I had Dyno's from running my skimmer to hard. 0 Nitrates 0 Phosphates. Might sound crazy but I beat them by adding a small amount of the nutrients back from my skimmer cup that was a week old. Did water tests to get it to the right amount. To my amazement my corals loved me for it!! Figured if I got there by skimming to hard why not give some of the nutrients back. Saved me from buying nitrates and Phosphates or putting chemicals in the tank. Counter productive to the guys that sell you stuff but it worked.
Man I had saltwater for 7 years and quit 4 years ago.. dinos were one of the reasons I packed up my tank and moved to just freshwater. Decided to jump back in to reefs and your videos have helped me be more confident, a nice refresher, and correct the wrong info in my head.
I’m battling them rn. So far I’ve been letting the diatoms or other algaes grow on my glass and I’ve added a refugium. Also siphoned out the most a could. Been a week so far and it’s look far better, hopefully I beat the Dinos. If this won’t work I’ll get a uv sterilizer
@@Boogerdick69 just dont add nutrients like he suggests just feeding them even more..also dosing kalkwasser helps because it reduces phosphate and Co2 both with dinos love
Awsome vid! This saved my tank, I was battling cyno and algae, with no3 reading zero I figured the po4 had to be elevated (never tested it). I was skimming heavy with a lot of water changes and still cyno everywhere. Saw this vid so I went out and bought a good po4 test kit, came out at zero. Started dosing neo pho’s and neo nitrate with microbacteria 7. Two weeks later algae and cyno gone! Acros have the best color I’ve ever seen. Sometimes you have to step back and think outside the box. Having cyno doesn’t necessarily mean you have an abundance if nutrients.
I’ve had the same problem. Tank was fine til nitrates hit 0 and phos as good as 0. Never had this before, you reckon I should just add beneficial bacteria and up feeding big time to increase nitrate and phosphate?
You could try skimming less, feeding more or dosing neo pho’s, and neo Nitrate. Just take it slow don’t want to increase to quickly. IMO I would go with the dosing because it gives you more control. And definitely add micro bacteria 7.
@@CentralValleyOperator I have been adding MB7 and also vibrant and neophos and so far nothing. Its didi look a little better until water change though and now maybe evn worse. The problem is I cant really indentify what it is since it dosnt resemble either really. Looks alot like diatoms, but since my nutrients bottomed out after dosing nopox then assuming s its one of these. I cant get them back up even with overfeeding and neophos! I read these bacterias also help lower them! The reason I am doing water changes was to up my alk and start testing daily because its dropping as well. The problem is my alk is wierd too. Last time it didint start dropping until about 5 days after the water change. This time immediately but inconsistent drops and i know you are supposed to dial in a number to dose daily when 2 part dosing. I am so confused! I spend hours a day testing and watching youtubes, dosing....its just crazy how time consuming this tank is!
Have you tried dosing 2 part? I recommend b ionic. Just remember to always dose in equal amounts. Most of the time water changes will not be enough to keep alk and calcium stable in a reef environment. In a low nutrient system I would recommend only doing a 10% water change weekly or even bi weekly. If it’s Dino’s keep dosing neo pho’s and neo nitro, get you alk and calcium in check. It’s a delicate balance that is hard to kee ll but with time and experience becomes easier, keep you head up and be positive, just remember that any situation can be fixed.
Have 0 phosphates and 0 nitrates if because the dinos are consuming it....adding more will only continue the problem basically feeding them...if u ever test double zeros and see nothing it means your about to have a bloom of them...Also dosing kalkwasser helps alot since it helps with phosphate and Co2
When I had Dino’s the first 2 day all I did was manually remove as much of the Dino while bubble scrubbing at the same time. Then I added dr tims one and only with the skimmer off for three days. While all this I changed my filter floss every 12 hour. I also did 40% water change every week and cleaning the sand bed where I could see a bunch of Dino floating after the water change . I did run carbon and replaced it every week while using double the recommend amount. Since the first day I confirmed it was Dino to the last couple of days seeing the Dino it took about 2 1/2 weeks for it to disappear. Be patientand don’t lose hope, there were days where I saw no progress in it disappearing but one day it just started to disappeared.
I have literally watched this video like 100 times. Two questions 1. If you follow the school of thought that water changes are removing nutrients, how do I clean it as often as I can, and still have the troops needed? 2. What to do when you have an AIO like that E170? I am not running a sump underneath. So no roller mat or UV for me, I don't have those options. Thanks for all the great info, I don't know where I would be without you guys.
One option to manually remove the dinos is to siphon the water out into a filter sock. Then you can put the water back in the tank while still removing the dinos, but not reducing nutrients in the tank. For tanks like the E170, check out the AquaUV hang on UV sterilizers. They're a great option if you're fighting dinos or just want to run a UV for any reason on the E170 system. We use a Sicce 1.5 as the feed pump.
The stuff that made me shut down an amazing reef I had 3 years ago. I downsized my tank before thinking it’d be gone and weeks later....it comes back! I siphoned out and boiled my entire sand bed numerous times, used hydrogen peroxide, chemiclean, and it still came back.....
I had Dyno's from running my skimmer to hard. 0 Nitrates 0 Phosphates. Might sound crazy but I beat them by adding a small amount of the nutrients back from my skimmer cup that was a week old. Did water tests to get it to the right amount. To my amazement my corals loved me for it!! Figured if I got there by skimming to hard why not give some of the nutrients back. Saved me from buying nitrates and Phosphates or putting chemicals in the tank. Counter productive to the guys that sell you stuff but it worked.
