[Help] Dinos

[rrueger]

Any feedback from individuals with experience beating dino's would be greatly appreciated.

The Tank:
65g RR w/ 10 g sump.
Maxspect 160w light, Mp40, Reef Octopus 150 skimmer, BRS reactor w/ GFO & Carbon, 5 Stage RO/DI

Dosing:
Kalk via ATO

History:
Tank has been running 3 years. 14 months in I had a digitate hydroid introduced to the system (attached to a snails shell). Before I learned what they were I had them everywhere, took out the rock & gave it a muriatic acid bath. 6 months after that acid bath (my first restart) I pulled the sand bed and replaced some rock for aesthetic purposes (mini cycle, 2nd restart). I am now 8 months from that. I'm lightly stocked w/ a royal gramma, clown, firefish, long nose hawk and mandarin

Parameters are all in check. 80 temp, 425 cal, 9.1 alk, 1350 mag, nitrate .05, ammonia/nitrite 0, phos reading 0 on red sea (obviously false reading).


Now I come to the dinos:
They started about 2 months ago around the time I tried dosing aquavitro fuel (I think). I have since stopped. At first I took a toothbrush to my rocks, sucking up the goo every week. after 2-3 days it was back, thicker than ever. I tried raising PH to 8.4 (and have kept it there for 3 weeks).. I started dosing H202 (started 1ml per gallon, no up to 3ml per gallon with no impact), went 3 day blackout & wrapped the tank in Christmas paper (festive!). Dino's are just getting worse. I switched my GFO to Rhowaphos, tried doing 20 gallon water changes ever other day.. From my reading some noted that some strands of Dinos thrive in ultra clean water, so I bought potassium nitrate to raise nitrate to 3ppm (this actually made my SPS look amazing), but Dinos are still going strong. yesterday I pulled all my frags not encrusted onto rock and placed them back on a frag rack. I'm pulling any rock without a coral on it and placing it in a QT tank without light. I know I can buy Dino X, but until I get a microscope and identify the strand I don't want to use it (only works for certain types).
:headwally:
Questions:
What if I buy a block of Marine Pure and leave it in the sump for a month, then pull all rock/coral out of the tank and run it bare for a while with just fish? bad idea?

What else am I doing wrong?
Has anyone tried using a UV sterilizer?
If I pull the rock and place in buckets with 50/50 h202 mixture, then place in QT tank to monitor for 2 weeks, should I replace all the tank water as well?

Does anyone want my tank? :headwally:

 

[Realposition]

A couple years ago I was in the very similar position that you are. I fought Dino's for a year and tried all the same things. I was starving my tank fighting some non existant nutrient issues that everyone was telling me I had. Finally I bought a aqua uv 40w sterilizer, cut the lights off for 1 day and ran the sterilizer at the recommended flow to kill bateria per aqua uv and I saw about 80% of my Dino's completely disappear in the first day. I turned the light back on and by day 3 I never saw another Dino again.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Op

Op

Post sg and what you use to check it

 

[rrueger]

1.025. I use a refractometer and calibrate it with solution frequently

 

[Willistein]

I fought dinos for a bout a year as well. I tried a bunch of things:
-lights out periods for 3 days with 2 days of lights on in between. This would knock them back, but they would come back after a few days.
-dosing 3% hydrogen peroxide into the sump - never seemed to do much of anything.
-Fauna Marine Algae X (Dino X) - this I think finally did the trick. It's pricey, but it's cheaper than watching corals get smothered. I lost my favorite blue mille to dinos...
I never tried UV.

Bulk Reef Supply has the Dino X
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/fauna-marin-ultra-algea-x.html

 

[rrueger]

Thank you for the feedback. Just a quick update, I saw someone mention in another thread fresh water kills dinos instantly. I grabbed 3 rocks with no corals and dipped them last night. I was amazed the dinos disappeared instantly and the water became a murky smelly mess. Before pulling the trigger on a uv sterilizer or dino x I think I'm going to try dipping all the rocks, scrubbing down the tank, 3 day blackout then 20% wc.

 

[Jewilson83]

Thank you for the feedback. Just a quick update, I saw someone mention in another thread fresh water kills dinos instantly. I grabbed 3 rocks with no corals and dipped them last night. I was amazed the dinos disappeared instantly and the water became a murky smelly mess. Before pulling the trigger on a uv sterilizer or dino x I think I'm going to try dipping all the rocks, scrubbing down the tank, 3 day blackout then 20% wc.

I defeated Dinos before. I've tried everything that everyone else has. The most important step is to figure out what type do you have. Use a microscope and also look at their movements. Some are easy to kill and some are hard. The hardest is what I had and that's the Ostreopsis. Toxic and a huge nuisance. Hard to get rid of. Yes fresh water helps but you are killing everything good that comes with your rock. Beneficial bacteria etc. With Dinos you have to outcompete them with everything to drive them out. Beneficial bacteria, phyto, algae etc. Dino X does not work on most Dinos. Especially the ones I had. It weakens them but won't get rid of them. Also your rocks aren't the only place they dwell. Your sand, glass, on corals, every nook and cranny. Blackout will kill some completely or weaken others. That's why it's important to identify which ones you have. Also join the forums on Dinos. There's that I know of. One major weapon that I used is Kalkwasser. Raising you PH will kill them and keep them at bay long enough for all the beneficiaries(lol) to swoop in its place. There's a forum on killing Dinos with Kalkwasser. I ended up raising my PH over time to 8.6-7 for 2 weeks. Be careful with your Alk please. I wiped out 12 colonies of SPS and 15 SPS frags because I didn't test before I went on a weekend trip. All is well now. Grace be to you. Research, research, research.

 

[Jewilson83]

I stumbled on this thread. Any updates? Were you able to defeat the Dino?

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Starting point for preventing/ battling dinos (if truly the problem) is to use ONLY kalkwasser for topoff and maintaining SG @ 1.025

A good milky kalk dose (no precip! research dosage!) can work wonders.

 

[Jewilson83]

Starting point for preventing/ battling dinos (if truly the problem) is to use ONLY kalkwasser for topoff and maintaining SG @ 1.025



A good milky kalk dose (no precip! research dosage!) can work wonders.

That's what helped for me!!!