dino experiment
- Thread starter t4zalews
- Start date
stan zemanek
New member
Ok, so I am going to dive bomb on in here and join the group of frustrated reefers. I to am dealing with Dino Mania. Heres a little background. I originally had a 150 gallon tank set up in my living room. Decided it was time to do a Man Cave, In Wall 200 gallon, down in the basement. After 2-3 years of construction I was finally able to transfer all my stuff from the 150 down to the new 200.
When I did the transfer everything was seamless, that is to say that 50% of the water was first siphoned down stairs to the new tank and then I began to move all the rock, coral and fish down in buckets of tank water. When I did the transfer I was careful to not expose anything to the air. Once I had all the stuff moved down into the new tank, I siphoned down the remaining water from upstairs. then I only had to add about 25 gallons of new salt water to make up the difference in tanks sizes.
All seemed to be going good for about 6 months and then WHAM! DINO MANIA!
I have since been blowing off the rocks and siphoning like mad (bare bottom) every couple of days. Changing filter socks etc. etc. Also have been running my skimmer (Reef Octopus 3000 super wet) with a dual carbon and Rowa reactors, but nothing seems to kill them off. This is crazy I start at one end of the tank blowing off the rocks with a turkey baster, and by the time I get to the other end, the little bubbles are already back where I first started:lolspin:
Here are some pics. If you look close you can see the tiny bubbles everywhere.
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Heres a pic of my sump after I swapped out my return pump for a slower one. before I was turning the sump over about 10x/pr hr now its running at about 5 times per hour and the bubbles are now collecting in the sump and theres is like an almost snot like film on the top of the water. Pretty gross huh?
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So here's my next plan of attack. I just finished plumbing in a new 40 watt UV sterilizer. I am using a little Mag 5 pump so with head loss I think I am probably pushing about 300-400 gallons per hour through it. I think at that rate pretty much there's nothing can survive that goes through it. I am wondering however if perhaps doing a blackout in conjunction with UV would not be better. wouldn't a blackout cause the bubbles to release from the rocks and get into the water column, and thus trough the skimmer? Any thoughts?
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Here's a little eye candy for ya when tank was first set up.............
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When I did the transfer everything was seamless, that is to say that 50% of the water was first siphoned down stairs to the new tank and then I began to move all the rock, coral and fish down in buckets of tank water. When I did the transfer I was careful to not expose anything to the air. Once I had all the stuff moved down into the new tank, I siphoned down the remaining water from upstairs. then I only had to add about 25 gallons of new salt water to make up the difference in tanks sizes.
All seemed to be going good for about 6 months and then WHAM! DINO MANIA!
I have since been blowing off the rocks and siphoning like mad (bare bottom) every couple of days. Changing filter socks etc. etc. Also have been running my skimmer (Reef Octopus 3000 super wet) with a dual carbon and Rowa reactors, but nothing seems to kill them off. This is crazy I start at one end of the tank blowing off the rocks with a turkey baster, and by the time I get to the other end, the little bubbles are already back where I first started:lolspin:
Here are some pics. If you look close you can see the tiny bubbles everywhere.
Heres a pic of my sump after I swapped out my return pump for a slower one. before I was turning the sump over about 10x/pr hr now its running at about 5 times per hour and the bubbles are now collecting in the sump and theres is like an almost snot like film on the top of the water. Pretty gross huh?
So here's my next plan of attack. I just finished plumbing in a new 40 watt UV sterilizer. I am using a little Mag 5 pump so with head loss I think I am probably pushing about 300-400 gallons per hour through it. I think at that rate pretty much there's nothing can survive that goes through it. I am wondering however if perhaps doing a blackout in conjunction with UV would not be better. wouldn't a blackout cause the bubbles to release from the rocks and get into the water column, and thus trough the skimmer? Any thoughts?
Here's a little eye candy for ya when tank was first set up.............
JamesHolt
Active member
Read back through this thread some, I dont think the UV will kill them by itself, as it may not be strong enough.. It should help some..
Increase your flow back up and get some tighter filter socks( 100um or smaller)..
https://utahbiodieselsupply.com/bagfilters.php
If you have the space pull your corals and fish out and dose with Peroxide while doing the lights out..