My solution for dinos has worked for me and some buddies. Use flexible tubing to the inlet of a Rio 1400 (any pump that has a nipple you can squeeze tubing onto) with a UV sterilizer connecting to the outflow of the Rio. Scrape the rocks with a toothbrush and suck off the dinos with the tubing as you go. This way, all the dinos go straight from the rock through the UV, there's no waiting for them to enter the water column, hopefully go down the overflow, hopefully make it through your chaeto or whatever else is in your sump, and hopefully go through the UV portion of the return. For me, I was able to get rid of my dinos after 4 days of repeating this.
So far I found that removing the crushed coral and sand during weekly water changes, then washing it out was the most effective, risk-free method. I rinsed the gravel out about 10 times with hot water, and saw all the green slime go down the drain. During the final rinse, I observed that the water is opaque, but not colored. Then I did a final, thorough rinse with RODI.
Gravel? We used crushed coral and sand in saltwater never heard or using gravel. Also that kind of rinse is also removing micro fauna that you like to have in your tank creating more instability
@Jord Jong sorry... I meant crushed coral. Microfauna are still all over the substrates and rocks, and most of the Dino outbreak occurred throughout the sand. As for the nitrifying bacteria, I believe they also reside in the substrates, coral, and live rock that have been in the tank prior to. Regardless, even if that’s the case, you can always add more of the bacterial solution.
@@julian7719 thats true but it might be best to vaccum the sand off to help keep tank stability or I think you will be fighting this issue for a long long time. Not all micro fauna is built the same or lives in the same area also surface area helps keep nitrifying bacteria at enough capacity to deal with your tank nutrients if you remove too much too often too fast...... removing the sand and rinsing it essentially lets the nutrients out of control until enough can populate again to handle. Watch their video on the instability removing sand from the BRS 360 caused.
Battling dinos now, Im not sure if Im just not feeding enough, and allowed nitrates to go to zero. I am dosing NoPox, so who knows. Adding Micro bac 7 this week, see if it helps.
Great job with these. Like a computer flow chart tree. You can continue to add to this library by breaking down each 5 minutes into multiple different parts and going more in depth with each. Will make a great knowledge base library. Nice job.
I tried dinox 30 day Treatment didn't work. I battled dino for 5 months. What finally killed it was turning down all my pumps, putting a uv stabilizer in the main display, bought a live rock and cycled sand from lfs, used a carbon reactor and Let the aquarium get super dirty. Once I saw diatoms and other algae growing over the dino I let it go another week. Then I scraped the glass vacuumed the sand into a large filter sock in sump. I then did a double dose of dinox. A week later dino free. I then went out and bought a cleanup crew to rid all the other algae I promoted to over grow the dino. Feels great I beat it. Also get a microscope so u can identify what algae is growing
Update my dinoflagellates came back, battle went on for 1.5 more years and got super bad almost all my corals and crustations died. I started to pay close attention to nitrate and phosphate. I also started dosing phytoplankton and micro back 7. I removed all white light from spectrum and cut my light on time to 6 hours. I also used solicits and all natural ich attack. Its definitely gone now been 2 months. Horrible experience
Started getting them, dosed microbacter 7, noticeably better the next day didn't re dose to see and after a week the Dino's came back. Going to dose Bacter again.
Hi! Great video! Thanks. You mentioned blackout. Cover the tank but still leave reef lights going? Basically eliminating all natural light? Iv done chemi clean 2 times now. Stopped carbon. Done 2 15% water changes in 3 weeks
What are the dinos at 1:40?that’s exactly the kind I have and I’m only 5 days in after cycling with ammonia and frtitz turbo start 900 no fish in the tank 10 pounds dry rock and 10 pounds live. 26 gallons of water 32 gallon biocube. Rn ammonia 0 and nitrites 2.
I got rid of mine with one simple trick - removing Chemipure Blue from the filter in my AIO. Dinos were completely gone in a week. Stuck with carbon for chemical filtration ever since.
They may get set back, but generally they will do fine for that period of time. Think of it like the ocean were there's a big storm hoovering for several days. It gets pretty dark down there where the corals are, but everyone makes it through. :)
My nitrates stay at 0 and phosphates around .06 ppm. Should I get the nitrate supplement and vibrant? I only have coral and inverts in my tank so I don’t feed much
If you're dealing with dinos, my first suggestion would be to grab an inexpensive microscope to try to ID which strain you're dealing with. Some will enter the water column at night, making UV sterilizers a great way to battle them. That said, if you can't or don't want to use a microscope or UV sterilizer, then getting the nitrates up would be a great first step. I also highly suggest mechanical filtration like Ryan talks about in step 3 of this video.
My nitrates are 40ppm, po4 is 0.02 and my tank is only 2 months old but my sand bed is almost completely covered by the time the lights go out and it's clean and looks wonderful when I wake up in the morning. Have tried chemiclean and it didn't work. Think uv will actually work?
UV works on many of the common strains of dinos. As long as it's a strain that enters the water column at night, which it sounds like you're dealing with, UV is a great tool.
The dimming method works great. I had a big dino problem 1.5 years ago, having lost a lot of SPS colonies. I decided to try the dimming method, there was nothing to lose. I turned off the light and closed the tank for 3-4 days, visually all the dino disappeared completely. But I brought daylight hours to the previous level for 1 month, the first week only royal blue burned for 4 hours a day.
Ryan, you should make a video of how to reset a reef tank when the battle's lost. Now I'm actually thinking of getting rid of my 2 reef tanks and end this endless headache.
