dino experiment

Just want to share my experience with Dinos:

I was dosing VSV to try and improve the colours of my SPS, without having any detectable nitrate or phosphate. I foolishly kept dosing more and more, eventually dinos took over my entire tank.

Took me a good 6 months to figure out I was causing the problem, after changing just about everything else about my tank.

After I stopped dosing within 2 weeks most of the dinos were gone, I would say 90% are gone now, with the remaining bits no longer active (not producing bubbles) and waiting for me to syphon them away with a water change.

I guess in the absence of excess N and P, the dinos can use the carbon source to grow more efficiently than the bacteria I was trying to feed.

So stop dosing carbon if you have a dino problem!
 
I wish my ORP was that high. I'm stuck at the 320's level. I know you shouldnt judge your tank by the ORP level, but I'd like to be up in the 350-380 region.

I was considering using the hydrogen peroxide, but after re-calibrating my ph probe and using more kalk slurry, twice a day, the dino's are in serious retreat. I'm keeping ph around 8.6 and no ill effects to anything but the dino's. To the OP, if you haven't tried the pickling lime route you really should. I also did two 15-20% wc and run carbon and gfo. I've only had them about a week, so I caught it early.
 
Twon - glad to hear you had a positive response with kalk. I tried to do it as well since my entire ATO was geared toward topping off with kalk so I figured I was going to be a step ahead. My only issue was I don't have a pH probe - only test kits and I was having issues keeping my pH at 8.6 consistently. One of the major advantages I was hoping for was that phosphates precipitate out over time using kalk, but after doing more research, I realized that having a low nutrient system does nothing to help combat the snot.

I want to clarify that the peroxide route not only does wonders for dino's but it also gives cyano and green water a run for it's money.
 
Im planning ways for more aggressive dosing. the sandbed is loaded with dino's again after syphoning it. I'm thinking about sucking out the top layer of the sandbed into a bin..then transfering the water from that bin into another bin through a filter sock. I'm planning on taking out like 15 gallons of water. Then place a powerhead into the new bin that was filtered through the filter sock and applying hydrogen peroxide at an aggressive dose. I'll let the water mix for 10-15 min then put the water back into the tank. This may aggressively remove dino toxins. I will continue to dose the tank daily and do the filter/peroxide water cleanse every 3 days.

Let me know if anyone sees a problem with this
 
second question.....if I treat the water...can i re-introduce the sand I suck out after the peroxide treatment..or should I just leave it out. I have a solid 2 in sandbed everywhere so I wont be upset to just leave it out
 
Yeah - pitch the sand. I did and it was one of the best things I did IMO to help combat it. All I have now is a shallow, decorative layer of sand which is easy to stir up and keep white.
 
I am dosing 1ml/g without taking into account live rock as of tonight. I started on the 11th of this month but I was only dosing 35ml on a 400g total system volume because of rock displacement and such. With sneeyatch's input I am dosing the full 40ml now. I dose in the evening which is about halfway through my lights on period of 8 hours. I did have the lights off the past two days but had them kick back on today. I have a lot of SPS and frags and didn't want to go too long without lights.

I have a dump question, if you are dosing 1ml/g and you have a 400 g system shouldn't you be dosing 400ml rather than 40ml ? The reason I ask is that I am thinking about dosing but do not overdose. I have a 180 with about 30 gallons in my sump so should I dose 200ml or 20ml ?
 
I have a dump question, if you are dosing 1ml/g and you have a 400 g system shouldn't you be dosing 400ml rather than 40ml ? The reason I ask is that I am thinking about dosing but do not overdose. I have a 180 with about 30 gallons in my sump so should I dose 200ml or 20ml ?

The other posts cleared it up but I did correct that in a later post to 1ml/10g. Sorry for the confusion on that.
 
I've been playing this game too. Here's my quick story.

I started peroxide dosing alone and saw quick results, but they weren't lasting. I started running lights out cycles (somewhat randomly, mostly as needed) for a few days and dosing Kalkwasser (needed the calcium boost anyway) and things have really subsided. I also siphoned the stuff on the sand a few times. I haven't completely stopped waterchanges, but I did early on. I just started, 2 months in, doing regular changes. I've done 2 and haven't seen another bad bloom. I still have some show up on the sand, but they're becoming less of a problem each week.

So, in a nut shell, my regiment:
h2o2, kalk, siphoning, no waterchanges early on, lights out when they start building in population. Keep them out for a couple of days.
 
Just wanted to say THANKS to every one who took the time and effort to help others (like myself) in their reefing effort.

I appreciate it.



:clown:
 
I am on board, started dosing today. I do not have dyno's that bad, mostly in my sand. I am not doing lights out or changing anything else. I want to know if the peroxide alone will be a fix.
 
I gotta suck my sandbed again..this time I'm just gunna take out the top layer of my sandbed. I've noticed that my ORP responds a lot better when I dose in the morning than when I dose in the afternoon.
 
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