Battle with Dino (how i almost quit the hobby)

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pat0588

New member
So I've had Dino for over a year in my old tank. I always thought it was diatoms since that's what my LFS told me. Water changes, GFO, massive amounts of snails (100+), less feeding, less lights, etc. Nothing worked. I just noticed it coming back about a month ago, but it was too late for my snails, they were all dead. Dino is basically Cyano and diatoms on steroids. A self-fueling demon that kills and feeds off of whatever eats it. Four months into my new tank (i upgraded from 40b to 75) i see it back. This time i properly identified it through a forum. I found a helpful link on how to beat it.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/how-i-beat-dinoflagellates-and-the-lessons-i-learned
This was my last stand with Dino. It would show who would win and survive. I am happy to say i am posting about my experience and not on the marketplace as a tank tear down.
I started off by using a tooth brush to clean every piece of LR in my tank (around 100lbs). Then i siphoned all of it from my sand bed and removed all my snails. Later added GFO/carbon to my reactor and an extra air pump just in case there would be a lack of oxygen in the tank. I covered my tank for 72hrs. Those were the most stressful 72hrs of my life. I wasn't sure what id find when id take that tarp off. Worst case scenario would be that everything died. I had prepared 53gal of fresh saltwater that was being mixed for the 3day blackout. After the blackout i was surprised to still see Dino in the tank. At this point it was just a little powder on some parts of my sand like diatoms. I siphoned it off and drained 40gal of water from my 75. I then replaced the water with fresh saltwater and put the tarp on for another 18-24n hrs. It was just to make sure no more Dino survived. I guess it was a mistake on my part not to feed directly before the water change because my longnose butterfly was pretty hungry and weak after 4days with no food (ended up caught in my power head :/). After 5 days i see no signs of Dino (other than tiny bits of light brown powdering on the front of my sand near the glass. I have a UV running at all times and may start dosing H2O2 (1ml/10gal). My lights are on 10%blue and will increase by 5% everyday for a week and then ill do the same with whites after. I have another 40gal of fresh saltwater ready for my next water change on Monday. All my fish and corals seem unaffected by the blackout. Yet I'm still nervous about sparsely feeding every 3-4days. I haven't seen my cleaner or blood shrimp in a week; Hopefully they're just molting. My battle is not over, but i see the light at the end of the tunnel.
 
Thanks for sharing! Dino is terrible indeed, seemingly impossible to rid a tank of after you get it. I had a pico w/ it and ended up giving up, it was a dino display.

Good look and keep us posted.
 
All you guys need is an oversized 55w UV pond sterilizer set to low flow ~300-350gph like an MJ1200. It starts working pretty much instantaneously. You'll notice they disappear at night, slowly appearing again at the start and by the end of your light cycle they are as heavy as can be. When lights go out they go into the water column. That is when the UV sterilizer does it job. Only you can't half-ass it with one of those tiny 9w hang-ons, you have to go big.

Dosing peroxide may or may not help you depending on what straing you have. If you have the dreaded ostreopsis, then no, it won't help. You also won't be able to get the H2O2 into every crevice of your tank, it's impossible.

Brushing your rocks won't do a single thing. It only takes 1 cell to multiply into a plague in less than 15 minutes. You have to siphon out what you can.

Sparsely feeding may not help you either. In fact, the reason you might have the dinos to begin with are some imbalance in your water conditions that allowed the dinos to bloom. What you want is MORE nitrates/phosphates and MORE of the other algaes to outcompete the dinos. Stop with the water changes, you might just be fueling them. But the only way to know for sure how to combat your strain is to properly identify what strain you have. Contact pants on RC, he is a scientist that you can send your sample to or buy your own microscope and compare to the pics/videos he has on his site. Then you can properly figure out how to combat what you have.

Good luck, and I hope you the best. Dinos were by far the worst enemy I've ever had to face and I lost thousands of $$$ of livestock to it. The only thing that worked for was a 3-day blackout followed by my gigantic UV pond sterilizer.
 
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UPDATE
came home today to my six line wrasse dead :(
That make 3 fish that i lost in 2 days. All params are good other than nitrates which are at 5. My fish aren't too excited to eat either. Going to place an order to live aquaria once I get this over with. Changing carbon out again today. I have the coralife turbo twist 3x uv. Im thinking an algae scrubber may do the trick. They are slowly reappearing. I think I should place all snails in my sump until I get it all gone. It's coming back as a powder. Will keep siphoning sand through filter sock and reusing water until it's gone. I miss my cleaner and blood shrimp can't seem to find them. CBS is alive and well.
 
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