Controlling dinoflagellates with Metronidazole

[Frogger]

Originally Posted by emerald crab

DinoX works on dinoflagelates. I had "Ostreopsis Ovata", probably the toughest dino around.
DinoX worked for me in conjunction with an UV sterilizer ( probably the most important piece of equipment when you have a dino outbreak) and with some minor blackouts (no longer than 48 hours). The UV sterilizer is actually more important than DinoX and the blackouts.
By the way, dinoflagelates love water changes.

According to what I have read the reefers trying the metronidazole had already tried the other methods including Dino-X. The great thing about the metronidazole is I did not have to black out my tank which further stresses the already stressed corals. I have read about many failures with Dino X.
I have not tried the UV Sterilizer. Might give it a try if the dino's return.

[ReefMadness]

along with this i've also been following a couple threads on dinos that promote the use of uv. interestingly, one of the more lengthy threads outright claims that metro has little to no effect on 95% of the dino strains subjected to it.
while i don't have any visible results to show just yet in my battle, the latest strategy is simply keeping nutrients consistently above zero. the thought is that untraceable nutrients are creating a perfect environment and supposedly a big reason why dinos are taking hold the first place.
uv is also mentioned as a good strategy while doing this as well so i can see myself skimming over amazon today for an entry level model to test this out with.

[emerald crab]

DinoX alone will not do the job, if you relay on DinoX only you will loose coral color and/or corals. However used together with an UV sterilizer, it works great.
I believe that the minor blackouts and DinoX make the dinos uncomfortable enough so they get in the water column trying to relocate and the UV sterilizer does the killing.

Do not overdose DinoX !!!

[Frogger]

Originally Posted by ReefMadness

along with this i've also been following a couple threads on dinos that promote the use of uv. interestingly, one of the more lengthy threads outright claims that metro has little to no effect on 95% of the dino strains subjected to it.
while i don't have any visible results to show just yet in my battle, the latest strategy is simply keeping nutrients consistently above zero. the thought is that untraceable nutrients are creating a perfect environment and supposedly a big reason why dinos are taking hold the first place.
uv is also mentioned as a good strategy while doing this as well so i can see myself skimming over amazon today for an entry level model to test this out with.

You are probably right from what I have read they will return. It is nice to give the corals a bit of a break for a couple weeks. I will be putting a UV sterilizer to work and am going to start adding phosphates and nitrates to see if that helps.

[DKoKoMan]

I absolutely hate dinoflagellates...horrible.

[Frogger]

Day 15 update: I added a hang on tank UV sterilizer, I am still running the magnum micron filter changing filter every few days. I am also adding phosphates and nitrates to keep these numbers so they register. My tank had very low phosphates and un-measureable nitrates which likely added to the problem.

So far things look good, corals are growing again, polyps extending.

Keeping fingers crossed.

[crimper]

Hey Frogger, any updates on this?

I'm battling dino again. It started when I used AF Component 1+2+3+ I should have ditch that crap.

Hope you're tank is back to it's old glory.

[Frogger]

Ok so I attacked it with a multi-pronged approach and I seem to have gotten it under control. The metronidazole as stated earlier only temporarily gives you relief. If you do not deal with the other issues it will just come back.

I added a UV sterilizer and kept my micron filter running. Believe it or not I started adding phosphates and nitrates to get my values up out of the basement. I have read that the Dynos are a low nutrient loving organism and competition is the way to go. Since adding phosphates and nitrates I have encouraged some hair algae and coralline algae to colonize the rock work. The hair algae is a lot easier to control with grazers. I am working at getting my grazing population up and everything should be fine. I still have a tiny bit of dynos but they are not actively growing.

This tank is an experimental tank and I use it primarily as a quarantine tank for new arrivals. I will be taking it apart completely trashing the rock and resetting it up as a frag tank in the future so I have nothing to loose and can gain a whole lot of knowledge from it.

Over the past 8 months I went from Byopisis to cyno to dynos and now I have some hair algae. The tank has a 6" plenum in it and has been set up for over 17 years. So nothing I do short of disassembly and removing the plenum will fix the problem.

The glory days of this tank was 12 to 15 years ago when it was stunning.