Dinos! Oh no!

[Genie382]

Hi all, so my tank has had one or two hiccups since I started it about 8 months ago. Needed 2 light replacements, one of which was my fault and the other was a manufacturers defect. I’ve had some red cyano in the low flow areas which was improving and one small patch of hair algae. Overall the tank was thriving. After the last lighting issue, my tank was blacked out for almost a week. When I got the lights restarted all of the cyano and small bit of hair algae was gone. This last week I’ve noticed some small brown strings growing on the glass. It’s also been found on some corals in the low flow areas. Some of the string have air bubbles in them. They look suspiciously like the way Dinos are described. I suction them off (they come off easily) and wipe down the glass to see them reappear in the same day. I took a sample of water to work and it does look like a species of Dino (brown sesame seed). I’ve gotten a mix of recommendations from 72 hour black out, to H202 dosing, to “dirtying” the tank. I was thinking of just increasing water changes, manual removal and the addition of a small refugium to add some bio-diversity. It’s currently a small outbreak but I want to get it under control ASAP, thoughts?

[Aqua noob]

Hey I’m just coming out of this now, gets caught on my pulsing Xenia and some zoas also on the odd rock and litters the glass, does not catch on hammer, candy cane or bubble coral. Started slowly, peaked (as in after syphoning the tank I could almost see it reappear within a few hours) and now it’s slowing down. It’s as if there is an imbalance in the water. I initially scraped the glass clear with a stainless blade ( it gets caught on the dots on the glass and lose pieces of silicon) syphoned rocks and tank bottom including sump, and made large reoccurring water changes for a while. I noticed a dramatic reduction, I also increased my tanks turnover rate. It’s still here but very minor. This has lasted about two weeks. I’m not heavily concerned because all livestock is doing well. 

 

I always have my foundation elements in check, I assume it’s a nutrient issue?  

 

Out of interest what additions have you made to your livestock lately? 

[Orangutran]

I would do the blackout, in combination with the dirty method and biodiversity. I can't comment on the peroxide. There's a big thread on R2R on dinos, it's a more methodical approach with increasing nutrients. What's your nutrient levels at? 

[MrsK]

I just finished fighting Dinos successfully, so far. Here's my thread: 

 

[Tamberav]

I would probably not increase water changes. You could siphon them through a small micron filter sock/floss and add the water back.

 

I don't think dino dislikes dirty water honestly.... but I think the trace elements we add back with a water change just help it reproduce is the problem.

 

it is likely that the die of off cyano GHA opened up a spot for dino to take over.

 

Dino also seems to thrive better in macroalgae tanks so keep that in mind.

 

I beat dino years ago with manual removal + blackouts, changing filter socks aggressively, running carbon, ect... but no water changes. 

[xthunt]

When my 5gal Fluval was in the early stages, had the exact thing you describe, brown stringy stuff catching on the coral  and other places. It decreased when getting close to a water change, and bloomed again after water change. So I just increased the time between water changes from weekly to biweekly. It’s been 100% gone for months now. 

[1891Bro]

2 hours ago, MrsK said:

I just finished fighting Dinos successfully, so far. Here's my thread: 

 

72 hours? You sure they’re not coming back? It hasn’t even been a week. 

[Genie382]

6 hours ago, Aqua noob said:

Hey I’m just coming out of this now, gets caught on my pulsing Xenia and some zoas also on the odd rock and litters the glass, does not catch on hammer, candy cane or bubble coral. Started slowly, peaked (as in after syphoning the tank I could almost see it reappear within a few hours) and now it’s slowing down. It’s as if there is an imbalance in the water. I initially scraped the glass clear with a stainless blade ( it gets caught on the dots on the glass and lose pieces of silicon) syphoned rocks and tank bottom including sump, and made large reoccurring water changes for a while. I noticed a dramatic reduction, I also increased my tanks turnover rate. It’s still here but very minor. This has lasted about two weeks. I’m not heavily concerned because all livestock is doing well. 

 

I always have my foundation elements in check, I assume it’s a nutrient issue?  

 

Out of interest what additions have you made to your livestock lately? 

I’ve noticed it clinging to my Xenia (on the sand bed) the most as well. At first I thought it was expelling waste but it never goes away completely. That’s the most recent addition. No other livestock.

 

I’ve heard many conflicting bits of advice as to whether or not I should increase water changes. I normally perform no-weekly 20% changes, tried to wait it out a week and did a massive water change 60% 2 days ago (also pulled out a ton of debris in my back chamber), it seems to be spreading...

[Genie382]

4 hours ago, Tamberav said:

I would probably not increase water changes. You could siphon them through a small micron filter sock/floss and add the water back.

 

I don't think dino dislikes dirty water honestly.... but I think the trace elements we add back with a water change just help it reproduce is the problem.