Don‘t give up! My tank was so overrun, that the dinos covered every surface and started growing on the watersurface... But i‘m starting to see results! Get po4 und no3 over 0, then siphon out as much as you can (if you don‘t want to do a waterchange, siphon into your filtersock in your sump) then dose vibrant, 2.5 ml per 100l 2x a week If after 2 weeks you don‘t see any progress, try dino X or red x if you have a tridacna clam Good luck!
We usually suggest temporarily shutting off the UV light when adding anything bacterial based. After an hour or two, you should be safe to turn it back on. Carbon dosing and carbon media are two different things. Carbon dosing is essentially feeding the bacteria to increase the population and reduce nitrates and phosphates.
There is usually a recommended flow rate for each UV sterilizer depending on the bulb wattage and size. If your sterilizer has a recommended flow rate for both algae and protozoa and you're fighting dinos, it's the algae flow rate that you're looking for
Want to know how to get Rid of Dinos! Get Vibrant! This stuff killed out my Dinos in 4-5 days and by 7 days you couldnt see Dinos anywhere in the tank!
If I have anemones in my tank, will a 3-4 black out be safe ? I dosed MicroBacter 7 and yesterday I took out as much Dino’s as possible. If I can do a 3-4 black out, I might have a chance to beat it. It developed last week, just need some confirmation before I do it
Hydrogen peroxide isn't something that we've experimented with too much when it comes to fighting dinos, but turning the lights off for a few days can certainly help. Even so, you'll need to employ other solutions as the dinos will just come back when the lights come back on if that's the only step you take.
How do you id if its dinos or cyano? chemiclean hasnt worked but neither has bacteria dosing! Is it safe to dose more than 1 ml per gallon like directions say for vibrant and mb7? Of corse the directions are speaking of keeping tank clean and not ridding dinos! I would think adding more bacteria wouldnt hurt and can you add mb7 straight to tank? It tells you to mix with some tank water first! I have been adding directly to tank! Please tell me how you are syphoning it? What are you hooking that hose to? I can never figure that out! Are you just using a hose and filtering back into tank through the sock? Do you guys rent uv sterilizers? If not you should! It seems crazy to spend all that money when its not needed unless you have dinos! They are so expensive! Sorry so many questions but If a blackout kills' them can lowering light help? Would corals be safe with all blue?
The best way to identify if you're dealing with dinos is to use a microscope. Even a lot of the inexpensive kids microscopes will have enough magnification to be able to tell the difference between different dino strains. Once you ID which dino strain you have, then you can really plan out your fix as not all strains can be solved via UV.
Dinos are the absolute worst! I very recently fought them for three months, but ended up winning. I had a cyano outbreak, but I can handle that. My UV sterilize seemed to have no effect on the type of dinos I had. Dino X was my best friend! Only one dose of Dino X and they were gone within a few days.
DINO X works one 1 specific strain of DINO's. Which was verified by a user on Reef 2 Reef. I do not recall what strain it was. The thread is called Are you tried of fighting dinos altogether, or something along that line. It contains info on how to effectively fight each strain of DINO's that we see in our tanks. McCarroll is one of the main contributors on that thread. Thanks to him and that thread I destroyed Ostreopsis DINO's and have not seen them since.
@@MeetTheSLAYER I just confirmed I have Ostreopsis. What was your method of winning? I am manually removing daily and upping my Nitrates and phosphates. Seems to be helping
Strange, I have non disappearing Dino's in a tank that had measurable nitrates and phosphates from day 7. Dinos appeared on week 5 together with diatoms and green hair algae. They are slowly spreading, can't black out the tank, as I already have some soft photosynthetic corals. Nitrates are 20 phosphates 0.16. GHA goes mad grows an inch in 2 days. Only positive thing is I have coraline algae spreading already(week 6). Bac in bottle is a sham, at least freshwater variety... What else? Kill corals with Dinos by blackout?
Probably won't do a video on that, but it's a good question. Manual removal (make sure you get the base) is time consuming, but absolutely works. Other than that, you could try bumblebee snails. Just know that they're carnivorous, so they may attack other clean up crew members.
I have a 13.5 EVO aquarium with 35 baby clown fish (60 days old) and I'm seeing cyanobacteria starting on the sand bed. It is a combination of green/red dinos/ cyano. I know the nutrients level is high due to 3-4 times a day feeding babies. Just curious if you have any suggestions for me? Maybe I should just take out the sand? Help!
Be careful with removing the sand as the sand is a great surface for all of the good nitrifying bacteria. You can use a product like chemiclean to rid the tank of cyano if you wish, but more frequent water changes may be the ticket here (since increased filtration isn't much of an option with that particular tank).
My live rock seems to be dying. The red keeps falling off on its own and turning the rock white. I tested my water, and it’s all good, levels are almost perfect.
I know that this is 3 years old now, but seeing as it is the first result for anyone googling how to battle dinos, you should add a pinned comment about the Vibrant scandal. I'm honestly disappointed that you haven't already. People are still watching this and buying algaecide to dump in their tanks.
I am realizing the fuzz that has been slowly growing on my rocks and wall is actually Dinos =// I have to do a tank move here in two weeks. Would it be worthwhile to take a toothbrush to all my rocks when doing this move? I also plan to replace the sand hoping this will solve it Good idea ?
I'd try to siphon as much of the dinos out as you can before the move. If you can incorporate a UV sterilizer into your tank, that would almost certainly help as well.
We haven't gone too far down that rabbit hole yet, but based on some evidence shared within the reefing community, it seems like that could be a viable strategy. Maybe we'll have to revisit the dino discussion soon.
