (Ostreopsis specifically) have part of their life cycle as free swimming and that's why they can be susceptible to proper UV treatment. During my outbreak I noticed when I changed flow my dinos returned - at least until I was Dino free for a few months - then flow through UV was returned to normal algae control high flow without issue. Feel free to drop even more drastically as it won't hurt the "good stuff".

 

[Siberwulf]

Alrighty, so I dropped the flow on the UV pump, and turned the lights out for three days (just to get everyone back into the water column). Lights back on and in less than a week...dinos were all back.

I'm kindat at a loss here. I have measurable nutrients, good UV in a closed loop, pH swings btween 8.4 and 8.6, KH is a little high (9-10ish) but that's not a cause, I'd think.

I do have a good hair algae outbreak going on, but working with a new CUC and some hand removal as well as a new Lawnmower Blenny.... but Dinos...they still don't want to go away.

 

[Stuckita]

1-3 x tank turnover for flow you and 1 watt uv for every 3g.

I started dosing hydrogen peroxide in the evenings as well. Took about two weeks for everything to look almost perfect again. Still running the uv and dosing hydrogen peroxide and going to experiments with small amounts of aminos again.

 

[Siberwulf]

Maybe the UV is under-sized? I went by the sizing guide on their website, and they noted the Aqua UV25 is good for up to 150g. I'm only at 90g.

Dino and UV Adjustment

So I've been battling Dinos for a while now. I'm certain they're the Prorocentrum (I believe I had the Ostreopsis before. This would explain why the UV isn't working, right? Based on what I've read, these need a moderate blackout in order to get them to go into the water column and get hit...

www.reef2reef.com

I did some math and it turned out that the COR20 running would hit the right flow rate for them at about 49% power (based on bucket measurements). When I dropped by 10%, it was to 39%, surely slow enough. I just put it down to 34% today, hoping that would help.

I'm anxious to dose anything like H202 (I did in the past and it did help, but I really don't want to mess with the overall chemistry, as I've been in a constant reset when dosing things.

Dinos growing ON Hair Algae...and Chaeto dying

I'll start this off with "I really feel like I just suck at this hobby". It's become an endless flow of fighting things that I've fought before. First it was dinos, then it was cyano, then it was Aiptasia... then it was bubble algae, then it was corals just shrinking off. It's killing me...

www.reef2reef.com

Is H202 going to screw things up even more?

 

[Quietman]

Dino's can replicate very quickly (some anyway). I wasn't too specific before but I noticed mine returning when I dialed my flow back to less than 5x tank volume. They don't need high exposure (30k/uw/cm2 should be sufficient) but they do need high flow if it's a high reproductive rate. For example, an organism doubling every 20 minutes (as some do) would result in 8x increase per hour. I don't think Ostreopsis are quite that high but I only noticed improvements at high flow.

So let's see AquaUV 25 W will give 30k - uw/cm2 at 1200 gph at 90gx8 you're looking at 720 gph which will be about 50K - uw/cm2 which should be plenty.

I didn't do any blackouts when I ran the UV (I tried it before with temp results and like you was leery of H202).

 

[Quietman]

Also, bulb should be less than 12-14 months old or you can lose a significant % of exposure rate. And check it's got a clean sleeve.

Good luck. My dino outbreak was the most frustrating thing I've gone through in the hobby...but once it was gone for 6 months I was able to dial back the UV a bit 3-5 x and haven't had a return in a couple years now. But during all that treatment and damage I lost most of my corals and all but one or two fish.

 

[Siberwulf]

The bulb is pretty new (June of this year) but I didn't check the sleeve (it's new as of June last year). Does that just require you take the whole thing apart?

I've just got a sinking feeling the UV isn't doing what it should..and for the life of me can't figure out why...