help with dino

[phillrodrigo]

I have been battling dino for a few months. Im a true believer in if algea has nothing to eat N and P it will go away. So I grabbed the siphon and have been doing multiple siphonings a week. Some weeks I have done close to a 100% water change throughout the week. I started to carbom dose vinegar a month ago up to 15 mls. Added a gfo carbon reactor last week. Nothing has even really slowed it down. Last night changed 10 gallons out the entire time siphoning the Cc today it was back like I never did anything last night. It is smothering a few of my corals mostly softies for some reason. My clover polyps pretty muvh dead my gorgonian half dead. All lps it seem to bother. I turkey baste my gorgonian a hour later its wrapped in dino again. I added a wp25 monday it was brown with bubbles in 2 hours. I usually do around 15 to 20% water changes every week 75 gallon 40 gallon sump. Tank is about 18 months old. Use rodi water from the beginning instant ocean salt. My nitrates krept up high and when I brought them back to 0 this happened at the same time added the reef breeders photon 48. Im at almost a 40x turnover rate. Nitrates are 0 ammonia 0 nitrite 0 calcium 460 mag 1400 alk 8.5. I feel like I have done everything possible what.part of the puzzle are my missing. Skimmer is a reef octopus nwb 150

[IowaJeeping]

I know a few guys in my local club beat this with hydrogen peroxide

[Duvallj]

Do you have a picture?

How long ago where nitrates high? It does take awhile to starve out algae/dinos/ect. Adding the gfo should yeild long term benefits, but with only one week it would be hard to tell. Also if the tank was high in phosphates your media can be tapped out quickly. The best way is to test with phosphates. Colorimeters are probably the most reliable, also at 50$ not bad.

Something must be fueling them. I would take a second look at the rodi water. Do you have your own or does it come from somewhere else?

[phillrodrigo]

Do you know the procedure for it. Ive done alot of reading since everything im doing isnt helping and havent come across it. Ill tell you ive had cyano and thought that was a pain there isnt even a comparison. Im going through a case of salt a month right now. I keep it in check but its not slowing down

[phillrodrigo]

I have my own plus a tds meter. Its a spectrapure. It will be a year old in january. I changed the carbon amd sediment at 6 months. I have a very low tds coming in around 60 so its not that. I dont like hobby phosphates since they dont test to a low numbers that it takes to fuel algea. Ill look into a coloimeter for 50$ thats fine

[phillrodrigo]

I just siphoned my bed so I dont. But its brown and stringy

[phillrodrigo]

Nobody else has any ideas on this. It seems like by the amount of siphoning im doing it should be going away by now

[markster33139]

I read somewhere that water changes actually fuel dinos. You might want to look into the hydrogen peroxide treatment, if you can get the rocks it's on out of the tank a dip would kill it immediately, but please research into what strength to use. When I had mine it was on the sand, I removed the sand and went bare bottom, and it never came back, but this might not be practical for you.

[phillrodrigo]

Mine is pretty much only on the sand also. My gorgonian seems to get it bad. I think with the amount im siphoning it seems to keep it from taking over but it won't go away. This bed isnt that old so it shouldnt be loaded with phosphates. I changed it from sand to crushed coral since it is easier to siphon. There is alittle on the rocks but I think thats mostly the flow blowing it there but I could be wrong. Maybe ill just take the bed out and start new again.

[phillrodrigo]

I have also read that water changes fuel it but I dont want to find out the hard way they are wrong. Then my not so bad case of dinos will turn into a bad case

[markster33139]

When I had mine I did lots and lots of water changes, and it didn't help. I did a full tank blackout for 4 days with hydrogen peroxide and that didn't work. Going barebottom was out of frustration and aggravation, but I felt just about ready to quit as others have with this pest. On the upside, BB allows me to have more flow without risking sandstorms, and it is ridiculously easy to keep tank clean. Again I know this might not be the look you want but maybe removing the sand in one go and putting in a new sand bed may work for you.

[bazeball05]

I literally just beat Dino's in my tank. Here is how it is done:
stop doing water changes (Dino's are fueled by trace elements)

Cover your display and do a blackout for 4 days

Run a filter sock if possible because the Dino's are going to be melting away

Skim very heavy to the point you will be changing the collection cup 2 times a day

Run carbon to help absorb the melted away Dino's

Dose hydrogen peroxide 3% (the generic hydrogen peroxide that is sold everywhere. I picked it up at Walgreens for 99 cents) at 1 ml per 10 gallons of water. I have a 90 gallon system so I dosed 9 ml a day.

After the blackout, immediately do a water change and change the carbon.

Continue doing everything except for the blackout for the next 2 days.

This is how you will win.

If not, algea X or micro faunas version of algea X can also do the trick.

Good luck and you can beat this!

[phillrodrigo]

I started peroxide today blackout will start in the am. My tank is in the basement so no light gets to it. Do you think the little bit of lighting from the room will cause it to keep growing or should I black bag it anyways

[phillrodrigo]

Could I run moonlights for the 3 days or is this a straight up 100% blackout

[NastyZ]

I did a blackout but didn't cover the tank there was still I bit of ambient light but I wouldn't use the moon lights

[phillrodrigo]

No problem thats easy enough. The only time it will get any ambiant light is at night so even that will be minimal. My tank has never seen the sun. My lion is going to love this everyone else will be sleeping but he gets to roam for 3 days

[markster33139]

It has to be complete darkness no ambient light

[NastyZ]

Originally Posted by markster33139

It has to be complete darkness no ambient light

It doesn't "have to be" completely dark my tank is clear proof of that as long as there is no direct sunlight or light strong enough to give off a reasonable par reading you should b fine

[bazeball05]

You don't have to be completely dark but like stated before, try to be close enough to completely so par levels are very low

[phillrodrigo]

This is the first time ive seen strands in my hob filter. I stopped using the hob then I saw the strands and put it right back on. I hear to clean of a tank can cause dino. I wonder if it was creating enough nitrates before that kept it away. The blackout is killing me more than the tank most likely. My fish keep me sain

[NastyZ]

You obviously have no idea what your talking about or that's a common method of helping to get rid of algae

[phillrodrigo]

It seems to be working as much as I wasnt sure that it would. I have been battling the heck out.of this stuff with water changes very aggressive siphoning and hasnt put a dent in it. This is the only algea that has not gone away with some extra effort. With the amount of siohoning I have been doing and not helping. As of my second dose owith the peroxide there isnt a single strand on the bed. Trust me im not one for the quick fix but after going through 3 cases of salt in 2 months its time.for another method

[phillrodrigo]

Once it started taking out my corals it was time for a new plan. My gorgonian who before this was growing a new branch is 75% gone clover polyps almost all gone. Candy cane is starting to suffer. Some zoas not opening. So I can lose it all to the dinos or try somwthing new what do I have to lose at this point. I battled cyano and beat it the old fashioned way with extra siphoning never went out and bought chemiclean.

[phillrodrigo]

So the blackout is over. Im keeping my fingers crossed praying to the reef gods but it looks gone but dont want to say it is for atleast a week. Lights came back on last night. Did a good siphoning today didnt see any strands going into the bucket like I did before. My gorgonian looks happy for the first time in awhile clover polyps are rebounding. The one bad sign I have seen was maybe a little brown on my jaebo but I took it out gave it a vinegar bath along with some other equipment

[NastyZ]

After my blackout I still kept dosing h202 but half the dosage still doing it I see no ill affects so I'm going to keep doing it you might want to give it try if your worried it might come back