Two different types of bacteria. If you're fighting algae issues, for example, Vibrant is a superior solution. If you're starting up a new tank or adding biodiversity, MicroBacter7 is a better choice.
My solution for my dino infestation was to get an algae eating fish such as a tang or two. Mine actually devoured it all over the course of 3 days. I'm not sure if dinos are algae or some sort of animal but they are an amazing meal for grazing fish.
I used a 3% peroxide bath on some zoa frags and it nuked them, but the zoos took weeks to recover. Later I dripped a 1:1 peroxide water mixture onto a plug out of the water and that also dealt with the algae but did not bother the zoa at all.
dinoflagellates typically have a snotty look to them, commonly with bubbles trapped inside. Diatoms are often more "dusty" in appearance. Of course, the best way to tell for sure would be to take a sample of it and look at it under a microscope. If it is indeed dinos, then this will also help you ID the strain and formulate a better game plan to remove them.
If your corals are healthy to begin with, they should have no problems surviving a 3-4 day blackout period. That said, I wouldn't suggest going any longer than that.
I’ve tried many methods and none of them seem to work. I have Raised nitrates and phosphates from zero to 15 ppm no3 and no4 to 44ppb. Dr. Tim’s dinos method with a three day blackout and his two bacteria‘s did not work. Hydrogen peroxide ,vibrant , bubble scrubbing, UV sterilizer neither worked. If anybody has any suggestions please let me know. Been in the hobby 28 years never had such a battle. Thanks.
There are many opinions of a UV sterilizer out there. I can tell you definitively that they are a requirement for a healthy reef tank. They will hurt nothing and control any ich or other problems that come on fish. Flow is also very important, in the right locations. That's the hardest part and also realize that phosphates are the number one contributing factor to a Dino breakout. Overfeeding is mainly the cause and that can be too many flakes or pellets at one time and it can also be cause by too much reef Roids, aminos, etc for corals. If you want to feed, feed very small amounts a few times a day. If flakes, 5 flakes at one time, etc. That depends on your fish load too. I also run a Red Sea Reefmat which has been an amazing addition.
I currently started dosing vibrant for my dinos, but also wanted to combo it with a uv sterilizer. Problem is I heard both of these methods work against each other when used at the same time.
We'd suggest starting with once per week. Anything more than that and you're experimenting beyond the manufacturer's recommendations. That said, there have been some reefers out there who have had success dosing more frequently than once per week. As a disclaimer, if you choose to do this, it's at your own risk.
I have heard that that but I hear you can get red slime from using it but it looks like my tang and foxface as been eating it and alot as gone will it come back after its been eaten and how does it get into my tank
Certainly true that there are some solutions that don't require purchasing bacterial supplements or UV sterilizers. In a lot of cases, just feeding more to get nitrates and phosphates up will work wonders.
I had Dyno's from running my skimmer to hard. 0 Nitrates 0 Phosphates. Might sound crazy but I beat them by adding a small amount of the nutrients back from my skimmer cup that was a week old. Did water tests to get it to the right amount. To my amazement my corals loved me for it!! Figured if I got there by skimming to hard why not give some of the nutrients back. Saved me from buying nitrates and Phosphates or putting chemicals in the tank. Counter productive to the guys that sell you stuff but it worked.
what are those that you add if you don't mind asking?
That ain't crazy but smart thing 😂
Man I had saltwater for 7 years and quit 4 years ago.. dinos were one of the reasons I packed up my tank and moved to just freshwater. Decided to jump back in to reefs and your videos have helped me be more confident, a nice refresher, and correct the wrong info in my head.
I’m battling them rn. So far I’ve been letting the diatoms or other algaes grow on my glass and I’ve added a refugium. Also siphoned out the most a could. Been a week so far and it’s look far better, hopefully I beat the Dinos. If this won’t work I’ll get a uv sterilizer
@@Boogerdick69 just dont add nutrients like he suggests just feeding them even more..also dosing kalkwasser helps because it reduces phosphate and Co2 both with dinos love
Awsome vid! This saved my tank, I was battling cyno and algae, with no3 reading zero I figured the po4 had to be elevated (never tested it). I was skimming heavy with a lot of water changes and still cyno everywhere. Saw this vid so I went out and bought a good po4 test kit, came out at zero. Started dosing neo pho’s and neo nitrate with microbacteria 7. Two weeks later algae and cyno gone! Acros have the best color I’ve ever seen. Sometimes you have to step back and think outside the box. Having cyno doesn’t necessarily mean you have an abundance if nutrients.
I’ve had the same problem. Tank was fine til nitrates hit 0 and phos as good as 0. Never had this before, you reckon I should just add beneficial bacteria and up feeding big time to increase nitrate and phosphate?
You could try skimming less, feeding more or dosing neo pho’s, and neo Nitrate. Just take it slow don’t want to increase to quickly. IMO I would go with the dosing because it gives you more control. And definitely add micro bacteria 7.
Chris than you for the reply 👍🏼 I will do that
@@CentralValleyOperator I have been adding MB7 and also vibrant and neophos and so far nothing. Its didi look a little better until water change though and now maybe evn worse. The problem is I cant really indentify what it is since it dosnt resemble either really. Looks alot like diatoms, but since my nutrients bottomed out after dosing nopox then assuming s its one of these. I cant get them back up even with overfeeding and neophos! I read these bacterias also help lower them! The reason I am doing water changes was to up my alk and start testing daily because its dropping as well. The problem is my alk is wierd too. Last time it didint start dropping until about 5 days after the water change. This time immediately but inconsistent drops and i know you are supposed to dial in a number to dose daily when 2 part dosing. I am so confused! I spend hours a day testing and watching youtubes, dosing....its just crazy how time consuming this tank is!