 

it is likely that the die of off cyano GHA opened up a spot for dino to take over.

 

Dino also seems to thrive better in macroalgae tanks so keep that in mind.

 

I beat dino years ago with manual removal + blackouts, changing filter socks aggressively, running carbon, ect... but no water changes. 

I’ll try to reduce water changes, it didn’t seem to help when I did a massive one. I think for now i’ll Black out the tank, siphon daily (it’s not too spread), change out filter floss daily (vs twice weekly) and I just changed out my chemipure elite bag w a fresh one. Thanks!

[Aqua noob]

3 hours ago, Genie382 said:

I’ve noticed it clinging to my Xenia (on the sand bed) the most as well. At first I thought it was expelling waste but it never goes away completely. That’s the most recent addition. No other livestock.

 

I’ve heard many conflicting bits of advice as to whether or not I should increase water changes. I normally perform no-weekly 20% changes, tried to wait it out a week and did a massive water change 60% 2 days ago (also pulled out a ton of debris in my back chamber), it seems to be spreading...

Seems like the general advice is to not do water changes you best take it!! 😂 I didn’t do any reading about this to be honest. 

 

Are you you saying your most recent addition was Xenia? My outbreak began after adding two Xenia frags. What a splendid coincidence. 

 

My uneducated decision was I didn’t want to add, change, dose anything majorly because all other inhabitants saw no change when the outbreak started or even at its peak. It didn’t look to be harming anything besides aesthetics. And up to today it looks like it’s run it’s course. 

 

If you do try these other methods please post how it goes here and best of luck

[Genie382]

5 hours ago, Aqua noob said:

Seems like the general advice is to not do water changes you best take it!! 😂 I didn’t do any reading about this to be honest. 

 

Are you you saying your most recent addition was Xenia? My outbreak began after adding two Xenia frags. What a splendid coincidence. 

 

My uneducated decision was I didn’t want to add, change, dose anything majorly because all other inhabitants saw no change when the outbreak started or even at its peak. It didn’t look to be harming anything besides aesthetics. And up to today it looks like it’s run it’s course. 

 

If you do try these other methods please post how it goes here and best of luck

That darn Xenia! Everyone told me to be careful adding it to the tank but I just couldn’t resist the fluffyness 😭.

 

Will do, i’ve Been thinking of starting a little tank profile here again, and if I do I’ll document whatI end up doing. Cross fingers it works!

[Melfy77]

I am currently battling a dino outbreak in my fluval evo 13.5 (2 clownfish and small goby/shrimp combo) When they first appeared I thought it was because tank was dirty but PO4 and NO3 both at 0. Water flow is good, no dead spot, and I have some red macroalgae which has a hard time growing, which got me thinking that maybe my tank was too clean, and it got worse after a water change. So I added pods and started dosing with peroxide last night.  Hopefully this works, I've had dinos in and off and hate it!!!! They're like bed bugs, showing up without an invitation, just waiting to make your life miserable lol.

 

Oh and I don't have xenia in my tank ;). But I do have another tank, an IM 10g that has some, and it's spotless!! The macroalgae is growing really well, no dinos, no cyano, and I do a 1g water change once a month, which again, makes me think it might be my water being too clean hahaha

[Orangutran]

12 hours ago, Genie382 said:

I’ll try to reduce water changes, it didn’t seem to help when I did a massive one. I think for now i’ll Black out the tank, siphon daily (it’s not too spread), change out filter floss daily (vs twice weekly) and I just changed out my chemipure elite bag w a fresh one. Thanks!

If you can, please test your phosphate and nitrates. If they are sitting at zero, then believe it or not, it's what dinos thrive on. Also, your chemipure elite may contribute to the dinos by stripping the water of phosphates (it contains GFO i believe). If you need to replace the CP, use plain ol' carbon in a bag, or just regular chemipure (no gfo).

 

2 hours ago, Melfy77 said:

I am currently battling a dino outbreak in my fluval evo 13.5 (2 clownfish and small goby/shrimp combo) When they first appeared I thought it was because tank was dirty but PO4 and NO3 both at 0. Water flow is good, no dead spot, and I have some red macroalgae which has a hard time growing, which got me thinking that maybe my tank was too clean, and it got worse after a water change. So I added pods and started dosing with peroxide last night.  Hopefully this works, I've had dinos in and off and hate it!!!! They're like bed bugs, showing up without an invitation, just waiting to make your life miserable lol.

 

Oh and I don't have xenia in my tank ;). But I do have another tank, an IM 10g that has some, and it's spotless!! The macroalgae is growing really well, no dinos, no cyano, and I do a 1g water change once a month, which again, makes me think it might be my water being too clean hahaha

 

You should test the IM 10g and see where your nutrients are. Just for fun. 🙂 

[Aqua noob]

😂 I promise I meant Xenia was a coincidence not cause. 