DO NOT do a water change until you beat them, they love it...
I got rid of mine by doing the dosing ( I was dosing large amounts (10-15ml per 10 gallon), little dangerous to fish and corals), pulling rocks out, scrubbing and fresh water dipping them daily..
I put everything I did in my blog..
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/blog.php?b=778
I did lose some corals and most of my crabs..
Dosing does turn Chaetomorpha Algae to goo also..
But if it is in your sump it is contaminated with dinos already..
I dont advise the large amounts I used, but I was getting ready to start a new job and if I didnt do it, they would have taken over by the time I could have enough free time to deal with them..
Meanwhile the dinos have overwhelmed my QT tank.. Going to leave it running till I get a microscope so I can ID them... Wish payday would hurry up and get here.. Been three weeks since I got a check...lol
Increase your flow back up and get some tighter filter socks( 100um or smaller)..
https://utahbiodieselsupply.com/bagfilters.php
If you have the space pull your corals and fish out and dose with Peroxide while doing the lights out..
DO NOT do a water change until you beat them, they love it...
I got rid of mine by doing the dosing ( I was dosing large amounts (10-15ml per 10 gallon), little dangerous to fish and corals), pulling rocks out, scrubbing and fresh water dipping them daily..
I put everything I did in my blog..
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/blog.php?b=778
I did lose some corals and most of my crabs..
Dosing does turn Chaetomorpha Algae to goo also..
But if it is in your sump it is contaminated with dinos already..
I dont advise the large amounts I used, but I was getting ready to start a new job and if I didnt do it, they would have taken over by the time I could have enough free time to deal with them..
Meanwhile the dinos have overwhelmed my QT tank.. Going to leave it running till I get a microscope so I can ID them... Wish payday would hurry up and get here.. Been three weeks since I got a check...lol
stan zemanek
New member
stan zemanek
New member
Ok small update. UV has been running steady since Sunday afternoon. Around 8 last night I blew the entire tank with a turkey baster to get as much in suspension as possible.
Woke up this morning and went and checked the tank and I would say nearly 99% of the bubbles that were on top of the water in the sump are gone. What does this mean? I have no idea. I am curious to see what happens this afternoon when lights come on. Normally by 5 in the afternoon the tank is bubble crazy.
Sump before UV
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Sump after 14 hours of UV
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Woke up this morning and went and checked the tank and I would say nearly 99% of the bubbles that were on top of the water in the sump are gone. What does this mean? I have no idea. I am curious to see what happens this afternoon when lights come on. Normally by 5 in the afternoon the tank is bubble crazy.
Sump before UV
Sump after 14 hours of UV
stan zemanek
New member
For now just UV. I want to see how the tank looks after a few days of UV and the standard lighting cycle I have it on. I don't want to throw to many things at it at once because I won't know if it was one thing or a combination that was the cure. My guess though is lights out, and STROOOOOONG UV, will be best.
ponokareefer
New member
So I've battled through dinos and have finally got to the point of no visible signs of them for the last 24 hours after a 75 hour black out period. How long should I wait until I return my lighting back to normal? I'm running it at 4 hours/day now and my corals and anemones are not looking great.
Also, my long spine urchin has lost a lot of spines and may be on its way out. Other than that, I only lost 1 anthias during my first black out period.
Also, my long spine urchin has lost a lot of spines and may be on its way out. Other than that, I only lost 1 anthias during my first black out period.
With the weather getting warmer now, I'm going to leave my windows open for an extended period of time and change nothing else. Hopefully the effect on pH will cause something to happen with the dines. My house is a newer construction and they tend to trap more co2.
I've had this issue with dinos before, I'm thinking the rocks from my previous system caused the current outbreak in conjunction with adding GFO and carbon dosing to the system. This falls in line with the low nutrient issue. Another commonality between this and last time is that I let my RO filters go too long. Last time I caught it way too late - 150ppm, this time I caught it at 45ppm. During both instances the dines got way worse. Snowball effect, don't check RO water enough, see algae in tank, change water heavily with bad water, Dino feed off trace elements, change filters, keep changing water with clean water now. You can see how it happens.