Have you tried dosing 2 part? I recommend b ionic. Just remember to always dose in equal amounts. Most of the time water changes will not be enough to keep alk and calcium stable in a reef environment. In a low nutrient system I would recommend only doing a 10% water change weekly or even bi weekly. If it’s Dino’s keep dosing neo pho’s and neo nitro, get you alk and calcium in check. It’s a delicate balance that is hard to kee ll but with time and experience becomes easier, keep you head up and be positive, just remember that any situation can be fixed.
Have 0 phosphates and 0 nitrates if because the dinos are consuming it....adding more will only continue the problem basically feeding them...if u ever test double zeros and see nothing it means your about to have a bloom of them...Also dosing kalkwasser helps alot since it helps with phosphate and Co2
When I had Dino’s the first 2 day all I did was manually remove as much of the Dino while bubble scrubbing at the same time. Then I added dr tims one and only with the skimmer off for three days. While all this I changed my filter floss every 12 hour. I also did 40% water change every week and cleaning the sand bed where I could see a bunch of Dino floating after the water change . I did run carbon and replaced it every week while using double the recommend amount. Since the first day I confirmed it was Dino to the last couple of days seeing the Dino it took about 2 1/2 weeks for it to disappear. Be patientand don’t lose hope, there were days where I saw no progress in it disappearing but one day it just started to disappeared.
I cant do a %30 water change on my tank that often sadly since i have such a big tank. Doing water changes just made things worse by alot.
Keep the lights off for a few days and then back off the intensity for a while. With the other suggestions seems to clear it up.
I have literally watched this video like 100 times. Two questions 1. If you follow the school of thought that water changes are removing nutrients, how do I clean it as often as I can, and still have the troops needed? 2. What to do when you have an AIO like that E170? I am not running a sump underneath. So no roller mat or UV for me, I don't have those options. Thanks for all the great info, I don't know where I would be without you guys.
One option to manually remove the dinos is to siphon the water out into a filter sock. Then you can put the water back in the tank while still removing the dinos, but not reducing nutrients in the tank. For tanks like the E170, check out the AquaUV hang on UV sterilizers. They're a great option if you're fighting dinos or just want to run a UV for any reason on the E170 system. We use a Sicce 1.5 as the feed pump.
@@BRStv as always thanks so much!!!
The stuff that made me shut down an amazing reef I had 3 years ago. I downsized my tank before thinking it’d be gone and weeks later....it comes back! I siphoned out and boiled my entire sand bed numerous times, used hydrogen peroxide, chemiclean, and it still came back.....
Sometimes using a UV sterilizer is just what the doctor ordered. They're not cheap, but in most cases, they do the trick in just a couple of days.
I had Dyno's from running my skimmer to hard. 0 Nitrates 0 Phosphates. Might sound crazy but I beat them by adding a small amount of the nutrients back from my skimmer cup that was a week old. Did water tests to get it to the right amount. To my amazement my corals loved me for it!! Figured if I got there by skimming to hard why not give some of the nutrients back. Saved me from buying nitrates and Phosphates or putting chemicals in the tank. Counter productive to the guys that sell you stuff but it worked.
My solution for dinos has worked for me and some buddies. Use flexible tubing to the inlet of a Rio 1400 (any pump that has a nipple you can squeeze tubing onto) with a UV sterilizer connecting to the outflow of the Rio. Scrape the rocks with a toothbrush and suck off the dinos with the tubing as you go. This way, all the dinos go straight from the rock through the UV, there's no waiting for them to enter the water column, hopefully go down the overflow, hopefully make it through your chaeto or whatever else is in your sump, and hopefully go through the UV portion of the return. For me, I was able to get rid of my dinos after 4 days of repeating this.
So far I found that removing the crushed coral and sand during weekly water changes, then washing it out was the most effective, risk-free method. I rinsed the gravel out about 10 times with hot water, and saw all the green slime go down the drain. During the final rinse, I observed that the water is opaque, but not colored. Then I did a final, thorough rinse with RODI.
Gravel? We used crushed coral and sand in saltwater never heard or using gravel. Also that kind of rinse is also removing micro fauna that you like to have in your tank creating more instability
@Jord Jong sorry... I meant crushed coral. Microfauna are still all over the substrates and rocks, and most of the Dino outbreak occurred throughout the sand. As for the nitrifying bacteria, I believe they also reside in the substrates, coral, and live rock that have been in the tank prior to. Regardless, even if that’s the case, you can always add more of the bacterial solution.
@@julian7719 thats true but it might be best to vaccum the sand off to help keep tank stability or I think you will be fighting this issue for a long long time. Not all micro fauna is built the same or lives in the same area also surface area helps keep nitrifying bacteria at enough capacity to deal with your tank nutrients if you remove too much too often too fast...... removing the sand and rinsing it essentially lets the nutrients out of control until enough can populate again to handle. Watch their video on the instability removing sand from the BRS 360 caused.
Battling dinos now, Im not sure if Im just not feeding enough, and allowed nitrates to go to zero. I am dosing NoPox, so who knows. Adding Micro bac 7 this week, see if it helps.
Great job with these. Like a computer flow chart tree. You can continue to add to this library by breaking down each 5 minutes into multiple different parts and going more in depth with each. Will make a great knowledge base library. Nice job.
how do you run a UV and dose bacteria at the same time?