 

My nitrates have have been undetectable not sure phos & ammonia, perhaps you right wrt water being so clean.

 

My problem has cleared up and I haven’t changed light cycle if i look back I’ve actually increased my feeding from every third day to once per day. Reason being I had some LPS that was battling and from some advice I figured the water was too clean, skimmer and chaeto. (Turns out I just have weak lighting) 

 

Maybe my incorrect solution for the lps problem cured the algae problem of which I was implementing the incorrect solution to. The plot thickens and speculation continues, does it go any deeper? Find out next episode of days of our reefs 

[Melfy77]

Noe I'm not so sure if they're dinos ou cyano...either way i'm about to throw the towel and start over😒 sorry I know the pic is not the best but what do you think? I blow them off and next day they are back

[Clown79]

Peroxide dosing has been a successful treatment for many hobbiests.

[Melfy77]

28 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

Peroxide dosing has been a successful treatment for many hobbiests.

Yeah I'm gonna put all my corals in my 2g tank (there's just a rock in it lol) give the peroxide a try and if by the end if the weekend there's no improvement i'll start from scratch, but I'll be stuck with one BTA and 2 occys which couldn't care less about it...

[Orangutran]

2 hours ago, Melfy77 said:

Yeah I'm gonna put all my corals in my 2g tank (there's just a rock in it lol) give the peroxide a try and if by the end if the weekend there's no improvement i'll start from scratch, but I'll be stuck with one BTA and 2 occys which couldn't care less about it...

Don't hit reset yet,  you already know the problem--your tank is too clean! Add some no3 and po4 (I used seachem flourish for both) and see where that takes you. Warning: it might be a few weeks to see improvement. What if you restart your tank, and you get dinos again? 

 

I'll leave this here for others to read: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dinoflagellates-–-are-you-tired-of-battling-altogether.293318/

 

 

[Melfy77]

47 minutes ago, Orangutran said:

Don't hit reset yet,  you already know the problem--your tank is too clean! Add some no3 and po4 (I used seachem flourish for both) and see where that takes you. Warning: it might be a few weeks to see improvement. What if you restart your tank, and you get dinos again? 

 

I'll leave this here for others to read: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dinoflagellates-–-are-you-tired-of-battling-altogether.293318/

 

 

You're right! It's just anoying because this tank is almost a year old but has never looked nice, always some algae. First cyano, now this. I'll keep dosing, the BTA should be fine??

[Melfy77]

My IM 10g, can you spot my tailspot blenny lol. I barely touch that tank lol

[Clown79]

You can dose peroxide without removing the corals.

 

Peroxide is not harmful if it's 3% Peroxide and proper dose amounts are used.

[Melfy77]

1 minute ago, Clown79 said:

You can dose peroxide without removing the corals.

 

Peroxide is not harmful if it's 3% Peroxide and proper dose amounts are used.

That's what I have. And it's 1ml per 10 gallon? 

[Genie382]

8 hours ago, Melfy77 said:

Noe I'm not so sure if they're dinos ou cyano...either way i'm about to throw the towel and start over😒 sorry I know the pic is not the best but what do you think? I blow them off and next day they are back

That looks like what I’ve got ☹️

[Genie382]

6 hours ago, Orangutran said:

Don't hit reset yet,  you already know the problem--your tank is too clean! Add some no3 and po4 (I used seachem flourish for both) and see where that takes you. Warning: it might be a few weeks to see improvement. What if you restart your tank, and you get dinos again? 

 

I'll leave this here for others to read: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dinoflagellates-–-are-you-tired-of-battling-altogether.293318/

 

 

That’s a great thread, it’s how I got an ID on my Dino species. 

[Orangutran]

On 6/14/2018 at 2:19 PM, Melfy77 said:

You're right! It's just anoying because this tank is almost a year old but has never looked nice, always some algae. First cyano, now this. I'll keep dosing, the BTA should be fine??

Keep dosing peroxide? I don't know, never had a BTA and used peroxide at the same time. But you should address your nutrient issue, introduce biodiversity, and manual removal with blackouts. Depending on the type of dinos, they may be toxic too, so change your carbon if needed. 🙂 I haven't mentioned UV because it may not be practical in your tank. 

20 hours ago, Genie382 said:

That’s a great thread, it’s how I got an ID on my Dino species. 

I know, the guys there are so helpful in identifying the dinos and providing specific remedies. 

 

I just cleared my tank of dinos, but went on vacation and my auto feeder wasn't enough to keep my nutrients from dropping, so a bit of dinos came back. But I am confident they can be defeated with the methods from that thread.