Battling red dinos: what strategies have actually worked for you?

[bardia]

Hi everyone, I recently dealt with an outbreak of red dinoflagellates (the dreaded “red dinos”) in my reef tank. I’ve seen so many different pieces of advice: doing multi-day blackouts, raising nitrate and phosphate levels, adding bacterial supplements, dosing hydrogen peroxide, running UV sterilizers, and even using silicate dosing or microfauna.

For those of you who’ve successfully beaten a red dino infestation, what combination of approaches actually worked for you? How long did it take to see results, and what seemed to make the most difference? I’m hoping to learn from real-world experiences so I can tailor a strategy that’s effective and sustainable long term. Thanks in advance!

 

[MisterHuma-Huma]

I only fought it a few a few times in 5=6 years. I think having a lot of live rock, pods,and sand help stabalize the tank.I never had filter socks just let the pods eat it .I kept the tank dirty but the water and glass clean. I'd vacuum and clean the red sand .You can attach a toothbrush to the end of your vacuum hose and scrub the rocks . It's counter-intuitive advice yet doing a major water change always seemed to help destress, energize and reset the tank and they would clear in a couple days...but never truly gone!