I tried dinox 30 day Treatment didn't work. I battled dino for 5 months. What finally killed it was turning down all my pumps, putting a uv stabilizer in the main display, bought a live rock and cycled sand from lfs, used a carbon reactor and Let the aquarium get super
dirty. Once I saw diatoms and other algae growing over the dino I let it go another week. Then I scraped the glass vacuumed the sand into a large filter sock in sump. I then did a double dose of dinox. A week later dino free. I then went out and bought a cleanup crew to rid all the other algae I promoted to over grow the dino. Feels great I beat it. Also get a microscope so u can identify what algae is growing
Update my dinoflagellates came back, battle went on for 1.5 more years and got super bad almost all my corals and crustations died. I started to pay close attention to nitrate and phosphate. I also started dosing phytoplankton and micro back 7. I removed all white light from spectrum and cut my light on time to 6 hours. I also used solicits and all natural ich attack. Its definitely gone now been 2 months. Horrible experience
Dinox didn't work for my dino and I'm pretty sure vibrant is what caused the dino to grow.
Great videos!! Thanks for featuring our community!
Best community ever!
Started getting them, dosed microbacter 7, noticeably better the next day didn't re dose to see and after a week the Dino's came back. Going to dose Bacter again.
What is the white and black striped fish at the 5:15 mark. He is going at the sand.
This is a Zebra tang! (:
Hi! Great video! Thanks. You mentioned blackout. Cover the tank but still leave reef lights going? Basically eliminating all natural light?
Iv done chemi clean 2 times now. Stopped carbon. Done 2 15% water changes in 3 weeks
You'd need to turn the tank's lighting off too
Cam i use a uv sterilizer without a sump ?
I Just turn off skimmer for few days and dose bacteria, feed normaly, reduce period in refugium.
Even with that and my phosphates Being 0.10 and nitrates at 10ppm they persist. Corals dying left and right too.
@@marcelrodriguez2067 mine get adapt when i raise the nutrient...they seem getting back after all and prefer the nutrient better than dino.
What are the dinos at 1:40?that’s exactly the kind I have and I’m only 5 days in after cycling with ammonia and frtitz turbo start 900 no fish in the tank 10 pounds dry rock and 10 pounds live. 26 gallons of water 32 gallon biocube. Rn ammonia 0 and nitrites 2.
I have a 150gal SW tank. It only has a few zoanthids. Will a 72hr blackout kill them? I believe I'm dealing with a Dino issue.
In our experience, a 72 hour blackout will not kill a healthy coral.
I got rid of mine with one simple trick - removing Chemipure Blue from the filter in my AIO. Dinos were completely gone in a week. Stuck with carbon for chemical filtration ever since.
why would this help?
i beat dinos with Vibrant! only took 2 doses. (one dose bi-weekly)
Can you go more into detail with this? Vibrant seems like the most realistic option for me right now and Dinos is starting to be a problem.
Corals dont die in that time of the blackout? specially if you have soft corals?
They may get set back, but generally they will do fine for that period of time. Think of it like the ocean were there's a big storm hoovering for several days. It gets pretty dark down there where the corals are, but everyone makes it through. :)
My nitrates stay at 0 and phosphates around .06 ppm. Should I get the nitrate supplement and vibrant? I only have coral and inverts in my tank so I don’t feed much
If you're dealing with dinos, my first suggestion would be to grab an inexpensive microscope to try to ID which strain you're dealing with. Some will enter the water column at night, making UV sterilizers a great way to battle them.
That said, if you can't or don't want to use a microscope or UV sterilizer, then getting the nitrates up would be a great first step. I also highly suggest mechanical filtration like Ryan talks about in step 3 of this video.
microbacter 7 killed my phos levels and i think it is what started this outbreak, as it was the only change i made at the time.
Any pest in the aquarium is like that Drunk roommate you couldn't wait to get rid of lol :)
My nitrates are 40ppm, po4 is 0.02 and my tank is only 2 months old but my sand bed is almost completely covered by the time the lights go out and it's clean and looks wonderful when I wake up in the morning. Have tried chemiclean and it didn't work. Think uv will actually work?
UV works on many of the common strains of dinos. As long as it's a strain that enters the water column at night, which it sounds like you're dealing with, UV is a great tool.
What kind of lighting is on your tank?
The dimming method works great.
I had a big dino problem 1.5 years ago, having lost a lot of SPS colonies. I decided to try the dimming method, there was nothing to lose. I turned off the light and closed the tank for 3-4 days, visually all the dino disappeared completely. But I brought daylight hours to the previous level for 1 month, the first week only royal blue burned for 4 hours a day.
Ryan, you should make a video of how to reset a reef tank when the battle's lost.
Now I'm actually thinking of getting rid of my 2 reef tanks and end this endless headache.
Don‘t give up! My tank was so overrun, that the dinos covered every surface and started growing on the watersurface...
But i‘m starting to see results!
Get po4 und no3 over 0, then siphon out as much as you can (if you don‘t want to do a waterchange, siphon into your filtersock in your sump) then dose vibrant, 2.5 ml per 100l 2x a week
If after 2 weeks you don‘t see any progress, try dino X or red x if you have a tridacna clam
Good luck!
I have had good success with manual cleaning every day combined with daily dosing of Korallen-Zucht Coral Snow with bacterial dosing.
Can you dose the chemicals you mentioned and run UV at the same time? And is Carbon dosing the same as having carbon in a net bag?
