The Battle Of Dino

[bart84]

So as you guys probably know I have Dino in my 75 dt. Through research and help from fellow reefers, I have decided to try and battle it. I started on Saturday by taking my skimmer off line and aquired some 10 micron socks. I put on a sock and Basted my rock with a turkey Baister. I also cut my lights back to a 4 hr cycle but left my fuge light on its 8hr. I changed the socks every night and Baist the system daily since I started. Since starting this war I have already seen quite the amazing turn around in the livestock. I am starting to get my green algea back on the glass and it all seems to be working. Thanks to all that have helped me so far.
I do have a question. I picked up some bio spira to build the good bacteria up but I am wondering that if I put it in with a 10 micron sick if it won't just be taken back out ?

 

[Pistol]

I would not add bacteria as dinos farm the stuff, you need to add plankton (copepods, amphipods, phytoplankton, etc.). The dirty method encourages plankton growth which is the only thing that seems to keep dinos at bay.
Expect things to get worse before the get better as the dinos pull out all the stops in an effort to survive.

 

[Kman]

Manual removal is quite effective against problem algae. This approach works on hair algae as well. If you keep at it sooner or later you will come out on top. You just have to stick to it on a regular basis. For me the best known ways to treat dinoflagellates are to reduce nutrients and to raise pH, especially with limewater.

Below is a good article to read.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-11/rhf/index.php

 

[Pistol]

Dinos can thrive in ULN conditions and elevated Ph has little affect on most strains of dinos, Ostreopsis in particular,
elevating nutrients allows other organisms to thrive and out compete the dinos, po4 at .03 to .06 and no3 about 5 seems to work best.
Dosing phytoplankton helps a lot.
The clean method involves heavy UV sterilization along with the dosing of diverse plankton.
Achieving a diverse micro fauna is key to controlling dinos.

 

[jroovers]

I've always found with dinos you just have to wait them out. They tend to come/go much more quickly/easily compared to cyanobacteria, which can be much more stubborn. They'll come on fast and strong, then one day they'll burn themselves out and be gone. IME keep doing what you are doing, but don't do anything drastic, just be patient.

Achieving a diverse micro fauna is key to controlling dinos.

This is an interesting comment and I think that diversity is best for balancing everything out, not just dinos (phosphates, nitrates, cyano, all of other types of algae and bacteria). My system is still relatively new and was started up with dry rock that I got from Teebone, which I think he seeded with some established live rock, and I had a sandbed for a short while but have gone to BB essentially. I have some brown puff algae and some small green/brownish algaes still (not cyano or diatoms), that seem to predominate at the moment. Nothing that is a huge problem, but it just seems like things are just still trying to sort themselves out towards equilibrium. I think the tank is still a bit sterile relative to my 120 which seemed to be teeming with all kinds of stuff. Overall though I seem to be lacking pods and other microscopic life that would encompass a diverse system. So in short I agree with your thought process, makes sense to me.

 

[Pistol]

Some species of dinos are less resilient but Ostreopsis Ovata is not, some people on RC have been battling them for years, some just called it quits and left the hobby. My battle with Ostreopsis was 14 months and I nearly quit twice.
I tried a hundred different things that I read in a dozen different articles and nothing worked. I would not wait out Ostreopsis, many have lost a lot of corals and even fish trying.

 

[reeferkeeper420]

Some species of dinos are less resilient but Ostreopsis Ovata is not, some people on RC have been battling them for years, some just called it quits and left the hobby. My battle with Ostreopsis was 14 months and I nearly quit twice.
I tried a hundred different things that I read in a dozen different articles and nothing worked. I would not wait out Ostreopsis, many have lost a lot of corals and even fish trying.

Sorry for hijacking the thread, but where do dinos come from?? Just an inbalance in the system or are there other things that cause it??

 

[Quartapound]

the spores need to be present on your liverock, or on a frag plug you get. I don't think they can just occur... someone correct me if I'm wrong!

 

[Pistol]

They are in all systems, they are a symbiotic algae hosted by corals, they become a plague when given the opportunity to. There is no evidence of corals or rock from a dino plagued system causing a plague in an a healthy tank.
In my case I decimated my micro fauna using Fauna Marin AlgaeX to try to rid bubble algae, FM has renamed algaeX DinoX although it has little affect on either, it didn't rid my bubble algae either. There have been other cases of Dino blooms being caused by algae killers. Copepods are the only dino predator we know of.

 

[bart84]

Well the battle continue but all looks great. My nems are all opening back up and my leathers have pe again.
I looked in my fuge lastnight and I have my cyano coming back with a bunch of pods and micro bristle stars coming out. Like I said before. Thanks so much for the help.

 

[Kevin Tran]

Hey glad to hear that thing are getting better for, sound like a win win battle for you