Reef nutrition

Looking for Dino battle tips

Started my nuvo 10 back in November and over last few weeks have been battling dinoflagellites.

It didn't start off too bad, limited to a corner of the tank but has been spreading daily despite my best efforts..probable cause was my nitrates and phosphates were both 0 which I've read dinos thrive in.

Over past few weeks I've tried 3 day blackouts, which get rid of them until the lights turn back on for a day then they grow back

Stopped doing water changes cause read that just feeds them..

In attempt to spur other algae growth to out compete I have started dosing nitrates which are now around 5ppm, and started dosing hydrogen peroxide at 1ml per 10gallons (started this a few days ago)

Corals are doing OK, some are quite unhappy when the brown strings cover them. Looking for any other recommendations before this stuff takes over my tank completely



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I can't cover everything here, but I can start the conversation. Your tank is still a brand new tank so battling Dino's isn't surprising. You are correct that low nutrient tanks are plagued by Dino's, but jumping to the conclusion that your nitrates and phosphates were at zero, and then deciding to dose nitrates was probably the wrong thing to do. YOur parameters were at zero because the Dino's were using them. Now your just feeding them since you haven't also introduced something to feed off the extra nitrates. Thew one key to getting rid of them is stability. You have to give the other bio;logical processes stability in order to out compete them. So jumping from one thing to another and/or throwing multiple methods at them often makes it worse. The key is patience....

... and manual removal. Suction all you can daily. Give the other organisms a chance to gain a foothold. Dino's have a very potent toxin that makes it difficult for other organisms to compete -- so remove them. Hydrogen peroxide can exacerbate the problem and irritate your corals. Dosing vodka, Nopox, etc will also make it worse.

So let's talk about what works. Time will help as your tank will mature, but that assumes you've created an environment that will allow for biological processes to flourish. How much live rock do you have or how much other biological media? What algae's are you encouraging and how? Have you introduced pods? A natural population of phyto and pods in a small tank can work wonders. Adding to the biological population helps as well. Dr. Tim's is what I recommend. This won't help though if you're also Hydrogen dosing. UV works most of the time although I've head that a few species of Dino's are resistant, but most of the time it does the trick. Finally, it's a Nuvo ten. It may not be the worst idea to pull the live rock, clean them and give a mini reboot.
 
I agree with Bruce. If you change too many things at once, one of them may be your solution but you won't know. Next time it happens and your tank if full of corals, trying 3 treatments is going to cause a crash.

Dinos plague low nutrient systems because none of the other nuisance algae thrives in them. It's not the lack of nutrients that cause Dino. Dosing nitrates and phosphates isn't a good Idea. Your nutrients are testing low because they are being consumed by the Dinos, not because they weren't there to begin with.

Hydrogen peroxide has its uses but shouldn't be your first step.

Dino also feed off silicates which are the first thing to get through your rodi system when your di resin starts getting exhausted. That's why water changes can make them worse.

Siphon them out every day at their peak. You can siphon the water through a filter sock and into a bucket then pour it back into the tank until you change the di resin on your filter.

Watch your snails. Dinos are toxic to them and dying snails are going to make everything worse in 10g system.
 
Depending on the strain you can use UV very successfully - I’m still fighting dino in my tank and I had the strain that live on the sand (amphydium) - it’s not going to the water column at night as others and thus not affected by UV. I kept removing algae every week for a year and finally got rid of sand completely. If it’s not your case UV might be good way to get it under control and let other algae and pods to outcompete dino.


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thanks for the recs/tips - yeah basically was just trying any methods people said were successful on other forums.

open to UV but not sure if there is a good one for such a small tank, it started on the sand but now I see it more often on the rocks and higher up corals.

for bio media I have about 10lbs of live rock and about 20-25 MarinePure ceramic spheres in the media rack/back sections of the tank. I'll give dr tim's a shot - I had some leftover fritz turbo start 900 from my initial cycling that I put in the tank since I figured it could help add bacteria.

I've been manually removing them with a chopstick cause my siphon just sucks up my sand also (guessing its too fine)

For phyto/pods would you just dump them in the tank? (would they get eaten up by my clownfish?) I don't have a fuge or chaeto in the back chambers since the tank is so small. I use to see hundreds pods on my glass but not anymore.
 
Get a wider tube for the end of your siphon hose and your sand won't get sucked up. You can cover the end of the hose with your thumb to rescrict flow so your sand doesn't get sucked up.
 
I’ll chime in too, the last few times I’ve gotten rid of dinos by outcompeting them with other growth. Suck up all you can and then squirt the cleaned area with Dr Tim’s. If you can, dedicate one of your rear compartments to a chaeto ball and introduce pods there until you have a booming population. Just a few drops of liquid algae in the chaeto every few days will accelerate their population growth. Also, check your setup for any rust that might introduce iron into your water; some species thrive with extra iron. During one outbreak, I discovered a rusting circulation pump in my saltwater mixing station. Replacing it immediately cut down on my dino population.


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I’ll chime in too, the last few times I’ve gotten rid of dinos by outcompeting them with other growth. Suck up all you can and then squirt the cleaned area with Dr Tim’s. If you can, dedicate one of your rear compartments to a chaeto ball and introduce pods there until you have a booming population. Just a few drops of liquid algae in the chaeto every few days will accelerate their population growth. Also, check your setup for any rust that might introduce iron into your water; some species thrive with extra iron. During one outbreak, I discovered a rusting circulation pump in my saltwater mixing station. Replacing it immediately cut down on my dino population.


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Thanks, I tried adding some chaeto in my display cause don't have any room in the back or another light. The dinos exploded and grew all over it in a couple hours so I took it out..should I have just left it in?


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Thanks, I tried adding some chaeto in my display cause don't have any room in the back or another light. The dinos exploded and grew all over it in a couple hours so I took it out..should I have just left it in?


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Nope... they will smother and kill it till you get the situation under control.
 
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