We usually suggest temporarily shutting off the UV light when adding anything bacterial based. After an hour or two, you should be safe to turn it back on.
Carbon dosing and carbon media are two different things. Carbon dosing is essentially feeding the bacteria to increase the population and reduce nitrates and phosphates.
@@BRStv Thank you guys you are the best
Also, I was informed that siphoning out the Dinos will also siphon out beneficial bacteria as well
How do you tell how much flow the uv sterilizer is getting
Hello, should be the flow for the UV be slow?
There is usually a recommended flow rate for each UV sterilizer depending on the bulb wattage and size. If your sterilizer has a recommended flow rate for both algae and protozoa and you're fighting dinos, it's the algae flow rate that you're looking for
Want to know how to get Rid of Dinos! Get Vibrant! This stuff killed out my Dinos in 4-5 days and by 7 days you couldnt see Dinos anywhere in the tank!
Are you sure ?
It works for all the tank ?
Worked for mine!
@@themadreview Did you dose once weekly per instructions?
@@MPMII yes I did
If I have anemones in my tank, will a 3-4 black out be safe ? I dosed MicroBacter 7 and yesterday I took out as much Dino’s as possible. If I can do a 3-4 black out, I might have a chance to beat it. It developed last week, just need some confirmation before I do it
Thank you
Do you guys recommend turning the lights off and using h202?
Hydrogen peroxide isn't something that we've experimented with too much when it comes to fighting dinos, but turning the lights off for a few days can certainly help. Even so, you'll need to employ other solutions as the dinos will just come back when the lights come back on if that's the only step you take.
How do you id if its dinos or cyano? chemiclean hasnt worked but neither has bacteria dosing! Is it safe to dose more than 1 ml per gallon like directions say for vibrant and mb7? Of corse the directions are speaking of keeping tank clean and not ridding dinos! I would think adding more bacteria wouldnt hurt and can you add mb7 straight to tank? It tells you to mix with some tank water first! I have been adding directly to tank! Please tell me how you are syphoning it? What are you hooking that hose to? I can never figure that out! Are you just using a hose and filtering back into tank through the sock? Do you guys rent uv sterilizers? If not you should! It seems crazy to spend all that money when its not needed unless you have dinos! They are so expensive! Sorry so many questions but If a blackout kills' them can lowering light help? Would corals be safe with all blue?
The best way to identify if you're dealing with dinos is to use a microscope. Even a lot of the inexpensive kids microscopes will have enough magnification to be able to tell the difference between different dino strains. Once you ID which dino strain you have, then you can really plan out your fix as not all strains can be solved via UV.
Will it eat coralline algae?
Love your 5-minute stuff.
Dinos are the absolute worst! I very recently fought them for three months, but ended up winning. I had a cyano outbreak, but I can handle that. My UV sterilize seemed to have no effect on the type of dinos I had. Dino X was my best friend! Only one dose of Dino X and they were gone within a few days.
DINO X works one 1 specific strain of DINO's. Which was verified by a user on Reef 2 Reef. I do not recall what strain it was. The thread is called Are you tried of fighting dinos altogether, or something along that line. It contains info on how to effectively fight each strain of DINO's that we see in our tanks. McCarroll is one of the main contributors on that thread. Thanks to him and that thread I destroyed Ostreopsis DINO's and have not seen them since.
@@MeetTheSLAYER I just confirmed I have Ostreopsis. What was your method of winning? I am manually removing daily and upping my Nitrates and phosphates. Seems to be helping
link?
Strange, I have non disappearing Dino's in a tank that had measurable nitrates and phosphates from day 7. Dinos appeared on week 5 together with diatoms and green hair algae.
They are slowly spreading, can't black out the tank, as I already have some soft photosynthetic corals.
Nitrates are 20 phosphates 0.16. GHA goes mad grows an inch in 2 days. Only positive thing is I have coraline algae spreading already(week 6).
Bac in bottle is a sham, at least freshwater variety...
What else? Kill corals with Dinos by blackout?
Great topic!! See this on the reef forums all the time from many frustrated users
Such great videos guys! Any plans to look into vermatid snail eradication?
Probably won't do a video on that, but it's a good question. Manual removal (make sure you get the base) is time consuming, but absolutely works. Other than that, you could try bumblebee snails. Just know that they're carnivorous, so they may attack other clean up crew members.
How does the blackout affect the corals?
Coral definitely need light long term, but a healthy coral can survive a 3 day blackout without any problems.
I have a 13.5 EVO aquarium with 35 baby clown fish (60 days old) and I'm seeing cyanobacteria starting on the sand bed. It is a combination of green/red dinos/ cyano. I know the nutrients level is high due to 3-4 times a day feeding babies. Just curious if you have any suggestions for me? Maybe I should just take out the sand? Help!
Be careful with removing the sand as the sand is a great surface for all of the good nitrifying bacteria. You can use a product like chemiclean to rid the tank of cyano if you wish, but more frequent water changes may be the ticket here (since increased filtration isn't much of an option with that particular tank).
are there any natural predators for it!
😮
My live rock seems to be dying. The red keeps falling off on its own and turning the rock white. I tested my water, and it’s all good, levels are almost perfect.
I know that this is 3 years old now, but seeing as it is the first result for anyone googling how to battle dinos, you should add a pinned comment about the Vibrant scandal. I'm honestly disappointed that you haven't already. People are still watching this and buying algaecide to dump in their tanks.
Step 1 or 2 is to collect the gunk and figure out what kind you have. UV for Water column swimmers and Coral Elegance regime for substrate dwellers.
