Mason Michalski
Active Member
Over the course of my 5 years in the saltwater side of the hobby, I have had my fair share of fights with everything from parasites, to nuisance dinoflagellates/cyano/algae. I can say my current system has been clean and running beautifully for awhile now, and I haven't had a run in with Dino in what seems like years. That is, until I set up my Nano over here at my office. It's been running clean since June, I do weekly water changes, top off with RODI, and I have a sump I built myself with a sand bed, live rock, and chaeto in it that I haven't lighted yet, but I just saw saw that first reddish, stringy shinny bubble coming out of the sand. This reminded me all to well that sometimes a tank could be months old, and still not have the micro fauna population to beat back micro-organisms like Dino's. That stringy...bubbled filled reddish brown strands reminded me all too well of how I dealt with it last time, and hopefully how you can too before it decimates your coral population and then becomes toxic enough to lower water quality and possibly kill of your Clean up Crew, starting a chain reaction of death and heartbreak.
So, what are Dinoflagellates?
Well, Dinoflagellates are a single celled organism called Eukaryotes constituting the phylum Dinoflagellata. Estimates claim that there are about 2,294 living species of freshwater, marine, and parasitic. They are photosynthetic organisms that appear in red swaths in the ocean during certain warm times of the summer. But here in the aquarium, they appear as reddish brown strings of algae that produce shinning bubbles somewhere in those strands, whether it be on coral (which if this is the case, ACT FAST! It will kill your coral), rocks, or equipment. These bubbles within the strands, are a telltale sign to look for if you are fighting Dino verses Cyano, as I have not seen Cyano display this sign before. I won't get too much into the anatomy of these organisms, but if you have access to a microscope, check out a sample to see if it looks like the picture below.
So, for the part you came for! "How do I rid my tank of Dinoflagellates?" Often times, it is starting to inhibit the well-being of your coral, and hardly anything eats it! Lucky for you, the method to fix it has worked for me any time I see it in an aquarium under a year old. Here are some basics to put into place that will help you with a plethora of several different issues, but also this dino one. Whether that be to solve or mediate the issue to being manageable, that all depends on your husbandry skills.
The simple stuff to put in place as it helps with a plethora of things, including dealing with Dinos BEFORE it becomes a problem. My 1-2 KO is towards the end
Natural approach saves the day!
1. If you don't have a refugium yet, GET ONE! I can't say it is the "end all say all of problems", but when you have a well sustained micro-fauna population in a secure location, with plenty of macro algae to compete with micro-algae in the display, you really see a shift in who is winning the fight for nutrients. Lighting options for refugium's can be cheap clip on Walmart lights with Amazon grow lights, or a Kessil H80! What does matter though, is that you source clean, pest free chaeto, hopefully from somewhere like AlgaeBarn. God forbid you get some chaeto from your friend and it has bryopsis on it. "What does this have to do with Dinos?" you ask. Well, the increased population of micro-fauna can put even more pressure on heterotrophic varieties of dinoflagellates by competing for organic waste products as well as serve as a great nutrient removal system when you start harvesting macro-algae. Talk about two birds with one stone!
Ah, so clean!
2. If you haven't already, invest in an RODI system, or create a place for a storage container in which you can keep your LFS RODI, which typically is pretty affordable per gallon. RODI water, also know as Reverse Osmosis De-Ionization water, is highly purified water that provides Reefers the cleanest water you can get. I would suggest checking you sediment filters, carbon blocks, DI resin, and RO membrane to make sure that is not exhausted, check this every month, or more frequent, with a TDS meter (Total Dissolved Solids) to make sure it is at 0, or at the most lower single digits if you are strapped on the cost to replace all of your filters. You probably are asking again, "what does RODI water have to do with Dinos?" Well, I can't say much but from what I noticed, having clean water for water changes, toping off, and sterilizing equipment leads to success in keeping problems like Dino from taking hold.
ZAP
3. Something that I haven't personally used, but have ROCK solid anecdotal and empirical evidence of working, is a UV sterilizer. A UV sterilizer can be hooked up via it's own pump located somewhere in the sump or back chamber of an all in one system, to pump water into the UV sterilizer at a slow flow rate, allowing the proper time for organisms to pass through the UV light, ultimately killing that organism. These aren't too expensive in small applications, but start to hike up as you increase the size and wattage population. If you don't quarantine your fish, which you should, then this could also help you handle any parasite issues, although this is a lot more situational in the effects in controlling populations rather than being completely clean.
MY 1-2 KO METHOD
4. Personally, from every experience I have had with Dinoflagellates, doing a 3-day lights out/black out period with cardboard cut to size, taped to the glass, while also carboarding and blanking the top. After that, I dose 1 ml of Hydrogen Peroxide (3%) per 10 gallons of water in the display everyday for the black out period, then doing a 25-50% water change after, removing any remaining strands. Usually though, the aquarium is pristine at the end of the blackout, if done successful, so you shouldn't have to clean out too much. Run your skimmer and powerheads the entire time, you want to get out any organics as well as aerating your water, as oxygen levels can drop to dangerous levels during this.