I've had this issue with dinos before, I'm thinking the rocks from my previous system caused the current outbreak in conjunction with adding GFO and carbon dosing to the system. This falls in line with the low nutrient issue. Another commonality between this and last time is that I let my RO filters go too long. Last time I caught it way too late - 150ppm, this time I caught it at 45ppm. During both instances the dines got way worse. Snowball effect, don't check RO water enough, see algae in tank, change water heavily with bad water, Dino feed off trace elements, change filters, keep changing water with clean water now. You can see how it happens.
mathman7728
New member
i beat dinos doing the following:
1) MH lights out for 5 days but kept the blue LEDs on 5 hours/day. the room was completely dark when LEDs were not on
2) dosed algae fix marine (i know it is typically used for hair algae) at slightly higher amounts than recommended (i was desperate)
3) after 5 days andover the course of about 2 weeks, I gradually increased in MH to typically photo period"¦.done and no come back.
1) MH lights out for 5 days but kept the blue LEDs on 5 hours/day. the room was completely dark when LEDs were not on
2) dosed algae fix marine (i know it is typically used for hair algae) at slightly higher amounts than recommended (i was desperate)
3) after 5 days andover the course of about 2 weeks, I gradually increased in MH to typically photo period"¦.done and no come back.
adamwheel
New member
I had my new DIY 178 gal up and running for less than a year when dinos took over and wiped out my SPS colonies I'd had for 3-4 years. I do not have a positive ID on the species but did bring a microscope home from work to confirm I have dinos.
There were some maintenance issues I wanted to deal with anyway, so I decided to do a complete tank tear down.
All fish and inverts went to QT and are currently there awaiting the restart. Inverts were dipped in fresh water and hydrogen peroxide prior to entering QT.
One of my QTs was getting enough light to allow the dinos to bloom. I had it placed near my grow light for this year's garden. That QT was shut down and all inverts and fish are now in a 40 gallon breeder that only receives ambient light.
Questions: I'm worried about introducing them again during restart. I plan on running fresh water through the system before adding salt.
I have some nice inverts but wonder how to add them with confidence.
Any suggestions on both fish and invert additions?
Sorry for the long post and thanks for the help,
Adam
There were some maintenance issues I wanted to deal with anyway, so I decided to do a complete tank tear down.
All fish and inverts went to QT and are currently there awaiting the restart. Inverts were dipped in fresh water and hydrogen peroxide prior to entering QT.
One of my QTs was getting enough light to allow the dinos to bloom. I had it placed near my grow light for this year's garden. That QT was shut down and all inverts and fish are now in a 40 gallon breeder that only receives ambient light.
Questions: I'm worried about introducing them again during restart. I plan on running fresh water through the system before adding salt.
I have some nice inverts but wonder how to add them with confidence.
Any suggestions on both fish and invert additions?
Sorry for the long post and thanks for the help,
Adam
I think you've done what you can. I don't know what species your tank might have had, or what percentage of dinoflagellates produce spores, but I might do a general cleanup of the area where the tank was, as well as clean any part of the aquarium or equipment that hasn't been sterilized.
DNA
New member
I'd say that to be the unproven fact until someone proves it.
Pants
Member
I've thought about this a lot. I'd love to test it. had I been aware of the dino issue in aquaria I probably would have built my thesis around it. I'm inclined to believe they are in most tanks and blooms occur when environmental conditions are just right. That said I've spent some time looking at sand and water samples from a large number of aquaria and I've been really surprised by the low diversity of plankton in tanks. So we could be wrong.
adamwheel
New member
The first time around, I seeded dry rock and assume had very little diversity. I was also doing the low nutrient (zeovit) approach.
My theory from my limited experience: Dinos had almost zero competition and destroyed my SPS (Montis excluded) pretty quickly. My aquarium was too clean.
This time, I'm going to use maricultured rock and sand hoping for much more diversity to combat them. I'm also adding a refugium to the system.
My theory from my limited experience: Dinos had almost zero competition and destroyed my SPS (Montis excluded) pretty quickly. My aquarium was too clean.
This time, I'm going to use maricultured rock and sand hoping for much more diversity to combat them. I'm also adding a refugium to the system.