I am realizing the fuzz that has been slowly growing on my rocks and wall is actually Dinos =// I have to do a tank move here in two weeks. Would it be worthwhile to take a toothbrush to all my rocks when doing this move? I also plan to replace the sand hoping this will solve it Good idea ?
I'd try to siphon as much of the dinos out as you can before the move. If you can incorporate a UV sterilizer into your tank, that would almost certainly help as well.
Is 82-83F temp kills dinos?
We haven't gone too far down that rabbit hole yet, but based on some evidence shared within the reefing community, it seems like that could be a viable strategy. Maybe we'll have to revisit the dino discussion soon.
Does microbacter7 work just aswell as vibrant?
Two different types of bacteria. If you're fighting algae issues, for example, Vibrant is a superior solution. If you're starting up a new tank or adding biodiversity, MicroBacter7 is a better choice.
My solution for my dino infestation was to get an algae eating fish such as a tang or two. Mine actually devoured it all over the course of 3 days. I'm not sure if dinos are algae or some sort of animal but they are an amazing meal for grazing fish.
I've seen a lot off reefers using hydrogen peroxide (h2o2) for many algeas and dinos you should do a test
Have used bleach here and there for years. Have to be precise with orp meter and syringe but it is an powerful oxidizer.
I used a 3% peroxide bath on some zoa frags and it nuked them, but the zoos took weeks to recover. Later I dripped a 1:1 peroxide water mixture onto a plug out of the water and that also dealt with the algae but did not bother the zoa at all.
Going to do a blackout to fight dinos, should I leave my algae reactor running or shut it down?
shut it down
Men & Dinos have been separated for 65 million years…. Hehehe nice vid!
How can I tell it’s dinos or diatoms?
dinoflagellates typically have a snotty look to them, commonly with bubbles trapped inside. Diatoms are often more "dusty" in appearance. Of course, the best way to tell for sure would be to take a sample of it and look at it under a microscope. If it is indeed dinos, then this will also help you ID the strain and formulate a better game plan to remove them.
If I black out my tank for four days will it harm my corals?
If your corals are healthy to begin with, they should have no problems surviving a 3-4 day blackout period. That said, I wouldn't suggest going any longer than that.
Can’t tell if what I have is Dinoflagellates or cyano
I’ve tried many methods and none of them seem to work. I have Raised nitrates and phosphates from zero to 15 ppm no3 and no4 to 44ppb. Dr. Tim’s dinos method with a three day blackout and his two bacteria‘s did not work. Hydrogen peroxide ,vibrant , bubble scrubbing, UV sterilizer neither worked. If anybody has any suggestions please let me know. Been in the hobby 28 years never had such a battle. Thanks.
Maybe dino x??
Maybe dino x??
There are many opinions of a UV sterilizer out there. I can tell you definitively that they are a requirement for a healthy reef tank. They will hurt nothing and control any ich or other problems that come on fish. Flow is also very important, in the right locations. That's the hardest part and also realize that phosphates are the number one contributing factor to a Dino breakout. Overfeeding is mainly the cause and that can be too many flakes or pellets at one time and it can also be cause by too much reef Roids, aminos, etc for corals. If you want to feed, feed very small amounts a few times a day. If flakes, 5 flakes at one time, etc. That depends on your fish load too. I also run a Red Sea Reefmat which has been an amazing addition.
Do Diatoms like dinos disappear at night ?
In most cases, yes they will.
@@BRStv thank you 😊
thanks !!!!!!!! love BRS
I need help my, phosphate and nitrates are low but I'm still battling green hair algae and red dino. Any suggestions?
Maybe edit the bit about adding bacterias like Vibrant 😬
I’m struggling with Dino’s I’m really thinking of getting rid of everything.
Dinos can definitely be a downer. I'd urge you to give it one more shot with the advice in this video.
I currently started dosing vibrant for my dinos, but also wanted to combo it with a uv sterilizer. Problem is I heard both of these methods work against each other when used at the same time.
I was feeding my nano reef very little every 3 to 4 days myabe thats the reason
How much vibrant to dose? It says 1ml per 10g once week but do I need to dose more to eliminate dinos?
We'd suggest starting with once per week. Anything more than that and you're experimenting beyond the manufacturer's recommendations. That said, there have been some reefers out there who have had success dosing more frequently than once per week. As a disclaimer, if you choose to do this, it's at your own risk.
Vibrant is a tank killer
It has taken over
We keep nitrates and phosphate down to avoid other problems and this algae thrives when those levels are too low? We just can't win :D
It's all about keeping that "right" amount of nitrates and phosphates 😀
Sometimes it is from too much intensity of the wrong wavelengths of light.
Save the dino
What for velonia??? My matrix crab dont eat this bouble glon.
That Vibrant recommendation didn't age well..
Salt water is high dollar
Can you do a 5 minutes guide on bubble algae #askbrstv
We can look into doing this! We have also had good results eliminating bubble algae with Vibrant! We may suggest giving this a try. (:
I have heard that that but I hear you can get red slime from using it but it looks like my tang and foxface as been eating it and alot as gone will it come back after its been eaten and how does it get into my tank
emerald crabs man
Dinos not the end of the would they come and go on their own. No need to panic buying chemicals. 👎
Certainly true that there are some solutions that don't require purchasing bacterial supplements or UV sterilizers. In a lot of cases, just feeding more to get nitrates and phosphates up will work wonders.
@@BRStv understood cool sorry I wasn't being negative but when I read it back it does sound negative lol not how I meant to be👍🏻
Fck vibrant !