If you have any extra advice, feel free to comment! This is purely anecdotal evidence, but it has heavy support in the hobby, and I really hope this helps someone solve their issue.
With that being said, I am going to go cure my Nano at the office like I did my 125 2 years ago!
So, what are Dinoflagellates?
Well, Dinoflagellates are a single celled organism called Eukaryotes constituting the phylum Dinoflagellata. Estimates claim that there are about 2,294 living species of freshwater, marine, and parasitic. They are photosynthetic organisms that appear in red swaths in the ocean during certain warm times of the summer. But here in the aquarium, they appear as reddish brown strings of algae that produce shinning bubbles somewhere in those strands, whether it be on coral (which if this is the case, ACT FAST! It will kill your coral), rocks, or equipment. These bubbles within the strands, are a telltale sign to look for if you are fighting Dino verses Cyano, as I have not seen Cyano display this sign before. I won't get too much into the anatomy of these organisms, but if you have access to a microscope, check out a sample to see if it looks like the picture below.
So, for the part you came for! "How do I rid my tank of Dinoflagellates?" Often times, it is starting to inhibit the well-being of your coral, and hardly anything eats it! Lucky for you, the method to fix it has worked for me any time I see it in an aquarium under a year old. Here are some basics to put into place that will help you with a plethora of several different issues, but also this dino one. Whether that be to solve or mediate the issue to being manageable, that all depends on your husbandry skills.
The simple stuff to put in place as it helps with a plethora of things, including dealing with Dinos BEFORE it becomes a problem. My 1-2 KO is towards the end
Natural approach saves the day!
1. If you don't have a refugium yet, GET ONE! I can't say it is the "end all say all of problems", but when you have a well sustained micro-fauna population in a secure location, with plenty of macro algae to compete with micro-algae in the display, you really see a shift in who is winning the fight for nutrients. Lighting options for refugium's can be cheap clip on Walmart lights with Amazon grow lights, or a Kessil H80! What does matter though, is that you source clean, pest free chaeto, hopefully from somewhere like AlgaeBarn. God forbid you get some chaeto from your friend and it has bryopsis on it. "What does this have to do with Dinos?" you ask. Well, the increased population of micro-fauna can put even more pressure on heterotrophic varieties of dinoflagellates by competing for organic waste products as well as serve as a great nutrient removal system when you start harvesting macro-algae. Talk about two birds with one stone!
Ah, so clean!
2. If you haven't already, invest in an RODI system, or create a place for a storage container in which you can keep your LFS RODI, which typically is pretty affordable per gallon. RODI water, also know as Reverse Osmosis De-Ionization water, is highly purified water that provides Reefers the cleanest water you can get. I would suggest checking you sediment filters, carbon blocks, DI resin, and RO membrane to make sure that is not exhausted, check this every month, or more frequent, with a TDS meter (Total Dissolved Solids) to make sure it is at 0, or at the most lower single digits if you are strapped on the cost to replace all of your filters. You probably are asking again, "what does RODI water have to do with Dinos?" Well, I can't say much but from what I noticed, having clean water for water changes, toping off, and sterilizing equipment leads to success in keeping problems like Dino from taking hold.
ZAP
3. Something that I haven't personally used, but have ROCK solid anecdotal and empirical evidence of working, is a UV sterilizer. A UV sterilizer can be hooked up via it's own pump located somewhere in the sump or back chamber of an all in one system, to pump water into the UV sterilizer at a slow flow rate, allowing the proper time for organisms to pass through the UV light, ultimately killing that organism. These aren't too expensive in small applications, but start to hike up as you increase the size and wattage population. If you don't quarantine your fish, which you should, then this could also help you handle any parasite issues, although this is a lot more situational in the effects in controlling populations rather than being completely clean.
MY 1-2 KO METHOD
4. Personally, from every experience I have had with Dinoflagellates, doing a 3-day lights out/black out period with cardboard cut to size, taped to the glass, while also carboarding and blanking the top. After that, I dose 1 ml of Hydrogen Peroxide (3%) per 10 gallons of water in the display everyday for the black out period, then doing a 25-50% water change after, removing any remaining strands. Usually though, the aquarium is pristine at the end of the blackout, if done successful, so you shouldn't have to clean out too much. Run your skimmer and powerheads the entire time, you want to get out any organics as well as aerating your water, as oxygen levels can drop to dangerous levels during this.
If you have any extra advice, feel free to comment! This is purely anecdotal evidence, but it has heavy support in the hobby, and I really hope this helps someone solve their issue.
With that being said, I am going to go cure my Nano at the office like I did my 125 2 years ago!
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