F**K Dino's
 

Man.

Never had them like this.

Old Tank Syndrome led to sandbed cleaning and replacement plus I took out 1/2 of my LR to cook.

Dino's so bad it's killed a couple coral. Thick like a blanket my grandma made.

Never had that happen. Usually just an annoying, brief part of the cycle.

Doing manual removal and dosing with beneficial bacteria.

Going to start dosing phosphate and nitrate soon if it doesn't clear up.

yeah dinos are a pain, what worked for me:

1) dose phosphate and nitrates to get your nutrients up
2) try to id the dino, if they are the swimming type then uv will do the job
3) if they are not the swimming type, then dose silicates and keep your nutrients up

It took me a good 6 months before I was finally dino free...

New tank acquired.

Starting Fresh.

I think the Dino's did not like the looks of the new tank as it seems like as soon as I set it up, they started to reduce in the other tank.

I have been dosing a little phosphate and nitrates and have been adding microbacter 7.

I picked up some silicate additive and am going to start dosing that as soon as I pick up a test kit...

Live Phyto has been known to help tackle this. I've had a retailer reach out to me before for a large order of phyto for in store use that I was able to fulfill for them. I believe they used it in combination with other treatments.

End result though, no more dinos!

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Joe
www.reefsolutions.ca

I guess because it will add phosphates and nitrates back into the water or for some other reason?

Also, do you sell live phyto?

Yes I do! I ship or offer free local pickup on a variety of live food and food products for your tank... but your comment got me thinking about the problem at hand and a possibility of solutions.

Now all this is just throwing around information and ideas, so please don't take this as a be all and end all to your problem. Ultimately it's your tank and up to you to decide what you'd like to do. None of these have been officially tested by myself as I have yet to experience dinos specifically to experiment with them. So, I offer no promises and take no liability. But here's my thought process.

1. You could obviously buy large quantities of live phytoplankton and do what others have done before you. When growing it, you will need 1/5th phyto to sterile water to prevent any competition. Generally, phyto won't have a massive bloom in a tank as there's too much competition, filtration and predators. You may find other algae take off, like chaeto or hair algae if you dose too much... but that's much easier to get rid of than dinos by the sounds of it.

2. You could buy a smaller amount of phytoplankton and combine it with dosing the f/2 fertilizer to your tank, that we also sell (it's reef safe and specifically designed to grow phytoplankton.)

3. You could try just dosing the f/2 fertilizer at a fraction of the cost of the above options as it's concentrated and if it works, would save you money. I'm not sure if it would work specifically but it is worth a try and the cost difference. Especially if you're just trying to increase nitrates and phosphates.

4. or You could pick up our culture kit and grow your own phyto at home with the addition of a light and a pump and possibly beat the dino's and then continue to dose on the regular to prevent it from happening again.

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3. is the cheapest upfront option though I'm not sure the specific dosing regiment you'd want to use to attempt to tackle the problem. To grow phyto, 1 teaspoon does 1 gallon but I expect that may raise your levels too high. Is there a target level to raise nitrates and phos that you're aiming for?

There's around 50 tsp worth of fertilizer in our 8oz bottles (they're overfilled and need to be relabelled to 250ml or 8.45oz)

Hope that helps, love to keep on the problem if you have any more questions!

--
Joe.
www.reefsolutions.ca