Reef nutrition

Dinoflagellates vs. UV

Zumareef

Zumareef

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Curious what folks experiences are using UV to tackle dinoflagellates? They are indeed dino's and while it's a minor thing in my tank and nothing seems to be out of balance (I have also eradicated them in the past using aggressive mechanical filtration, vacuuming, etc.) I thought I might try the UV route since UV might have additional benefits other then just keeping the current dino flare up in check.

So, in your experience using UV to combat a dino out break was it effective?

Thanks!
 
This depends on the type of Dino’s you have. UV appears to only work for those that go into the water column at night, i.e., Osteoporosis and Coolia. I had prorocentrums and UV would have not been effective but other ways were.
 
Alexander1312 said:
This depends on the type of Dino’s you have. UV appears to only work for those that go into the water column at night, i.e., Osteoporosis and Coolia. I had prorocentrums and UV would have not been effective but other ways were.
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Noting for prorocentrum that they do go into the water column during blackouts. But 100% correct re: depends on what type they have.
 
^ What @Alexander1312 said. UV was very effective when I had ostreopsis. It didn't do anything when I had prorocentrum and amphidinium.

Get a sample of the dinos and check them out under a microscope to determine what kind you have. This guide is helpful on identifying them and determining the right course of action.

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Thanks for everybody's feedback, I'm fairly certain that they are ostreopsis because when I take out the filter sock each morning and rinse it, it appears there are dino coating the sock that have been entrained when they entered the water column in the evening.
 
Are you going to try UV?

I have used the "green killing machine" uv sterilizers to help in the past. Never leaving in the water more than 90 days- is a rule I made up for myself. The internals seem to be made without saltwater in mind so I treated it like a disposable solution. Its a great cheap option for short term use when compared to Pentair, Aqua Ultraviolet and other great brands with their higher costs.

Since I have purchased a 40W pentair but haven't needed/wanted to set it up yet. If you are thinking short term use, holler if you want to borrow it.
 
I'm a huge fan of UV, and it works for many of the things that plague us. It also won't help with anything that (for obvious reasons) doesn't spend time in the water column at some point. on previous tanks, I used two separate UV's with different flows to great success.
 
Thanks for the feedback and
Patio said:
Are you going to try UV?

I have used the "green killing machine" uv sterilizers to help in the past. Never leaving in the water more than 90 days- is a rule I made up for myself. The internals seem to be made without saltwater in mind so I treated it like a disposable solution. Its a great cheap option for short term use when compared to Pentair, Aqua Ultraviolet and other great brands with their higher costs.

Since I have purchased a 40W pentair but haven't needed/wanted to set it up yet. If you are thinking short term use, holler if you want to borrow it.
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Thanks for the feedback and indeed I was checking out the green killing machine unit as well as an aquatop unit as I didn't want to drop $200+ for a possible short term treatment; I'll definitely keep your offer in mind regarding the pentair!
 
Bruce Spiegelman said:
I'm a huge fan of UV, and it works for many of the things that plague us. It also won't help with anything that (for obvious reasons) doesn't spend time in the water column at some point. on previous tanks, I used two separate UV's with different flows to great success.
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Me too, I used one on a freshwater tank many, many years ago with great success and figured there are multi benefits to using one on a reef as well.
 
Zumareef said:
Thanks for the feedback and

Thanks for the feedback and indeed I was checking out the green killing machine unit as well as an aquatop unit as I didn't want to drop $200+ for a possible short term treatment; I'll definitely keep your offer in mind regarding the pentair!
Click to expand...
Green killing machines are generally not effective on many of the things we want to treat for in a reef tank (vs a pond). For UV to work it must allow for long enough exposure to the UV light and the Green Killing Machine doesn't do that.
 
I use a small Amazon uv on my quarantine whenever the skimmer acts up at night, there's that particular smell that dinos have. Usually knocks it out in a day or 2. Used a jebao 36 watt unit on my 240 system which got over run with dinos after starting with bleached rock. I am very positive on using UV for any cloudiness (dino or other) on new builds. Getting one for temp use is only positive. Go for it.
 
There's a lot of bad science out there on dinos IMO. I've gone on my rant on this forum before, but a lot of the logic just doesn't seem coherent.

UV however does seem like a solid option to help mitigate the problem until other bacteria/algae/pods/... predators can deal with the dinos.

If you buy the established UV for saltwater brands you can be pretty confident they're going to be strong enough (at relatively low flow rates) to knock out a bunch of dinos. Especially if you do a blackout which will cause a bunch of varieties into the water column. A 24hr blackout + UV seems like a very reasonable technique IMO if you find they're not getting better.

If you use the lower end UV units, including jebao and the green machine, really do your research on if they're saltwater safe. I believe one or both of those are known to start breaking down in saltwater (I think Jebao). Also know they tend to be low power relative to flow rates (eg the green machine), and presumably dinos need a lot of UV irradiation to kill them.

Finally, make sure you run a bunch of carbon if you're fighting dinos. Dead dinos release bag chemicals, including Palytoxin. That's no good for your fish, coral, or yourself, and if you kill a ton of them at once you can wipe out a tank.

Best bet IMO is feed more to make sure there's food for all the other non-dinos to eat, do manual removal with suction and a water change, add UV. If it doesn't get better repeat and eventually do the same followed by a blackout followed by continued UV.

I'd also dose pods, because that always seems like a good idea and I believe there's some signs that some pods predate on dinos, but I can't remember if that's dinos or cyano.
 
richiev said:
Best bet IMO is feed more to make sure there's food for all the other non-dinos to eat, do manual removal with suction and a water change, add UV
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⬆️ This is basically where I’m at, looking at my tank this evening I realize it’s actually not that bad so a little elbow grease, and a boost from UV should do it.

Really appreciate everyone’s feedback, super helpful and I’ll follow up with a post of the results!
 
Well I’m glad to follow up on this email with good news. I seem to have beat the dinos and here is what worked in my situation:
  • 48 hr black out with UV running the whole time, no feeding
  • Then 5 days of only blues on my radions at 20% power, feed every other day
  • Then slowly phasing the whites back in where I am now back to the standard AB+ schedule at 50% power
  • During this whole 7 day period I ran a filter sock and rinsed it every morning
  • No water changes for 2 weeks
I’m now back to my regular maintenance routine (10% WC once a week and feed every other day) and things seem to be well. Hope this little thread helps with folks that find themselves in a similar situation.

Tank today:
IMG_6082.jpeg
 
During the the 7 day schedule listed above I cleaned the glass every other day to try and get dinos off the glass and into the filter sock and skimmer; also should mention I ran my skimmer fairly wet. Normally I clean my glass twice a week.
 
I am looking to this for my 180 gallon build as well. Got off chat with Aqua UV sterilizers and they told me I need their 40watt for my 180gal with 70 gal sump and that for it to be effective I would have to run pump at least 1500-2000gph. I thought this was nuts! I asked them if their 25w would be ok since I plan to run between 700-900gph and they said no that it wouldn't sufficiently kill everything off.

What do you all think?
 
FreahSaltyGuy said:
I am looking to this for my 180 gallon build as well. Got off chat with Aqua UV sterilizers and they told me I need their 40watt for my 180gal with 70 gal sump and that for it to be effective I would have to run pump at least 1500-2000gph. I thought this was nuts! I asked them if their 25w would be ok since I plan to run between 700-900gph and they said no that it wouldn't sufficiently kill everything off.

What do you all think?
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What are you trying to accomplish with UV? Your purpose will change what actually need and what flow rates are required.
 
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